Bonello still riding the waves

Twenty-one years ago, windsurfing in Malta was in its heyday. Come windy weekends, popular bays like Mellieha and Birzebbuga, the Comino Channel and even the Sliema-Qawra coastline would all be dyed with colourful sail boards speeding, twisting and turning in the widest possible range of wind conditions.

Competition on the home scene was electrifying - both on the water and on land.

On land agents representing brands like Sailboard, Mistral, Windglider, Windsurfer (Tencate), Hifly, Alpha, Tiga, Scirrocco and others were 'healthy instigators' to incite cut-throat competition whereby almost all agents had their own 'clique' of enthusiastic sailors to sail their particular board.

On sea, opportunities were there for the taking. The leading brands even established their own associations - Mistral Class Association, Sailboard Class Association, etc. These led to individual class competitions with the winners eventually contesting the respective Class Europeans or Worlds.

When all classes sailed together, the event was referred to as Open and here, yours truly, gave his modest contribution.

So popular were manifestations like the Comino Hotel Open Class Regatta, Camel Wishbone Open Class Boardsailing Championships, Boardsailor of the Year Awards, participation in overseas events like the Giro D'Italia Di Windsurf and the Europa-Africa Windsurfing Race, and last, but not least, the International Malta-Sicily Windsurf Race.

All this was even complimented with the publication of a local magazine - Wishbone Boardsailing Magazine.

Those were days when enthusiastic youngsters like Paul Ellul, Jean Paul and Mark Fleri Soler, Peter Bonello, Chris Grech, Francesca Vincenti, Albert Fenech, the Pace sisters - Joanne and Sue, Albert Gatt and son Simon, Adam Scicluna, Jonathan Crockford, Karl Azzopardi, Anton Cachia, Andrew Wilson, Ray Demicoli, Nigel Rausi, Mark Gialanze and others gained for the sport a sound awareness and recognition.

This was so much the case that the first time windsurfing was an Olympic sport, in 1984, the Malta contingent also included a boardsailor - Peter Bonello - and definitely that was the moment that was for the sport, for Malta and for the then 23-year-old Bonello in particular.

Here I quote from the website of the Malta Olympic Committee when referring to the 1984 Olympics:

"These Games will forever be remembered by all Maltese, as Peter Bonello, our sailor, managed to finish ninth out of 39 competitors to register the best ever result by any Maltese, so far, at the Olympic Games."

Yes, pleasant and nostalgic memories.

Bonello has been living in California for the past 18 years with his core activities being running his own aviation engineering consultancy business and looking after a family of five - wife Jennifer and four children.

Presently, the big news in windsurfing is the selection of the brand new RSX, designed and produced by Neil Pryde, as the next Olympic board, following a series of evaluations by top windsurfers.

As a result the RSX 2005 Pacific Coast championship was just held in the United States. This was the first international regatta of this one-design board, having, as its prime objective, the thorough testing of the new Olympic windsurfing equipment by top class racers.

The championship was staged at San Francisco Bay, hosted by the Saint Francis Yacht Club, and saw 37 racers hit the starting line on brand new charter boards.

The highly experienced fleet included current and past windsurfing Olympians and World Cup professionals, international Formula and slalom champions, even a Laser class Olympian, top US juniors and a Maltese windsurfer... Peter Bonello.

The weekend regatta was made up of ten races over three days, with the best eight results to count. Bonello (sail No.30) failed to make the first two races thus requiring all remaining races to count.

Race 7 saw him gaining his best result, an 8th placing, with his worst being Race 3 where he featured in 17th.

Winning the overall regatta was Wilhelm Schurmann, a Brazilian national and South American Formula champion.

Schurmann was very closely followed by Canada's Sam Ireland, likewise a top international pro competitor in many types of windsurf racing. Taking third overall was 21-year old Seth Besse, a former US junior champion. Bonello placed 11th overall, undoubtedly a notable performance at this level.

Does this result mean that Bonello, 44, is not only active but still eager to win?

"You can say that, though it remains to be seen whether I can take it to the next level," he said. "I still practise the sport as an amateur, in my free time. Running my engineering practice and being a family man competes with my windsurfing time."

Yes, so true that... once a sailor, always a sailor; once you get hooked, you just can't leave it!