De Hors again! October 24st 2010

Today René and I set out to De Hors again. Predictions were for sunshine and good constant northwesterly winds between 20 and 30 knots. And that's what we got. This time we even got the tide right. When we arrived at The Hors most of it was still under water. The small waves were already waiting for us and some seals too! The waves are not often big at The Hors: they just peel around the edge of Texel from the Northsea into the Marsdiep (the stretch of water that separates Texel from the mainland). But the waves are often long and clean and with side-off winds they are so much fun. Today Caren volunteered to make pictures after I begged her. Because the water was still high, she couldn't make it all the way to the waterfront where we were playing, but the pictures from far actually give a great impression of how special De Hors really is, and how lucky I am to have this spot in my backyard.

Thursday 21st October 2010 De Hors

Today Edwin, Bob and I set out to The Hors yet again this week. René followed us later. We had a lot of wind and sunshine. The wind was west making it not the usual perfect side-off we love so much at The Hors. Above all the tide current was working against us this time, making our trip an exercise in constant upwind sailing. But still great fun.

Edwin's kit resting

Bob and blogauthor pose

Saturday October 15th 2010 Paal 28

This saturday we had a bunch of guys and Julia over from the mainland. Predictions were for good winds and good swell. In the north of Texel at Paal 28 the wind was side/sideoffshore, sometimes a bit light on the inside, but still good for sails between 4,7 and 5,3. The sun was out, it was a bit cold, but the action was on! Great to see our homebreaks on Texel enjoyed by others too!

Bas Molenkamp was stylish (pic by Julia Meijer)

Martin ten Hoeve was radical (pic by Julia Meijer)

Torben Tijms' timing is spot on  (pics by blogauthor)

Two riders who were rippin's as well (still unknown to blogauthor,....I'm sorry...)

Hard Work June 17th 2010

I wanted to visit the IFCA Slalom Grand Prix by water, so I set out at Paal 9 for the journey upwind. The wind was north/northeast. The IFCA Grand Prix is held at Paal 17, so the maths should say: 8 kilometers upwind. But Texel being Texel, Paal 9 is actually not Paal 9 but Paal 8, so it's 9 kilometers. And the current was head on. I made my upwind legs fairly a long way into the open sea, so for safety I had put on my lifevest and took a flare, some rope and a drink with me (and told the guys at Paal 9 to start the SAR if I did'nt get back by 18.00 hours). I was on my 2009 Falcon 140 with MFC RC 48 cm and choose to rig relatively small with Blade 7,5. It was great sailing that far on the open sea with a good steady breeze of 20-23 knots, blue skies and sunshine. Much to my surprise I was caught on camera coming ashore at Paal 17. You can see it was hard work. Once landed on the beach, I caught up with some competitors, made some smalltalk, drank their water and then raced downwind back to Paal 9. That went a lot quicker.....Tomorrow I'm going to the Kiss Sonic Boom concert in Gelredome and hope to be back on Texel early Saturday to hit the water again.

IFCA Texel Slalom Grand Prix June 15th 2010

Today the IFCA Grand Prix kicked off at Paal 17, De Koog Texel. Actually I was a bit puzzled. At Paal 9 in Den Hoorn in the morning we had a solid 17- 22 knots breeze from the north, making it sideshore. In the afternoon when we hit the water again at Paal 9, the wind had even increased some. When René and I visited the Grand Prix in between our own sessions, the conditions at Paal 17 were at best marginal, with sideonshore wind with big lulls in the surf and about 14 knots on the outside. Too bad. A couple of PWA contenders made the trip from the PWA slalom in Catalunya to Texel in a great overnight hurry to get registered just in time. Hope all of the contenders get some good wind. Today there was some racing going on with the bigger gear, but there was no real speaker or actual information given to the spectators on heats etc., so it was a bit hard to follow the action on the beach. Room for improvement there.

Jordy Vonk heading out

      
















Event site



























Some slalom action

Voltmeter back on Dutch waters

Like to see other brands than the usual suspects, Jules Denel on XO-sails

Youth surfcamp June 12th 2010

As part of a Texel schoolprogram to promote more outdoor sporting activities, the younger kids (9 - 11 years) could sign in for a mini surfcamp. The waves on this day were not Hawaiian league, but there still was a lot of fun on the water. Our daughter Hanna later complained about sore muscles, muscles she didn't knew she had. Class of 2010 with some serious instruction by Tim of Ozlines: 

       












Hanna under attack by white water 

Two great days

June 2nd and 3rd brought blue skies, sunshine, fair temperatures and a very steady breeze. The forecasts were in the 10 knots range, but quite often at Paal 9 Texel when the sun heats up the inland large dunes and sandplates, a local venturi effect occurs between the warm land and still cold seawater, especially with north / northeastern winds. So we had steady winds in the 15 - 18 knots range, no waves, but still great fun on slalom gear. The pics are taken by Caren standing on the wave-breaker at Paal 9, which a low tide falls dry, so you can walk into the sea, like this: 

Standing on the pier facing land (now they're all green and alive, in winter it's bare rocks and asphalt):

 And now facing towards the sea: inviting!

Some sailing was done too: windsurfer, sailboat and kiter all in one frame (you have to click on the photo to get a good look):  

Blogauthor alone at sea

I like the way my Loft Blade twists..... 

Mini roadtrip to Texel

A group of  "mainland" windsurfers were planning a short trip and the forecasts led them not to Wissant (France), but to Texel.....So Pablo, Aad, Bart, Dennis (came in by ferry) and Nelis (came in on a windsurfer with camelpack from the mainland) got two fairly good days in. Sunday the wind was very constant, but nearly onshore, making it quite choppy with messy waves. At the end of my session on Sunday I managed to take some pics of Dennis. René of Strandpaviljoen Paal 9 offered them the Royal Seaside Suite at the beachfront for the night. Monday started with rain, but soon the sun was back and the wind had turned sideshore to the north, with good seize waves, but with the wind being a bit light on the inside it was challenging to get through the surf. One mast ceased to be. I had a blast with my SUP having heaps of fun just slogging out and catching some good waves coming in. Pablo certainly is top-contender for a cool set of wheels (and it fits 5 complete windsurfing sets).

Pablo's ride:

 

Dennis' ride:  

Looking back on good things and things to come.....

We're having quite of a winter here in Holland. This time in 2008 we were up and running at the great Drivenbywind Speedevent in Southend, UK, organized and hosted by the speeding legend Dave White. It actually seems (too) long ago.....The follow-up of my speedseason of 2008 was flucked by injury and in 2009 I just didn't get enough time spent speeding. So in 2010 I'll try to revive myself. During Drivenbywind (my first ever competition)  I entered the 40+ knots club and as a rookie came in 4th at the January 31st 2008 Drivenbywind.com speedevent just after such big guns as Martin van Meurs, Dave White and Dirk Doppenberg. So great things to look back upon in the speeding department and hopefully also great things ahead. Together with mates Mike and René we've been searching for some new speedspots on Texel and just maybe, just maybe, we've hit gold. First of all I'll post some nostalgia (blogauthor and Dave White on the banks of The Ray, January Southend 2008.). And then I'll post the picture of our possible pot of gold here on Texel. It's in the top right-hand corner, somewhat northeast of Texel. The speedstrip is offshore and lies almost in the same direction as the famed "The Brace", also in Holland. The windfetch is I think even better, the mudbank is somewhat higher with a bigger drop, and you can actually get their windsurfing. We've been out there on freeride gear at the end of 2009, but I think we need lower tides to get really smooth water just of the bank. So you're all invited in this quest!

Somewhere out there there's a great speedstrip.....