CAGLIARI – SARDINIA JUNE 14-17 2018

Hystorical and touristic event

PROGRAM

THURSDAY JUNE 14TH 2018
9,00 – 18,00 Arrivals, registrations, accommodations and warm ups

H.19,00 Opening ceremony and welcome party at WCC Windsurfing Club Cagliari.

FRIDAY June 15th

10,00 City Hall Reception with the major and council at ‘Sala Consiliare Comune di Cagliari’
12,00-17,00 Meeting at Windsurfing Club Cagliari and Natural course rides with the old Windsurfer, under the ‘Sella del Diavolo’ .
20,30 Typical Sardinia dinner with ‘maialetto sardo’ offered by Sandro Mamusa, former Italian Windsurfer Champion.

SATURDAY June 16th

11,00 Meeting at Windsurfing Club Cagliari and possible transfers in Solanas and Villasimius for a natural Course run.

h.21.00 Grand Gala’ and “50 years memorabilia” in Cagliari Center.

SUNDAY June 17th

11.00 -18.00 Possible transfer for freestyle and team-racing in Chia (CA).
19.00 Closing ceremony and departure.

For registrations pietroporcella@gmail.com
For accommodations and reservations write to Sabryna Dini at locationcity@gmail.com

OPEN LETTER TO MY FRIENDS
SEE YOU IN SARDINIA.
***********************

Dear original Windsurfers,
the sport of windsurfing reached fifty years since his invention in 1967 and 45 years since it became a recognized sport under the sailing Federations in 1973 and 35 years since the professional World Cup started and the sport was inducted in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984.
The first international sport events were with the Windsurfer Class.
It was a ‘one design’ class. Same board, the original Windsurfer, same sail for all, a 6.0 sq.meter.
The discipline was pure Racing around an Olympic triangle race.
The people were divided by weight groups: lightweights, medium light, medium heavy, heavy.
Than freestyle, slalom and long distance were introduced to give also an Overall world champion title.
Hoyle and Diane Schweitzer, the man and women behind the birth of the sport, together with competition also introduced a new way of life: the ‘windsurfer spirit’.
“ This sport – I recall Hoyle explaining me in the first interview- is 50% fair competition and 50% social time”.
My life has changed since that interview in 1978 in Baia Sardinia. I was a 19th year old student and I decide to become a ‘windsurfing journalist’ as my main occupation . The new job carried me around the world for four decades meeting amazing places and people.
One note. The people that developed the sport in the late ’70ties and than early ’80ties through the open class, Olympic class and than professional World Cup, were the same champions, designers, media that formed themselves in the Windsurfer Class.
And wherever they went they always carried with them that original Windsurfer spirit.

WHY A ’50 YEARS WINDSURFER PARTY’ ?
I want to celebrate this unique anniversary bringing back in my birthplace of Cagliari some of the pioneers that made the history of this sport and always conserved that original spirit . From Matt Schweitzer the very first champion in 1974 to Robby Naish, the man that since 1976 (after his exploit at the Worlds in the Bahamas) until today, is the icon of the sport. But the request has been supported also by those legendary women from Rhonda Smith to Kelby Anno, from Andrea Livingston to Manuela Mascia that added grace and love to our sport.
So, come and spend a few days together again, alone or with your companion or all of your family.
Come and meet again with all of those Australians, Italians, French, Germans, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Fijians, Japanese, Canadian, South Africans that made those years of Windsurfer class and early World Cups, unforgettable.
We can’t be divided in the same weight groups today, as we might all be medium or heavy weight, by we can still do some runs on that original Windsurfer, playing age groups (over 50, over 55, over 60, over 65…) and sharing boards and laughs while we sail non competitive on a natural course.
It will be a big reunion that will mix history with recreational and social time. A way to meet after 30-40 years to recall stories, to see how we are now and introduce our partner or our family.

WHY CAGLIARI ?
The decision to have this big reunion in Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia is not casual and is not only because is my birth city.
Cagliari and Sardinia played a very important part in the Windsurfer Class.
The 4th WINDSURFER WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP after Associated Island (USA 74), La Ciotat (France 75) and Bahamas (’76) took place in Baia Sardinia (1977). In that same place was invented and held for three years in a row the TEAM SAILING WINDSURFER WORD CHAMPIONSHIP.
Cala Bitta in 1982 had the 10th Windsurfer World Championship and after I was nominated European President of the Windsurfer Class in South Africa in 1991, I brought back the WINDSURFER Worlds in Portorotondo in 1993 and in Cagliari in 1996 and the European Windsurfer championship in Villasimius 1995 and Santa Teresa Gallura in 1998.
Even the famous Chia Classic waterman trophy used Windsurfer as Match Races when wind was light for fun board event and I closed my operations, back to the roots, in 2013, with a Team Sailing Windsurfer event.

Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, is a wonderful city, rich in history and natural beauty.
The top Italian champions at the beginning of the Windsurfer class were all from Cagliari.
Alberto Diaz, Maurizio Loi, Maurizio Strazzera, Alberto Loviselli, Niccolò Olivari, Sandro Mamusa, Paolo Brianda, Gigi Barrella. Not to forget the two women World Champion Manuela Mascia and Paola Toschi.
In Cagliari, waterfront to Poetto beach, there is actually the biggest windsurfing club in Italy, the WCC that will host the event. Some old Windsurfer boards are there to be shared, others will be brought by the Sicilians, Romans and Tuscan friends that will join the party.
For your accommodations I would prefer you to reserve with
‘Cagliari Charming accommodations’ a group of B&B de luxe, that will make you live the city in a more familiar and elegant way.
Looking forward to meet you all.
Aloha & a si biri in Sardigna,

Pietro Porcella
(Pioneer windsurfing journalist and event organizer)

P.S. Please confirm your participation, make trip plans and pass it around to the other friends involved in the 70’ties and 80’ties that would like to be involved.
Reserve your flight to Cagliari (CAG) and your accommodation through Sabryna Dini Charming Accommodation writing to locationcity@gmail.com . I’ll do the rest.