ECWF. Heckscher S.P.
Word from the judge's megaphone was that Kurt Veith was in the process of executing a Double Donkey— Double Monkey or a Double Monkey—Double Donkey as part of this sequence. Take your pick. All I know is that it's a good flavor of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.
What I find mind-boggling is that he was doing it all with a 7.3 sq. m sheet from North Sails. That's a lot of sail for anyone, let alone a somewhat diminutive dude. But he made that thing slip and slide, pirouette and pivot like a magician with a handkerchief.
What blows me away is the agility and balance of these freestylers.
I remember when I used to try to heli-tack a 4.5 on a longboard, and it wasn't easy.
Mind you, those old longboards were kinda twitchy to trick on.
I'm not sure how all the judging finally shook out, but Kurt's repertoire of light wind freestyle was impressive.
It wasn't until much later, after most folk had gone, that Mike, Kurt, Jake and Alex got the chance to show off their spocks, flakas, and I guess, vulcans.
At nearly 50, with 20 years of all-weather wind, surf and bike sports, and the same amount of soccer, everyday is like a box of pain chocolates. Pain with strawberry creme filling, pain with liquor truffle center, pain with nuts.
The stomach is no longer receptive to that kind of pre-medication -- at least not without a healthy helping of food and milk to soak it up. But I'm trying to lose weight, and that would be heading in the opposite direction.
(BTW. if you are not aware of the dangers of popping Advil like M&M's, get educated before your stomach develops a bleeding ulcer. I've met a few folk who were just not aware of what the ibuprofen doing to their gut until it was too late.)

These days, if I use them at all it's very sparingly. Sailing back and forth, aka "baffing" is more or less fine for that, with a few jumps here and there.
Somehow, today, I ended up buying one of Kurt's old boards. A much-repaired 18-lb RRD CD Wave.

I'm not sure I'll be attempting any Vulcans on it, anytime soon, but it does look like fun.

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