2020 Western Australian Sailing Squad Camp 3 Report
Last Thursday and Friday the WASS Squad at South of Perth Yacht Club for two days of fun and learning on and off the water. The transition camp is a new and exciting WASS initiative, firmly focussed on the future.
To open the camp, the squad was treated to a performance psychology workshop from WAIS Sailing Performance Psychology Team of Jo Ayers and Liz Murdoch. The focus was on awareness of your own mindset and how you respond in different situations. How fixed or growth mindset are you? It was very fitting for the new challenges that lay ahead for the squad over the two days sailing on new craft.
Over the two days, sailors were able to explore an introduction to several options that lay in front of them in the future. A squad favourite was the 49er FX which was very generously lent to the squad by Tessa Parkinson and Ella Clark. The FX is a great stepping stone for male and female 29er sailors wanting to pursue their skiff sailing further. The boats are fast, fun, challenging to master but actually less of a handful than you’d think due to their flatly cut sails. Hopefully we can see some more of the 29er sailors moving up through into the FX and 49er in the future.
The sport of sailing is in a phase of rapid development with foiling becoming more and more accessible to the masses. In 2024, Wind Foiling and Kite Foiling will be part of the 2024 Olympic Games which is creating some additional exciting new opportunities for young sailors. As an introduction, WASS sort out some foiling boards and spent the two days towing sailors around as they got to terms with flying on your feet.
Controlling the lift of the foil with your foot pressure on the board are key skills that sailors needed to build familiarity with. After a fair bit of falling, some quite spectacular, most sailors started to get some good fly time. Come day two, sailors also had a try of the hand held wings on the boards. These wings are essentially kites without lines or a windsurfer without a mast and provide a great introduction to both of these disciplines. Unfortunately there was not quite enough wind to get up and foil with the wings we had but sailors had fun all the same!
All in all it was a really fun few days on the water. Hopefully over the next couple of years more of our young sailors are progressing well into the Wind Foiling, Kite Foiling and 49er/FX classes.
A massive thank you to the Stand Up Surf Shop – North Freo who lent us the board, foils and wings along with Tessa and Ella for lending us the FX.
We look forward to having another transition camp in the near future to keep further developing these skills with the up and coming sailors.