My name is Val Smith and I'm the crew for Team East-West. I grew in Chicago and have been sailing with my family since I was old enough to walk. I started sailing competatively when I went to high school and joined the sailing team at New Trier. We sailed Club 420s and some lasers. While sailing there I qualified my team for 4 national championships. During the summer I sailed with the team at Chicago Yacht Club. We never got to sail internationally but we did travel throughout the mid-west and east coast to compete in many large club 420 and laser regattas.
I knew that I wanted to continue sailing competatively so I attended St. Mary's College of Maryland, which has one of the best college sailing teams in the country. At St. Mary's Alex and I sailed together on the same team-racing team. Team racing is a 3 vs 3 style of racing which requires all 3 members of a team to work together to have a better combined score than the other team. We had sucess sailing together, then when we won the Yale Team Race and tied for 3rd at the Friis trophy, where we were competing against the best college team racers in the country.
One of our favorite activities at college was windsurfing. Alex and I are both avid windsurfers. Windsurfing and 49er sailing have a lot in common. Both are very fast, and require a lot of balance and practice to do effectively. Also the sails themselves are set up very similar, so if you know how to make a windsurfer go fast, you can make a 49er go fast. This windsurfing connection is why Alex and I decided to sail together in the first place.
