The Speed Challenge 2012 starts

Most of the world best speed windsurfers will fight for new records from November 5th till December 2nd 2012. The organizers almost needed two years to prepare a better channel. Now all is prepared and big names like Antoine Albeau, Björn Dnkerbeck, Cedric Bordes, Hennie Bredenkamp or Martin Ogier will compete on the 8 meter wide artificial channel during the next 4 weeks. One of the newcomers in the fleet are Lena Erdil from Bodrum, Turkey, who calls herself a “Speed virgin” and the 32 year old Dutch rider Jurjen van der Noord, who actually leads the GPS Speedsurfing ranking with a top speed of 50.51 knots. He definitely knows the feeling to sail faster than 50 knots and that´s the main goal of all the guys, who are participating in the this year´s Speed Challenge at Lüderitz, Namibia. Read more about Jurjen plans below! Let´s see, how he will fight with the big names of the scene.He definitely has the right sizes with 197 cm and 99 kg bodyweight. Good luck!

 

The artificial channel at Lüderitz, Namibia in progress.

 

Jurjen van der Noord will attack world record speedsurfing in Namibia, Africa

Dutch windsurfer Jurjen van der Noord (32) will attack the standing World Record in speedsurfing. From the 9th to the 22nd of November this year, hailing from Friesland, northern Netherlands, the currently leader in the GPS world ranking will go at it with the best of the best in global speedsurfing in Africa. Jurjen has already approached the world record (90 km/h) three times earlier this year, and during the annual speed event in the Namibian coastal town of Lüderitz, he will attempt to break through that barrier.

 

Jurjen trains at his homespots in Holland (Pic: Angelo Pecere The ghosts of Speed’).

 

The current record is held by Frenchman Antoine Albeau with 49,09 knots at 500 m. Although Van der Noord combines his sport with a full-time profession, he is seen as one of the very few who is able to go over the 50 knot barrier (almost 93kmh). 2012 he already broke his own records three times: In June he even went over the mystical 50 knots with a small margin, but official GPS regulations demand that this average speed has to be maintained over a length of 500 meters.

 

99 kilogramms plus a weightjacket in 40knots+ (Pic: Angelo Pecere ‘The ghosts of Speed’).

 

To achieve that goal, Jurjen joins the world’s elite in kite- and windsurfing from all over the world in Namibia. The International event has not seen as much participants as it currently will have in years, and Lüderitz will dish up ideal conditions with a constant 8 to 9 beaufort and a 1 kilometer, 8 meter wide channel, under the perfect wind angle, allowing windsurfers to accelerate to an absolute maximum.

 

With top speed on a run (Pic: Angelo Pecere “The ghosts of Speed”).

 

 

Van der Noord’s gear is supplied by Starboard en Severne and both sail and board manufacturers have tuned the gear to an inch of its life to help Jurjen go as fast as he possibly can. Van der Noord has been around for some time in speedsurfing in 2006 he dedicated himself to speedsurfing as much as possible. Thanks to recent developments in GPS technology more and more windsurfers are drawn to the kick of going as fast as humanly possible. The admins at gps-speedsurfing.com currently maintains over 5.000 active member profiles worldwide including an impressive collection of personal speedrecords by every member.

 

Jurjan´s prototype sail for the big days.

 

Because of the Dutch’s relationship with elements, and the abundance of wind and water, the Dutch are a force to be reckoned with in the world rankings.

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