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Starboard News

Video - Gnaraloo with Ben Severne and Matt Holder

Posted: May 25th, 2013, 5:09am CEST

Ben Severne and Matt Holder have been......

SurfNiels

A spell of great conditions

Posted: May 24th, 2013, 8:16pm CEST

So I havent been posting for a few days, mostly beacause I have been super busy, meanwhile the conditions have been absolutly firing. I have had my share of great session.
Here is a little look back on wat has been going on.
May has been the best mont of the year so far and this coming weekend looks like pure fun...
Cold Hawaii Surf Camp put pics online from a barrel party at bunkers

Casper Stenfath got his share too:

The week peeked on wedensday, with howling winds, gale force warning everywhere. I had to work all day, so I did'nt get a chance to join the action. But I have seen a few shots around.
Sebastian Kornum

Lars Petersen posted a windsurfshot from early thursday morning.

Later on he joined me for an epic Sup sesssion..
Lots of photo evidence to come...

Blog Author paddeling in

Pure Windsurfing

Incredible Day at Heckscher.

Posted: May 24th, 2013, 3:17pm CEST

Another great shot from John Dunn!
Sometimes everything just comes together. Yesterday was solid 4.0 all day long at Heckscher State Park. Our usual launch at heckscher is still closed, but personally, I like the temporary launch the park was kind enough to let us use even better!! Yesterday we were at Filed 6. At the launch there are showers, drinking fountains, bathrooms, grassy rigging, picninc tables, and BBQ pits. The only downside is the longer walk to the water, which really isn't all that long. The hazards in the water are clearly marked and with 20 or so windsurfers on the water yesterday, nobody had any issues running into anything.

The water conditions at field 6 are just incredible for freestyle/ bump and jump sailing. Meaty ramps on both tacks for all sorts of big air trickery and the new sand bar in front of the pool keeps everything nice and flat for the tricky slidey stuff. I was in heaven yesterday! I did take a few runs over to field 7 (the normal windsurfing beach) and the water seemed to organize a bit better there now too. I'm thinking some sand bars formed from the storm. Bonus!!! I can't wait to get my next session at heckscher! Hope to see you there!!

Hot Trips

Sandy

Posted: May 24th, 2013, 2:57pm CEST

The beach at the Ulsan worldcup

Starboard News

Amado's Update from Curaçao Challenge

Posted: May 24th, 2013, 5:09am CEST

Amado Vrieswijk sent us the latest update from......

johnskye.com News Blog

Multi disipline

Posted: May 23rd, 2013, 8:17pm CEST by Skyeboy

Since arriving back from Tenerife I have been full power on the water, including sailing just about all types of gear. Sunday and Monday were great days wave sailing. Then the waves died down so I headed to the flatwater spot to test some sails. I ended up having a very good slalom session with a few of the local race heads. Really happy with how our Firewing is performing now and even hit 35kts which is my top speed yet. Then I had a good freeride session on the Evolution, again on the flat water, before having some time testing the new Style Pro, which is making my freestyle life much easier. My goal is to learn Culo's by the time the summer is over, but still got a very long way to go. Tomorrow it looks like the wind is still blowing, so more flat water sailing before the next speed challenge on Saturday.

surf-matic

Writing and The Sea

Posted: May 23rd, 2013, 7:52pm CEST by Graham

Graham Ezzy- Writing and The Sea from Ezzy Sails on Vimeo.

With “Writing and The Sea”, Kevin Pritchard raises the bar of visual storytelling in windsurf cinematography. I am lucky and proud to be the focus. Thank you KP.

Stam Promponas

Summer 2013 warm up

Posted: May 23rd, 2013, 7:22am CEST by stampro01

Spot: Mikri Vigla Camera: K.Koro

MauiSails News

Second Wind Sail & Surf to carry MauiSails on Maui

Posted: May 23rd, 2013, 7:06am CEST

Second Wind will be renting TR-9 race sails as well as 100% carbon masts and the now famous MauiSails Carbon booms.

Starboard News

Video - Défi Wind 2013 (Part 2)

Posted: May 23rd, 2013, 3:09am CEST

The guys at Défi Wind produced another......

NZL 727

Eastbourne Slalom Comp Autumn 2013

Posted: May 22nd, 2013, 11:37am CEST

Today was the wwa race day at Eastbourne. I don't have any race gear but I thought I would tag along to support the event and at the very least make up numbers on my freestyle setup. Instead of driving to Eastbourne I decided to sail over from Seatoun as it would be faster. Rigged a 5 in the knowledge that it would be pretty difficult to come back and change. The wind on the Seatoun side was pretty solid so I cranked everything down. Instead of the usual ten minutes it normally takes me to sail across I think it took me nearly half an hour in the end as the wind had eased significantly toward the Eastbourne side and especially around ward island. Thankfully the comp hadn't started by the time I got there and I was able to enter and have a quick blast on Dave's race gear which in the face of a rapidly increasing wind scared the crap out of me as usual.The wind continued to increase to the point that by the time the comp had started everyone had abandoned there race sails for wave sails. And more than a number of race boards were substituted for wave and freewave boards. The tables had been almost levelled! The race was a figure 8 around two buoys with a beach start. I my first race I got a great start only to be overtaken on the upwind reach to the first buoy. Thankfully one of the sailors over shot the mark and the other went down on the jibe in the ridiculously windy conditions. Yes, I was back in the front and it stayed that way till the finish. My first thoughts was that this was a lucky break and would be hard to replicate as coming first in the first race meant that I would have to start downwind from the pack. Nope, won the second one as well getting another great start with Eric in front of me on the first couple of marks but went down hard of the second mark almost getting my fin in his back as I attempted successfully emergency collision avoidance. The pattern continued with the odd sailor getting in front on the first couple of buoys but either going down or miss timing the vibe marks allowing me to sneak in on the inside. After five or six wins I was feeling pretty confident until on the last race where Peter got enough courage to sail the full racing setup, managed to hold his jibes and beat me to the finish. Totally hammered after all the racing I still had to sail home in near gale force conditions. Thankfully it only took me about ten minutes. Skipping downwind like a skimming stone.Awesome afternoon thanks guys. Really enjoyed the friendly atmosphere and the racing was great. Must start doing this more often and start collecting myself some race gear.Other reports:Report from Surfer today
Report from Windsurfing NZ

Starboard News

Dieter Reports - Belgium Wave Championships!

Posted: May 22nd, 2013, 2:09am CEST

Here is Dieter van der Eyken's update from the......

Hot Trips

Seems fake, but is real

Posted: May 22nd, 2013, 12:23am CEST

Shane Dorian in deep at Teahupoo.... Amazing!!! Would love to see the video from this GoPro footage ;-)

E41

Hoy para Pozo!!!

Posted: May 21st, 2013, 3:45pm CEST by Eleazar Alonso

Para 4,0 iq y 74l dacurve.

My windsurf adventures around Europe

Morocco Part 7 "Some more nice Pics and ...

Posted: May 21st, 2013, 1:36pm CEST

Morocco Part 7 "Some more nice Pics and bye bye Morocco"

Here some pics of my last session in Morocco!!! We had again a great time in this beautiful country and we hope to be back some winter in the future...inshallah!!!
And to all of you reading my blog from time to time... Morocco in the winter really rocks and I hope to see some more wavehunters going there for the winters to come.
For me its now time to make some money and go on with my wavesearch...live your dreams!!! :)

The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

2013 East Coast Windsurfing Festival: Sandy'd.

Posted: May 21st, 2013, 12:18pm CEST by Michael

Joe's Beach at Heckscher took too much damage for an event to be possible next month. Here's the word from Mike Burns: "Hello to all the East Coast Windsurfing Festival racers, freestylers, paddlers, tossers, spectators, formula guys, schloggers, crashers, splashers,...

Tatiana Howard's Offical Website

South side

Posted: May 21st, 2013, 9:33am CEST by Tatiana Howard

It’s summer time and the south side has been full of fun waves! Get out there!

Starboard News

Black Box 87 Wood, PlancheMag (France), May 2013 [EN-FR]

Posted: May 21st, 2013, 3:09am CEST

This test was featured in the May edition of......

johnskye.com News Blog

RRD Importer meeting

Posted: May 21st, 2013, 1:31am CEST by Skyeboy

I have just got back from the RRD importers meeting in Tenerife. It was a really great experience, firstly meeting all the importers from around the world and secondly to present the new sail collection. Seeing all the new sails rigged and on the water was pretty special and everyone loved them which is even better. Still a couple of months until they are available, but pretty excited by the project. The sailing over there wasn't too special, but worked out nicely for the guys to try out the full range of sails. The small wave sails didn't get much use, but everything else was on the water everyday. I got back to GC on Saturday and was treated to 2 amazing days over here. Good waves and wind for around 4.2-4.7. Really nice to get some quality wave sailing in after about a month of freeriding. Looks like pretty good conditions all week and maybe a Round 2 of the speed Challenge at the weekend. Lets see how the forecast turns out.

Cedric bordes

FRENCH AFF BREST

Posted: May 20th, 2013, 10:26pm CEST by cedric

The second stop of the french event was in Brest in Brittany. All the top french riders were there + a lot of new young riders fully equiped and motivated!! Forecasts were nice but we were quite unlucky because wind was really gusty and sifting from 4 to 16 knots. We tryed 18 start of the winner final… so it become more a race on the parking with a differents points of view if we have to keep pushing or not to valid a single race.

Thanks to the organisers, sponsors and all the riders who were there even if we don’t race. 2 more event to come in Leucate and La Torche for the 2013 tour AFF. The tour is nice and there is a great level on water.

Now I am on my way back home visiting shops for Tabou and Gaastra. Then we will test some flat water sail in south of France with the Gaastra Team and Peter Munzlinger + doing a small shooting!!
DEFI WIND

Posted: May 20th, 2013, 9:58pm CEST by cedric

This event is insane and a nice promotion for windsurf! I have been there for the last day of the event straight after Korea. I just did the last race of the event and it is clearly a different race than a slalom in Pwa! It is 40 km long and you need to choose the right gear at the right time to go fast and be easy all the way. I get a good start with my manta 61 and Vapor 6,4. I was fighting with Pascal T, Nico W and Pierre M and Belbeoch was leading. Before the finish line we get a hall of wind… so we can’t make the finish line without tacking! Great job for 3 pro rider…

Whatever I hope to do it again on the futur and be ready for it! 800 people on the same start line and with good spirit, all good for the sport!!!
PWA KOREA

Posted: May 20th, 2013, 8:25pm CEST by cedric

Here we are! First world cup of the year… all riders were ready for it after some months of trainning all around the world.

I feeled confidant with my gear. My Vapor rig were a nice evolution from 2012 with more low end and a lighter sail in the hand. The level on water is even more close betwen all of us than last year! No mistake allowed if you want to adance true your heat.

We did 3 races in total in ok conditions from 8 to 20 knots. Wind was less gusty yhan previous year and races were nice to see because of action. I did good with a final ranking of 10 but it is only first event of the year and ranking will change for sure! I used mainly my 9,5 on my big manta board and also during the first race my 8,6 and manta 71 who is this year a great combo!

So a long trip for all of us and some news faces on the top 10! Congratulations to Alberto Banbino the winner who deserveted to win. 2013 season look exciting!
LEUCATE SPEED RUN

Posted: May 20th, 2013, 8:07pm CEST by cedric

It is now a long time that I haven’t post on my blog. I was really busy the last months and will uptade now my last results/events!

I was in Leucate for the famous speed event windsurf vs kitesurf. We got really nice conditions all week and we done sometimes 3 races of 1h30 per day! I used 3 differents size of Vapor: 5,6/6,4/7,1 with my Tabou manta gun 54 and 49. Level was hight and speed really close bewten rider. I finish 4 in windsurf with some runs over 40 knots on this spot. We also did some runs on the tandem for the fun.

Here is a ITW done during the event.

[www.e-adrenaline.fr]

Jonas Handekyn windsurfing blog

New lay-out , watershots and news !

Posted: May 20th, 2013, 4:25pm CEST by Jonas Handekyn

This week we didn't have any good conditions , but I've been quite busy too so time is going pretty fast. I'm glad to announce a few new things ! First: (you've probably noticed it already ) , the new lay-out of the blog ( comments are welcome ). Second: Time for wood , a cool new brand is supporting me with their products. They have some super cool wooden sunglasses and Iphone cases (contact me for more info ! ) And I promised a few more (water)shots from a crappy session in Wissant a while ago.
Thanks to Deining media and Olivier Caenen for the watershots !

Nice to see the position of the board in the water while bottomturning from this angle ! This one is perfect to show how important the rails of your board are for waveriding !

It's Time for wood !!

Big thanks to Jeroen from Deining media for these !

Waves look way bigger than the actually were from this angle !!

Small turn in shitty conditions ...

Credits for this vertical snapper go to fotoride , thanks !

Let's hope for some decent conditions coming up soon. I'm very confident that's going to happen because exams are coming up soon and it's been windy every single year over and over again at that time of the year !

Max.Matissek.AUT97.On.The.Road.

PWA Podersdorf BEHIND THE SCENES and stuff

Posted: May 20th, 2013, 12:47pm CEST by max

Yo! The PWA Podersdorf was sick again! Could get 17th after the full double elemination and got top 10 again in the Chiemsee TOW IN Champsionship! Sick! Here are some shots of the nightshow!! THX J.C!! Together with my Buddy Manuel Grafenauer i produced some “Behind The Scenes” Videos of the Worldcup which are in ...

The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Almost Run Over by The Wolf

Posted: May 20th, 2013, 11:55am CEST by Michael

Christian emailed me at 8AM: Nice little waves at Ponquogue...he and Jeff were going in to SUPsurf. I got there at 9 to find those two + the Wolf enjoying a generous smattering of thigh high waves. "Snack waves," the...

AUS120.com™ - Sean O'Brien, Pro Windsurfer

WeAreNeverLeaving – Project

Posted: May 20th, 2013, 8:31am CEST by Sean OBrien

Now seems like as good a time as ever to let everyone know what I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks and why there hasn’t been as many posts on this site! With my partner in crime on the Pro Tour this year, Luke Baillie, I’m proud to announce the launch of a video/picture blog known as WEARENEVERLEAVING.com. Forget everything you’ve seen or heard in the windsurfing media; forget that same video style that everyone is using in their product videos and is so saturated on the web these days; forget hearing who came 1st, 2nd, last at the contest. WEARENEVERLEAVING is a completely new insight in to the stories of the Windsurfing Pro Tour.

We’ll publish weekly videos and monthly flipbooks of amazing adventures, along with stories and images that would never make it in to a windsurfing magazine; but that you won’t be able to put down once you start reading. Inspired by the famous cultures of Australian and international surfing, follow us on the blog or twitter.

www.WEARENEVERLEAVING.com

Starboard News

Magnificent Menegatti - the Interview

Posted: May 20th, 2013, 4:09am CEST

Out with the old, in with the new! Alberto......
Register now for the European Phantom 295 events!

Posted: May 19th, 2013, 8:22pm CEST

The 2013 Raceboard Worlds Championships is......

PhilipSoltysiak.com

FRESH VIDEO ONLINE - PLUS A NICE GALLERY FROM THE BRIDGE

Posted: May 18th, 2013, 7:31pm CEST

PLUS A NICE GALLERY FROM THE BRIDGE

Eva Oude Ophuis

Leve Holland!

Posted: May 18th, 2013, 12:22pm CEST by evaoudeophuis

Almost back a month from Maui now. I want to upload some pics of Maui too, but I don´t have them all yet… Promise I will update them soon! Back home in Holland is actually pretty good. Finished my Sports Medicine internship already and started with Cardiology for four months. It is hard working but […]

Starboard News

Video - Express Yourself with Nicolas Akgazciyan

Posted: May 18th, 2013, 4:09am CEST

Nicolas Akgazicyan, one of France's top......

SurfNiels

Mid week wind

Posted: May 17th, 2013, 4:09pm CEST

Wedensday delivered unexpected summer conditions with strong easterly winds and lots of sun.I had the duty of taking care of the kids , so I wasn't able to join the fun myself. But I grabbed the chance of taking a few shots..Steep choppy waves and wind for sails around 5,0 m2
Henrik cruising with 4,7

Bjørn with 7. something

All smiles..

North-Windsurf.com – News Archive

Team NorthSails scores at the IFCA World Championship

Posted: May 17th, 2013, 10:14am CEST

The IFCA World Championship held in Sylt (Germany) resulted in amazing results for team NorthSails.

Slalom

- Gunnar Asmussen (GER-88) clearly dominated the slalom field ending uIFCA World Champion Slalom 2013

Formula Racing

- Fernando Martinez del Cerro Delgado (ESP-71) scored an amazing 2nd place

Wave

- German freestyler Fabian Weber (G-999) gave his wave debut ending up 3rd place

Congratulations to all!

Watch the video and check for more infos
Team NorthSails scores at the IFCA World Championship

Posted: May 17th, 2013, 10:14am CEST

The IFCA World Championship held in Sylt (Germany) resulted in amazing results for team NorthSails.

Slalom

- Gunnar Asmussen (GER-88) clearly dominated the slalom field ending uIFCA World Champion Slalom 2013

Formula Racing

- Fernando Martinez del Cerro Delgado (ESP-71) scored an amazing 2nd place

Wave

- German freestyler Fabian Weber (G-999) gave his wave debut ending up 3rd place

Congratulations to all!

Watch the video and check for more infos

MauiSails News

The Curacao Challenge 2013

Posted: May 17th, 2013, 8:34am CEST

Taty Frans got some great results during Curacao Challenge 2013.
Pinocheau Romain and his first PWA event

Posted: May 17th, 2013, 8:13am CEST

After 3 months of training at Spinout France, I went to Podersdorf the 25th April taking part on my first PWA....

surf-matic

Tell me your stories about wave priorities, localism, and hierarchies

Posted: May 17th, 2013, 5:15am CEST by Graham

I want to hear YOUR stories! Share in the comments.

Yesterday, a Colombian man yelled threats at me at Hookipa– my home beach. The only reason: We have different understandings about who has priority on a wave. My understanding is one formed by Hawaiian surf culture. I tried talking with him, but he only wanted to shout, so I unfortunately don’t know where his understanding comes from. (To be perfectly frank, I don’t understand the threats either. Do I need to look out for car bombs? Have I accidentally placed myself in the path of a Colombian drug gang?). No punches were thrown; at least some civility prevailed.

This experience was extremely unsettling for me. Not unsettling because it happened but because it happened somewhere that is a home for me. I’ve come to Hookipa since I was born. I am filled with a comforting wave of familiarity and happiness when I see the rocks, sand, and people there. Shouts and threats from a Colombian break all that.

“Rules” on the water rely on a foundation of mutual understanding from the members of the surf community at a beach. Therefore, the rules change depending on the beach. I don’t expect to know the priorities at a beach in Australia.

And the rules change over time. At Hookipa in the late 80s and early 90s for example, if you weren’t one of the one of the original crew or from Hawaii or really really good, you basically couldn’t sail there. I’ve heard stories of Dave Kalama beating up other pro sailors, who weren’t from Hawaii, in the shorebreak. The offense? Sailing at Hookipa.

Now days, the pecking order is much more welcoming. Not only are other pros welcome but tourists are welcome too.

My interest today, however, is much larger than the tiny topic that is Hookipa priorities. I want to hear YOUR stories. What are the rules on your waves? Are there fights? Tell me stories about the fights. What is the most outrageous thing you’ve seen or heard of that has happened because of a conflict about waves?

At some point soon, I will write an expose on the topic. But first! I can’t wait to hear your stories.

Starboard News

Taty and Kiri dominate the Curaçao Challenge 2013

Posted: May 17th, 2013, 2:09am CEST

In a sun and action filled weekend, Kiri Thode......

Dieter Van der Eyken - B35

Belgium Wave Championships

Posted: May 16th, 2013, 1:37pm CEST

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Hello everybody

I’m 2 weeks at home again and I have to say I did quite a lot of sailing as it has been pretty windy at home! The main thing in the past 2 weeks was probably the Belgium Wave Championships , first possible weekend we could run the competition conditions looked perfect on the forecast for a competition on real Belgian grounds, Bredene! Instead of standing a whole weekend long on a Freestyle board I was now concentrating on getting my wave sailing up again as I didn’t sail too much in the waves this winter, but felt still really comfortable and I think I was never so consistent in my Takas as this weekend.

On Friday we did the single of the competition, which first looked like an amazing day turned out to be not the best conditions. Waves where not too high with max 1m and the wind was lighter than I thought it would be, still 4.4 full power but let’s say it’s not what we all hoped for! After making it through the semi final against Fabrice de Vos (4x Belgian Wave champion) with my best heat of the event probably I was up against Jonas Handekyn the last Belgian Wave Champion. Me and Jonas are one of the only ones who land Takas and backside 360 consistently enough to do them in the heat so I knew it was going to be a close heat. On jumps we’re pretty equally also but luckily for me I can jump back loops on smaller waves and could make the difference here especially as the wind just dropped before the heat to 4.8 weather! So super stoked after winning the single it was time to defend my first place in the double the next day.

Again it weren’t the conditions we hoped for but guess that’s how competition always goes, pretty similar to the day before the wind decided to drop just for the finals making us extend the heats by 3 min to give us more time to find our 2 jumps. On wave riding it wasn’t to bad actually I found in this heat, the wind turned a bit offshore = super gusty because of all the buildings at the Belgian coastline but instead we got a bit cleaner waves with more than 1 or 2 turns possible sometimes. I did 2 good wave rides with one a taka inside and another one where I did 4 turns with the smallest aerial of my life. On the jumps I did my cleanest forward with wind from the left in my life I think, and finally could land a backloop OH in the contest as during the last 3 min the wind picked up big time to get me pretty powered up on my 4.8 . In the end I won the heat and can call myself Belgian Wave Champion for now as in Autumn there is still a chance to run another competition if the conditions are good, hope I will be in the country than to defend my first place.. But anyway super stoked I was able to win my first Wave contest ever!

Next update will be about some session at home or maybe even about the EFPT in Russia which starts Monday!

Cheers Dieter

MauiSails News

AWT Rider of the Week - Ingrid Larouche

Posted: May 16th, 2013, 6:55am CEST

This week AWT crew caught up with Ingrid Larouche, the woman who dominated the AWT in 2011 and 2012. And may do so again this year.

Stam Promponas

Frulite on the go Video

Posted: May 16th, 2013, 6:45am CEST by stampro01

Here is the latest video by frulite on the go enjoy !!! We are all good friends and we push each other!!

Starboard News

WindSUP 10' x 34" Whopper, WIND (France), March 2013 [EN-FR]

Posted: May 16th, 2013, 3:09am CEST

This test was featured in the March edition......

SurfNiels

More wind at the reef

Posted: May 15th, 2013, 8:37pm CEST

Last photo part from fridays windsurf session. We have had a lot of wind and swell fro southerly directions lately. This works pretty well at the reef in Klitmøller but I haven't got a spot near by that really works.

PWA rider and local Kenneth Danielsen enters the scene..

And puts on quite a show

Nice backie

Hand wide apart for bottum turning

Hands together for the top turn

Chris Pressler's windsurfing blog

Exciting Sylt 2013 at the IFCA Worlds

Posted: May 15th, 2013, 5:00pm CEST by chris

Just attended the IFCA Slalom Worlds at Sylt from the 7th till the 12th of May. We went for four full rounds and got one discard. I had a slow start as I had no training on Slalom gear for many months. My new sails just arrived two weeks before the event start. But got tuned in better and better longer the event was on. We had very nice conditions with wind in between 10 and 25 knots and relatively flat water to choppy and wavy North Sea conditions. A great mix of all in chilly conditions.

Landing out of space at the Slalom Worlds on Sylt. It needed a few days to find the racing rhytm (Pic: Kerstin Reiger).

I registered my brand new Reflex 4 in 9,2/8,6/ 7,8 and 7,0 plus my 2012 iSonics 117 wide and 107. The gear worked great and I was able to cover all conditions with the 42 rule. Good old days .It seems like the 8,6 is much more powerful compared to 2012 version and I can go in less wind as I lost a few kilos, too. A perfect sail for many board sizes. It works great on 117, 110, 107. For sure on 127, too.

Warm up day at Sylt at day 1 of the competition. On my 9,2 with 117wide. Carsten Naumann on the boat with the cam (Pic: Stevie Bootz/Choppy Water).

We saw the first 2 eliminations on day 2 and I definitely struggled a bit. In the first elimination I missed the top 16 very close. A slow start and no speed on the first leg caused a fifth place in round 2. In elimination 2 I went too big in round one, was third for a while, but then crashed at a mark.

On day 4 and five we saw two more rounds. I felt fast on 8,6 with 117 wide and qualified for the winners final in round 3. Was fighting for place 6, but lost ground at the last mark and finished 8th in this final. But was really cool to sail with the top guys in a final.

Round 4 started great despite I was extremely overpowered on 8,6 and 117 wide. A little cold front was on the course. I switched to 7,8 mand 107. That was a big fault. The wind dropped by 10 knots or more. I had no chance to change gear as the start was far outside on the ocean and I only was able to cruise over the course finishing in 6th. Not enough for the top 16. A disappointing moment, but that’s racing. I should have stayed on the big gear no matter how windy it is. The wind is so shifty and can change a lot at Sylt, when it’s blowing onshore. Within 5 minutes strong gusts can loose all the power and you need the 80 cm width underneath your feet combined with a big sail. I really don’t know why I didn’t stay with 8,6 as I was able to hold it in 25 knots still in the first round. Go big or go home. That’s definitely an important rule for Sylt!

In qualifying position for the final during the 3rd elimination (Pic: Stevie Bootz/Choppy Water).

But I definitely felt the fire again. My body was full of adrenalin. Wow, racing can be so much fun. It’s my 9th season now after I started with this discipline, when I turned into 30 a few years ago. After a long winter break I am extremely hungry for the upcoming season. I want to go faster and more aggressive at the starts and jibes again. This was just the first event and much can happen during the season. The new boards should arrive during this week and there are three more weeks left for intense training till the next event, the Croatian Slalom championships in Bol, Brac. I feel it’s easier for me to choose the right gear. I easily can go with 8,6 in the lighter wind, but can hold this size pretty long. Now I need to tune my 7,8 a bit more and test all my 460ty masts to select the ideal ones.

My plan is to register the iSonics 97/107 and 117 for the PWA tour as we will not race in real high wind conditions like we had in the past at Sotavento. What a pity that we will not see a racing event at Sotavento. But let’s check how the forecast for Costa Brava will look like. Perhaps we will get strong Tramontana like two years ago and I am going to register a small Slalom board, too!!

What’s the resume about Sylt: The IFCA Worlds gave me the chance to test the Reflex 4 sails and get some excellent training at starts and marks. It was definitely worth to travel there as the conditions were nice and the racecrew on the water tried everything to run races. On the second last day they tried to run heats at eight in the evening, but the wind died in the end. It was cool to race with all the young hotshots and the best German Cuppers. Really hope to do better at the next event on Sylt, the PWA final in the end of September.

Rough conditions for the boat crew this time. 7 degrees air, 10 degrees water. Was an ok start. (Pic: Stevie Bootz/Choppy Water).

The level was excellent. A lot of young guys are sailing fast and tactically very well! 34 year old Gunnar Asmussen from Flensburg, one of the most experienced slalom racers of the whole fleet, had impressive speed and the will to win. He deserves the title as he prepared several months in Western Australia training with Patrik Diethelm. Vincent Langer sailed very solid and showed great jibing. He challenged Gunnar a lot. Big congrats to Jordy Vonk, who impressed everyone taking the third place. He improved a lot during the winter months But many sailors improved a lot during the winter months. It doesn’t matter, if they are young or masters already. Sebastian Kornum, Maciek Rutkowski, Andrea Rosati, Casper Boumann, Jean Floch or Ethan Westera were sailing very well.

I finished 22nd overall, but was happy to qualify for one winners final. Have a look on the full result here! Big thanks to my girlfriend, who supported me very well at the beach despite the temperatures were really low and some squalls with massive rain went over the event site during the event. See you on the water!

Tuning my gear at the beach. Sylt was worth the trip !! (Pic: Kerstin Reiger).

© Stevie Bootz/Choppy Water, Kerstin Reiger 2013

The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Rum Lords Wavesailing Video

Posted: May 15th, 2013, 3:45pm CEST by Michael

I love Cape Hatteras, and so I go every year. Except I've missed the last three years. I must correct this. Ever correct though are the Reef Warriors, who thrash water and rum with equal fervor. The video above is...

MauiSails News

Micah Buzianis PWA Korea report

Posted: May 15th, 2013, 8:07am CEST

Well another PWA racing season got underway with a long week in Jinha Beach, Korea.

Jonas Handekyn windsurfing blog

The better sessions I had this week.

Posted: May 14th, 2013, 9:19pm CEST by Jonas Handekyn

As promised a report and pic's from the other sessions I had past week when the Competition wasn't on. Friday I went to Sangatte really early to score a session before the competition and to compensate the session I was going to miss after high tide in Sangatte/Wissant ! Nothing special but good wind for 4.0 and some fun waves around. Monday the forecast didn't look that good but as I checked the beach in the afternoon and with the forecast promising even more wind in the evening after high tide I hoped that we would have a good session... After a slow start with wind just strong enough for my 4.3 things picked up and the waves started rolling in. After sailing a long time pretty powered up to overpowered on 4.3 I decided to rig 4.0 very fast, by the time I got back on the beach almost everybody had left the ocean because the wind had turned a little offshore. I saw there were still some strong gusts and the waves had gotten even better, so I just had to go ! I had some really good rides on nice waves. They were not big ( biggest I saw in Bredene in a long time though ! ) but really clean and steep ... No pictures of this session as i had forgotten to charge the gopro and nobody was available to shoot pictures.
Looks like it could be good tomorrow morning in the Region of Wissant/Wimereux ... Let's hope !
Pictures from the morning session in Sangatte on Friday:

Pretty vertical lipsmack !

Taka, full sequence in the Strobb below...

I don't do that much forwards normally but I knew I would have to do them in the competition so I practiced a few in the session before :) Now that I have way stronger boards, I think it's time do to them more often again and work them because as you can see they're not really good yet...

Getting the fins free yet keeping control !

Pierre-Antoine Damricourt getting a little aerial ! Not many people out on the water this early ...

Impression 1 : windy !!

Impression 2: some waves !

Mini-backloop

Impression 3: Big boat !

Getting a little aerial on the list before going home...

Oh yeah, on the Thursday before this session in Sangatte I had a small session in Wissant, no more time to put the report and pictures from that session here. That's for another post !

Kurosh Kiani

Korea kicks us off

Posted: May 14th, 2013, 5:40pm CEST by Kurosh Kiani

Korea kicks us off from Kurosh Kiani on Vimeo.

It is that time of the year. The seal of the season has been broken, and we are now officially on with the World Cup season. For me, this is already my second event after visiting Weymouth in England for a short while before heading onwards to Korea.

Touchdown Korea!

Korea, a county which always amazes me with its beautiful countryside and a level of organization which just makes everything so efficient. Already when you land at Seoul Incheon airport, you notice this. I think there is a reason this airport has been voted best airport in the world. It’s my fifth time in Korea, and for every time, I have liked this country more. The organizers always take good care of us and things happen at an easy pace. Okay I will admit, coming from Europe with all of your windsurfing equipment all the way down to the south end of South Korea is not super easy. Once you land in Seoul, you tend to forget that you are not there yet! From Seoul, you usually jump in a bus to change airports and then fly to the south which is Busan or Ulsan, and you are still not there. Yet another hour or so on the bus, and you can finally crash and try to recover from this marathon trip.

The Korea gear set-up ready to fly!

This year with all the media hype about potential wars going on in this area, you would have thought it would get cheaper to travel to this destination, but the fact is that it was crazy expensive to travel to this area this time which really makes me wonder. None the less, all of that is now behind me, and I am en route back to Europe to start up a new chapter of this year. A chapter which hopefully starts with the words “summer”. Last time I was I’m Europe I was really freezing, so I’m hoping that my return into London will be greeted by the feeling of summer. It’s my favorite time of year!

The typical skylines of Korea!

The first event of the year gets kicked off

Competition wise, I will have to admit that it was darn many miles to fly to windsurf relatively short time. I guess I could have windsurfer more if I wasn’t kicked out relatively early on in the three eliminations we managed to finish during the World Cup week. 27th place overall, a number without much importance but with contents to serve as knowledge for the future events to come. I was pretty darn rusty in the starts and also got myself a disqualification for jumping the starting line. Stuff that shouldn’t happen too much, and along with other things, I guess I will be looking back a couple of steps to improve for the future events. Everytime I would get the start, I would also win my heat, so I can feel my best competition mind being just around the corner. And I have gathered some good information on what equipment works good for me in the different kind of conditions on the race course. Its something that is difficult to know before you are actually racing. So there is loads of stuff to work on for the future events. The season is still long!

All stacked up ready to go!

Heading out for my race.

Going round the corners

Lots of people have asked me about equipment choice for the year. Basically for the PWA slalom world cup, you are allowed to register 3 boards and 6 sails for a while year. This year I went with the following Fanatic Falcon sizes: 132, 112, 102. As for sails I went for the following Simmer SCR sail sizes: 5,5 6,2 7,0 7,8 8,6 and 9,5. That should have me covered for the whole season. This year though I went for the second biggest board as I didnt feel like I really needed the bigger board. Also my smallest board is now around 100L which is a very big board for stronger winds, but I feel very confident on it, and I hope that this choice will bring me into a better position for doing well over the whole season.

Racing with my friend Gonzalo in between the heats

Full speed on my biggest board and sail

Hitting up Ulsan town with everybody for a city tour

The Korean PWA staff

Farewell dinner party

After the competition was done, I still had 3 more days to kill, so I packed up my stuff and headed over to the town of Busan along with some of the other guys to check out the city, and in general to see a new place after being on the same beach for a week. Yes, the same place he whole time. Lots of people ask me about the places I have seen when going around to competitions, but I must admit that I often don’t see much more than the beach, and then head on home. But I guess that’s not too bad either. Busan is the second largest city of South Korea and is truly an international city worth a visit. I have previously been to Seoul which of course is equally as great, just bigger!

Haeundae, Busan

Impressive

Lounging a bit in the airport with the boys getting ready to head back

Now it’s really a time for me to chill out for a bit. I’ve been on the road constantly without more than couple days of rests the last many months, so now I just feel like parking it at the same place and not moving further than across the street to the store for a while. Luckily I have the luxury of visiting my family and resting before laying the final plans for the summer. Unfortunately my favorite event of the year, the Fuerteventura World Cup has been cancelled, so there will be a while over the summer with not many events. So I will definitely be looking at new plans for this time, and I am sure something fun will come up.

But for now, my nearest plan is to sleep!

Aloha for now

Kiani

MauiSails News

MauiSails Newsletter : Maui Monthly no. 96, April issue.

Posted: May 14th, 2013, 3:37pm CEST

Check out all the stories from MauiSails team riders during the month of April

klaasvoget.com

summer opening sylt 2013

Posted: May 14th, 2013, 12:02pm CEST by klaas

i entered my first event of the season last weekend, the summer opening of the german tour on sylt. the wind was a bit light and i’ve seen bigger waves on that beach before, but still enough to complete one elimination in the waves. i managed to take the win, so it was a great start of the 2013 season for me. here some impressions, shot by stevie bootz / choppy water. next up for me is a week on gran canaria for a fanatic shoot and a bit of training. flight goes tomorrow – looking forward!

Starboard News

Video - Alberto Menegatti's Winter Training

Posted: May 14th, 2013, 1:10am CEST

Alberto Menegatti just won the first PWA......
Défi Wind 2013 - Final Report

Posted: May 13th, 2013, 10:10pm CEST

One more race was completed on this Sunday 12th......

SurfNiels

Wind in Klitmøller

Posted: May 13th, 2013, 8:49pm CEST

Here is the first photo part from fridays windsurf session at the reef in Klitmøller. It was the first stop on the danish wave tour. I actually had no plan of going to the event, but ended up taking pictures for half an hour or so.
Sideshore wind and nice waves

Making the most of it...

I really would like to test thoese severne sils

Still pretty chilly when it is windy..

I really like this shot

Smack

Nice one !

Mikkel Asmussen I think it is

I really like the Simmer boards

Live to Sail

Paddle Fenwick Poster

Posted: May 13th, 2013, 5:43pm CEST

Paddle FenwickJune 29-30, 2013Fenwick Island, DE and Holt's Landing State Park

Katie McAnena IR091

Media and the General Happenings :-)

Posted: May 13th, 2013, 5:04pm CEST

Front cover of the Sunday Times Magazine 28/04/13...... yewwwww!!

Ahoihoi buddies!Craic?! SO what's news eh?! Well I've been home nearly a month now and it has flown by. A crazy mix of driving (2,000km in 2 weeks), cycling nearly 400km, windsurfing, SUPing and partying. Pretty epic! And after all the mental travelling I've done this year it feels unbelievably cool to be able to do everything I love in my home surrounded by all my awesome friends and family :-) Majorly happy bunny right now! For all of you who know me or have followed me this past 12 months you'll know I've clocked up a fair few air miles..... about 150,000 to be precise.... cha-ching for the Platinum US airways members card! But just a wee re-cap for all the newbies to the general happenings of Katie's year of adventuring.... actually maybe I'll leave the yearly re-cap until my time is truly up in 8 week's time. I was just about to start and realised it's a mammoth blog so I'll just focus on the last month, phew!
So all and all it's been fairly mental, particularly on the whole media front since I windsurfed Jaws. I can't believe the reaction from home, it's all been so positive and a HUGE thanks to everyone for all their kind words and encouragement.... it really has been INSANE! Here's just a snippet of the articles that have been published;

Irish Times page 5 by Lorna Siggins.
Link to article: [www.irishtimes.com]

Saturday Times
Link to Article:http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/from-clare-to-the-big-kahuna-and-back-1.1366127#.UXKB36Vb0Rs.gmail

Front cover of the Sunday Times Magazine 28/04/13...... yewwwww!!

Inside the Sunday Times Magazine

Galway Advertiser

Galway Independent

Connacht and Galway City Tribunes
I was also delighted to have been on the Ray D'Arcy show having the chats about the day at Pe'ahi... unfortunately the playback is deleted now but safe to say we had a bit of craic!

So, like I said after all that media frenzy it was back to being home in Galway and having an unreal time travelling back home to find some wind and waves and general laughs with my buddies :-) As i mentioned in my last post we had our 1st Irish Wave event of the year in Fanore and I managed to make it to the final of the men's pro fleet and take 4th overall..... woop!! .... and obviously with it the women's title..... but that's purely because there are no women who compete.... COME ON girls!! I'd love to see more of ye at the next event!!!

SUP session Kilkimmin

So when I wasn't hunting down water time I fortuitously came across this incredible initiative by a group of amazing people led by Jim Breen from my friend Meabh. It was a bike trip across the entire length of Ireland in order to raise awareness of suicide in Ireland today. Suicide claims over 500 lives a year in our country, and more than likely the reality is a larger number than that. So a group of friends and I took to our bikes, donned the oh so becoming colour of orange and cycled from Limerick to Galway. The atmosphere was so incredible that I ended up joining the crew again on the legs from Sligo to Letterkenny and from Letterkenny to Moville. It was for an incredible cause and the subsequent attention and interest and support it generated from the public was unprecedented, fair play to every one on the Cycle Against Suicide team!

Way too much spandex.... way too much orange!

Me with my beautiful sister Lisa after finishing the last leg of the cycle... on my BIRTHDAY!! Cup cake joyjoy

Me with my besties out for my birthday.... 27 this year, eep! Lisa, Ailbhe and Shell and I xxx Love ye ladies!

Alrighty, so well with that I'll sign out for now. Lots more media forays to come so stay tuned. I've got my American Windsurfing Tour Queen Sam Bittner coming to visit for the next two weeks so plenty of windsurfing, surfing, SUP, touristing, laughing, partying and general banter times ahead as we join the first two legs of the British Wave Sailing Assoc (BWA) Tour this weekend and next week in Wales and Kerry..... poor things won't know what hit them!

Sam and Katie take over Ireland.... oh dear ;-)

And just one last thing to mention before I sign off. All this talk of suicide and birthdays and BWA has me acutely aware that it is my beautiful friend Mikey Clancy's birthday tomorrow, May 14th. He is turning 23. For as long as I can remember Mikey and I celebrated our birthdays together in style down in Kerry in Spillane's during the annual BWA event there. There will be a gaping hole where he should be next week, eating my mum's birthday cake and drinking Guinness with all the crew. Happy Birthday Mikey, you are one in a billion

North-Windsurf.com – News Archive

New clip of Yoli de Brendt

Posted: May 13th, 2013, 4:44pm CEST

Check out this great freestyle clip about NorthSails team rider and 4th placed PWA freestyle women Yoli de Brendt.

Watch now!
New clip of Yoli de Brendt

Posted: May 13th, 2013, 4:44pm CEST

Check out this great freestyle clip about NorthSails team rider and 4th placed PWA freestyle women Yoli de Brendt.

Watch now!

Jamie Hancock

Interview with the BBC

Posted: May 13th, 2013, 3:05pm CEST by jamie

A couple of weeks ago I made the trip with Ross, Timo and Jack to the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. We took Ian Macnicol, an award winning Scottish photographer, along who had just won Scottish sports photographer of the year the week before. Despite his recent success’ he was still willing to jump in with us monkeys on a 4 day trip to camp on the beach. With Ian’s connections to the national press we suddenly had the BBC arriving and interviewing us about our trip up there.

I also featured as the Ghetty images editors European photo of the day. Quite cool for windsurfing to be on one of the worlds largest go to websites for stock images.

Here is the video, and check Ian’s website - www.ianmacnicolimages.co.uk

Jonas Handekyn windsurfing blog

Belgian Championship wave report

Posted: May 13th, 2013, 11:39am CEST by Jonas Handekyn

After a busy weekend it's time to make a report our first official Belgian championship wave since 2010... Day 1 ( Friday ) : Before the BK started here in Bredene on my homespot I drove to Sangatte to score a warmup morning session there. At that time I hoped it wasn't going to be the best session of the whole weekend but I have to say it probably was... Lot's of current but some Ok waves and perfect wind for 4.0 ! (pic's coming in another post of this session). Than back to Bredene for the Bk wave. A lot of people didn't come on friday because the forecast for some other spots was way better ( kind off bummed I had to mis the afternoon session in Wissant/Sangatte ). Big names like Olivier Pas or Wout Burman weren't there. The first day started by waiting on the wind and waves to kick in , Around 4 pm the call was given to start things up. I was already in the second round so I still had some time left to figure out what gear to take and do a little warm up. Conditions weren't looking really good as the wind wasn't super strong and the waves were small and had absolutely no power. My first heat I was sailing with 4.3 against Maxim de Buck, I think it was one of my best heats I managed to sneak in a clean mini backloop, a nice forward a few turns and taka's and a backside 360, a good start ! Next up was my heat against Roeland De Rycker. In this heat the wind started dropping a but already and I didn't find enough power to go for all my moves, luckily I managed to struggle through this heat straight into the winner's final. The wind had dropped even more by than and I had to rig my 4.7 really quick to sail. Waves downsized together with the wind and I couldn't do anything serious in these conditions to take out Dieter VDE. So after the single elimination I was in second place, hoping for some more wind and waves the next day to claim the victory ...
Day 2 ( saturday ) :
After high tide the wind kicked in and with a lot off extra competitors the competition started. Olivier pas made his was through 6 heats ( or more ? ) To claim a fifth place. I was checking the conditions out and preparing for my heat which was at the end of the ladder. Conditions didn't look to good for me as the wind wasn't that strong and the waves were still very small. My first heat I had to go against Roeland DR again, by this time the wind dropped again and had turned offshore ( which is really shitty here because of al the buildings ) I had to rig 4.7 again last minute and was able to pull of some Ok rides but struggled to get 2 jumps in as I wasn't able to plane out in between the waves... I went to the judging booth at that time to ask if they wouldn't change it down to 1 jump instead of 2 jumps because of the change in conditions, or wait a little for the conditions to improve again. They didn't do that but instead they made the heat 3 min longer. So again I was struggling to get anything decent in the final because of the shitty conditions. The last minute of the heat the wind kicked in pretty strong suddenly throwing me off balance on a super overpowered lightwind rigged 4.7. My rides weren't that bad actually but the conditions didn't allow me to show any good jumps... So Dieter won and hereby confirmed his first place ! After the heat I went for some freesailing on 4.3 which was a lot better and even extremely overpowered by the time it started getting later had some nice waverides and one good backloop. Too bad they didn't change the heat strategy according to the conditions or wait for better conditions...
Anyway it was a very nice weekend with a good vibe and a lot off nice people. It was a good call to get the competition on for friday and saturday according to the forecast. It's a shame that the forecast didn't deliver ( again !! ) ... I'm happy with my second place but kind off bummed that the final heats seemed to be doomed to be held in the worst conditions of the whole day. This isn't the official result for 2013 yet since there would be another event in the fall ( hopefully with better conditions ), both results would be put together to crown the champ !

Results after the Double elimination :

1. Dieter Van Der Eycken
2. Jonas Handekyn
3. Roeland De Rycker
4. Fabrice Devos
5. Olivier Pas

Here are some pictures , starting with the best shots:

Taka during my first heat on Friday ( pic by Patrick Kindt )

Checking the conditions on day 2.

In one of the last 2 heats on the final day on 4.7 down below there a Strobb of this taka !

The one above and below are the same ride ( above Patrick Kindt , below Jonas Roosens ) Lightwind 4.7 during the finals with small waves...

OH backie in my first heat on Friday ( when it was still windy enough )

In chronological order now : forward first heat Friday.

BS 360 with little air

Mini-backloop

throwing some spray before doing this taka down below

Probably the lowest backloop I've done in 3 years ...

This is the same taka as the second taka pic above, somehow my dad missed the money shot that Patrick Kindt did get on camera...

At the end of my last heat , suddenly super overpowered in a gust

Starboard News

Tiki Documentary: James Hooper and the NuEvo

Posted: May 12th, 2013, 8:10pm CEST

Starboard Presents: James Hooper and the......

Tatiana Howard's Offical Website

Surf Line

Posted: May 12th, 2013, 7:53pm CEST by Tatiana Howard

Surfline with the ladies! Fun times :) Go Paige Go!

Martin's Windsurf Blog

Good day Windsurf on my home spot Wijk aan Zee.

Posted: May 12th, 2013, 7:51pm CEST by Lampie

It been a while ago that I had a good windsurf, that because I didn't been windy and when it was windy I had to work. But the training traject what I started up in Tenerife continued along the US program Insanity thanks to Harco Importer Benelux who gave me the program.. It took me one round to find the feel off windsurf again and from there it was just full enjoy again. Enjoy the follow shot's off David van Eyk....

North-Windsurf.com – News Archive

Gunnar Asmussen dominating Rollei Slalom World Cup 2013

Posted: May 12th, 2013, 6:50pm CEST

Perfect conditions favoured the 2013 Rollei Slalom World Cup Summer Opening in Sylt (Germany). NorthSails team rider Gunnar Asmussen (GER-88) on his WARP F2013 clearly dominated both Slalom runs, much ahead of all other competitors, ending up new Slalom World Champion 2013!

Congratulations Gunnar!
Slalom World Champion 2013: Gunnar Asmussen

Posted: May 12th, 2013, 6:50pm CEST

Perfect conditions favoured the 2013 Rollei Slalom World Cup Summer Opening in Sylt (Germany). NorthSails team rider Gunnar Asmussen (GER-88) on his WARP F2013 clearly dominated both Slalom runs, much ahead of all other competitors, ending up new Slalom World Champion 2013!

Congratulations Gunnar!

AUS120.com™ - Sean O'Brien, Pro Windsurfer

PWA World Cup Korea

Posted: May 12th, 2013, 7:52am CEST by Sean OBrien

Korea! Delivering once again. It’s my 4th time to this beautiful country and this year it was the first slalom stop on the PWA World Tour. It can be an interesting event as not all of us (me not at all) have had the luxury of tuning up against anyone so it’s interesting to see where you stand after a summer (or European winter) of training on the new equipment. I had a somewhat stagnant event; kicked off with a good first round putting me in the prizemoney then collected some weed and missed a race in the next rounds which dropped me back 10 places and this is all the racing we finished throughout the entire event! This event was the first for Luke Baillie who I’m bringing on the tour this year coming from the RS:X Olympic Class windsurfing. Great to have more Australians competing and Luke has been a friend of mine for many, many, many years so it will radballs to have him on tour this year.

After the contest, a few of my buddies took off down to Busan, one of the largest cities in Korea right in the south and explored this crazy culture. We may not speak a word of Korea, but that did not stop us taking over the city for one weekend and visiting some amazing venues for some amazing adventures.

Windsurfing photos by PWA/Carter and the rest by me.

Starboard News

Starboard at the Irish Windsurfing Intervarsities 2013

Posted: May 12th, 2013, 2:10am CEST

The Irish Windsurfing Intervarsities 2013 took......

Markus Rydberg , S-313

Preparation

Posted: May 11th, 2013, 11:04pm CEST

Yo! Last week we had some nice wind here in Sweden but it has been super quiet since then. After being a month on Maui and being able to sail almost every day, it feels a bit frustrating when there is no wind. Well well, you need to take advantage of the ...

SurfNiels

Wind & Waves

Posted: May 11th, 2013, 10:28pm CEST

This weekend came to a great start , with waves pumping and howling wind. I managed to squeeze in 3 session within 12 hours... All smiles
Here is a little taste of what has been going down..

Kenneth Danielsen showing how its done on friday

Simon enjoying windy waves on friday

More Danielsen

Super fun saturday morning SUP session

More to follow

Starboard News

Freestyle Coach Opening at René Egli Center Fuerteventura

Posted: May 11th, 2013, 7:10am CEST

The René Egli Windsurfing Center in Sotavento,......
Défi Wind - Day 2 Report

Posted: May 11th, 2013, 3:10am CEST

On Day 2 of the Défi Wind 2013, a Tramontana......

MauiSails News

Podersdorf PWA 2013 Freestyle World Cup

Posted: May 10th, 2013, 2:04pm CEST

Taty Frans point of view on first freestyle event of the season.

surf-matic

foto friday

Posted: May 10th, 2013, 1:15pm CEST by Graham

The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

The Swap Meet is on Saturday

Posted: May 10th, 2013, 11:54am CEST by Michael

The swap is on Saturday. The weather might look marginal, but the goods are meant to get wet. Water sports! Begins 9AM. Contact Hampton Watersports for details 631-283-9463 (283-WIND)

Starboard News

Ulsan PWA Slalom World Cup: MENEGATTI WINS!

Posted: May 10th, 2013, 5:10am CEST

Day 6: A magic day for Menegatti and Jaggi as......

North-Windsurf.com – News Archive

Red Bull Windsurf Camp with Alice - watch the video

Posted: May 10th, 2013, 12:38am CEST

Check the detail of last weekend's RedBull Windsurf Camp with Alice Arutkin.

Learning with the pro's: 30 girls took part at the Camp at Sangatte Beach (France) where perfect wind conditions offered all participants an unique experience. Alice's professional coaching made all the girl's windsurfing skills improve immensely. Loads of fun on and off the water further proofed the camp being a full success!

Watch video and get more information here!
Red Bull Windsurf Camp with Alice - watch the video

Posted: May 10th, 2013, 12:38am CEST

Check the detail of last weekend's RedBull Windsurf Camp with Alice Arutkin.

Learning with the pro's: 30 girls took part at the Camp at Sangatte Beach (France) where perfect wind conditions offered all participants an unique experience. Alice's professional coaching made all the girl's windsurfing skills improve immensely. Loads of fun on and off the water further proofed the camp being a full success!

Watch video and get more information here!

Starboard News

Ulsan PWA Slalom World Cup: MENEGATTI WINS!

Posted: May 9th, 2013, 11:10pm CEST

Day 6: A magic day for Menegatti and Jaggi as......

Jonas Handekyn windsurfing blog

Quick update !

Posted: May 9th, 2013, 10:31pm CEST by Jonas Handekyn

Quick update about today session in Wissant and about whats going to go on the next day's ! Let's start with the good news, for the first time since 2010 the Belgian championship wave is on again !!! Tomorrow and Saturday the game is on. Now today was actually a very disappointing day , super small waves very gusty wind and super crowded ...
Anyway some shots from the session ( looks better than it was )

Hitting the (mini) lip

Checking my spray

Another lipper

Little forward in front of the camera

Taka strobbs

Well that was the action but I've spent a lot of time like this too...

Marcilio "Brawzinho" Browne

new MFC clip

Posted: May 9th, 2013, 6:48pm CEST by Marcilio "Brawzinho" Browne

MFC HAWAII from MFC HAWAII on Vimeo.

surf-matic

All Bags Aboard!

Posted: May 9th, 2013, 11:51am CEST by Graham

Traveling with board-bags sucks. Every step is a hassle—it’s basically like traveling with a set of living room furniture. Getting from point A to point B requires negotiation skills and a comfort with the absurd. The lessons learned apply to traveling with any kind of baggage or to any situation requiring negotiation—whether flirting at the bar or freeing hostages.

“You can fly with that?” Is the question I get asked when people see me with my windsurfing bags. Yes, yes we can. (Unless you want to fly British Airways… They don’t accept any kind of windsurf-board so do not fly them.) Note: Sometimes the airline agent behind the counter will say that your bags are too big for the plane—this is not true. But more on that later.

The first rule to learn is that there are basically no set rules on what surf bags are allowed and how much you should be charged for them. Suuuure, the website might be pretty clear on what the airline allows. And the agent’s computer behind the check-in desk is clear too. And so is the book of rules next to his computer. Buuuut, they all say different things.

In practice then, the size allowed and the cost charged depend on the kindness of the agent and how well you negotiate. Both are variables you can change. If the agent isn’t nice, find a new one and hope for better luck (ah! That’s why it’s important to arrive 3 hours before your flight). At first, you might think that newly hired agents are nicer or easier to negotiate a lower price with. This is not always true. Remember that niceness correlates with confidence. Often, new agents are insecure and don’t want to mistakenly allow a prohibited bag or undercharge.

Sometimes, two agents behind the same counter will have different interpretations of the baggage rules. I had an experience in Paris CDG airport 7ish years ago where the agent (~40 years old male) did not want to accept any of my boardbags. He said they were too big to fly on Air France.

I asked the woman (similarly aged) at the computer next to him if she knew about checking in windsurfing gear. She said in a thick French accent, “Yes! We do it all the time. It should be 200 euros.” The man was not happy with this.

They argued in French in front of me for a solid 15 minutes, after which the woman stormed off and the man told me that I could check in the bags but only if I paid 12 euros for every extra Kilo over the allotted baggage allowance. I was 95 Kilos over… That comes to 1140 euros for the excess baggage. All this for a nonstop flight to Lisbon that cost less than 300 euros roundtrip.

He printed the charge, and I was about to pay (what other choice did I have?) when the woman came back with a book of rules. Ah hah! She pointed out that the cost for sailboard bags was 200 euros.

The man was not satisfied (a reminder that logic/reason rarely works against someone who has made his mind up about how matters SHOULD end). The man and the woman argued in French for another 45 minutes. The boarding time for my flight came and went, and the line lengthened behind me.

When it seemed I would miss my flight, the man threw up his arms. Now it was his turn to storm off. The woman apologized to me for his behavior. She hurriedly charged me the 200 euros, handed me my boarding pass, and told me to run. I kept the original baggage charge as a souvenir.

A lessons learned? If the first agent you encounter is not reasonable, find another… don’t expect him to change. Applied to negotiation: 1) reason is not king; work with the person who is willing to make a deal, ignore the person who has already made up his mind.

But all this mess can be avoided in the US by using porters (unfortunately, porters are much rarer in European airports).

Porters are your new best friends. Sometimes adding a middleman is best—as is the case with Porters. Slip them a 20 upfront (or more depending on the number of bags you have). The first benefit is obvious: they relieve you of dragging those coffin bags through the crowds. The second benefit is less obvious but way more important: they can negotiate a better price for your gear. For a 40 dollar tip, I’ve avoided hundreds of dollars in excess baggage fees.

Be up front about it. Show the porter your bags, offer the tip, and say that you only want to pay X amount. These guys check in bags all day long—they’re pros. Mr. Porter knows the agents behind the counter and thus how to score a deal that you can’t.

A strange bit of human psychology: I’ve seen people who are too cheap to tip the porter, so they struggle with their massive bags through the airport, and then end up paying hundreds extra after a half hour hassle with the lady behind the counter.

Enter negotiation rules 2 and 3: 2) Familiarity matters; ie liaisons help. 3) Generosity given (an upfront tip, for example) generally leads to much better negotiations. (Gift giving is a sacred ritual in many cultures. Giving a gift creates an implied debt owed to the gift-giver.)

At the end of the day, persistence wins. On the way to a World Cup in 2009, Alex Mussolini and I were flying from Lisbon to Cabo Verde. We had checked in fine, but out of the plane windows we could see Alex’s bags lying untouched on the tarmac. Alex raised the issue with the head flight attendant. She told him that the bags were too big to take (I believe her… there must have been 20 pro windsurfers on that flight and all with mountains of baggage). He told her he needed the bags for a competition. It took some pleading on his part, but they eventually loaded the bags into the cabin, securing them over unused business class seats. < That is definitely not in any rule book, online or otherwise.

If the taxi or car driver says that your bags won’t fit, politely say, “Let’s just try” and proceed to show him how it’s done.

(And I should add: Playing the airline loyalty game helps a lot. The 3 free bags I get from being Gold status on Star Alliance carriers is gold. A lot of windsurfers find that United is the best option. )

Some Perks to Big Bags
Is there any plus side to carrying such plus-sized bags? Yes! They are a pain to steal.

What thief has the initiative or know-how to get away with the bags that I can barely lug around? If someone manages to carry my bags to a car and then fit them inside that car to drive off, more power to him. I can barely get around with my windsurfing bags and it’s my job.

Some years ago, a friend of a friend had his car parked in Manhattan overnight with all his windsurfing gear in the car. Thieves broke into the car. They stole the contents of the glove box, the stereo, and everything else in the car except his windsurfing gear. Ironically, the gear was probably more valuable than the car!

(However, the Canary Islands seem an exception; there, unwatched boardbags disappear.)

All Bags Aboard!
Everyone has baggage of one form or another. Sometimes that baggage isn’t in bags. I have a friend who learned how to surf before she knew how to swim. In the ocean and amidst swells, not knowing how to swim is as heavy a weight as any bag.

Having grown up in India before moving to America, she did not have swimming culture all around her, as is the case in most western countries. Yet, she was in Santa Cruz on a vacation and wanted to try surfing. And surf she did!

She booked a lesson from a local surf school—never letting slip that she didn’t know how to swim (I don’t advise anyone to try this). Without letting go of the board for fear of drowning, she fell in love with riding the waves and whitewaters.

Upon returning home to Boston, she promptly enrolled in swimming classes and bought a surfboard. She then trekked 2 hours each way on weekends in the summer for a chance to surf.

Eventually she moved to Maui. It’s a lot easier here.

I think of her story every time I grumble to myself about lugging around 200 pounds of windsurfing gear. My bags weigh nothing compared to the weight of not knowing how to swim during your first surf lesson.

Starboard News

Black Box 87 Carbon, WIND (France), May 2013 [EN-FR]

Posted: May 9th, 2013, 4:10am CEST

This test was featured in the May edition of......

Markus Rydberg , S-313

Covering the news paper

Posted: May 9th, 2013, 12:44am CEST

Yo! Today I was covering the news paper Hallands Nyheter, and a feature article about my windsurfing with focus on competitions and the PWA world tour. They will follow my season and write about my results after every competition. I'm stoked about this ...

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PWA Korea Day 5: Gonzalo Costa Hoevel Interviewed

Posted: May 8th, 2013, 11:10pm CEST

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Twisted

Posted: May 8th, 2013, 10:31pm CEST

Awesome shot made with a K4 harness mount

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ABK Clinic @ Tiana...you need to sign up soon!

Posted: May 8th, 2013, 1:44pm CEST by Michael

Andy Brandt and his merry crew of instructors are coming to Tiana next week (May 17-19) for three days of magnificent windsurfing instruction and fun. It's coming down to crunch time, meaning if you sign up now (and wait until...

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Cottonfield

Posted: May 8th, 2013, 11:03am CEST

The major scandinavian fashion brand Cottonfield has decided to support the danish surfcommunity
Big thumbs up !

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PWA Korea Day 4: Menegatti consolidates his lead

Posted: May 8th, 2013, 5:10am CEST

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Stand Up Journal

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Sarah-Quita Offringa, Royal Knight!

Posted: May 8th, 2013, 3:10am CEST

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Live to Sail

Relentless NE

Posted: May 7th, 2013, 7:12pm CEST

Its been blowing 25+ out of the NE-ENE since Friday. Unprecedented run for the first week of May.
Too busy in the shop for me to take advantage, although a small window did present itself sunday afternoon, but the wind was too onshore and had dropped below the required threshold imo to make it out in the onshore conditions. Ughh, But Monday was another story, just enough north in it to make easy enough power up on a relative beam reach and not have to pinch. I LOVE THIS SPOT. No problem getting out, despite the size resulting from straight days of STRONG onshore wind. Big rollers on the shoals, and getting more comfortable with the venue, beginning to explore more and get more aggressive.
too much fun guys

USA 4 Windsurfing Campaign

Blown off the water...

Posted: May 7th, 2013, 6:55pm CEST by Steve Bodner

It's been one of the windiest springs I can remember on the San Francisco Bay.
Last month we saw a week of 25k+ topped off by 2 days of 35-45k inside the golden gate.

I should have learned my lesson and just left the whole quiver of sails in the van as the sail you need most is always the one you've left behind in the garage.

That was the case again this past weekend at the Elvestrom Zellerback regatta at the St. Francis Yacht Club where it blew 25-35k on Saturday and most of the fleet, including myself got blown off the water.
I'd been practicing on the smaller formula set up the past few weeks but more or less wrote it off as it wasn't performing upwind against the formula board. On 3 different occasions, Percey, Soheil and myself lined up against the formula fleet on the ML13 and either 7.8 rig or 9.5 rig. The result always came back the same- great control in the breeze, flying offwind, good transitions but just not up to par upwind in terms of angle. The board is wicked fast at 89cm wide and a 71cm OFO. It performs more like a big slalom board than it does a formula board. I've never been so comfortable downwind, flying through the voodoochop than I have on this board. It seems to fly right over the chop staying in 5th gear longer and going more efficiently. It's really a pleasure to sail and when it wasn't coming up at the top on race days, I was a bit bummed.

I decided not to even pack the 7.7rig for the Elvestrom regatta as I knew it wasn't working and the forecast was only calling for 15-20k westerly.
Ha- big mistake.
My first run out 25 min before the first start saw a quick return to the beach to put on the smaller 64cm fin. The voodoo chop at the leeward gate was harrowing!
Just before the 1st start I went in to last chance beach to add another 1/2" of donwhaul when my downhaul pulley & webbing blew out form the sail.
I spent the next 20 min derigging and rerigging the 9.5 just to make it to the start of the 2nd race.
The wind had picked up from 20-25k and was now 30-35 with a solid sea state of swell and chop.
The dinghies still racing on our course were going down like flies.

Making any transition was almost out of the question.
It was pure survival sailing.

I wasnt as much trying to sail but trying to get back to the beach faster!
After just one upwind leg and failing to make the windward mark and having to quadruple tack the windward mark in a raging flood tide, I was done.
For one of the few times in my racing career, I simply gave up.
I wasnt the only one as more than 1/2 the fleet in all the classes had one or more DNF's on their scorecards on Saturday
You've got to have your kit tuned up to sail well in conditions like that, otherwise its a horrible experience- fighting the rig and constantly trying to depower.

If only, I had packed the ML13, 7.7 rig and a small fin- it would be another story!

The race is sometimes won before it even begins.

On the course side, Xavier was showing great form with his starboard 167, 60cm kashy fin and 7.8 NP RS racing rig. Tom and Al- both on North 9.3s and ML12s were also charging at the front of the fleet- looking comfortable on their smallest rigs.

Sunday- I showed up to the beach with every race sail in my quiver form 7.7 to 12.0 but didnt even get to use even one as the wind never cooperated and the sea breeze failed to materialize leaving the dinghies to be towed back to the dock and the boards never off the beach.

You win some.
You loose some.

www.stevebodner.com

Dieter Van der Eyken - B35

PWA Podersdorf, Austria

Posted: May 7th, 2013, 1:12pm CEST

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Hello everybody

Last month has been a real busy one! After Bonaire I was one week at home before I left to Sardinia for 2 weeks, one week of training and one week of teaching for the Next Generation Project but more about this on the website (ngp-windsurfing.com). The most important thing the past month was the PWA in Podersdorf which was the kick off of the season!

First of all it was great to see everybody from “The windsurf” scene again! The atmosphere was really good and you could see everybody was fully concentrated to get a good start of the season! Like last year it was again really warm and almost summer temperatures instead of the usual cold we get in Podersdorf and of course warm means South wind! One day, one single and one double done after 10 hours of competition, I never saw this before in the PWA and I don’t know if this is ever done before in PWA history but it was a good call as it was the only good windy day to compete in of the entire week!

For me it wasn’t the best day, I couldn’t find my rhythm in the heats and lost super close against Antony Ruenes again in the single leaving me in 9^th place after the single. In the double I could get a little bit more into the rhythm and was happy to advance every heat as the level of the other riders was extremely high making it always pretty close heats. I had one heat where I was happy with in the double and that was against Tonky Frans to get in the top 8^th luckily enough I shinned at the right moment. After that I met Bjorn Saragoza who sailed an amazing heat which left me without a chance of winning as I didn’t come close to my level again.

So all by all 7^th it’s not another 9^thplace again in Podersdorf but I know where I have to work on for Fuerteventura which will be a 7 day competition for Freestyle only (longest ever) so lots of heats will be sailed there! But first I still go to the EFPT in Russia where getting the Visa is a bigger travel than getting there, but at least I can say I’ve been to Russia, hope for some good wind there!

Cheers Dieter

Starboard News

Carve 131 Carbon, SURF (Germany), May 2013

Posted: May 7th, 2013, 3:11am CEST

This test, amongst many others, was featured......

leon jamaer

back to the future

Posted: May 6th, 2013, 10:32pm CEST

i found this single fin beauty in my parents garage the other day. my father bought it somewhere in the 60s in hawaii, tried to learn to surf on it and mostly failed. i guess because it is not exactly a beginners board. anyway, when my brother and i were teenagers we thought it would be sick for windsurfing in super strong winds and added a masttrack. luckily we never sailed it, it would have broken apart after the first chop. now, years later, my friend lennart and i figured it would be good to repair it and surf it after it had been lying dry for so long.

badly wounded

shaped by Mike Larmont - shaper of Lightning Bolt boards

unfortunately the stringer and foam cracked while sanding all the damage so the surgery was bigger then thought

even more badly wounded

any shaper would kill me for my repair techniques

carbon always helps

ready to carve!

Mathias Genkel

Light at the end of the tunnel

Posted: May 6th, 2013, 7:07pm CEST

For me, windsurfing is the best sport in the world. After what I have been going through these last five months, it has become even more obvious to me: nothing beats the feeling of planing full speed on a board. The gear might feel heavy and not very handy when lying on the beach or when you try to board a plane with huge boardbags. But as soon as your board starts to go fast, everything becomes light and the world feels right just as it is. So what am I talking about here? I should be mad about the fact that I hadn't been on the water for more than 3 months, that I couldn't practise the latest moves, that I've had a sore back for what feels like ages. But I'm not. I might go as far as to say that I even feel a bit stronger than I used to feel... especially mentally.
When my lower back started to become very sore towards the end of last year, I knew that I was in for quite a bit of trouble. Some doctors and physios told me to take it easy windsurfingwise. When I showed them some of the moves I was doing, they told me that with the state my back was in, these moves would be quite bad for me. So after the first MRT scan in December I continued windsurfing for two more weeks (because I just didn't want to stop) and then took a month's break. I then did a short trip to Lago di Garda.
The skopu is one of the few moves I can do even with a sore back as it involves nearly no twisting.
Try to be thankful for how beautiful the world looks like after a nice day on the water.
The pain wouldn't leave so I went to see another doc who told me to stay off the water for 3 months, which I did. The pain is still there and there were times when I really did not know how to deal with it. Fortunately, thanks to a friend, I met a really good physio last week. She gave me a huge amount of valuable advice. Everything starts to make more sense and I am working on beating the pain and getting fit again for windsurfing. Be it freestyle, wave riding or just cruising around watching the landscape, I think I will always be doing this sport. The injury I am still going through right now only makes me more passionate for this amazing sport.

I had a lot of fun cruising around on 5.2 today, doing some old school carving 360s. This is a webcam picture from addicted-sports.de which shows what the lake looked like when I was out today. See you on the water!

North-Windsurf.com – News Archive

3rd place for Pierre Mortefon at "Mondial du Vent"

Posted: May 6th, 2013, 2:49pm CEST

Congratulations to Pierre Mortefon for finishing 3rd place just behind Antoine Albeau and Cyril Moussilmani at the 2013 "Mondial du Vent" in Leucate (France).

Pierre just came back from training and NorthSails/FANATIC photshoot on Maui and suffered a jetlag the first day of competition. Now he's off to PWA Slalom in South Korea - good luck for that one Pierre!

Stay tuned!
3rd place for Pierre Mortefon at "Mondial du Vent"

Posted: May 6th, 2013, 2:49pm CEST

Congratulations to Pierre Mortefon for finishing 3rd place just behind Antoine Albeau and Cyril Moussilmani at the 2013 "Mondial du Vent" in Leucate (France).

Pierre just came back from training and NorthSails/FANATIC photshoot on Maui and suffered a jetlag the first day of competition. Now he's off to PWA Slalom in South Korea - good luck for that one Pierre!

Stay tuned!
Red Bull Windsurf Camp with Alice Arutkin

Posted: May 6th, 2013, 2:23pm CEST

The latest Coaching Camp with NorthSails team rider Alice Arutkin in cooperation with Red Bull is a full success!

Watch the images and visit the official site for further information.
Red Bull Windsurf Camp with Alice Arutkin

Posted: May 6th, 2013, 2:23pm CEST

The latest Coaching Camp with NorthSails team rider Alice Arutkin in cooperation with Red Bull is a full success!

Watch the images and visit the official site for further information.