Burger King....

The other day I heard a news item about Burger King on the radio. It seems that in England Burger King introduced a new 'snack' called the 'Angus 6 pack'. A burger worth almost 1000 calories. Health organizations are not happy about this. Burger King rejects health concerns and claims to be promoting social eating. You can eat the burger with six. Just wondering, if you go for the meal you only get one drink, does it come with six straws?!?!?


That same day I was walking in the city past Burger King and noticed they are also doing things right. I was delighted to see the pictures on the wall inside the Burger king. When I am in England and had a nice session at Gwithian, I will go for that 'Angus 6 pack'. Just to say thanks for promoting our favorite activity ;-)

Very cold second session....

I went for a short session yesterday afternoon. Again, some easy sailing on flat water. This time Bart-Jan joined me. And it is always more fun, when you're not alone. Although the temperature should have been quite a bit higher than the last time, to me it felt a lot colder. I wasn't completely fit, so that might have been the reason (and I think I paid the price, had a fever last night and a very bad headache today, hope things get better tomorrow).

Off course I took the GoPro HD again. This time I tested the full HD setting. It is a narrower angle with this setting, so when mounting it on the boom I prefer the lower setting, because of the wider angle.


For shooting clips of someone else while sailing behind them works better with the full HD settings. The narrower angle comes in handy, it's zoomed in more.


I mounted the camera on my head afterwards, but somehow I got the wrong setting and it only took 3 pictures right at the start. A shame, because despite the cold Bart-Jan went for it!! Above you can see one of his many jumps. A pitty I didn't get the forward attempts....

Is the spring really on its way?

Finally the snow melted! For the first time you could notice it was above 0 degrees.
Ahhh finally some rain instead of ice and snow. (it was 3 degrees..)

Fredrik brought in some bathpowders from Japan. They should have a heeling/relaxing result.
Anyway... the water colored at least extremely tropical ;-)

Some heavy food to battle the elements. Sauerkraut + mashed potatoes with bacon and sirop.

Hope it comes true....

This is a forecast map of next Friday. Let's just hope it will come true. Especially in combination with the temperature forecast of 8°C, which seems tropical in comparison with the temperatures of the last two and a half months. I know I'm ready for it..... ;-)

Vandalism? ;-)

No! It's a slow-moving street art project .

This is how I feel too.....

I found this picture on the Hot Sails forum posted by tooold2dance. Besides it being hilarious, by now I totally agree. I am fed up with snow and ice. It's nice for a few weeks, but this winter has lasted for more than 2 months already. Come on winter, it's time to move on. Head to Vancouver, they could use it over there for the Olympics....

Drifting ice at my home spot

At the moment it is not possible to enter my home break. There is simply to much ice in the water. The wind even push it against/over the dyke...
True artic sceneries.

You can imagine the water temperature when the ice is just gone....
That will be a brainfreeze for sure when you go for a classic head dip.

In 1997 it was even worse..

The beauty of fishing

This guy is having a good catch. Looking at this picture I would prefer to be in the water...

Jaws.. yup sometimes it can also go wrong

I was towing-in all morning, catching lots of nice, big rides on the right. Then the wind picked up and we went sailing. It was really offshore and pretty light, so it was hard to get on the waves. On this one, I finally got a gust to get on the wave. I didn’t think twice and I went for it. I could see the west bowl bending toward me. I thought I was going to be able to get around it but when I went down the face of the wave the wind stopped and the wave just said NO! So I ditched my gear and had a pretty crazy pounding. All good though, and I was ready for more. That place gets addicting and you always want a bigger and better one. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so poundings are good sometimes. When you overcome your biggest fear at Jaws and you know what it feels like to be in a good-size waterfall — then you learn from your mistakes and you’re ready to charge bigger stuff! — Francisco Porcella

The Facts:

Sailor: Francisco Porcella
Place: Jaws, Maui
Wind: 12 Knots
Sail: 4.7
Board: 80-Liter Single-Fin
Photographer: Franck Berthuot

Full clip "ice cold"....

A perfect day for testing the GoPro HD in different mounting positions. I kinda like all of them for different reasons. Have a look for yourself...

Testing slowmotion.....

I used the 60fps setting so I could test the slowmotion options. Although the setting records 720p instead of 1080p, I do like it a lot.

Carbon Eames chair part 4

I roughly sawed the outline of the shell. A tough job.. solid carbon is as steel. For the finetuning of the outline I will use sandpaper.

Carbon Eames chair part 3

So, this morning I seperated the carbon shell from the original. Always more work than you expect, because the shell is stiff, tape sticky and the carbon edges are razorblade sharp. Yup I got some nice splinters in my fingers.

First thing i noticed was the weight.. wow what a difference! Light and stiff.
Weight of the original shell: 2,160 kg. The carbon one: 1,160!
The carbon shell is also at least 2 times thinner than the original one.

Now its time the cut off the excess edges, so that the carbon shell gets the same clean outline as the original one.

After that it's sanding time.

Carbon Eames chair part 2

Some post ago I wrote about a Carbon Eames/Miller shell chair. Nice but pricy.

So why not make one myself? A basic black chair is always handy when some guests come over.
Still had loads of carbonfiber and epoxy left. The materials should be used, otherwise they get old.. ;-)

I go for the basic easy way. I use an original shell as form. I wrapped it in plastic tape, so that the epoxi wouldn't stick/glue to the original.

A hightech lightweight design icon in the making..
If everything goes correct I can tomorrow peel of the carbon shell from the original.

White again

The day Winfried went surfing/testing the Gopro camera, I could hardly come to my boards..
We got some snow in the North. Traffic was chaos. Over 700 km traffic jam!!. Yup, it sound insane and hard to believe.. (Holland is only 250 km long and 150 wide...)
So the coast was out of reach. And the lakes?? well, risky.. loads of ice.

Loosening the muscles...

Cold, rainy and windy. The first two I hate, the last made me smile. It was about 4 degrees celcius, with even lower water temperatures, but enough wind to rig my 4,7. Alone on the water getting some excersize for the muscles. I had a lot of fun after about two months of no sailing. Testing my GoPro in several positions. Here are some stills of the footage. The movieclip will come on a bit later.

Hello!

The camera position that shows most speed... But also the most self-confronting, maybe I need to loose a few pounds ;-)

Some interesting angles....

Like I said, some interesting angles ;-)

Accidental find...

Hey David, never seen this one before. Found it by 'accident', hehehe..... Nice one!!!

Amazing resin tints

A resin wave!! How cool is this