Champion pair see Windfest as a chance to develop region’s sport

The Carnarvon Windfest is set to attract some serious talent to the Gascoyne in January. World champion windsurfers Karin Jaggi and Patrik Diethelm will travel north for the second edition of the festival, and will be planning to make an assault on the area’s world-class wind and waves and put on free clinics to bring what they say is a growing interest in junior development in the sport to the region. Jaggi, who has been world champion an unbelievable 29 times, said in an interview while the remote stations further north of Carnarvon were more established windsurfing and kitesurfing destinations, she was looking forward to sailing the town’s coastline after the success of last year’s event. While there were barriers to learning the challenging sport, it offered the chance to get closer to nature that was ideal for the WA coast, and junior participation and development were progressing in the south and Mid West and Perth, she said. “I heard the event (last year) was great,” she said. “Really good organisation, and I heard the wind was good. An event like this is an opportunity. The conditions are so perfect. The direction (in windsurfing) is really good, I feel there is more and more coming. “Especially here (in WA), it’s so good to do. “There’s endless coastline. You never finish learning. There’s a really good movement — it’s quite big in the South West, metro kids are getting better, and Geraldton (kids). “If we could bring (that progress) to Carnarvon it’s great — they have wind all year round. “It’s just ideal. It’s a new event, it’s a really different place.” She said she hoped the event would motivate local youngsters to try the sport and increase participation, and demonstrate that modern equipment also made it quicker to learn. Event organiser Danny Lobwein said the workshops with Jaggi and Diethelm were an opportunity to learn from the world’s best. “To have people of that calibre at our event shows the support we’re getting from the wind and kitesurfing community,” he said. “It’s a legitimate event they want to attend.” He said Exmouth Kitesurf owner Thomas Powell would be putting on free clinics for kiteboarders. Windfest is on January 15-17.