May 2^nd – May 9^th Sydney

May 10^th – May 12^th New Zealand

May13th – May 29^th Cadiz, Spain Europeans Championships

May 30^th – June 15^th Athens training with the Aussies

June 16^th – June 26^th Kiel, Germany Kiel Week competition

June 29^th – July 4^th New Zealand

July 5^th – July 10^th Sydney

July 10^th – July 24^th Los Angeles North Americans

July 25^th – August 6^th New Zealand

August 7^th – October 2^nd Sydney

16^th – 2^nd Oct 2000 Olympics

European Championships - May 2000

Well this competition gave me a fright, I didn’t really expect to pull off the title but it seemed that everything went my way.

We have just finished the Europeans in Cadiz the South of Spain. Aaron, Shayne and I all got there a week early. Jon Paul joined us a few days later.

We had an excellent week training and testing equipment. I decided the day before we had to measure in that all my stuff wasn’t cutting the pace, so I went out and bought a new sail and mast, sailed on that combo for about an hour and took a gamble, measured it in and it seemed to pay off. I had really, really good speed and plenty of height, this kind of speed makes you look like you’re a real good sailor and a tactical genius, a bit like team NZ in a way. Hee Hee.

We had amazing conditions 3 days of 6 to 12 knots a lay day, then 3 days of my favorite conditions, 12 to 16 knots and rolling seas, sparkling water, warm and sunny. The kind of sailing you dream about. I think this is why things went so well, I was in heaven. We were also staying in a great place right on the beach, which was close to the racing. It is interesting to prove again that being comfortable and happy in your environment puts you in a great head space which is also so important for performance. The only thing missing was our masseuse to help the bodies along. Especially now after it’s finished the ole body is TIRED.

I am also finally seeing some improvements from all that blood sweat and tears of fitness training, oxygen training and all the witchy pooh potions (natural stuff) showing real benefits, which is incredibly satisfying. Actually it is very exciting!!

Aaron also thrived in the perfect conditions and won the men’s event. JP ended up 9^th. Shayne suffered in the light at the beginning of the competition so he ended up in the silver fleet and placed 18^th in that.

This regatta was the final qualifying event for a lot of countries. Now all the sailors who will be at the Olympics are chosen so we can now take a good look at the competition. Probably right now they are all taking a good look at us. Hee hee.

Shayne and I fly to Athens tomorrow and train there for a couple of weeks with the Aussies and Nikkos the current gold medallist and world champion. We will be sailing in the area the Olympics will be in 2004, which should be interesting.

We then fly to the north of Germany on the 19^th of June for our last European event - Kiel Week – most the other Olympic kiwi sailors will be there which will be great.

Needless to say we are all feeling very proud of ourselves for about 5 mins, till the next wake up call but its good while it lasts.

Hope it’s not too nippy at home

Barbara and Shayne

I would have to say this was one of the best regattas I have done, even more successful than the worlds.

21/MAY/2000

well I am being very cheeky cause I will be sending this in the IMCO office free. You can't get connected anywhere else so rory let me play in his office.
we have been here a week now and we have only had one day of full on wind which is slightly disappointing the rest of the time it has been a chicks breeze and I haven't really been able to do my chick thing and beat the boys bummer thats what I live for!!
WE start racing tommorrow and it has taken shayne and I all week to work out what we want to use playing around with all sorts of combinations finally we threw the towel in and bought 2 brand new masts and threw themup our sails and thats what we are going to use. At least it makes it a bit
exciting as we don't know how they are going to handle all the conditions. We are staying on this peninsula in a very colourful condo and we over look a beach where the locals come to hang out for the day then leave late in the evening and leave all their rubbish all over the beach. Its good people
watching but they really have no idea about how to keep the world clean.  Its not quite as bad as barcelona but there is a distinct smell of public toilets while we are sailing, the good thing I suppose is there is no evidence of toilet thingsin the water - not like in barcelona.

Everybody who is anybody is here, it is really a world championships the only country missing is China. the reall cool thing is there is a whole lot of new faces especially girls, lots and lots of young ones which is definitely keeping the boys entertained!

The spanish have so far organised everything really well, the race site, equipment storage and facilities are great and the best thing is that it is warm and sunny - I love being warm, but it is still a good temperature in the morning for when we have been running.

Our next door neighbours are the Aussies which is good as we get to have entertaining nights hassling them and playing pass the new baby around. lars and Karens little Grace is now 7 weeks old and isn't really adapting well to the travelling so the more relief we can all give karen the better.

Well thats about it from us here in Spain till after the comp. We are both looking foward to going to Athens afterward to train with the Greeks.
bye bye
Barbara and Shayne

Happy Easter

Here are the prize winners form the worlds Faustine Merrit left and Lise Vidal right. The lady in the front is wearing nothing but a body painted flag!!!!

Me racing in the worlds

February, 2000

Hi Everyone

Just thought I'd fill you all in on the last month and what’s happening over the next little while.

February was a little quieter than last year, as far as racing goes, but full on with training off the water.

I competed in Sail Auckland at the beginning of February. This regatta usually attracts lots of overseas sailors, but this year the World Champs in Argentina were being held so there were no overseas sailors. Aaron Macintosh and Bruce Kendall were absent as well. So the depth of talent was a little thin. Never the less I still had plenty of competition, racing Jon Paul Tobin and my darling husband, Shayne. We all had some great battles but the boys got me, as the regatta was a windy one. It was encouraging to see is that all our youth sailors are getting way, way better and there were even a few young girls competing which is looking good for the future of our sport. They are pretty lucky, our youths, as they get to sail with the best in the world all the time which gives them a good bench mark to measure themselves on.

After Sail Auckland I started doing some altitude training. The awesome thing is I didn't have to go up a mountain. The Oxygen Center has just been set up in Takapuna. All I had to do was put on a mask for an hour each day over 2 weeks and breathe this depleted Oxygen, the theory being: If you starve yourself of Oxygen, when you get into normal air your lungs perform alot more efficiently. By the end of the 2 weeks I was at about 22000 feet which just above base camp 2 on Everest. During this time I was also meeting with David Slyfield, who does our physical training, 3 times a week and he was thrashing me aerobically and strength wise. Those 2 weeks were awesome I really felt like I made a big improvement in my base fitness. The Oxygen’s full benefits are meant to come into effect about 2 weeks later - which hopefully happens the day our Olympic Trials start - this Saturday!!!!

I have already noticed the benefits while I was training mainly finding my recovery was faster.

Apparently the Aussie swimmers sleep in a chamber at night which simulates being at altitude, maybe that’s one of the reasons they are dominating swimming at the moment. Time will tell.

During this time there was also the New Zealand Sportsperson of the Year, Decade and Century. A big thankyou to all those that sent congratulatory notes it was really appreciated. Of course I thought I should have won all three awards but then again I am biased HA HA. Maybe one day I might win the overall but when you are up against super human rowers who are twice your size !!!!!

I am still really, really happy to have been nominated for the award 5 times over the last 8 years and win it 3.

This last week Shayne and I have spent training in Sydney. Like I have said before every hour on that harbor counts. It is amazing how much you learn and relearn about it everytime. We sailed with the top Aussie male sailor there who has yet to be beaten in a regatta on the harbour. It was great to learn so much off him and every now and then give him a run for his money.

So this Saturday the big one starts THE OLYMPIC TRIALS. This will decide the official yachting team for the Olympics. In the men’s it will a radical race with all 3 of them capable of winning. For me it is a slightly different story as no other girl has met the standard so my place in the team is 99% even so I still want to go out there and keep those boys honest!!!!.

After the trials I have about 2 weeks at home before heading off to Assume on the 5th of April. We will be there for about 3 to 4 weeks. Then it will be off to Europe about the 10th of May, then the States and back to Aussie. That’s the rough plan anyway.

So thanks again for your support and I hope things are going well in 2000.

Regards

Barbara Kendall

6^th – 17^th January Sail Melbourne

27^th – 2^nd February NZ Race Nationals, Christchurch

4^th – 8^th February Sail Auckland

11^th – 18^th March NZ Olympic Trials

After this event I will know if I have officially qualified for the team following is my proposed itinerary.

1^st – 30^th April Sydney

15^th May Europe

May, June Europe

July USA

Aug, Sep Sydney

16^th – 2^nd Oct 2000 Olympics

Well that’s a brief run down on what we have been up to and what we are planning for 2000.

I hope that everyone has a successful 2000 and look forward to meeting with everyone at some time.

Best Regards

Barbara and Shayne.

January 4, 2000

Happy New Year

After all this New Millennium hype our New Years has got to be one of the worst yet – in fact it was so bad it was hilarious. Bruce, Shayne and I saw the new year in, hiding behind a public toilet, dressed in our full wet weather gear, sheltering from the driving rain trying to see the fireworks from the sky tower which was covered in rain cloud. Fortunately we were hanging out with some very entertaining people who made the whole dampening thing amusing.

Following is a brief summary of last year and an itinerary for next year

The start of 1999 was probably my most memorable as I got my first "green room" surfing, a full barrel over the top of my head and out the other side at Te Arai point up North. After I had an incredibly sore throat from screaming in excitement or maybe fright. It was a great way to start a great year.

My first race in 1999 at the beginning of January was in Singapore and Malaysia. I race short boards at one event and Mistral at another I had never been in this neck of the woods before so it was all adventure. The best part was blowing my $500 prize money shopping in Singapore before I came home. Shayne spent this time in Melbourne doing a qualifying race so he could compete in the Worlds later on in the year in Noumea.

At the end of January we went down to Christchurch for the Race Nationals. Lyttelton Harbor turned on strong winds and we were able to have 11 races and 1 round of slalom in 5 days. This event had one of the largest amount of entries for a long time over 100 competitors. Shayne got 4^th, he was pretty happy as nowadays he races the Mistral Olympic board more than shortboards. I placed 13^th in the men’s and won the women’s

Two days after Christchurch we competed in Sail Auckland a big Mistral event. We were both sleep sailing in the event, exhausted from the week before racing. Thank goodness it was windy, hook in and hold on – our favorite kind of sailing.

Somewhere in the middle of that regatta Shayne and I had our 6^th wedding anniversary, time flies.

We spent the most of February, March, and April travelling round NZ to all the competitions. The most memorable was in Whakatane, round White Island race, Unfortunately there wasn’t much wind so we had to sail 4 hours around Whale Island instead. The next day we took a boat out to the island. It was too dangerous too land as she was blowing heaps of hot ash into the sky. It looked like a nuclear boom site, nothing alive.

Most of my spare time at the beginning of the year was taken up doing my Hillary Commission thing in Secondary Schools around the country. I lecture round 30 specially chosen sporty kids for 4 hours, on dreaming, goal setting and dealing with setbacks. Its great I get to meet with a lot of NZ’s up and coming future hero’s and hopefully give them some good tips on life. There has been really good feed back, and the good thing is I get to talk for as long as I want!

I also had the chance of a lifetime with a charity called Books ’n’ homes. This charity gifts books to primary schools in all the poor areas. The kids get to keep the books and therefore are encouraged to read. I got the chance to give the books out in all the schools in the far North. We flew from school to school by helicopter. I had forgotten how beautiful NZ is. I won’t even attempt to describe it, only that it was truly awesome.

This year I raced as a master in some of the events. Isn’t that a scary thought, I am a master at the tender age of 32 the real scary thing is I have been a master now for 2 years. Men aren’t masters till 35. Shayne has one year to go till we go head to head in the same division. HA HA.

Our Europe circuit started in Holland half way through May and it was warm – unbelievable, usually we have thermals on and cursing Europe while we are standing around in hail and rain. This year we even got to have barbecues with bikinis on! From Holland we went to Sicily for the always crazy Windsurf world festival. After Sicily it was onto Los Angeles where we had a training camp. Grant Beck (our coach) flew up and we did some serious hours tuning and testing. Afterwards Shayne and I drove up the California Coast to San Francisco for the North American Champs.

We got home the end of July for 5 weeks before heading off to Sydney in August for six weeks.

We did two events in Sydney the first the Australian Nationals and then the Pre Olympics. After every event you realise how important it is to spend more time there. Sydney is a tricky place to sail and you are never quite prepared to what she is going to throw at you next. We have got ourselves set up in Sydney with an apartment and a car so going over there is now very easy.

We were home for about 10 days before we had to take off to Noumea for the World Champs. Club Med put the NZ windsurfing team up for free for the whole 6 weeks. We got to do excellent training without having to worry about food, sleeping or suppyling our own entertainment. It was fantastic. My family came up for the week just before the worlds. They were a great distraction for that week of tapering.

The Worlds went amazing. I think for the first time in my life I finally feel like I have peaked for a competition, I don’t think I could have sailed much better, everything went right. I didn’t have to sail the last race and ended up winning by approx. 40 points. Always there is a team of people behind you and for me Shayne is as always an amazing support. He always helps me first even though he is competing as well. Another secret weapon is our masseuse Janice McLennan nicknamed the brain surgeon if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t have made it physically and mentally. Not to forget Grant Beck and the other lads, Bruce Aaron and JP without each other none of us would have been as fast.

After the worlds I didn’t realise how burnt out I was till we did a race in Sydney just before Christmas. I was in ga ga land and can’t remember what happened or how I sailed myself backward through the fleet. There is such a fine line between peaking and burn out which is going to be the biggest challenge leading up to Sydney trying to get that line right. Who ever does will win!

At the moment there are 5 of us that have that potential so it is going to be an interesting year.

This year wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my sponsors.

The NZ sports Foundation – their funding has been a huge help I am now able to do what I need to do without having to worry about money.

Dupont NZ – Their support has been great over the last 2 years with no pressure.

Oakley – Have been with me for the longest time since 1988

Hyundai – Helped me with a car this year in Holland and always have a car ready when I am back in NZ

Ripcurl – Have been with me for 7 years and have awesome clothes and wetsuits.

Power Bar – without these I wouldn’t make it to the end of an event

Also thanks to NZ international Yachting Trust and Yachting NZ.

Barbara Shayne

1^st Singapore Open 7^th Sail Melbourne

1^st Malaysia Slalom 1^st Formula 42 Nationals

1^st NZ Race Nationals 4^th

1^st Sail Auckland 9^th

1^st White island Race 1^st Olympicsail 5th

1^st Sail Sydney, Sydney 12^th

1^st Mistral Nationals 2nd

2^nd Spa Regatta, Holland 75^th

1^st Windsurf World Festival, Italy 21^st

1^st North American Championships, San Francisco 7^th

1^st Australian Mistral Nationals, Sydney 14^th

1^st Pre Olympics event, Sydney

1^st World Championships, New Caledonia 42^nd

5^th Sydney Harbour Regatta, Sydney 24^th

New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year

New Zealand Sailor of the Year

Manukau Sports Person of the Year.

6^th – 17^th January Sail Melbourne

27^th – 2^nd February NZ Race Nationals, Christchurch

4^th – 8^th February Sail Auckland

11^th – 18^th March NZ Olympic Trials

After this event I will know if I have officially qualified for the team following is my proposed itinerary.

1^st – 30^th April Sydney

15^th May Europe

May, June Europe

July USA

Aug, Sep Sydney

16^th – 2^nd Oct 2000 Olympics

Well that’s a brief run down on what we have been up to and what we are planning for 2000.

I hope that everyone has a successful 2000 and look forward to meeting with everyone at some time.

Best Regards

Barbara and Shayne.

Here are the prize winners form the worlds Faustine Merrit left and Lise Vidal right. The lady in the front is wearing nothing but a body painted flag!!!!

Me racing in the worlds

Barbara Kendall : the brillant and fair Neo-Zelander confirm this year her World title... waiting Sydney 2000 ? V.Hoareau / Acpv / AOM Worlchampionship 99 / New Caledonia

Date: Sunday, 21 November 1999 23:30

Where to begin????????
As this is the first time I have been online for over 5 weeks I better
start at the beginning when we first arrived in Noumea.
I went to clear my email here in Noumea after i finally found out how to
do  it and found I had 53 messages ugggggg!!!! so quite a few of them stayed
there and I will clear them when I get home on the 28th of November.

Well from the beginning........... we all arrived here in Noumea around the  17th of October to yummy warm water, and awesome wind and man did it blow  for the first two weeks of training here. We were all battening down our  hatches for a windy regatta - but as usual Murphies law won and windy  Noumea turned into windless Noumea for the competition and today , the day  after guess what??? its windy!!

Thanks to a deal we secured with Club Med the whole NZ windsurfing team was  able to stay. Club Med  is the place to stay, everything is taken care of.   Our whole training routine revolved around the meal times here. On the  water by 10am off by 12, lunch, siesta to sleep off your lunch then sailing  at 2.30 in by 4ish and then relax till dinner. It was a perfect training  routine. But the biggest bonus was on our days off there was tons to do -  archery, circus trapeze flying, squash, tennis but the biggest bonus was  the shows and entertainment at night.  After a week of staying here we  realised we hadn't even walked out the front gates of the village!!

On our fourth week of training when we were all beginning to taper all my  family came up to visit. Mum, Dad, Wendy, Craig and the kids, Ella, Thomas  and 7 week old Baxter. It was great to have them all around plenty of  people to bounce off with and have fun. also our masseuse Janice Mclennan  arrived to repair our bodies after 3 weeks of physical abuse.

The family left the day the competition started - it is much nicer to have  them around before the event than during this way I could spend more time  as when I am competing I am not always the smiley person people think I  am!

This lead up to the event was the best any sailor could ask for, so going  into the comp I was fully prepared in every aspect, no injuries, good  health, fit, sailing fast and the main thing happy.

My goal was to sail consistantly with no mistakes and the ultimate goal was  to try and win and not have to sail the last race. My plan worked, with a  little help from my friends. As always Shayne was amazing his support is  invaluable even though he is competing himself. Unfortunately for him the  wind died after the first 2 days, he was sitting in 11th till then but  ended up 40th. which really isn't too bad out of 110 men.

The other kiwi boy struggled a bit towards the end of the regatta also. Jon  Paul Tobin came out the top with a 5th, Aaron Macintosh was 10th and big  bruvver was 17th. 

One of the best picture of the AOM Worlchampionship V.Hoareau / Acpv / AOM Worlchampionship 99 / New Caledonia

This was probably the largest fleet of women I have ever raced in and one  of the highest standards - the class is definintely getting tougher and  tougher especially as we get closer to the Olympics.

The first four races were quite windy and the next seven light so it was a predominately light air regatta. I prefer the stronger winds as it is  always a good blast, lighter winds you have to work alot harder.   The  french girl Faustine Merrit who place 2nd is a light air specialist and if  we hadn't have had those windier races the results may have been a little  differen't.  She won 5 out of the 7 light air races which is a little  scarey considering Sydney is predominantly light!!

Over the last few years the womens fleet has been dominated by Lee Lai Shan  from Hong Kong and Alessandra Sensini from Italy both of them were place  quite a long way back this worlds and instead the Aussies and the French  came through.

The worlds were the 2nd trials for the Aussie girls so they were fighting  it out till the end. They ended up 4th and 5th here with only one point  separating, their last trials is the event in Sydney on the 10th of  December, this will also be the first trials for the French girls.

The final results of all the races are on the web site there are also some pretty good pictures too so for those that are interested there is link to  the site from the IMCO homepage www.imco.org ( http://www.acpv.com/eng/index.htm )

Shayne and I are staying another week here to do a marathon race around one  of the island in the North. It is a stunning island with amazing sailing so  it was an opportunity not to be missed.

We get home on the 28th of November just in time for my dad 60th then we  are off to Sydney to prepare for the event there on the 4th of December.

We will be back the 17th of December - home for chrissy then back to Aussie  early January.

Thanks to all those that have helped this year and I will hopefully catch  up with everyone in due time.

regards

Barbara

Barbara is currently competing in the MISTRAL 1999 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 10-20.11.99 Numea, New Caledonia

Website of event
http://www.acpv.com

English version:
http://www.acpv.com/eng/index.htm

September 28 1999

MISTRAL women (11 races, 2 discards)
1. Barbara KENDALL (NZL): 2, 14, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 2  (15pts)
2. Faustine MERRET (France): 3, 3, 1, 2, 3, 2, 4, 5, OCS, 1, 3  (22pts)
3.Jessica CRISP (Australia): 1, 2, 4, 4, 1, 3, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4  (23pts)

MISTRAL men (11 races, 2 discards)
1. Lars KLEPPICH (Australia):  7, 2, 1, 1, 1, 5, 6, 9, 2, 1, 5  (24pts)
2. Joao RODGRIGUES (Portugal): 2, 20, 3, 8, 5, 2, 2, 6, 1, 3, 3  (27pts)
3. Nikos KAKLAMANAKIS (Greece): 23, 8, 2, 4, 9, 7, 7, 1, 6, 5, 1  (41pts)
13. Aaron McINTOSH (NZL):  1, 18, 22, 11, 12, 3, 18, 22, 24, DNF, 19
(126pts)

Only one year to go now. Things can change alot in a year, but this regatta gave an indication who is going to be dominant in a years time. In the women there are about five or six of us that are medal prospects. Alessandra Sensini from Italy really came through in the end of the regatta and Lee Lai San from Hong Kong was fifth. Lee Lai San hadn't sailed for 5 months as she has been studying so she was a little off the pace speed wise and physically. It will take nothing for her to bounce back.

We had a real variety of conditions and they moved us around on the three courses that are on the harbour, so things were changing all the time which made for real challenging racing.  It was very easy to miss one shift and lose your lead which happened to me quite alot,  but that what makes it fun also when you are trying to catch
up.

The mens fleet  has a bit more depth which shows in some of the up and down results one mistake and you lose 5 places, consistancy is the key on the harbour.

Shayne and I will be heading home tomorrow for two weeks then it will be off to Noumea to prepare for the World Championships. Yee ha warm water, sun and plenty of steady wind.

September 1999

Following are the final and official results of the Australian Mistral Nationals held on Sydney harbour 6th - 10th September 1999.

This regatta was one of three of the australian trials for the Olympics. So the Aussies were on fire. Lars Kleppich really made everyone in the mens look very average he also had great speed in the predominately light conditions. These conditions are what we could expect for the Olympics.
Lars is 3 to 4  kilos lighter than the other kiwi boys which I think is giving him an advantage in those marginal conditions. Bruce Kendall topped the kiwis, Bruce is lighter out of JP and Aaron and
seemed to have got a better grasp on the conditions here. this is the first regatta in ages that he has topped the kiwi contingent.
Our trials will be very interesting because not necesarily the fastest person is the best to go to Sydney!!!!!!

I had a great battle with the Aussie girls who were on fire this regatta as they are both very similar in abilities it is going to be a battle for them right to the end. Their next trials are in Nomea at the worlds then another regatta on the harbour just before Christmas.

Jessica Crisp who has won numerous world titles in the Professional World Cup circuit and several windsurfer world titles had awesome speed here especially in those marginal conditions she had quite an advantage of speed over me in this area. Fortunately we had a few windy races for me to
balance up the results especially today when we had the best wind of the contest of around 20 knots YEEEEEEHAAAA. It was chaos on the harbour as our course was set across the channel and the ferries do not give way and when its that windy and we are going that fast it is pretty scarey.
This next week I will be looking for some speed in those lighter winds before the Pre Olympics starts.

Results
Men     24 men competiting/12 countries          Discard Total
Lars Kleppich   1  1  1  5  1  2  2  1   1  1  2  4      9        13
Bruce Kendall   7  4  8  7  12 3 4  2  2  3   9  8       21      48
Tony Philp (fiji)       9  3  2  9  4   6  7  5  3  6  10 7      19       52
Aaron Macintosh 3  5  6  3  10 1  9  7  8  13 15 3       25      55
Jon Paul tobin  6  10 7  2  5  5  11 8 13 15  1 9        28      64
Shayne Bright  placed 15th with a win in one of the races and a 3rd and a 5th today so after all the light wind races it put a smile on his face to finally have some wind on the last day.

Women   15 women competiting/10 countries
Barbara Kendall 3  1  3  2  2  1  3  5  2  2   1  1      8       18
Jessica Crisp   1  4  7  1  4  3  1  3   1  1  3  2      11       20
Natasha Sturges 6  2  2  4  3  2  2  1  5  7   2  4      13      27
Lanee Butler (usa)
Huang Ying (china)

August 25 '99

Hi all
Shayne and I are now in Sydney - what a relief if is warm and windy here. We can't believe how much warmer than NZ, thank goodness for that. I feel like a real novice again as I haven't sailed for four weeks. The last few days have been really humbling, in all the practice races I am really struggling to find form. What makes it worse is the Aussie girls are on fire. So they should be as their Olympic  trials start on the 5th of September! The poor old body feels like it has been run over by a truck or more realistically here, a ferry! the good thing is I can only get better - HA.

Today we filmed a clip for that TVone program assignment. It will be screened on September the 16th at 8.30.  This is the day in 2000 we start the Olympics so they are doing a little snippet on where everyone is at - should be quite interesting.

The oil spill they had here has just about cleared up but now there is a HUGE whale bathing in the harbour - Alex has been here for a week I don't think he can find that narrow sydney entrance. we sailed up to him the other day but got a short sharp shift form the marine guys, so we only saw
his pimply nose.

As they say on the radio thats about all from the Olympic City,

Barbara

North American Champs  San Francisco

Day 1

We started today 3 races and it was pretty windy with a 6 knot current flooding in. Huge up winds and really short downwinds really good fun racing especially trying to get around the top mark. then whoaaaaaa mumma the bottom mark sneaks up on you real fast. Jp is winning with a 4th , 1st , 1st aaron next with a 3rd, 2nd ,2nd lars is next with a 1st, 4th and 9thish and then Bruce shayne is 5th then Kenjo, Peter, and somebody else I won all 3 from jessica then Lanee and the POL 43 then carol ann I finally think I have got those downwinds a littlle now YIPEEEEEE the ole long harness lines works a treat I reckon More later

Day 2

The guys had one light race in the morning when I say light it was still 10 knots to 12knots then they had 2 really windy races 25 knots at the bottom and 20 at the top. PLUS JP is smoking he had a 4th then 2 - 1sts he is sooooo fast compared to evertyone. He looks so comfortable sailing up wind. Just stands there and grunts . Everyone else seems to waiver when the gusts hit them . Its great spectating from the beach as its pays to het the shore going up wind and so sailors are tacking right on the beach.

Aaron is 2nd but struggled alot today he got a 3rd 5th and 4th or something like that and Lars is right behind him then Bruce then Kenjo then shayne. In the windyest race shayne was 2nd he and Aaron had a huge battle it was great to watch.
Lars is complaining about all the kiwis around him all the time!!!!!!!
Bruce is sailing really well also he figured it was his daggerboard holding him up changed daggerboards and verooooooooom

I won all three races Jess 2nd and pol43 3rd. I seem to have developed quite an advantage over the other girls but there are no fast girls here though so it isn't really giving me a true indication on whats going on.
Gebi has got in front of Peter but it is close - Will has some goodies and some badddies.
It is freezing here I am wearing my full wetsuit - my big one and I have to put on hats and coats when ashore. Luckily there are saunas in the bathrooms to dry your wetsuit inbetween races and to warm you up. Thank god our summer isn't like this. Surprisingly the people are all really friendly and active everyone seems to be out and about excercising- runnjing cycling, rollerblading, volley ball, soccer, you name it - its great to see despite how cold it is and the people here generally seem to be really in shape - haven't seen any really really fat ones thats because there are so many hills here.
Barbara

Day 3

I would have to say that this was one of the windiest competitons I have been to in quite a long time. We only had one race where it dropped below 12 knots and that was for
only half a race!

With such good winds we were able to have all 11 races in the four days. Three races a day for the first three and 2 races on the last day. With 11 races we were only able to discard one race, which means the most consistant person will win.

There were 43 men entered and 20 women from 25 differen't countries. This was an important event as it was a qualifying event for the world championships in the men.
The fleet was missing alot of the top European competitors but the mens fleet had the top Japanese, Australian, American, Canadian, Italian. In the women we had the top Polish, Australian, American, and Canadian.

The Australiasians totally dominated the competition. Jon Paul Tobin was by the fastest man on the water - when it got really windy he was in a league of his own. But he had a two bad races when it got a little light and shifty and that was enough to lose the lead to Australian Lars Kleppich. Who was the most consistant - although not the fastest! Aaron Macintosh came third followed by Bruce Kendall who got faster and faster as the regatta went on - now whith 3 of them all on the pace the New Zealand trials are going to be fierce!!!!! Shayne Bright my lovely husband - hee hee - was in 7th heaven with all
the wind and sailed the best and fastest that I have seen in a long time. He ended up 5th. So the down unders really dominated those first 5 places.

All that training in in LA paid off big time for me - mixed with my favourite conditions I didn't really give the other girls a chance. I won just about every race except one where I placed 2nd to Jessica Crisp of Australia. It seemed criminal to have to discard a 2nd. I had awesome speed and with a one way track racing the fastest person usually won!! the best part about the competition the body held up really well and I had no problems with my arms so all the work on those seems to paying off also.

Now its back to NZ for us for a month then to Aussie for 2 regattas there including the pre Olympic regatts which is a biggie for us.

results
Aus Lars Kleppich 1 3 9 2 3 4 3 2 3 2 4 1st
NZL Jon Paul Tobin 3 1 1 4 1 1 15 4 1 11 2 2nd
NZL Aaron Macintosh 4 2 2 5 5 3 7 1 2 9 1 3rd
NZL Bruce Kendall 6 5 3 8 2 7 5 5 4 1 3 4th
NZL Shayne Bright 11 7 7 13 4 2 9 3 5 4 6 5th
JPN Kenjo Motokazu 6th
USA Mike Gebhart 7th
Can Kevin sittle 8th
ITA Riccarddo Giordano 9th
USA Peter Wells 10th

NZL Barbara Kendall 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1
AUS Jessicca Crisp
POL Anna Grayzeck
CAN Carol ann Alie
USA Lanee Butler

Now for the Olympics we take our own equipment so alot more time is spent   testing equipment to find differences. Even though the equipment is mean't  to be one design there are differences as it is near  impossible to make 2  things exactly the same.  It was great to get more of an idea on what different masts are doing so  when we sail with them you can analyse the why's and wherefore's.

From Portland we flew back to LA and drove up the coast of California to  San Francisco. We maximised our tourist opportunity and drove all the way  up the rugged coast stopping at famous surf spots all the way up.  It was  stunning but I reckon NZ has the best coastline in the world.

It has been 9 years since I was here in San Fran competiting in a World Cup
race and things haven't really changed.  It is still cold when the wind blows and the fog still drifts in down the  bay and it is still really really windy with tons of ferries and fishing
boats everywhere and the odd seal getting in amongst the action.

This is the place for strong wind training. The wind hasn't dropped below  15 knots and most days she's blowing a stiff 25. The St Francis yacht club  is hosting the event here -The North American Championships. The yacht club  has the best facilities with sauna's and steam rooms in both the men and   women's bathrooms along with towels, shampoo and conditioner  in each   shower.  So at the end of the day when you are tired, wet and cold, things don't  seem so bad as you emerse yourself into the clubs luxuries.

We have had the last 2 days to recover before we start competiting  tomorrow. I am ready to test out all that training and testing. Lets hope  the brain still remembers how to do a race!!

The competition finishes on the 18th we fly out the 20th and will be home  the 22nd to start a month of gym training before we fly to Sydney on the  23rd of August.

We have 2 competitons in Sydney:

• September 3rd - 6th              Australian Mistral champs
• September 16th - 26th          Pre Olympics
  

Thats about all thats happened in the last 5 weeks.   It is scarey how time has flown we are half way through July  and  the   Olympics is just around the corner.   I feel  much better prepared than ever already which is so much less  stressy.

Hope all is well

Barbara

June 1999

Hi Everyone

following is a little snippet on what we have been doing over the last few weeks.

Finally i am back in the land of being able to get my email working. for some reason it wouldn't work in Holland and I didn't even bother trying while I was in Italy as that place has even more problems.

It has been 3 weeks now and we have done 2 competitions and both of them have gone way better than I expected at this stage of my program. The first competiton was in Medemblik in Holland which is a small town about 1 hour north of Amsterdam. It was great in Holland as Hyundai had organised a station wagon for me to use which saved alot of hassle and of course money. Bruce, Shayne and I were all travelling together so needless to say with 3 board bags, 2 quiver bags, 2 mast bags and 5 gear bags the car was quite loaded!!

We arrived one week early for this competiton to do some training and acclimatisation, fortunately we were incredibly lucky with the weather, it was warm and sunny the whole time we even had  a few barbeques in the evening. This year set a record for Spa regatta  - not only did they have record number of entries - 1500 over all the Olympic Classes, but we had the warmest and best wind conditions on record!!!!! Yahoo - good year to go!!

We all had brand new gear for this regatta that we had picked up in Holland so it took us quite awhile to tune everything in. I felt a bit spastic for the first few days of competiton from having all this new stuff and from lack of sailing before I left. As the regatta progressed, so did I and by the end of the competiton I was ready to start all over again. Lee Lai San - the gold medallist from Atlanta sailed a incredibly consistant regatta, She had been in Europe for a month so she was peaking for the this regatta as it is her last for a while as she is going to Canberra for six months to finish her studies.

I was really stoked to get 2nd considering how little sailing I had done - the main aim of the regatta for me was to see if my body would hold together and it did so to come 2nd was even more of a bonus. Alessandra Sensini who won the bronze medal was 3rd. It is amazing to see how we three are really still dominating the top places.

For me it was great to see so many new faces at this regatta, especially girls, there were 58 of us which is really promising and the level of competition is increasing especially now that many countries are having their trials for the Olympics in the next year everyone seems to have stepped another gear of intensity.

There were 108 men entered and the level of the men has also increased. Aaron dominated the regatta he had planned a peak for this regatter and sailed very fast and smart. Jon Paul Tobin is still battling with the yo yo type results which shows his youth and Bruce was lacking a bit of tuning.

Shayne like always had awesome results in the wind and bad ones when it was light!!
In one of the windy races the kiwi boys got a 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th which
was fairly impressive.

From Holland we flew to Palermo in Sicily which is the boot part of Italy. Here we competed in the Windsurf World Festival. This is a   fun type regatta with course racing, a long distance and a night race. It was so nice to be in the warm again and we were able to race with no wetsuits here which was a bonus and always brings a smile to my face. 

The Italian organisation is always pretty chaotic and this year was no exception none of the English speaking participants knew what was going on at any time we just stuck really close to the Italians and when they went on the water so did we!!!!

We had great racing with some really funky winds in one race we had wind from 25 knots right down to 2 knots from another direction - the race was never over till you crossed that finish line.
I had a awesome regatta and pretty much won everything the course racing, long distance, night race and Bruce and my results enabled us to place 3rd in the nations cup behing Australia and Italy.

Now we are all in Long Beach in Los Angelos we are here for a month to do some serious training and equipment testing. By about the 5th of July we will drive up to San Francisco for the North American Championships before coming home on the 23rd of July.

Hope all is well at home 

Barbara