(Orleans)– Big Spirit Lake is hosting the 2024 Hobie Wave North American Championships tomorrow (Wed.) through Saturday. Xander Wessels is organizing the regatta…
“Over a year ago we did this same event out in upstate New York. I was approached about doing this event in our division here in the Midwest of the country. I had this crazy idea about bringing it back to Spirit Lake. We used to have a very active hobie fleet here years ago but it has died out. So truthfully what I tried to do is I tried to come back to the area, I tried to get the city behind it, I tried to get as much people involved, let everyone know as I could about it, that we’re trying to bring the hobies back to this lake, back to this area and reactivate the fleet. So the goal of it was to put the national event somewhere and revive an old hobie fleet and Spirit Lake, Iowa is where we chose to do that.”
Wessels says the Marble Beach Campground will serve as the headquarters for the event…
“We will be on the west side of the lake. We’re going to try favored to the west side but it kind of depends on wind conditions. The racing will take place from Wednesday until Saturday. We plan to be on the water from about 10:00 am until 4:00 pm each day. We have a locals party, just kind of invite the locals out on Thursday down at the beach. It will be kind of like a freewill donation, burger, hotdog thing. We’re going to leave boats set up. If anybody in the area wants to come out, ask questions, look at the boat, take pictures, Thursday, Marble Beach Campground is the day to come out.”
That will begin at 5:00 pm.
Wessels adds those who plan to view the regatta on the water need to be mindful of the course…
“We will have a very, kind of distinct race course. You’ll see what we’re doing. Driving through the middle of the race course is NOT appreciated. You can sit up at the top mark, the upwind buoy, literally half a football field above the upwind buoy. You can watch all of us come around it. You can do the same thing at the downwind buoys. There will be a committee boat down there, we will also have some chase boats that kind of tell people where to go and what to do, but once you see the race course from the water and what we’re doing you’ll see where to stay out of our area.”
Some 30 to 35 Hobie Cats are expected…
“We’ve got people from all over the country; California, New York, Ocean Springs Mississippi, Florida. We’ve got people coming from all over.”
An awards ceremony will be held at 5:00 pm Saturday at the Venue in downtown Spirit Lake.
