Hannes Louet-Feisser has taken the Irish Slalom Series 2011, in the final stage of the season held in Tracht Beach, Kinvara, Co Galway.
Several new racers joined the fleet and winds blew up to the 20 knots. The youngest competitor and new to the series was Cathal Breathnach. His aggressive and skilful windsurfing did not go unnoticed and it was widely agreed this kid could be a future champion.
Hannes Louet-Feisser was back in Kinvara to sustain his Number 1 position in the overall Irish Slalom Series and fend off his close competitors like Maurice Owens, Stevie Williams, Cormac O'Brien and Gareth Nihill. Pearse Geaney, the 2010 Champion returned to action for the Kinvara event in fine form securing a number of 1st places.
The Silver Fleet has been competitive all year, but with a number of new entrants for the Kinvara event, things were heating up. Steven Lawless, from Tullamore, had one of his best events and could be seen smiling from the beach. With two first place finishes he was putting a lot of pressure on Gerry Staunton and Keith Gorman.
Gerry in the end had the resolve and technical skill to stave off the competition and finish first overall for Kinvara. Gary Browne showed like the lads he is ready for some Gold fleet competition with a number of podium finishes.
A lot of kudos have to go to Eilis NiDhuill who was unfortunately the only female competitor this weekend. A number of great finishes saw her finish 10th in the Silver fleet this weekend and first overall for the Silver Fleet Series.
Sunday's racing was a little more relaxed with the stronger winds forecast not coming through. Eight fun slalom races were ran back to back and a number of master blasts with all 32 competitors. Conditions could not have got any better for windsurfing in Ireland – flat water, warm breeze and an impending thirst after two days on the water.
The standard in Irish Windsurfing is consistently improving with competitors like Paul Reid and Barry Whitelaw securing top 5 finishes. Cormac O'Brien and Stevie Williams have been fighting it out all year with Cormac edging it this year.
All competitors had a big cheer for newly crowned 2011 ISS champion Hannes Louet-Feisser. The nice guy of Irish Windsurfing who has been taking fashion tips from Paul Galvin was also crowned worst shirt of the night.
The overall winners for the ISS Slalom Series Gold Fleet 2011 are:
1st Place Overall Winner Hannes Louet-Feisser
2nd Place Overall Maurice Owens
3rd Place William Revels
1st Grandmaster
Glen Worden
The overall winners for the ISS Slalom Series Silver Fleet 2011 are:
1st Place Overall Kevin McGuinness
2nd Place Overall Stephen Lawless
3rd Place Gene O'Hare
Overall Winner in Ladies Category
Eilis NiDhuill