The 26th Highland Spring HIHO
Premier International Windsurfing Event
Dates: June 26, 2010 to July 4, 2010
Place: British Virgin Islands / Event HQ is Tortola
TORTOLA, BVI – One of the world’s premier water sports events is the 26-year old Highland Spring HIHO, a eight-day windsurfing adventure and stage race that visits multiple islands in the Caribbean’s British Virgin Islands and circles the entire island chain. The 2010 event, set for June 26-July 4, starts and finishes at the Moorings resort on Tortola. The 2010 event will feature a hot new hot trend: stand up paddle racing.
“Stand Up Battle (SUP) is the hottest trend on the water,” said Andy Morrell, who won the HIHO in 1986 and started running it through his company Ocean Promotions in 1993. “Starting with this year’s event, we want to start adding other water sports categories that we think is in demand or up-and-coming.”
Inter-Island racing is one of the features that attracts windsurfers from all over the world (last year’s field included entrants from 14 countries), and SUP entrants will enjoy the same basic experience as the windsurfers get: “The response already has been fantastic,” said Morrell. “This is one of the most unique events in windsurfing for a lot reasons, not the least of which is its growingly international field of entrants, and the fact that we visit islands the public has limited or no access to.”
Starting at the Moorings resort property on Tortola, the HIHO sprints up to the top of the BVIs, and spend the last few days coming back downwind. ). A fleet of Moorings skippered catamarans serves as mobile homes for the racers and all entrants, kit stores, taxis, lifeboats and race monitors Along the way it covers and stops at Anegada, Virgin Gorda, Eustatia Island, Bellamy Kay, Peter Island, Cooper Island, Sandy Cay (National Park), Norman Island, Jost Van Dyke and Little Thatch, and features world class sailing and boarding, parties at every stop including a special lunch on Sir Richard Branson’s Private Island in most years (like Branson himself, this event is somewhat spontaneous.
There is a detailed itinerary for the event which can be found on the event’s website, but with all true outdoor adventure events, it is more of a guide and is subject to change for logistical reasons such as weather conditions.
For entry information, go to the event’s website
(http://www.go-hiho.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=hiho.sup) or call 284-494-0337
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