Stronger Together: a Trip Down Memory Lane and Into the Future at the NZ iQFOiL Nationals!
By Xavier Ferlet | Photos by Lyrah, Xavier, and Insight Media
Alamitos Bay’s Rohan Desjardins and Paul Didham traveled to New Zealand in December, and they sent back reports of gorgeous sailing venues, warm water, strong winds, awesome coaching and training partners, and all-around fantastic Kiwi welcome. That was enough to convince me to book a week off in between work commitments to have a go at the iQFOiL NZ Nationals.
Lyrah and I took the direct flight from LA to Auckland with Air New Zealand on Friday Jan 30 at 8:10pm. The airline took the IQFOIL kit without trouble. The flight was about 11 hour long, and the iQFOiL kit arrived there in perfect condition (Phew!). A huge thank you to Toby Desjardins for fetching us upon arrival at 6am at the airport on Sunday Feb 1!
The first day was spent hiking to a waterfall in the forest, swimming, walking on a wild beach and sampling NZ pies. Just what we needed to recover from a long flight! Aside from being one day ahead in NZ, the time difference was only three hours. Recovery from the jet lag was pretty straightforward.
Rohan wasted no time to organize a training session the next day. Within a few hours, a dozen kids showed up at the Wakatare Boat Club. That was a testimony of how vibrant the iQFOiL scene is in NZ. The kids leave all their kit bags lying around on the public lawn during the training session, so I did the same. NZ is very safe indeed. We went foiling near the Rangitoto lighthouse which was close to the expected course of the Nationals.
The next day, Toby kindly organized a training session with Patrick who was a former NZ Olympic trial contender. Again, a bunch of kids showed up, eager to learn from the big man. Patrick was handling the big 9.0 m2 sail as if he was cruising despite the 20-25 knot breeze. Light wind was no trouble for a couple of days. Gary, the driving force behind the Windfoil NZ Association, showed us the art of polishing foil wings. His motto is “stronger together” which fits perfectly with his warm personality.
The NZ Nationals started on Friday February 9th at the Milford Cruising Club. A big thank you to the club for hosting the regatta! The venue was perfect with plenty of grass to rig up, ample shade, easy access to the beach, the race course and delicious ice creams!
Aussie Grae Morris, who was leading a strong Aussie team and got Silver at the last Olympics after a dominating performance, took a commanding lead in the Men’s iQFOiL fleet from the start and never let go of it. Another star of the regatta was Josh Armit from New Zealand who got fourth place at the last Olympics and came second at the NZ Nationals.
The fleet was incredibly strong with riders from Mexico, Sweden, Norway, Hong Kong, France and the US. Rohan did a great job of racing with the other kids in the Youth fleet. Rohan’s regimen of foiling full time is paying off!
It was a special treat for me to chat with Kiwi windsurfing legends Barbara and brother Bruce Kendall at the award ceremony. Barbara won gold, silver and bronze and participated in five Olympic Games. Her brother, Bruce, won bronze at the Olympics in LA in 1984 and gold in Seoul in 1988. Those were heroes of my childhood.
We enjoyed one more swim in the ocean as our flight home was postponed to the following morning. Another huge thank you to Toby for giving us a lift to the airport at 3:20am! It was great to get sky couches as the flight was almost empty.
All in all it was a trip to remember with great Kiwi and US friends. Paul is already arranging an exchange with the Kiwi team to put in action the motto “Stronger together.” Finally, a huge thank you to Lynn, Toby’s wife for sharing the house with us.
We had a great time together, and it was an unforgettable experience!
