Speedsurfing BLOG

Olympic games - Windsurfing is out

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Sun, 06 May 2012 07:44:00 +0000

I just signed the petition. If you like to see windsurfing as Olympic Discipline vote here, this is the latest tiny little chance and now we need any passionate windsurfer to vote. It is not only about if you like RSX or not, but think about fellow windsurfers who's discipline is now gone. The decision has been made kitesurfing is in & windsurfing is out, this is the last small chance. I say lets find way more than 2000 votes! Share and sign the petition.

Change.org : ISAF: Keep Windsurfing as Olympic Discipline petition

Mondial Du Vent 2012

noreply@blogger.com (IRL-250) — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:03:00 +0000

Checkout a video of the Mondial Du Vent Speed event that was held recently in the South Of France

Sandy Point - Australia video - This is speedsurfing

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 06:51:00 +0000

Sandy Point - A Speedsailors Dream from Windsurf Australia on Vimeo.

2012 European Speed Tour

noreply@blogger.com (IRL-250) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:38:00 +0000

The 2012 European Speed Tour dates have just recently been released. There is only 4 events this year unfortunately but with the current world wide financial situation making it hard to get financial backing for events we have to be grateful that we have the 4 events that have been organised. Hopefully in the coming years we will see more money being available and see a return of the full speed world cup tour. The events confirmed and unconfirmed are below:-

Class	Title	Pricemoney	Factor	Supporting Documents	Status
ISWC BABC	FANATIC / NORTH Powered by Sonntag Gruissan Speedweek Gruissan, France 8/4/12 until 13/04/12	0 €	1.0	Contact patrick.vanhoof@skynet.be	Taking entries
ISWC VDS	German Championship Fehmarn/Germany 8th to the 15/16th Sept	0 €	1.0	Contact Roswitha.Merle@tiho-hannover.de; *Speed Weed fins Required*	Taking Entries soon
ISWC	Irish Championships	0	1.0	TBC
ISWC UKWA	British Championships Weymouth, England 6th to the 12th Oct	0 €	1.0	WSW 40th Anniversary Year Contact www.speedsailing.com	Confirmed

You can also see the events on the Speed World Cup website here and further information on the Speed World Cup events

ODYSSEY of SPEED 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 07:54:00 +0000

Karpathos, Greece

01.06.2012 – 30.08.2012
Notice of Race (Ver. 1.0)

The Event
As the event includes various disciplines (challenges) of speed/slalom surfing, the event is named as the Odyssey of Speed; in the tradition of the ancient Greek hero Odysseus, who had severaladventures to overcome.

The philosophy of this challenge should be to bring together people from around the world, which enjoy the same passion of windsurfing in strong winds at high speeds. Therefore the participation is open for everyone in the windsurfing community from all skill levels from fun sailors up to serious including professional level.

Rather than focussing on maximum speed only, the Odyssey of Speed is dealing with various
disciplines of speed/slalom surfing. By this way we would like to motivate also the 'normal' Greek
Summer windsurfers to get involved, who might be reluctant to compete on pure and specialized
speed events and/or who might not have the highly specialized equipment. This year we will also
have a dedicated ranking for those competitors, which are competing with non-speed equipment
(see details below).

The Odyssey of Speed will be based on current GPS-measuring standards and rules. Due to
generous sponsoring we will have LOCOSYS GT-31 GPS Units incl. waterproof AQUAPAC cases
available on-site for renting at no cost. We also try again to have attractive offers available on-site
for purchasing the GPS equipment.

Finally our sponsors are giving very attractive prizes for the winners of the event.

KARPATHOS 2012
Location
The Odyssey of Speed will take place on the island of Karpathos, Greece.
The island of Karpathos is famous for its steady and strong wind conditions in summer and also
well known from past World Cup events and championships in Speedsurfing. The three bays of
Afiartis named Paradise, Gun and Chicken Bay are the perfect location offering various kinds of
windsurfing conditions, plenty of space on the water and perfect infrastructure at the various surf
stations.

However, the event shall not depend on a certain location and venue, except sailing in the waters
of Karpathos.

Date
The Odyssey of Speed will take place from the 01.06.2012 until 30.08.2012.

Website
www.odysseyofspeed.org

Close footstrap position best? Read this and think again

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:37:00 +0000

If you think the smaller distance between front and backfootstrap the better, read this and think again. Maybe adjusting stance on boards is not always the best solution...

Making the distance smaller between footstraps is kind of like getting in a racecar, move the carseat in front position. Now you don't have to push the pedal because your right foot is pushed on full thottle, might be fine on the straight/flat. But full throttle in every corner or bump you will lose your advantage and I hope you can find some way not to lose grip and crash the car. Corners and bumps happen quite a lot is real windsurf conditions, straight racetracks on the water are rare.

First thing to know, for speed its way more important to keep the backfootstrap in most rear position. The distance between footstraps comes second, having hard time keeping your front foot in the strap can also often be found by sailtype. For example the extreme neilpryde rsr has not so much front footpressure, (you need closer stance compared to others, even sometimes the board needs to be adjusted and you need to make new footstrap positions...). Other cases like my severne reflex (especially the first one) had loads of frontfoot pressure, I actually had to make the stance 5cm wider compared to a NP. For the real speedaddicted windsurfer you could try adjust your sailtype by changing mast bendcurve- stiffness, but collecting 100% masts is quite an expensive hobby...

HINT: If you like to sail with a very very very small sail, trimmed very very very powerful (like Martin van Meurs). You're most likely the guy having problems with a to wide stance.

2nd HINT: Well if your frontfoot is still flying, no matter which sail you take... Try a smaller fin, or try to give the fin more rake

3th HINT: Still problems huh? Now if you like to sail with the harnasslines exactly on the right spot this might be the problem. Its easier/better to move the harnasslines just a touch to the back..

4th HINT: Oh no, your frontfoot is still not touching down and making the ride NO FUN? Maybe you're just that unlucky guy and 1 or 2 parts of your quiver absolutely don't match for your weight/size... Well easiest (and often cheapest) is just to try something else. Shit happens, sorry.

PRO-style: The real PRO speedsurfer has ofcourse 2 ways (you need a lot of equipment to achieve this):

- very very very small sail, trimmed very very very powerfull ; just in case there water is easy (chopless) and going straight downwind is the only thing to do there.

-normal trim, let say 7.0 optimized in a windrange from 18-28kn. Just to blast away from everyone on tight courses 70-110 degrees.

Hungry for even more? Where does this problem flying front feet come from? The placement of center of effort of the sail, read more here

West Kirby fires for the second time in January

noreply@blogger.com (Redsurfbus) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:11:00 +0000

This time it was only the British, which is to be expected really as the forecast was not great. There were however some really great performances by Portland Pirates members Jim Crossley and Ian Richards. Zara Davis also broke her own World Speed record for Women. The wind was broader than Jan 3rd when records were smashed, which means considerable rolling swell towards the end of the 10 second run. This is what makes Jims 10sec average speeds remarkable.

Untitled from Chris Bates on Vimeo.

Jim rides for PuraVida Boardriders on Fanatic and North, but also has a Custom Moo which was born from the same cow as Steve Thorps world beater. It was this board that has put Jims abilities well and truly up there with the best. He scored a 5x10sec average of 45.08knots which means another UK rider is up there in the fun rank top ten. It looks like the visits from the Dutch big hitters has really boosted our performances, and maybe given a little confidence boost to the West Kirby crew that it is possible to compete with the best anywhere in the world.

Ian was using his old 2006 Fanatic Falcon Speed and a 2006 NP RS6 managed the peak of the day, with a 2sec of 47.59knots. Its great for both these guys as they have worked so hard over the last couple of years. Ian has literally travelled to the moon and back in terms of distance to score his sessions, while Jim missed out on the big day earlier this month.

Zara used her trusted Simmer SCR 5.5 and the new Mistral Speed 42 (an interesting board without a doubt) to become the first woman officially in the 40knot club with an average of 40.99 knots and a 2 sec max of 43.78. The gap is definitely closing now and we all hope this will inspire more women into this side of the sport. Her husband Pete Davis also went on to gain a PB with an average of 41.22knots.

If heineken made windsurfing sails....
Photo by Karen McBarrons

The day even tempted kite speed champ Dave Williams back on the poles again and he too joined the 40club. My Hot Sails Maui team mate Jon White smashed his PB max with a max of 42.92 but just missed out on the 40 average. Both of these two have only attempted this at West Kirby a couple of times so it goes to show how high their skill level actually is to get such great speeds.

The winds look to be backing off here in the UK with a swing to colder north to east possible at the weekend. Here is wishing everyone a nice relaxing break ready to dominate the world scene again next month.

Good speed and winds
'The Bus'

New quiver for 2012 and plans for reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Redsurfbus) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 08:01:00 +0000

Happy new year to all of you speedsurfers. It was a great start to the year with sessions across western Europe and many people scoring PB's within the first 3 days. West Kirby fired and many of you will have already read my report on it. For myself it was a great start as I received my new boards from Ian Kraft (Surfkraft) who is the UK agent for Exocet. The boards I have chosen to start my new quiver off are; the RS4, their full dedicated slalom board 69cm wide and 111l; and the SL Sport 78cm 129l. These boards are just the start, I intend to complement them with the smaller RS2 and RS1 (90l, 59cm and 80l, 54cm) once I have saved up enough pennies.

Martyn Ogier closing on 50knots on the HOT Sails GPS 5.5m

The reason for the board choice I made is this year I am entering the slalom and representing Exocet, Hot Sails Maui, Black Project fins and Windtek (local shop in Weymouth). The SL Sport is one of the boards that I reviewed last year, and I really enjoyed using it, it is a detuned slalom board that they call 'freerace'. A wolf in wolfs clothing more like, it is basically their older Warp with a nice red sanded back to carbon finish. For such a large board it is great fun to ride, and feels fast, gybes fast and will get me out with a nice 8.8m Hot Sails GPS in the lightest of winds.

The RS4 is a thing of beauty as well, my second session on it took me to just under 33knots (bear in mind that I have only peaked over 33 knots on 5 different sessions ever, and always on smaller kit). It is light, rides low/flat to the water giving a constant feeling of powered up control. I wrote my first feelings about the board in an article here.

Exocet RS4 69cm 111l board.

These boards will be powered by the Hot Sails GPS in sizes 8.8 - 8.0 - 7.3 - 6.6 - 6.0 - 5.5 which I think is a perfect spaced quiver, allowing for pairing of alternate sizes. What I mean is when the 8m gets too much then the 6.6 will be perfect etc, of course this depends on conditions but I do think it gives a lot of options making the choice of sail easier.

Exocet SL Sport 78cm with Black Project Type R and S Fins

The fins I will be using are Black Project in sizes from 50cm down. My current quiver is shown in the picture, I need to add to this over time with some more Speed (Type S 26.5 and 24) and to fill in a couple of gaps for the Slalom/Race (Type R 50cm). They also do a Type X which is their custom Asymmetric speed rated fin, in sizes 40, 45 and 50 knots for Port or Starboard, I cant wait to have a go on one of these later this year, Pete Young scored a PB peak just over 48knots last week using their Type X 45.

This now brings me to the point of this article. What I want is some advice on how to use this to develop and train my Slalom technique before the British Slalom series starts at Easter Weekend. I have never raced slalom, I have only tried racing friends on my local salty lake so I am starting this from scratch. I am going to run a series of articles as I get to know the kit, and how my technique is developing over time to suit the Hot Sails GPS and Exocet Boards and how to get the most out of them. This will be both in a review format and a critique of my development in terms of speed and slalom sailing. What would you like to read about? What questions can I answer that would tempt you to have a go on this kit and try it out? Feel free to ask either through the comments on here or email me - redsurfbus@gmail.com.

Good speeds and winds

'The Bus'

Ghosts of speed

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:19:00 +0000

A speedsurfing documentary in the making, just look at the first video and be amazed :)

by: Angelo Pecere & Jeffrey Leeflang
facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/282849708418975/

A Dark Speedsurfing in Strand Horst from Angelo Pecere on Vimeo.

new KA race 2012 action

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:56:00 +0000

Awesome windsurf photo's Jeffrey Leeflang -For me the 1st time to see the new KA race and its looking great! Photo's token at Strand Horst, the Netherlands

Dirk Doppenberg -NED51

Dirk Doppenberg-NED51

Most promising speed product for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:02:00 +0000

Well I like to know the latest developments in windsurfing, especially speedsurfing. In 2010 the idea of the reflex battens of Severne was definitely something I thought that stood out. This year it was the year of "the widebase", loads of brands added such a design which must be a good sign, a good development which was started by C3 (boogie and Martin van Meurs/ correct me if I am wrong).

For 2012 I didn't see something exciting in fins or sails, at least not the most exciting. BUT we have 2 strong contenders in designing boards. And both have total different reasons why they are soo promising!!

Mistral goes WILD

With Chris Lockwood + Anders Bringdal responsible for the products I already get excited. 2012 new slalom and speed boards, yeah. Chris doing 40kn on 68cm model in onshore conditions! Anders did fastest GPS session ever!! The 91 liter slalomboard isn't too bad either. Pretty much really good proof of something special. Lets hope retail prices are OK, and the speed recipe for success done. I hope to see some detailed pictures from speedsurfingblog author Alastair his mistral boards soon!

Dutch craziness by mXr windsurfing

Finally a real dutch brand for speedsurfers. And it doesn't stop with the fact of starting a complete new brand in windsurfing. The designs are completely a new chapter of windsurfing, making blistering combination of several inventions from different types of watersports. Steps, widetail, you name it...

A brave mission when you put all the facts in a row. I enjoy to follow Martin van Meurs & Ron vd Berg their journey to new products.

According to the windsurfing.NL page the mXr monster boards will also be produced by Simmer. So here is another contender which should be available for 2012 retail!!

See this session where Serge Beumer breaks all his personal records with the mXr speedproto

And honestly I can't choose my favorite having owned Carbon Art (Chris Lockwood designs) and also being dutch and sailing on regular basis with the guys behind mXr windsurfing.

If you like, vote for the most promising 2012 product, mXr or mistral and lets see:

Great Article in Windsurfer International

noreply@blogger.com (Redsurfbus) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 02:13:00 +0000

Peter De Wit explains the Slingshot in the e-published Windsurfer International.
I know many of you reading this will already understand what he talks about, I just wish I could have read this last year when I started on the speed journey. Link here - http://www.windsurfermag.com/magazine/windsurf-speed-sailing-slingshot/?params=MjR8Mjg0fDA=

Also I have done a small news article on redsurfbus.com, with links to the recent Luderitz videos and some plans for the bus next year. Here - http://www.redsurfbus.com/2011/11/november-news-in-brief.html. If anyone comes to visit Portland Harbour in 2012 we are holding a speed ladder for the year, prizes are yet to be decided but there will be many. Please feel free to email me for further information should you come and join us - redsurfbus@gmail.com

Looks like we will be in for some good winds towards the end of next week here in Western Europe, lets hope there is enough for all as the forecast currently cannot make its mind up. There is a lot of high pressure over the continent at the moment which seems to be blocking the South Westerly flows from the Atlantic. It is better than last year though, I remember that there was only a bit of wind in the first week of November, then nothing until the new year.

Good speeds and winds
The Bus

Interview - Manfred Fuchs

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:11:00 +0000

This post guest-editor is Herman Maes and uploaded to speedsurfingblog by Erik.

As a first post on speedsurfingblog.com I want to give some credits on one of the persons who are making the whole gps speed revolution so much easier, by providing gps-results (gps-speed.com). Manfred Fuchs is the German developer of this gps analyzing software and the PRO version is used to organizing almost all gps speed competitions in Europe.

Manfred, can you give the readers a small introduction?

I started windsurfing on some small lakes and later on the island of Fehmarn in the early ‘80th when I studied Physics in Göttingen. In 1986 I moved to Hamburg to work for Philips Research with the advantage of being much closer to both North and Baltic Sea. Later I competed in speedsurfing events in northern Germany, Denmark, and Fuerteventura. There I first met Martin van Meurs and some other Dutch speedies that came to the german speedweeks.

Within the german speedsurfing association I became responsible for the video timing, first cable based, later with wireless transmission and developed evaluation software for it. My programming skills started with Fortran, Basic, and Assembler, nowadays I’m working mainly on Windows PCs with Microsoft Visual Studio in C and less frequently on Macs with XCode.

Sponsors: North Sails, Lessacher Fins
Profession: Physicist, Software Developer
Hometown: Hamburg, Germany
Favorite surfspots: Büsum, Fehmarn, Römö

At the start of the gps-revolution we had to work with gartrip and later the French software gpsar was released (using the java-framework). GPS-results was released in 2008, is this correct? What did you decide to make your own gps analysis software?
We used GPS units first for measuring the length of the 500m courses. I brought some Garmin units from the US where they were much cheaper as compared to Germany and started to write a program to read the saved trackpoints via their serial interface. This ended in the early version of GPSResults in 2005, when Markus Schwendtner asked for a faster and easier to use GPS-evaluation software as compared to was available at that time. Knowing Martin van Meurs and finding out more about his project GPSSpeedSurfing further pushed the development. When I realized the reason for the grid effect of the early Garmin units (truncated precision) I looked for units that are better suited for our purposes. When the Aussies came up with the idea of using Dopplerspeed measurements for better accuracy I supported this develpoment in the techgroup of GP3S.

Being myself an IT programmer I know how many hours you can work on a new software release. Could you for how long you worked on the first real version of gps-results?

Difficult to guess, but maybe 300 hours…

It's remarkable on the website gps-speedsurfing.com that the online gps speedsurfing world is dominated by the northern European countries (The Netherlands, UK, Germany, Sweden,...). Do you have also that impression seeing the use of your software?

Yes, this is maybe due to most flat water spots with string enough winds being located in those areas - not to forget the Aussies…

Are there still big improvements foreseen for gps-results? (tablet-version?)
We would need tablets with an SD-card reader to get the GPS-data in. The Android based units have such an interface, whereas the iPads are limited to read jpg-pictures from cameras. So most probably I will start with porting the application to Android tablets…

Last september you broke your personal gps-records. Do you have specific goals in your head or is the big 50 also for you the Holy Grail?

As long as I can improve my personal bests from year to year I’m fine. However, the magic 50 is very tempting of course, but that would require the perfect day with strong winds (that we did not have here for a long time), right angle, flat water, and temperatures above 10 degrees…

With Vollerwiek and Buesum you've also some very fast speedspots in germany which are already 50 knots approved. What would be your perfect day to break the 50 knots on those spots?
See above, the problem with the tidal spots is that so many parameters have to match, most important besides wind speed are water level and wind angle. When it blows for several days the tideways do not show up anymore since the whole area is flooded, so it has to be a fast low-pressure system coming to the right (day) time. The directions are very limited and if the wind is too square the water is mirror flat but good speeds are not possible. Same is true if it is too broad, because then the rolling chop prevents super fast runs.

It must be a good feeling to see, that most of the European speed contests this year where using your gps-results pro software especially created for running gps speed competitions. Compared with some years ago, a big investment into the video timing equipment isn't needed anymore. How is your view on this (r)evolution for organizing speed contests?

In the last years all speedsurfing competitions I’m aware of in Germany, Holland, Sweden, Belgium, and England were done with GPS technology and GPSResults Pro. It is so much more flexible and easier to evaluate that in my opinion the video-timing age is over. Only official 500m record attempts are still performed with video-timing as GPS would require a higher sampling rate (10Hz instead of 1Hz) for that purpose.

GPS-results is the leading gps analysing software which is available for PC and mac-users and can be tested with the 30 days evaluation version. More information can be found on gps-speed.com.

About Herman Maes

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 07:58:00 +0000

On speedsurfingblog.com: Guest-Editor
Expertise: Speedsurfing in Belgium, blog-trends
Contact: herman@dailybits.be

What does speedsurfingblog.com means to Herman?
I think I was one of the first contacts of Erik to help him setting up speedsurfingblog.com. Giving him some tips about how to start blogging and using which available tools.

Since 2002 I'm already a personal blogger. My dutch-speaking blog dailybits.be now attracts between 300-500 daily visitors and acts as a perfect test playground to test all new social media/Seo-tactics.

I did regret it very hard that speedsurfingblog.com was almost stopped because of the lack of time for Erik and with the multiple author-concept, I hope we can bring this site again some new energy.

Stats and Numbers
• lenght: 1.90m
• weight: 90kg
• Sponsors: www.dailybits.be
• education: Bachelor Information management + Master Industrial engineer Electronics/ICT
• birthdate: 03-05-1982
• sailingstyle: I do prefer more the 90L-days then the lowwind days and for that reason my biggest sail is now a 7.8m² and on the lowwind days I now prefer to go sailing.
• Hometown: Near Antwerp, belgium
• Homespots: Grevelingen-lake and Oesterdam

Personal Records:
2sec max : 69.7km/h (last speedsession I got 4 runs in with a 2sec max of +69km/h arrghhhh)
500m gps: 63.9km/h
Avg gps: 65.3km/h

Some History
As an industrial engineer, I was already interested when the first gps-stories from the Dutch guys in 2004 appeared on windsurfing.nl. I purchased a Garmin Foretrex and on 1/9/2004 I recorded my first gps session at the small lake nearby my home. At that moment I couldn't even use the footstraps properly. ;-)
Since then I recorded 207 gps-sessions and every year I'm going up in the Belgian rankings. I'm know for my gps-knowledge in the Belgium windsurf-world, so weekly I'm getting questions by mail/phone about problems with their setup or how they can save results from a blocked gps.

However this year I also learned that gps numbers are not the only thing in windsurfing. This year my girlfriend/fiancée is starting to plane and she is getting confident using her harness. Having some super sessions together this year was the real windsurf-highlight for me this year.

(My girlfriend in action)

Introduction To Alastair Nichol, the Speedsurfing Blogs Latest Author

noreply@blogger.com (IRL-250) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 23:56:00 +0000

I’m very happy to accept Erik’s kind offer to become an author here on the Speedsurfing blog so i’ll introduce myself. My names Alastair Nichol and I first started windsurfing in 1984 age 12 and very quickly i caught the bug for the sport. For the next few years i continued to progress and improve my skills spending any time i could on the water. At 14 i started to compete on Raceboards on the local regional windsurfing series in the North East of England in the 1986 where i achieved 1^st place in the Junior fleet. In 1987 i made the step up to the youth fleet where i achieved 1^st place in the Youth fleet that year and also successfully achieved the same 1^st place in 1988 and 1989. In 1989 i decided to become a windsurfing instructor to pass on my skills and love of the sport to others being employed at a windsurfing school in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire in 1990. The same year i decided to compete in the under 19 championship where in my first National completion achieved 2^nd place in the Newcomers Division which i was very happy with.

From then i decided to concentrate on teaching windsurfing and windsurfing for fun until i moved to my current location on the West Coast of Ireland in County Kerry where i competed in Slalom at Jamie Knox Watersports where i gained 3^rd place in the slalom series in 1997 & 1998 and then 2^nd place in 1999. In 2000 an injury to my back forced me to stop windsurfing until i was sent for training with work to Portland, Oregon, USA in 2005 and i decided to travel over to the Gorge and try it again and see if my back was able to handle windsurfing again. Thankfully i came through that windsurfing session with flying colours and i bought myself some new windsurfing kit then and there.

For the next few years i just sailed for fun until 2007 where i competed in the Irish National Championships where i gained 4^th place overall in the Masters fleet. Soon after this i discovered Speedsailing, bought a GPS and in 2008 competed in my first Speedsailing event at the Irish National Speedsailing Championships where i gained 7^th place overall. With this result i successfully gained a place at the Speed World Cup Production World Championships held at Dungarven in Ireland where unfortunately due to lack of wind no Speedsailing took place but i still was able to finish 60^th overall in the Speed World Cup rankings in my first year competing at International events.

In 2009 i again competed in the Irish Speedsailing Championships where i managed to improve my overall result and finished 4^th overall. I also competed on the Speed World Cup at the European Championships in Dungarven, Ireland finishing 19^th Overall which gave me a Speed World Cup ranking of 102^nd for 2010.

In 2010 i again competed in the Irish Speedsailing Championships where i finished 4^th overall and on the Speed World Cup finishing 69^th overall in the Speed World Cup Rankings. Also In 2010 after watching the Raceboard scene for the past couple of years i decided to dust of my old Raceboard to start competing again on Raceboards, travelled across to the UK where I competed in the UKWA inland series, finishing the year 17th overall (2nd Raceboard Unlimited Fleet & 4th Master) which considering i last set foot on a Raceboard 20 years ago i was very happy with.

In 2011 i decided to invest in the current Raceboard of choice, a Starboard Phantom and made the goal of finishing in the top 10 in the UKWA Inland series which i am happy to say i achieved after competing at all 5 events where i finished 10^th Overall (1^st Raceboard Unlimited Fleet & 3^rd Master) in the UKWA Inland Rankings. The Irish Speedsailing Championships is ongoing at present with the first 3 rounds cancelled due to lack of wind but recently we have managed to complete 2 events where each event is a 2 day event and each day i classed as a seprate round and i have managed a couple of 3^rd places so hopefully come the end of the year i will achieve my goal of finishing in the top 3 of the 2011 Rankings. Unfortunately due to financial restrictions i have not been able to attend any Speed World Cup events so have no World Ranking this year but hopefully if i am able to get funding i can attend some events in 2012.

For the future my goals are to achieve a consistent top 3 position in the Irish Speedsailing Championship, Improve my overall position in the UKWA Inland Championships and improve my Speed World Cup Ranking. I also have set myself the goal to break the 40 knot barrier and i know I am capable of this figure given the right conditions.

I hope you enjoy what i will contribute towards the Speedsurfing Blog in the coming future and you can catch up with all my latest news on my own website www.irl-250.blogspot.com and if you have questions or need any advice on any of the Speedsailing Equipment i use please let me know.

My current recorded GPS speeds (Verified) are :-

5 x 10 Average 34.33 Knots Max. GPS (display) 36.2 knots Max. 2 sec. (software) 36.12 knots
Max. 10 Sec. Run 35.47 Knots 100 m run 35.75 knots 250 m run 35.24 knots 500 m run 33.77 knots

Alastair

IRL-250

Sponsored By – Ka Sails, Mistral, Chinook, Pro Motion Wetsuits, Vector Maui Fins, Wind & Wave, MCPM, Windsurfingfins.co.uk, Curve Surf Products

Introduction to 'The Bus'

noreply@blogger.com (Redsurfbus) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:20:00 +0000

Weymouth Speed Week 2011, 33.5knots max on Exocet SL sport 66cm
with 37.5 cm Back Project type R fin and 7.6 Tush X15 sail
Result: 2nd place Novice. Picture taken by Dave White.

This feels quite strange, writing about myself on someone elses website is not something I am used to at all. My name is Lea Spencer, and I have the Redsurfbus (website and van!). Over the past 12 months I have developed my website from a small 'diary' type blog into something similar to this, with the intention of working together with Erik, Patrick and anyone else who would care to help. Last week I finished my first speed competition and came 2nd in the novice ranks, the write up is here.

In my day job I teach mathematics to 11-16year olds but currently I am off work due to having blood that likes to clot. This caused a heart attack back in Feb'10 and multiple pulmonary emboli (lungs full of blood clots) in Aug'11. There is a lot more information here - '1000nmi Challenge'. The original illness along with inspiration from a windsurfing friend made me decide to raise money for the British Heart Foundation this year and windsurf 1000nautical miles. At about the same time that I was setting it all up (apx 1 year ago) I was invited to join the Portland Pirates on the GPS Team Challenge. Not because of my skills as a windsurfer/speedsurfer more through my commitment to get on the water in any wind.

Preparing for some Exocet Sl Sport, XO Sails,
and Black Project fin Kit reviews

My windsurfing is at intermediate level, but perhaps I am being hard on myself there as I can hold my own against a lot of other average ability windsurfers. In terms of speedsurfing I am a complete novice but I am very committed and willing to learn. I did my first uphaul about 6 years ago, with only a few sessions per year for the first 3, then the bug really bit and in the past 3 years I have been on the water about about 250times, sometimes for the whole day so my progress has been quite good recently. My PB's include a 35knot 2 sec, a 25.9knot NM, and a 201km distance session, all done this year and all hopefully broken by the end of this year.

Now to the important part, and this is not about me, it is about all of you who read this. Our sport is growing, that can be seen by the increase in popularity of the GPS Team Challenge and the GPS-Speedsurfing.com rankings. Also you can see that the manufacturers are producing more dedicated speed/slalom kit, especially with all this new 'free-race' kit that is coming onto the market. This is comfortable kit for the weekend warrior to get some blistering speeds, to them and some of us 30knots is just as good as 45knots is to the top guys. What I want to do is report on it, from across the whole 'spectrum' of abilities. Every dedicated speedsurfer deserves some recognition for pushing their personal limits each and (nearly) every session. Being new to the scene myself I remember what it was like very clearly to get that 30knot average, it would be nice if some of you could email us your memories of that and we will publish it. How did you learn? What inspired you, or how did you get the bug for the sport?

Both on this website and mine we can publish these amazing stories and each one will inspire and help others to achieve their goals in the sport. I see this website as a lot more technical than mine, probably due to Eriks better abilities on the water and his dedication in sharing tips about how to do it. My website will report on great sessions, and general news from around the world. This is a small but growing community and I have no intention of copying other peoples work, I want to work with all of the established media and add a little of my eccentricity.

I hope you enjoy reading the articles I will add to both this site and my own and wish you all good speeds and winds.
Lea 'The Bus' Spencer

Rolling Chop on superbroad courses

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Miller) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:47:00 +0000

All speedsurfers know downwind is faster than halfwind and going deep downwind is often faster than surfing only 10-20° off-wind. Okay, but what are we doing in reality?
If you have a free area you can stay halfwind to build up pressure in your sail and then you turn downwind and make your Run. Many speedsurfers are going 30°-40° off-wind, even more is possible (and very fast) but it becomes really technical. Sounds good, but there are very limited spots where you can go really fast and sail the course you like.

Mostly you are surfing along a sandbank, a wall or something like that. Behind these banks the water is normaly really flat and perfect for speedsurfing, but it is really important in which angle the wind blows to the bank. We like to go downwind, but sometimes the wind blows halfwind or only a few degrees downwind. The water is now superflat behind the bank but for a better course you need to bear of from it into more choppy water. [Picture taken by Ant Baker] This is working really good for 10sec. runs and topspeeds as we could see for example at West Kirby 2 weeks ago, but good 500m speeds are very difficult to do.

It would be much better if the wind blew really downwind to our bank. In this case we would have a nice angle and could make use of the flatwater. Really? It is only partly correct, because if it starts blowing too much downwind we get something called "rolling chop", this happens especially if the wind is very strong.

As you can imagine on this picture, which shows West Kirby a few hours later than the first one [Source: http://www.redsurfbus.com/], rolling chop can be really difficult to handle and forces a lot of crashes! Steve Thorp managed his big 50 at the beginning of his run, but the rolling chop made it very difficult to do just a good 10sec. run. Loosing control because of the chop is not the only problem, our speedsurfing equipment produces less vertical lift on broad courses which makes it harder to keep the board flying. Instead of accelerating the board starts to decelerate.
Rolling chop is a problem which you can get on various places, Southend and West Kirby are two totaly different spots but rolling chop can happen at both places. During the World Record event "Driven by wind" the riders had problems with the rolling chop at Southend and here is a good impression how Southend looks with rolling chop. [Picture taken by Steve Thorp]

Maybe there are some spots which you can use in superbroad and windy conditions without getting too much rolling chop. Vollerwiek seems to be one of this spots, the following pictures was taken in 30knots+ conditions and a course of 130° [Picture taken by Thomas Döblin], for me it looks pretty good, but I don't know what you get with 40knots+ and 140°.

A perfect solution for the rolling chop problem are probably curved beaches, but there are only very few ones. The second best option could be a windy course which is not superbroad.
La Franqui for example isn't superflat all the time but there are really windy days with 40+knots and the wind blowing 20°-30° downwind where the water is flat. [Picture taken by Hans Kreisel] In these conditions you can go very fast along the beach and sometimes you can bear of to get even more speed and a nice 10sec. run. Because you can do very high speeds on the flat course anlong the beach here it is possible to set very high 500m speeds, although nautical miles over 40knots are possbile!

The Grevelingen Chop Team, West Kirby fires up and other news articles

noreply@blogger.com (Redsurfbus) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:41:00 +0000

Recently in the UK we were graced with a visit by some gales in a perfect direction to light up the famous West Kirby speed strip. I came online to update the article I wrote about it - West Kirby - Autumn Gales 2011. I have been waiting for everyone to post on GPS-speedsurfing.com, now most seem to have posted I could copy the final table of the day for my article. It was then that I saw something I could not quite believe, I will explain soon. Meanwhile weather guru and Ultimate Speed Meeting (USM) coordinator Howard Rowson has written this about the West Kirby USM by Howard Rowson OPH.

A few days after their visit to the UK, Jacques van der Hout and Hans Kreisel managed an amazing session which made me realise what the Portland Pirates we up against in the GPS Team Challenge. Only last year when I first joined the GPS team challenge my peak speeds were the same as the hour average these two posted, see here - Grevelingen Chop Team does it again. It really was an amazing session. We were talking at the beach several times about the impact they had at West Kirby and the consistency of their sailing.

So what could I not believe when I saw it?

Look closely at the table. Can you see what it is?

There are an amazing amount of 40knot averages for one spot on one day, but that is not it.

There is a 48.3 knot 2 second peak, but that's not it.

It doesnt say my name at the top, or anywhere on the table, but that's not it

There are a lot of Alphas missing and if you spotted that then you are close.

There is one amazing Alpha (sorry Hans yours is very good as well in those conditions compared to all the others). Jacques managed a 28knot Alpha in what I have heard some hardened British sailors describe as the hardest, strongest, heaviest and best winds they have ever sailed in.

This is what Jacques had to say on the GPS Team Challenge session post 'forum'

Did only one attempt for the team. When almost everybody was on the beach waiting for the wind to increase i was sailing upwind and nobody was starting a run.

Managed to start with 25 knots sailing upwind the wall and in the corner i accelerate up to 34 knots in the gybe, the way back was downwind and speeds where 36 knots, this was good enough for an @500 average of 28,27 knots. As you can see there are many ways to get a nice alpha average.

34 Knots in the Gybe, that is near my peak! I feel partly ashamed and partly in awe.

Another article about West Kirby by a legend class sailor, Norman Petty was also written - A different perspective on the now famous West Kirby day. and I tried to collect all the videos of the day in one place here - West Kirby 6th October Collection of Videos

This day and the performance is extreme, but any session by any speedsurfers that go out in such hardcore conditions deserve more recognition. It is this which I hope to achieve through both Eriks Speedsurfingblog and my Redsurfbus.com website. Please help us on both sites by getting in touch with articles about your local or national records that we may miss or not know about. We are all doing this in our spare time and there is only so much we can do. Or if you are very rich and have too much money you could pay us to report this full time ;-)

Good speeds and winds, 'The Bus'

10 Speedsurfing DO NOTS

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:21:00 +0000

1. DO NOT Think upwind has higher priority than downwind... OK officially the upwind sailor goes first, but on most 'speed-days' you don't have the perfect wind on every run, and the good runs are not too regular. It is not good when you finally seek out that gust and someone else forces you to back off, or unbalances you by a monster stern wave.

2. DO NOT spend every penny you earn on equipment, after a bad session also don't always blame the equipment you have, it may have been the conditions. Never underestimate the effect of time with equipment on the water, I never experienced a perfect session the first time out with a new sail. Sometimes it can take months before you learn how to use your new sail efficiently.

3. DO NOT use "wellknown" speed trimtips always/every session (mastfoot in back, high boom position, long harness lines). Make sure you play with your equipment, you may do better with a slightly shorter line on a different sail for example.

4. DO NOT use one the same exact setup or setting in varying conditions. It pays to tune your kit, you will learn far more quickly how to get the best out of your kit this way. One small tweak could give you an extra knot in one condition and lose you a knot in another.

5. DO NOT sand your windsurf board for that last .1mm perfection, its a waste of money/time and most likely the board will break down much easier. Since I use starboard (2010) haven't used a sandpaper and best decision ever (both financial and from time point of view) (late edit from Redsurfbus - sorry Erik I won't do that again then ;-)

6. DO NOT EVER sell all your equipment and start over all new, I mean what are you doing windsurfing or puzzling? Think about what we have said in point 2, you spent all that time learning how to use your kit.

7. DO NOT buy and use real speed equipment on open water or onshore winds, do you really think you will go faster? Your speed board is designed for flat water which can only really be found with offshore winds close to the shore or at least with something that breaks the surface of the water to stop the chop.

8. DO NOT think 2011 is faster compared to 2007, maybe a 2007 will break down easier at the first catapult/ big impact on wave/ gust, or maybe that special team finish on the 2011 kit is much more fragile than your trusted 2007 tatty old board.

9. DO NOT EVER go on the water on a offshore spot without a decent plan B (when your windsurf kit or your body fails sailing upwind)

10. DO NOT start sailing with a uncomfortable windsurfing setup, your (speed)limits won't progress when it is physically impossible to sheet in fully. Tune it or change down at the start and you will have a better session.

Written by Erik Loots, Edited by 'The Bus'

Big winds in Europe: GPS Top 10 2011 little bit rearranged

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Miller) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:51:00 +0000

This week many european speedspots got really good wind, the result are some sick speeds and some changes in the GP3S Yearranking.

New in the Top 10 are two german riders, Thomas Döblin (44.57knots) and for the first time ever in the Top 10 Alexander Lehman (44.54knots). Thomas should get the national record with this session. They sailed at Vollerwiek, a spot which is only usable a very few times, but if it is, it is obviously super fast!

Both "The Brace" and "Da Curve" in the Netherlands got epic conditions. There was so much wind that only a very few people could handle the conditions. It looks like Hans Kreisel sets a new national record at "The Brace" as well and he improved his personal record to 45.74knots. Jurjen van der Noord "battled" with Hans for the national record and scored an 44.16knots average himself. But unfortunately he dropped out of the Top 10.

The level in GPS speedsurfing is really high at the moment. Not only Jurjen is out of the Top 10 with such great results. West Kirby got some winds this week as well, but even the fastest man there Farrell O'Shea missed the Top 10 with 44.10knots.

Jurjen was wearing a GoPro while surfing at the Brace and here you can see the action:

Another nice video was taken by the belgian rider Benjamin Verdin, it gives an impression how hard the conditions were.

Windexperience 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Longtime no see blogger (I even pushed the wrong button to publish 2 days ago), but I am not gone, speedsurfingblog is not gone (thanks Patrick!). I still have my favorite slalom board alltime the iSonic 107, and it gives me great pleasure everytime I use it. Its like a good old friend that you know 100% and trust at all times even when conditions are crazy. When I went windsurfing last couple of times it was sooo great, I mean the time with friends and the water thats what I miss.

If you are interested this weekend I will be at the windexperience, check HERE for location. Its an event with some of brands I sail plus many others. Maybe a speeddemo, I am there all day for you and all kind of speedsurfing questions. Please come to the LutjeBeach if you have some questions or want to test new boards...

I heard this rumor of the starboard iSonic 107 (2012) being present at the windexperience.

Also pleaaase, we don't like a rainy event, 2 days standing in the rain is no fun (unless its 20kn wind or much more). Predictions look OK right now, but we windsurfers know better...

Fanatic Falcon Speed and Widebase-Fins

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Miller) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:27:00 +0000

Yesterday should be a big day with really strong winds in the Netherlands. I decided to go to Strand Horst for a nice Speedsession. The wind was much lighter than expected but it was nice to do the first session with the Tectonics Nomad 23cm.

I'm using the Fanatic Falcon Speed (the old one, introduced in 2006) for the second year now.
At the beginning I've used the 25cm Select Caspar Speed like many other do/did. To be honest, this combination is super on pure flatwater but as soon as the water gets a bit choppy I have problems. The board doesn't feel really balanced and I have lot's of spinouts. For sure the reason is my sailing style, because other people are going really fast with the combination in the same conditions, but for me it doesn't work.
My second try was a 26cm Choco Fins Mach 1. I like these fins a lot under my Tabou Manta 54 and although in combination with the Falcon Speed it suits me. I don't know if it is because the Mach 1 is G10 and the Select Caspar Speed Carbon Prepreg. In any case, I have more control in the chop with the Mach 1, which results in faster runs. A slightly negative aspect is a bit bumby feeling while going deep downwind.
Some weeks ago I had the option to buy a Tectonics Nomad 23cm. I heard the fins should be super safe and fast, sounds like exact the fin I need and of course it would be interesting how the modern concept of a widebase fin works in combination with the relative old shape of the Falcon Speed. What should I say, in my opinion the behaviour of the board completly changed with this fin. The board feels balanced and gives lots of confidence in every situation. I had one good gust and went deep downwind, the board accelerated perfect. I felt more like gliding over ice than flying over the water, great. The result was my first Speed over 40knots in definitely not perfect conditions!

PS:
Sorry for the lack of updates the last couple of weeks, I try to publish more regular in the future.

Topspeeds from Down Under - A closer look

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Miller) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:27:00 +0000

On 10th July 2011 the legendary speedspot Sandy Point in Australia was on fire again. The speeds are super impressive, two averages above 46knots and a new 10sec. GPS World Record with 47.59knots for Craig Spottiswood.

A few small discussions were started if the asymmetrical fins which were used are significant faster than symmetrical fins and so clearly supported these results. Well, I don't want to answer this question, but I took a closer look on the results. The first I saw was how close 2sec., fastest 10sec. run and 500m are together. Craig Spottiswood had a 2sec. of 48.39knots, fastest run 47.75knots and 500m 45.95knots. In comparison to this some really fast sessions with a way bigger difference were done in the past. Two examples for those sessions are Hans Kreisel with 48.57/46.56/44.36 at The Brace and Hennie Bredenkamp with 48.38/45.97/40.98 at Luderitz, both were done with symmetrical fins. Just as well there are examples for sessions which were done with asymmetrical fins, Steve Thorp with 47.94/45.87/40.81 at West Kirby and Martin van Meurs with 45.51/42.99/40.63 at Terschelling Harbour.

In my opinion the big differences between 2sec., fastest run and 500m are mostly the result of bearing off from a sandbank or something like that or limited area. Maybe asymmetrical fins have advantages over symmetrical fins, but I don't think this is the only reason for Craig Spottiswood's results (of course beside the material he is an outstanding sailor and dominates the dayrankings very often). In addition there are sessions done with symmetrical fins and really small differences, for example Jacques van der Hout with 48.33/47.45/46.61 at La Franqui.

It's really hard to figure out the differences between symmetrical and asymmetrical fins, probably a 1on1 comparison is the only way, but in my opinion the big results are more supported by perfect conditions and really good sailors!

Evaluated Ranking 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Miller) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:16:00 +0000

After the first half of the year I like to take a look on the Evaluated Ranking 2011.
Before the year started I thought it would be a nice try to get a ranking every month and maybe I would get a nice position in the Evaluated Ranking at the end. Hmm, the start of the season wasn't perfect...I missed the surfable days in January because I was skiing and so I have no ranking for the first month. From February on I had some nice sessions every month. I wasn't on my small gear every month sometimes my best session was done with a 7.8 but who cares, at least a ranking and fun on the water!
After six month I now come into reach of place 50, not too bad. Okay not everyone has the Evaluated Ranking in his mind, for example some really fast guys from Down Under are far away from posting sessions every month. But in my opinion this doesn't depreciate the Evaluated Ranking. You still need eo be consistent and furthermore you can get a good position even if you are not one of the fastest riders!

At the ende a short note about the importance of the spot choice (Erik pointed out this aspect: http://www.speedsurfingblog.com/2009/08/my-thoughts-about-evaluated-ranking.html ). At the moment it looks like it is possible to reach at least the Top10 without traveling to the fastest spots every month.

The advantage of up to date Speedstuff

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Miller) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:48:00 +0000

At first: I will try to publish some articles from time to time in the future, maybe two in a month, to keep the blog alive, because in my opinion it would be a shame to shut down this great blog Erik started!

If you take a look on the dayrankings or yearrankings at GP3S you mostly notice that these speeds are done with the newest equipment. That’s no surprise because the top guys are nearly all sponsored and hence are able to get the newest stuff, but how important is it to have up to date sails and boards?

Of course the latest sails and boards shouldn’t be slower or worse than their forerunner, but not every update is a quantum jump. Needless to say that some brands made big improvements in the last couple of years like Severne with the step from Code:Red to Reflex. On the other hand you have for example Fanatic with the Falcon Speed which was introduced in 2006 and not changed until 2011 and still competitive. Maybe these two examples are special, because many other brands like Neilpryde are on top since many years and still updating their sails/boards nearly every year.
So regarding to the whole market the importance of getting the newest speedstuff is not easy to evaluate.
In my opinion it is obvious that older stuff can be highly competitive, for example Martin van Meurs achieved 50knots “years ago” in 2007 with a Mauisails TR-3 and Chris Lockwood in 2008 with a KA Koncept from 2007. Since this time a lot of development was done, but 50knots are still the magic barrier.
Okay this should not say there was no real development, during the last year there were hundreds of 40+knots averages and especially the performances in lighter winds have improved. Therefor for the top riders it makes 100% sense to have always the newest stuff to be highly competitive in every kind of conditions.
But what about the “normal” speedsurfers? New stuff means often to start searching for the perfect trim, not every board or sail is plug-and-play! With 100days of surfing a year and 20days on the speedboard this is no problem. But with for example 40/8 days a year it is not so easy and in worst case a perfect day gets blown away…

From my point of view the latest boards and sails are not always the best choice for everybody, because maybe less time on the water avoid that you use the full potential of this high end equipment …but maybe one of the top riders can help you with your new stuff ;)