With the confirmation of the Marine Safety Queensland's approval and permit, Green Island Nationals receives the final official approval to host the 2013 event on the waters surrounding Green Island from the 24th to the 28th of June, 2013. Specific permits were also required due to the World Wildlife Heritage listing and extreme environmental sensitivity of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, within which Green Island, Arlington Reef and surrounding waters are located. Bottom line, the event is a GO!

Along with freestyle and slalom, freeracing will make its first official appearance as a racing category.
Freeracing is an evolutionary discipline proposed by Ian Fox as the basis of an ongoing national championship. It offers enormous potential to encourage widespread participation worldwide thanks to the availability of modern freeride and freerace equipment combined with high-quality wearable GPS units. Riders compete “freely” over a set period of identical “real time”, without any set course but within a defined and limited area. All sailing distance accumulated within an allocated time and sailing area limits accumulates to define a winner. Combining the very best of many aspects of existing slalom, marathon and GPS competition formats, freeracing extends the use of the basic data inherent in GPS windsurfing tracklogs; synchronized real-time and accurate track point positional data. The concept focuses on two core fundamentals: simplicity and accessibility.

Simplicity: the format is very easy for both organizers and competitors, yet at the same time extends the boundaries of sailors skill and aptitude by challenging them not only in outright speed but also tactically and strategically. Modern GPS technology provides enormous potential for accurate event timing, position measurement and elapsed distance analysis.

Accessibility: the proposed Freerace format deliberately aims to level the playing field by reducing the advantage of specialist equipment, minimizing gear wars or reliance on extreme conditions. Elite skills (timed starts, aggressive man on man race jibes) aren’t essential to be competitive. Participation and equitable competition becomes easier, more practical, enjoyable and engaging for a wider range of participants utilizing common everyday “freerace” or fast freeride windsurf equipment. Measuring relative performance allows for more events to be held successfully in more moderate, available locations and conditions.

The full schedule also has been released!

Saturday 22nd: Arrival day

Sunday 23rd: Arrival / Free day

Monday 24th: Freestyle/Freerace GPS racing

Tuesday 25th: Freestyle/Freerace GPS racing

Wednesday 26th: Slalom racing

Thursday 27th: Slalom racing

Friday 28th: Freestyle/Slalom/Freerace GPS Finals and Event Closing Ceremony

To stay updated or for more information, visit the Green Island Nats' official website by clicking here!