Picking up on some speedsurfing again

December 2011 and January 2012 have been quite warm (relatively) and windy so far. Last year during the winter we had some cold spells with snow and ice. January 2012 has showed some great speedsailing across Europe (West Kirby, UK and Vollerwiek, Germany) with some big GPS-speeds. It's triggered me to get back on the speedboard again. January 3rd 2012 I gave my new Starboard Speed 2012 49 cm it's shakedown at Strand Horst. During winter Strand Horst is a safer place for speed than offshore speeding at sea back home on Texel,  because the water is not deep at Strand Horst and there are more people around on the water. This session I worked on trim and fin setting and used the 2009 Sailworks Hucker 4,8 for the first time on a speedboard just to see how that works. Well, just fine! Not only does the Hucker offer big airtime in the waves , but it's a great stable platform for going fast on flatwater. On Texel in the meantime I've trimmed out the combo Starboard Speed 49 and NX Sailworks 5,4 and I'm waiting for the next big day in Europe....The pictures are taken by Jeffrey Leeflang on January 3rd on Strand Horst.

      

Blogging again (with some delay)...De Hors, October 2011

Beautiful scenery on The Razende Bol:

This year again in October 2011 a group of mainland windsurfing friends visited our beautiful island for their yearly "Texel Road Trip". It's becoming a great tradition and also this year the three days were filled with wind, sun, great laughs and overall just a great time. Texel offered three days with steady winds, at times big surf, big swells, off-shore flat water blasting and jump and bump conditions. This year I guided the group on a windsurfing safari over the Northsea from Texel to "De Razende Bol": a large sandplate in the Northsea about 5 km's from Paal 9. We formed couples of two windsurfers for safety and to look out after each other: in big swell it is easy to lose sight of each other and of land all together. Once on De Razende Bol is was magic: pure, sunny, seals watching and a stunning scenery! I think all the guys were somewhat in awe to set foot on this beautiful piece of land in the middle of nowhere after a sometimes demanding crossing over the Northsea. After the stop, we crossed back to Texel and spent the afternoon on the southern tip of Texel (De Hors) with nice side-off winds. The last guys standing were picked up in a Land Rover and brought back to Paal 9. Too bad Taucha and Niels were injured and Niels even broke his ankel.....Hope to see you all next year in good health!

Posing on De Razende Bol:

Back to Texel: De Hors

First Youtube film of the Texel Roadtrip 2011:   

The guys picked up from De Hors in the back of the Laro....back to Paal 9....

The second Youtube film: 

 

        

Long distance fun!

May 14th we had sun and a very steady nice breeze, albeit straight onshore. I took my good old 100 liter freerace board and my new Sailworks NX 6,2 and took off for some long distance fun along the western Texel coast. Actually quite good training for the upcoming Defi Wind 2011 in Gruissan, France. I made my reaches about 15 km on each tack, which will be the distance we'll race in Gruissan too. I had up to 2,5 meters of swell and windchop crossing the swell making it a very bumpy ride as I was going flat out fully powered up. Open ocean racing is I think one of the best things in windsurfing. In the picture you can hardly spot me, but the picture (taken by Caren) shows the beauty of the coastline of Texel under classic Dutch skies.

    

The quest for a speedstrip

For speed De Hors can be good with NW, but in this blog I've mentioned our quest for a good speedstrip for SW/W winds. We sometimes surf this spot near De Cocksdorp in the north and it's fun because you can make very long reaches and just have flatwater fun on freeride stuff. The scenery is unspoilt and vast. I love it. You can park your car right at the waterfront and jump on your board, so no long muddy walks etc. The windfetch is great and the winds are very laminar.  But the current here is quite strong and usually it spoils the true magic carpet you need for hard core speed. But we've noticed that there is a very, very small window between tides when it can get very, very, very smooth. So hopefully one great day it will all come together here!     

Arjen and Marco having fun at The Hors

In the last post I wrote about a great session at The Hors. Arjen, Marco and Bart (who made all the pics) were on a mini roadtrip (and slept in 1 Van!) and visited Texel. They left after thi ssession to France to catch the swell there as the wind would ease off at Texel. I think they had a blast: Arjen's in the air and Marco's coming up from behind. I'll post some more pics later of them.

  

Spray time

I windsurf my bottom off here on Texel, but it is rarely caught on camera. So when it does, I'm always stoked. These pictures are from the beginning of April at The Hors taken by Bart Veelenturf. Arjen, Marco and I had a great session. We were joined later by Dorian and Adriaan van Rijsselberghe and the two friends came over from Den Helder too. I'll post some great pics of the others later. I'm first going self-centered here. My theme of the day was Spray Time and making most of the mini waves we had. The wind was classic De Hors side-offshore, consistent and strong.  Here goes: nrs 1 and 2,

I was on my Sailworks Hucker 5,6 2011 for the first time. I just know we're going to be best friends for a long time to come. It's fast, stable, neutral, powerfull and just sweet. It'll come with me to Defi Wind 2011 too.

OK, nrs 3 and 4: the frames with the lighthouse of Den Helder in the background are just great, aren't they?

OK, just some more.

I like this one too.

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.....