Maasvlakte....

The Maasvlakte is (or used to be) a hardcore spot. Very nice conditions with south to southwest winds. But soon the Maasvlakte will be no more. Expansion of the harbour of Rotterdam demands more land and less water. Probably in a few years a new spot will pop up on the newly created coast, but till then we'll have to settle with the other spots along the coast. On the picture you can see the newly created land. All the water in the front is going to be land.

On the one hand I am proud of the Dutch engineering, that has a long history of claiming land from the seas and lakes dating back to the beginning of the 17th century. It made our little country famous around the world. But on the other hand, claiming land from the seas makes me feel kind off sad. For several years this coastline will be closed for people and all we can do is hope that in the end this new coastline delivers an awesome new spot. And especially for me, a spot that might work well with west wind (coming from the right)....

Thomas 3rd at BK wave! (Belgium)

Thomas showed his nice new 2010 superfreaks (+ ofcourse his beloved sos 68) at the Belgium wave championships. The Bk wave.
The fresh father became 3rd!!

Well done pappa! ;-)

PWA Sylt final

So a little late but still. That was my debute on the PWA worldtour. I had a lot of fun, made new friends and new connections. I will definately train as hard as possible to do good next year on the tour. So next stop will be Jeri to train.

Some things about Sylt. It was a surprising week. Taty winning the freestyle, Alex Mussolini winning the wave and Diony who did really good in slalom with a 10th place as an final result. The last day was first reserved to finish another freestyle double. As you probably saw on the pictures the wind was full on shore and the shore break developped the whole night with 4 meter waves as result. So no freestyle. They did a super session. Pretty fun to look at how the pros strugle with the shorebreak.

Well that was is. Thanks to the PWA organisation for this week. See you next year.

Greets Paul

The beauty of a typical Northsea shorebreak..

A very nice pic of Robby at Sylt.

A happy sunday full of smiles

Hotsails fire 2010 5.3
Despite of the bad forecasts (cloudy, rainshowers and dropping winds) we went to the water. When we arrived in Stavoren the sky was blue and the wind was a steady 6 bft.
I rigged the 5.3 and took the SOS85. Nice session.

The conditions were choppy, so after a while we derigged and went to Molkwerum. My favo surfspot on the Ijsselmeer (big lake)
Here you got a flatwater area, perfecly for speed/freestyle/learning. And you got the option to sail to the rougher open water.
The spot is not well known so we had it alone for ourselves.
Sun kept on shining and the wind was even more solid overthere..



Linda on fire!

sailsize: 4.2
Birdhunting... actually, this weekend was the national birdcountweekend.. (no joke!)


Ana on freak!
It was nice to see that the girls went for it! Despite the cold and and the strong winds.





Happy people! Thats were it's all about!


A very nice weekend that we ended in a small restaurant near the harbour.

Doom....

I found these pictures on the forum made yesterday at Wijk aan Zee. The scenery looks kinda "doom". The funny thing is, I am quite sure it's David and me standing in the water. More pictures can be found here.
The next picture gives a nice idea of the conditions, although further out everything was bigger ;-)

Thanx for the pictures Surfjunky.

Stress release....

Today we went for a fine/classic windsurfing day to Wijk aan Zee. Sandblasting conditions. Nice winds(35 - 50 knots)...and waves up to royal over mast high..

Time to test the new Hotsails fire 2010!! 4.2 fully powered, but always maximum control.
Holymoly what a superb sail!

Winfried took a typical dutch combo. The orange SOS88 with matching superfreak...
Yup.. he's such a fashion boy ;-) He's even got a sail with pink?!?!?

My weapon of choise. Sean Ordonez's guppy.
wet dreams do come true!!! Bamboo + carbon+ all Sean's magic dust in one board!


Winfried had a serious cold. But we heard that the water overhere had a special "foamy stuff" in it that would heal his throat...... Wonder if it works ;-)

view to to beach. At the end of the pier very nice waves. side on winds

if you turn around on the dune.... you see this: steelfactory+ mountains of coal..
Does the foam have anything to do with this..
the rigging place is always fulll of coal dust. Nice that the 2010 Fire is available with a black mastsleeve/top.. It just won't get dirty ;-)

On Maui a basic pickup does the job,
Overhere the Volvo estate is the choice.... Fully loaded ;-)

Pwa Sylt Day 6

Today was the wave. It were pretty dificult conditions. With a really gusty wind and as always a big shorebreak the competitors allready had two obstacles. The mens and women were on the same time so action enough.

Al the guys had a lot of problems finding good waves for the jumps. Also the wave rides were difficult, because the shorebreak close outs super fast. Surprising was to see how all the favorites were kicked out. Ending with Josh Angulo, Alex Mussolini, John Skye and Antoine Albeau. John Skye was sailing really good for the whole day and made it up third. Nevertheless Albeau had a really good day kicking out all the pros like Victor Fernandes, Marcillio Browne and Kauli Seadi. than the finals were sailed. Alex Mussolini against Josh Angulo. They were both really good. At the end Josh had an unfortunate whipe out, resulting in a brokin mast. The last minutes were for Mussolini that used them good taking the leed in this single elimination.

Congratulations Alex, hopefully the double will be as good for you as the single.

Greets Paul

Pwa Sylt Day 5

Chillin chillin and chillin. Today the wind was gone. None of the three disciplines were sailed. I did some table soccer, some playstation 3 games and Chillin. Tommorrow the forecasts looks promising. First up on the notice board is the wave, so hopefully we'll get to see some nice action going on tommorrow.

Here's a picture as tribute to Baptiste who's insjured cause of Teahupoo. And if Freestyle has another double elimination, my first heat doesn't looks promising :P

facebook...

Facebook... I hear it everywhere... people talking about it, raving about it, asking about it etc etc.. blah blah blah
but what should a computer nono like me do with it?.. Try to find some forgotten friends? (do you really forget your good friends??)

But maybe it's fun, and is it easier to keep in touch with the people you allready know-that are out of town/on the other side of the world..

So I've to find it out also.
So I did my best (It took me some days to figure it out how it worked) and registered myself on facebook. What a stress

Took my best shot out of an old photobook. Cause it's al about the face... book
(text underneath: very angry, because the icecream wasn't big enough)

And voila... real friends that know my true name can find me now

Talk soon on the facebook ;-)

PWA pictures...

Diony had a very good result indeed. At the moment he's 10th after 4 runs of slalom heats. Here are some pictures of the man posted on the PWA site. The first is very artistic, the second is just cool 'cause he's in front...;-)

More pictures of the PWA at Sylt here.

Pwa Sylt Day 4

For me today was super chill. Today the slalom guys hit the water. Kind of the same as always Antoine was super fast and Bjorn too. A surprise was Diony who did really realy good.

I sailed for 30 minutes, but the wind was to light so we went in the Hottub to chill in nice warm water.

Here are the slalom heats.

Greets Paul

Pwa Sylt Day 3

Today was the day. After a few days of no wind the moment was there. It was freestyle time. Skippersmeeting was planned at 07.00 with a first possible start at 07.30. I was in the first heat so I had to be there early. It started really bad for me. I was sailing with 4.7 and after going back to the beach the wind was a little less. I took me a long time getting washed by the shorebreak. Because of this and the fact it wasn't clear if the heat started, we had to do a resail. As fast as I could I grabbed my 5.3 went straight through the shorebreak and sailed upwind to start my first PWA heat. My opponent was Andre Paskowski. Not the easiest. I had a really good heat landing almost all my moves I tried. Unfortunate I couldnt't beat Andre, but that's no problem. I'm feeling really good, cause I sailed good. In the double elimination I was less fortunate cause the wind wasn't enough. I had to land one more move and I had won, but the wind wasn't enough. No worries. The rest of the day was dominated by the Bonaire crew. Third place Tonky who beat Gollito. Than came the finals. Taty againt Kiri. Kiri won the single elimination. In the second they meet eachother again. Taty won the semi finals from Kiri so they had to do a resail for the finals. Taty was on flames. It was a long time ago he sailed this good, so he managed to win of his nephew. Taty congratulations with your first place man. You deserve it.

Now up to the slalom at day 4

Greets Paul

Sarah Quitta and me looking a little bit to much if I'm a model :P

PWA pictures...

A nice picture of Paul during one of his heats in the PWA at Sylt.

More pictures of the PWA at Sylt here.