FULL CYCLE

Scott McKercher avenges a painful loss at the 1984 Windsurfer Worlds by managing to write those wrongs with a picket fence victory at the Windsurfer World Championships in Perth, Western Australia.

- Scott McKercher

I’ve used this quote a couple of times in previous storytelling, taken from a book read years ago, somewhere in the years drifting around the planet under the guise of a professional windsurfer. It was by Gabriel Garcia Marquez from the book “100 Years of Solitude” when there was a point where he realised life was not linear, but indeed cyclical. Which is what is in fact happening in my windsurfing story, with the World Windsurfer Class Championships coming back to Perth last December. In 1984, the Worlds were held at the Nedlands Yacht Club on the Swan River where I as a 14-year-old along with my mates, Mike Galvin, Ash Nicol and Grant Betts. We trained every day after school in excited preparation with hours upon hours of staring at the nose of the old wally’s.

SAME RACE, DIFFERENT WEIGHT CLASS

And now 39 years later, it’s like entering a time machine, with myself and Mike Galvin frothing over the fact the Worlds were returning. We’ve be out there training again, staring at a slightly different shaped nose, but still the same winning concept which made windsurf racing so accessible back in the day. One design in any wind conditions with minimal cash outlay. However, this time I’m in the super heavy weights, whereas when I was a 14-year-old, I was a whippet of a lightweight.

TACTICS AND TRIMMING

They’re not lightning quick like slalom racing or foil racing, but they’re also a lot easier on the body which enables the gentrified to still get out there racing. Also, to be honest there’s a tonne more tactics involved with the board going slower, which brings reading winds shifts back into the equation with quick tacks. (Not just the lay line stuff of foil racing today). We’re yachting again.