Still winter.......

Hossegor, yesterday morning......

Started shaping..

Started shaping the dog ;-)
On her search/hunt for rabbits and deers she got sometimes stuck in the thornbushes due to her long hair. So it was scissor time.

noodle's in the evening.

Jealous.....

While we are still waiting for spring to arrive, on Maui they had some nice days already. Reason to be jealous!! Here are some shots of the other day. The photos are from mauiwatershoot.com and you can clearly see that pictures shot from the water are usually a lot more spectacular.

This one is Giampaolo. I kinda like the clean looks of his Superfreak.
This one is Glenn, fully committed and probably aiming at the perfect spot for the aerial take off.
Look around the mauiwatershoot.com site for some more nice shots.

Gaastra factory China

I got a smile when I saw this picture of the Gaastra factory in China. As with many products from there they looked very good to the original ;-)

I live close to the "original" building. The water entrance gate in the town called Sneek.
Gaastra took the outline of the gate for their logo.
In this small town Gaastra sails started making their sails. Boat sails, and later the windsurf sails.
As kid I visited their small factory many times, and it was nice to see how they worked on the sails of Robby Naish, Pete Cabrinha and many others. My dad bought overthere one of the first cambered race sails. It was originally made for Jill Boyer. With her sail number I raced over the local lakes :-) (Guess it was US-30 ?)

Early birds

This morning right in front of my house these birds took over the boat.

Balsa wood

The balsa wood came in today. So it's time to sharpen our tools...

Leon road trippin

Leon got some nice conditions on the other side of the world. Sailing the "lightning"Bolt to the max!

Risky game.. kitesurfing during a lightning storm. Before you know it hits you ;-)

Signs of the spring

Finally sun and blue skies. Allthough the temperature is just above zero, I spotted some signs of the comming season. Some flowers did their best to come out of the ground. You also clearly notice now that the days are getting longer.

Then my eye cought a strange bird. A golden pigeon. It landed on the museum.
Hmmm, another good reason to climb on the roof of that building ;-)


The food is still in the wintermode.
A hotchpotch of potatoes , raw endive, bacon and sausage.
To be honest, I also could eat this in the summer, a great taste!

Black and white beauty

Februari storm

A big storm came over Europe. Unfortunately it brought also death and damage. Especially France and Spain got hit hard.
I had everything ready for a surfing session, during the whole day I was sitting in the eye of the low. So nothing was moving at all. In the evening, when it was getting dark the wind came..

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..... ;-)