PHIL SOLTYSIAK leaps out of the water during the International Windsurfing Tour’s freestyle competition Monday, in which Soltysiak took first place. Diony Guadagnino took the top spot in the slalom comp, also Monday.
PHIL SOLTYSIAK leaps out of the water during the International Windsurfing Tour’s freestyle competition Monday, in which Soltysiak took first place. Diony Guadagnino took the top spot in the slalom comp, also Monday.
The wind wasn’t cooperative for the International Windsurfing Tour (IWT) competitions slated as part of the Columbia Gorge Windsurfing Association’s (CGWA) Beach Bash celebration held last weekend, but in the Gorge, if you wait long enough, the wind will always come back.
In this case, all the eager windsurfers had to do was wait a day, with freestyle and slalom competitions held Monday — freestyle at the Hatchery and slalom at the Hood River Waterfront — after temperatures from the sweltering weekend went down and the wind came back up. The IWT, formerly known as the American Windsurfing Tour, is a multi-discipline windsurfing tour that hosts both professional and amateur sailors in competitions around the globe.
Local rider Phil Soltysiak took first place overall in the men’s freestyle competition, followed by Yarden Meir and Wyatt Miller. In the women’s comp, Arrianne Aukes took first, with Roxanne Christensen as runner up.
In the men’s slalom Diony Guadagnino took first, Xavier Ferlet placed second overall and won the Grand Masters division, Rafal Leonczuk placed third overall and took the top spot in the Masters category. In the women’s division, Aukes was the overall winner again.
Originally, CGWA had planned to hold its second race of the summer-long Gorge Cup slalom series June 24 in conjunction with the IWT, and even though a slalom comp was held Monday, it was not a Gorge Cup race. Gorge Cup action will be back this weekend at the Hood River Event Site, with races on Saturday and Sunday.
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