Windsurfing NSW Life Members

At last night's WNSW AGM, the President proposed that 5 members be awarded WNSW life membership. They are Jessica Crisp, Lars Kleppich, Keith Single, Glen Morrell and Nick Nelson. The motion was carried.

Here are the biographies that will be shown on the WNSW website.

Jessica Crisp
Born in Sydney, Jessica Crisp has represented Australia in five Olympics, in Los Angeles in 1984, when windsurfing was a demonstration sport, then in Sydney 2000 (Mistral 5th place), Athens 2004 (Mistral 6th place) Beijing 2008 (RS:X 5th place) and London 2012 (RS:X 11th), where she was the Australian sailing team's most experienced Olympian. She began sailing at the age of 10, and by 15 years old was the Youth World Champion by 15 and the ISAF Women's World Champion by 16. By 17 she was competing on the professional windsurfing circuit, winning the PWA World Cup in 1993 and 1994. Apart from racing, she has competed in freestyle and indoor events. In 2014 she joined the PWA Wavesailing World Tour. Jessica continues to support windsurfing in NSW through mentoring and coaching.

Lars Kleppich
Lars spent his formative windsurfing years at Dobroyd Aquatic Club, which to this day boasts the highest active windsurfing membership of any club in NSW. Lars competed in three Olympics, the first being Barcelona in 1992, where he gained an Olympic Bronze medal in the Men's Lechner Sailboard Class - Australia's only Olympic windsurfing medal to date. He also competed in Sydney in 2000, where he placed fourth in Men's Mistral, and Athens 2004 (Mistral 8th place) In 1999 he won the Men's Mistral World Championships held in Noumea. He continues to work in the windsurfing industry in Sydney.

Keith Single
Keith Single has volunteered huge amounts of time to promote the sport of windsurfing in NSW, and has acted as an advocate and a guiding light. His long association with our sport has been as a competitor, as class captain for his home club, and for almost 40 years, as a volunteer on the committee of Windsurfing NSW, including as President, and most recently as Treasurer, a position he has held for over 15 years. Keith continues to compete in Raceboard events, and is currently the Australian Raceboard Champion in the Veteran age group.

Glen Morrell
Glen has been an innovator and a driving force in windsurfing in NSW for more than a decade. He has initiated or revitalised events across many disciplines. Initially competing in and helping run Formula and Slalom events, he then was deeply involved in reviving and organising the Oceanic and Australian Raceboard Championships in 2009, and the highly successful resurrection of the NSW Raceboard series which he drove from 2011 to 2017. In 2011 also Glen entered a local team in the GPS Team Challenge, and has organised trips by the Illawarra Speedsters to Speed Weeks in Victoria and South Australia. In 2016-17 Glen became interested in foiling windsurfers. He has established the first NSW Windfoiling club on the shores of Lake Illawarra, and has been involved in organising the fledgling NSW WindFoiling Series, as well as Foiling National events. As WindFoiling and indeed windsurfing continues to develop in NSW, we expect to find Glen Morrell right in the middle of it.

Nick Nelson
Nick has been involved in Windsurfing activities in NSW for 30 years, selflessly giving of his time to allow others to enjoy the sport. As well as mentoring, tutoring and organising, Nick most recognisably has been the go-to Principal Race Officer for Formula, Slalom, Windsurfer One Design, Mistral, RS:X and Raceboard for decades. Nick has often said that he loves racing his various Windsurfers, but that it gives him a greater thrill to facilitate and be involved in making Windsurfing racing happen. We thank him for this.

Congratulations to all the Life Members on a well deserved achievement. Well done to all.

I've had the pleasure to compete against all 5 of these worthy WNSW Life Members. All are excellent sailors in their own right.

I have also had the pleasure to work behind the scenes with Keith and Glen in recent years and to witness first hand how much time and effort they put in to ensure the WNSW annual events are run smoothly and without incidents, something many of the competitors never get to see.

I have also competed at many events with Nick as the race officer, all of which have been run in a professional and safe manner.

Jessica and Lars have both excelled in the wonderful sport of windsurfing and have been instrumental in the promotion of the sport.

Congratulations to you all and thank you for all your hard work over many many years.

Congratulations and well deserved all of you. Couple of Illawarra sailors there that I feel particularly privileged to have sailed alongside!