Surfboots...

Found the trash above early in the morning on one of my favorite beaches. Ofcourse I cleaned it... They guys who left it were very lucky that they were allready gone.... Cause I was in the mood to give away some "breiz punishment"
Ok, I like the pure naked fresh feeling of bare feet surfing..... but for safety I wear surfboots.
It happened me just to oft that my day got screwed by a cut/hole or so in my foot. To many dangers around the water and under it..

Found in hawaii a pair of surfshoes that gives me the barefeet feeling. O'neill superfreak 2 mm tropical boot. Thin for a nice feeling, flexible-but cut proof sole... no insulation so you feel the freshness of the cold water

Nice thick heavy rocks on the beach. (during hi-tide they are under water...)

suprise between the sand dunes.... auch!

A not so easy walk beach.. full of sharp things


razor blade sharp shells.

and than we still have the sharp reefs, fishes with stings, rocks rocks and rocks under water...

Fleur de Winfried

Winfried went to the Hospital. Get well soon buddy!
For this occasion in France they called a flower after him ;-)

Most times you win, but sometimes you lose....

A very nice and windy day. waves up to 4 meter. I went out with my SOS85 and a 5.3. Great day. Big sets started to come in when the low tide came. Yup...typical best of the year day ;-)
Wind dropped, but waves became cleaner and o so nice... Went for my 100lter board and 6.0 Firepower. AAAmazinggg... countless turns of so clean fast thick waves. Getting out became harder because with so less it was trick to become over the incomming rolling foam (3m) --hard to pop on that without any wind... But hey, due to my combi I still could sail those amazing conditions. Normally I would be sitting aside. Wind still dropped a little, it went to 2bft.absolute non planing conditions. Sounds less, yup it's less but I still managed to get out.. cause those conditions are worth it. It became a timing thing... Will i be in time outside before a big set hits??
Sort kind of game started ;-) When i came out a could score that wave of my life.. And I rode some really nice ones.
Also the game of struggling against incomming waves was not that bad at all. Men separate from the boys thing hahah
But the force of the nature is strong, we all no that..

Just a thin string of kevlar rope saved Me and most of my gear!..

Ok, I played with 'Fire'.. I knew. There came a big set in. It started with big rolling foam lines. Hard to pop up/came through.. but i managed it. Then another line, then again.. 3meter of foam.. popped up it.. it pulled me also back..you know the feeling. Half in waterstart position I looked into the horizon.. damm there was someting to come. I got up end went out further. very slow.. looked like slowmotion.. white water all aroud you.. a rising wall comming.. and hardly any wind. Would I make it or not. Nooo The wave was allready there.. no time to pull the mast into the wave, or dive. Just hold on and try to make it. It went wrong..
A 3.5m wave hit me full into the sail.. like a bomb. I hold the boom as long as i could but hey, even the Hulk couldn't hold this power.
I went for myself..keep away of my gear and try to come up safely.
On the surface I knew everything would be destroyed.-mast/boom/sail/board?? And started to think how to come to shore/beside the cliffs. I saw my board, rest of the gear under water... classic --this would be a hell of a ride to get to the shore... Let me wash by 50 sets-so everything get messed up?
Went under water with my hands... hey... mast still in one piece? (used the hotsails hotrod 430)...went for the boom.. still tight in position. My sail was in half by the impact of the wave,dammm. So I expected my boom would fell down, cause there was no frame anymore.
Hey!! it steayed in position. Due to the kevlar line in the leach of the sail, the frame of the sail is still intact. Helll YEAHHH.. I could come to the shore. Talking about functional design! every other sail would fail in this situation...

Result. Sure it's not nice to lose a sail. but you know how it came. It's the price you sometime pay.
On the shore I noticed that the wind picked up again. rigged my 5.5, and went out again. Board,mast,boom everything was still intact. Sailed till my arms felt off. Superp day!



Here a clear shot of the kevlar line the kept the sail as one frame. Like a skeleton. Not just a marketing bla bla feature, but really functional in real wavesails.

I called to Holland, and ordered the same sail direct again. 2 days later it was allready there. Thanks Joost(www.zuidwest6.nl) and Winfried, I could bring it in the water direct ;-)

Despite the damage, the day was ofcourse still great. Superb sailing. Went for some nice seafood in the evening -maybe i felt one with the sea that day ;-) -

Tide

La Palue lo tide

Above pic made during lo-tide(Lostmarc'h) . Right on the rocks you can see the high tide mark... 4.5 meter difference!. So surfing overhere is also about timing...
Yup... very tricky cliffs... there's no easy way out(windsurfing) during hi-tide. Water is pounding against the rocks/cliffs. You stay away for sure ;-)
On the other hand, If you go surfing.. the current takes you out to the open sea at a speed thats even illegal on the German autobahn. Sounds great huh.....

well... It can happen that the waves are too big. And those waves are the only way to come in again.... you choose

below, LaPalue hi-tide
Below a overview pic of LaPalue. Surfing there between the high cliffs makes you feel small and fragile ;-)
Heard many horror stories about the rocks around Hookipa.... Think they should check it out overhere. No place for errors at all!

Girls afternoon

Although the wind dropped considerely in the afternoon, the girls really wanted some sailingtime too! So we went from LaPalue to a smoother beach and took a few pictures.

Nice safety colors ;) There is no anonymous sailing with this sail......

Just a fine day at LaPalue

Nice winds, so we went windsurfing at La Palue. Here a view from the beach/cliff on the right, Lostmarc'h.
From the 16 days we were in Brittany, we had 8 great windsurf days and the rest were more than perfect for surfing. Some days we even went for both. As result of that we needed loads of food and sleep ;-)
I went for the a Hot Firepower, and my purple SOS bamboo guppy 85


Winfried went for the SOS rocket 99 and a Superfreak. The colors of his sail really came alive in the sun.


After a superb session we went for some great food. Lamb stuffed with apricots/garlic from the oven.

Ronja, a Breiz dog...

The guard.....from the house, boards, car, towels, and above all... the food. If you come to close he will pull up his lips and jump on you.
This nose does the job. Ronja's favo thing is hunting the rabbits.

click on the picture above... nice surfing action in the background in the bay below our house



Just back from hunting some crabs. She walks along the shoreline with her nose down... at some points she starts to dig in the sand and bingo! a nice fresh crab


Could be pics from a island somewhere in the tropics

Breiz diamonds and pearls..

The local diamonds we found ....

We had countless days of superb pearls. Pearls for everybody without any crowds.




These pics were made with a small camera without a zoom. It's worth to zoom in with the help of your computer. So click on the picture above and check out that tuberide!!





After the sessions some local food. Here the typical crepes. For energy the chocolate/banana, with ice ;-)

Here's the source of the diamonds in the first pic. You always have to end your epic day with some nice drinks. Well...... the mojito's tasted well!
The next day we became fresh in the head due some "nice" wipeouts in some nice pearls...