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Woody's Year In Review 2005

Well, another fun-filled year has passed us by, with many more stories and memories of family & friends to recall for many years to come.
2005 has really been a 'Year of Healing'. My Mom and Dad are finally on the road to recovery after battling hard for a couple of years. My Big bro Al is finding a happiness inside himself, along with his girls, that’s been missing for sometime. Our good friends Link and Paul are feeling 'better than ever' after coming off a pretty tough previous year. Also, our own 'Mutter' in Germany is getting better with each passing day after undergoing some emergency surgery recently.
Our continued hope for everyone this coming year is that of health, happiness, and friendship. Thank-You all for making our lives so ‘full’ this past year!!

Now as I did last year, I'd like to share some of our windsurfing highlights of 2005...

The season started early this past year when we took very short notice (as in: book Monday, fly Wed) family vacation to Florida in March. The whole family did some windsurfing at the Banana River Resort. What a wonderful family trip that was!

April sailing in Dryden? Who would have thought! We had fun sailing around and dodging the ice chunks this day.

May sailing on Thunder Lake was made possible with our new drysuits. We had alot of fun this day! Link was out on his Prodigy shredding it up!

The month of June started off with the "Wildwinds Regatta" in Thunder Bay, Ontario where we met some more boardheads. Paul grabbed a 1st place finish, and I was 2nd. Way to go dude!!

The "Unvarnished Music Festival & Windsurfing Regatta" held in Worthington, Minnesota was the next stop in June. Strat, Paul and myself hooked up with our fellow "Team World" members and had just an awesome weekend! I placed 3rd in my class, and 4th overall in the regatta with some pretty stiff competition. A really cool spin-off from this event was a picture of most of us being published in the August/Summer edition of Windsurfing Magazine!

We had quite a few sails on the water when we went on our annual Blue Lake camping trip. A real memorable time with a tornado touching down just 15 km's from us!

July started off with our very own "Moosefest Windsurfing Regatta" which brought together Team World again! This was a real highlight for me with so many memories made. Strat won the Sport Class, Larry won the Formula Class, and I won the Open Class. That was fun!!

The rest of the month was busy getting our friends 'hooked in' to the sport! Great work Surfy, Stuart, Don, Kale, Jared, Steph, Jeremy, Brenna and others!! You all did SO AWESOME!!

This little magical island on Lake Superiour again brought together most of Team World for the "Madeline Island Encounter" which saw three days of friendship and sailing. I finished 1st in the Open class! Magical times!!

August was spent mostly on the water with friends and BBQing at various locations, highlighted with our annual camping trip to Sandbar Provincial Park where we scored some of our best sailing of the season!

September brought us a couple of more road trips to the USA. First up, was the "Windpower Windsurfing Championships" held in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Where again, most of Team World was re-united. This event was a 'break through' event for Margot. I was so happy for her to get 2nd in Sport Class after having some great battles on the water with the other competitors. I managed a 4th in the Open class and 7th overall in the regatta. It was Margot's birthday that same weekend and where I bought her first 'short board'. A new Mistral Radar 140.

Later in the month we attended the 'Ultimate Challenge' in Garrison, Minnesota, "The Mille Lacs Crossing", where once again, Team World was front and center. The conditions for the event were quite challening and 'the moment' etched in my mind forever, was that of Margot crossing the finish line. Words cannot express how proud I was of Margot at this moment. Way to go Sweety!! Team World claimed three of a possible five first place finishes!! What a way to end our sailing season together!

October we still managed to get in a few more sessions with some of the best winds all season long.
November 11th we had a very 'memorable' day sailing. With warm air temps, we hit the water 'one last time', this brought an end to a truly memorable windsurfing season.
Now this brings me to the old saying, "Saving the best for last".
This past December at Christmas, Margot suprised the hell out of me, by buying me a 2006 Limited Edition Mistral "Woody Screamer"!! I am so looking forward to getting on the water again now!!

2006 looks to be the best year yet! I trust and hope it will be the same for each and everyone of you too...

Stay Cool Forever

Posted by Brad at January 2, 2006 6:56 PM

Comments

NICE!!

Posted by: surfy/shan at January 2, 2006 7:47 PM

Reading your awesome post makes me realize, there were only 3 months last year we did not sail! That is pretty impressive for living ...too far north!!

Posted by: Margot at January 2, 2006 8:16 PM

Sweet review of the year that was!

Posted by: Pavel at January 3, 2006 6:52 PM

Sweet review of the year Woody. I am impressed with all the nice pics you took..

Posted by: Uffe at January 4, 2006 1:53 PM

What a great review of your windsurfing year, Brad! You and Margot and your family are to be congratulated by making the sport a family thing not just an elite sport!
The pics were just beautiful and made me wish I were out there with you all!
LOL Mom xoxoxo

Posted by: yorkshire lass at January 8, 2006 2:27 PM

Awesome windsurf photos! I just love that one of Margot ripping really fast across the waves. The last one with the sunset is beautiful!

Posted by: Guinevere at January 9, 2006 7:56 PM

I'm looking forward to get better on my Radar this summer. And it will be a lot of fun going fast with my new GPS Guin. You'll have to try it when you come in June/July! Can't wait!!

Posted by: Margot at January 10, 2006 10:08 AM

Time for an update Dude!
Margot and I can play Kubb, in the snow, at the shack, with a beer,in our bikinis and you can take some picture if you want.

Posted by: Shan/Surfy at January 16, 2006 9:47 PM