Re-use of old closets

I had to demolish a lot of old interior wood... So lets turn it into something functional..
(still got wood for months of bbq's)

Till now a amazing summer.. It's that I have to work on my house, but its windy almost every day! Sure I make my sailing days ;-) .. allready arranged a longer renovate time hahhaha

Heiny is still king!
chicken oriental + crispy bacon

A first post from Portugal....

Arriving in Viana last Monday we immediately got ourselves a nice treat of steady winds. We put up the tent quickly and got out on the water. Although the wind dropped quickly and the waves were tiny, it felt good to be back in Portugal.

Sadly the forcast wasn't that good for the rest of the week, so tuesday no wind. Wednesday torrential rain, but the bonus of a steady 20-25 knots from the left. So i grabbed my 5,3 freak and my classic 88 and jumped into side-onshore conditions with shoulder high waves. A perfect day, except for the rain.

Yesterday the sun came back, no wind but nice waves. So we went for a surfing session.


After a good session of surfing there is a golden reward. (or is it green???)

The restaurants in Portugal are phenominal, but there is one tool that can challenge any restaurant. The Cramer grill!! We put some huge t-bone steaks on it and had a superb dinner.
Today it seems like the classic winds will come back. Maybe this afternoon, but surely tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to put some nice pictures on the blog the next few days.

Off course we are enjoying ourselves, but some classic Viana go-ers like David, Linda and Ronja, Pierre-Yves, Paul and Cornelia couldn't make it this year. We miss you guys........ We will try to rip some for you!

Pure craftmanship.. just a nice picture

Let the picture do the talking....

Joost and Paul spotted...

As I went to a flat lake...Joost and Paul went to the coast..
(found these pics on the web)
Come on guys! give me a call or mail ;-) You can give me that alibi to drive a little further/longer..

New house or surfing...

Surfing...because the house won't run away.

Allthough I just received the keys of my new house...(and there's a lot of work....) You can't say no to a weekend with wind. So we packed the bus, and went for a weekend to Stavoren. It's old/small town at the Ijsselmeer (a big lake,1 hour drive) . The Sea/coast was also a nice option.. but hey, that drive is longer, and in summertime it's crowded.


Thought this was a nice sleeping place. But when I shut off the engine... The sound of the windmill made me crazy.. So I drove the bus to a calmer place.
During the night there was a really clear sky with zillions of stars.

The wind was ok. 5.3 winds. Took Sean's 85 waveguppy for a blast on choppy flatwater.
Ofcourse sailing on a Sea in waves is better... but what the hell..
Wind is wind. fun is fun... and that's what counts!

Had some speed..
made some air..
The dog became wet...
easy jibing..
So all in all I enjoyed another weekend sailing in Holland ;-)

Below a pic of my new garden. It's full with flowers, herbs and fruit trees. I allready love the place. In the back of the garden there is a small wooden "holiday" house...
perfect for the surfgear and shaping/building of boards ;-)

Classic Viana do Castelo winds..

Normally I would be in Portugal right now...But I'm working on my new house right now.
Some friends went.. And the nice thing is...I can follow the weather/waves perfectly on a webcam.
www.vianalocals.com
Classic termical winds are comming in...

The forecasts here in Holland are also great. comming days 6/7 bft..
So I think I'm gonna loose up my muscles on the water.. The new house won't run away ;-)

Erik and Winfried.. enjoy your holidays!

carbon fiber on Ebay

As the balsawood is "sold out"... I had to score some other materials. I used to buy a lot of things on Ebay (for my classic cars etc..) , so maybe there's something on the "bay" I could use for the boards we're gonna make..
Hmmm... very interesting.. on the german Ebay I found some nice pieces of the black"gold"..
I followed some auctions.. and at the last seconds I made a nice strike! No more normal glass for me anymore ;-)...

Some action from Amstelmeer

Last week the wind switch was on again. I went to Amstelmeer in North Holland for a few days. The wind was really good for 4,7 and 4,0 and my 90L freestyle board. I tried a lot of new moves cause I don't want to get behind with the freestyle moves. Moves like burner, Toad and Kono were my number one priority and I'm getting close to landing some of them. My toads were going pretty smooth some times. Here some Pictures. Also with my new Dakine Primo, going for the more flex harness and it feels really good. Thanks to Niek (www.teamthebunch.com) for the pictures.

Satisfied....

Yesterday my doctor gave me a green light for physical effort. So when I realized it was windy today nobody could keep me away from the water. The first time on the water after being hospitalized almost six weeks ago. I chose for a safe and easy spot and sailed for about 3 hours. In the end I was really satisfied, I needed this......

I have to give a big compliment to Sean for the SOS Classic 88. It's not only an awesome waveboard, it turns out to be extremely fast as well. I didn't have a gps, so I don't know my topspeed, but I could easily keep up with most of the guys on slalom gear (and jibing on the SOS is a lot easier ;-) ). About two months ago I tested the Classic 88 with a gps in very choppy conditions and reach a top speed of 55,2 km/hr. I am certain I went faster today, because some places were almost completely flat. Maybe in Portugal, on flat days, I should grab a gps again and test it full speed. See if I can crack 60 km/hr on my Classic 88 and a Superfreak.

In the end I spotted two other freaks on the water. I don't know who they are, but (as with all freaks) they were easy to spot.

Corvette, JSF, Space Shuttle.......

Corvette, Boeing X-32 Joint Strike Fighter, Space Shuttle, Amtrak NEC High Speed Train, Wind Turbines .... What do all of these have in common??

They all use balsa, and lots of it!!!

Boeing bought a lot of it during the last months for use in their X-32 Joint Strike Fighter. The result is that, here in western Europe, the stock of balsa has dropped considerably. The specific balsa products we need for our next projects are completely sold out in Holland and will only be in stock in a couple of weeks. It is available in Germany, but for almost double the price. So, there is no other option but to wait till after my trip to Portugal to continue our projects......

Smoking fishes....

Nice fishes to play in the water with...


But you also have to feed the belly ;-)





It's full summer now. Long days and warm weather...
Normally I would pack the bus and drive to the south of Europe, not this time cause there is something comming... my first own home ;-)