Speedsurfing BLOG

Severne Reflex 4 versus Severne Overdrive R4

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:28:00 +0000

Since a couple of months I have the Severne Overdrive R4, it was not really my idea to get one, but the dutch importer recommended me to try the sail. I am very happy with the Reflex performance, a happy user of the Reflex I, Reflex II, Reflex III and now the Reflex 4! Now having used the both the Reflex and Overdrive sail I have got emails/phonecalls about details... differences... Since more than a few of windsurfers are interested in the differences I made a little blog about my experience.

Rigging: How fast is it onshore?
I can't say there is a big difference in rigging. It is different, but hard to point out which one is easier? The Overdrive has rollercambers which makes it less sensitive for camber/batten pressure and rotation performance. The Reflex has 1 more camber. I think the reflex is rigged a bit faster by me, but just because I am used to it.

Tuning: Do you need a guide?
Overdrive... Much easier. Put maximum tension on bottom 2 battens, medium tension on middle 2 battens and no tension on top battens. The reflex 4 is the same idea, but the reflex has a smaller tuning range. So downhaul should be good in a range of 5mm where the overdrive works in a range twice as big. Same with outhaul, battentension, tackstrap, etc...

Durability: Which one will last longer?
This is difficult, since I have the sails only for a short period. My experience is the reflex can do at least 50 sessions without any loss of performance, the overdrive has yet to prove itself for me. When using it normal the sails are good for many years for a weekendracer. The overdrive is lighter and the reflex seems to have a bit more expensive materials. My feeling the Reflex will last a bit longer, but not by a big difference because the construction method is almost equal.

On the water: The feeling is what really matters
To my surprise there is a small difference over the whole windrange between both sails. So when sailing the overdrive in the sweetspot it is a slightly different feeling compared to the reflex. In short:

Overdrive:

Gives more feedback, preventing oversheeting the sail continuous. It is much easier downwind
More powerful for its size and lighter, you will be earlier away. Or you can sail smaller with a much lighter sail using a smaller board
Stiffer profile and leech, the overdrive is not a floppy sail. I use a 460 blueline in 8.6 (490 is rec.) which is OK. The Enigma 430 in my 6.2 is giving a stiff profile (for lighter weight speedsurfers I would recommend RDM or a shorter SDM)
Easier rotation

Reflex:

More stability in highwind, in strong gusts the sail opens and gives the rider range, if willing to tune it and willing to sail big (for example 7.0 in 30kn+). My feeling is the difference it not the construction, but more the hours of development per sail, reflex is just developed to a very high standard with enigma mast
It is possible to increase lift very quickly by outhaul,
Upwind performance

Speedtalk: numbers
I know this is speedsurfingblog, so the numbers on the gps are one important parameter to be considered. In many conditions the Overdrive will not disappoint you, eventually the reflex will be faster in each size but I think when you just take a smaller Overdrive you will be competitive. I did not do yet a fast session this year, my 2013 bests:

Concluding
Reflex is faster when you are willing to sail powerfull and know what to do without feedback of the sail, the difference is estimated <1km/h up till +- 80km/h boardspeed. I believe the Overdrive is faster when you don't have the big muscles and don't know exactly how to push the sail in the right angle at any time. For me it took a few good hours to tune the Reflex, and a few minutes for the Overdrive.

The Speedsurfer

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:43:00 +0000

Movie review: Ghosts of Speed

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:57:00 +0000

Cast: Jurjen van der Noord, Jacques van der Hout, Hans Kreisel, Peter de Wit, Renske Hijlkema, Caspar Verhaagen, Wessel Douma, Niek Looze, Walther Siksma, Jan Hendrik de Bruin, Luc Salomons and many +30 others

Director: Angelo Pecere

Audio: English (Dubstep, electronic and ambient)

Sound: Bluman

Story: An italian guy (the director) who visits the Netherlands, the movie is through his eyes, experience what he experienced in the Dutch nature and a few Dutch "ghosts" chasing high winds plus flattest water. These invisible, deserted places are the ultimate playground for the fanatical and amateur windsurfers.

Rating: 5/5

Review: This movie is a beauty, the storyline is interesting and makes it possible to understand, experience and fall in love with the Dutch landscape. It shows the (Dutch) speedsurfing lifestyle in a way never seen before, this makes the movie quality stand on lonely height. Angelo even managed to surpass my expectations, the first movie that makes it possible to translate my speedsurfing addiction to others. All best emotions in speedsurfing are captured on the DVD

Quality of video is good, but music and sound edit by Bluman is absolutely something special. The audio and video are made to fit perfect together. I like to listen to music and all 40 minutes was a joy to listen, see and experience during the projection at Kater funsports windsurf Shop. This professional edit and cooperation between Angelo and Bluman is the second reason why this video is attractive for everyone, not just windsurfers.

Extras: Tips from the fastest windsurfers for windsurfers

Price: € 10,-- euro

Order your DVD here

Jurjen van der Noord performance far above expectations!

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 08:41:00 +0000

No doubt, Jurjen van der Noord is the biggest thing in dutch (GPS) speedsurfing since I started using a GPS on my windsurfer. Almost no one saw this comming a couple of years ago, I remember the days where I often was about as fast as Jurjen. Later we became teammates with Starboard / Severne. Last year the performance increased like mad and nobody could exactly point out why?

The best fact is Jurjen is just a normal man with a good job, you would not know he is this crazy fast speedsurfer when talking with him and his humble personality. His professional approach for chasing records is unique and will be example for many future (GPS speedsurfing) record hunters. There was a lot of positive and negative buzz in the (dutch) speedscene about this performance in Luderitz, Jurjen is the first GPS Speedsurfer who pulled this off, and it is not easy to:

Get the trip financed with sponsors (yes, for record hunting a good campaign is needed to get enough support!)
Be fit at the right moment
Keep at ease and being able to show your best or even grow during the event
Having the right equipment and knowing how to adapt settings to "never known unique conditions". His custom made board he used worked!! No testing or several proto's possible, it worked, thats engineering on high level!

Jurjen thank you for showing us "how it is done like a professional"! You are an true inspiration, you even managed to get me excited for records!

On the water Jurjen is serious fast, see here how fast: http://www.gps-speedsurfing.com/?mnu=user&val=111113&uid=1438

Jurjen his official 500m videotiming record: 51.26 kts = 94.93 km / h

Luderitz equipment talk

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 08:31:00 +0000

Mistral Speed `production board as fast as custom`
Many riders use a mistral board, I am a fan of Chris Lockwood his designs too. I see a very stable ride and not supersensitive for fins, though this is a little gamble for me. From boardposition on the water there seems to be enough opportunity for rougher-highwind conditions. It is amazing this board is for sale, most others are customs. For example the fastest board of Antoine, which probably is a Christophe Fiorentini board.

Sails many differences and similarities
I like the look of the Neilpryde, Loft and Severne (based on ranking). All 3 sails have good downhaul, not too much though but with a extreme belly. Is this is extreme belly needed for the tiny turbulences at the first meter from groundlevel, eliminate drag?? Or is it just lift that is required for such a deep downwind course? When looking to my own trim I use a bit more downhaul and more outhaul (flatter sail with more loose leech). I think it has to do with the extreme course and deep downwind angle. The Gaastra Sail surprised me, the performance we see by Cedric Bordes is outstanding!

Fins, fins, and many more fins

Is this the recordbreaking Gasoil design?

I heard of Gasoil before, but what an amazing speed by Antoine, Anders, Patrick, Farrel and Nick (Lena too?). If I see it right it is no widebase design, so old fashion ;). Though Jurjen van den Noord is the exception, using mXr Fins, which are more widebase design, no problem for 50kn+ and congratulations the dutch fans are extremely proud!!!! In the end I wonder which design will be the favorite, it is interesting to see Antoine changed from mXr to Gasoil yesterday and we see numbers never thought possible before. Is there less need for extreme low center of effort (advantage widebase fins) on the Luderitz channel? Looking to the latest postings there is a new trend. Widebase should be a bit more draggy, though the low center of effect normaly gives plenty of control back making the ride more stable, hence widebase fins drag/lift lower and faster. If the Gasoil fins has equal amount of lift (without lifting the board out of control in gusts) I can imagen a small advantage +-1% though, that is what it takes for records.

If something interesting shows up, you read it here.

Luderitz tech talk

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:30:00 +0000

Interesting stuff in Luderitz after seeing results and footage, never before it was this good documented. Theory and results are matching and everyday or every run more is almost equal to higher speed. This men made canal demonstrates a few principals. Most interesting is to see speedsurfers go faster and the visual changes we receive through facebook http://www.facebook.com/luderitzspeedchallenge.

Up to now it is interesting to see is that control=speed is valid, but there is a catch.
Looking to the board position of the leaders in the rankings it is very much equal to lightwind efficiency speedruns. Not saying that it is lightwind or easy over there... It doesn't look completely like the previous records where efficiency was not this important.

I stick to Antoine and Anders, but there are a few other good examples too. Both Antoine and Anders manage to keep LwL (lenght waterline) most stable and short on average compared to others. This has too do with time on the course, skills and ability of finding/making the best solution for stable platform. After a few days when everybody optimized their equipment I wonder what the differences will be and who will lead??

The fact that Antoine did the best time by changing down from 5.8 to 5.4 is giving me confidence in this analysis. A smaller sail has behaviour of less movement/influence on boardposition and easier to accelerate or hold on to a long acceleration.

What will happen in even higher wind???
It will be interesting, outcome will tell a lot about (future) speed windsurfing. 2 scenarios:

Course gets a bit more rough meaning the boards nose gets smashed/pushed up a bit more, LwL should be a tiny bit longer/ lower nose to support a stable position. More stress/force though on body and maybe here is a slight problem (causing speedlimit?)
Course doesn't change much, efficiency ride still possible?? Maybe the efficiency ride is the only way to go faster??

Below video of our dutch speedhero Jurjen, the only one without added weight. It gives a good view on the course. I bet with a bit more time on (awesome speed)water Jurjen will smash the Dutch record again.

Anders Bringdal first to break 50kn barrier on windsurfer, Antoine Albeau minutes later even faster 50.59kn

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:13:00 +0000

Anders Bringdal + amazing production and custom Mistral boards

Looks like fun, almost 100km/h topspeed by Antoine

Some others Patrick Diethelm: 49.71 kts and he is the 3rd fastest in Windsurfing! Nick Vardalachos: 48.84 kts Mark Grinnell: 46.49 kts Matthias Rottcher: 46.69 kts Farrell O Shea: 48.21 kts Jurjen Van Der Noord: 47.53 kts Christian Benzing: 45.57 kts

Effect of social media - speedsurfing web 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 06:43:00 +0000

I was thinking about social media/internet growing/changing so fast. And maybe it is interesting to look to speedsurfing and think of the future. Would it be possible places like facebook or twitter will be more fun to share your speedsurfing session? I think it is. Just share that max speed/ best run/ or trip on google earth with friends. Is that the effect of facebook, making the site gps-speedsurfing.com less social?

I never thought about the negative effect on the old existing websites of the newer development. Isn't there an awesome opportunity for making an excellent facebook app for speedsurfing. I would use and prefer that (if possible??)! There are lots of techies speedsurfing or reading this blog, who agrees or allready made something for facebook? I am a technie, but not really good with programming apps etc..

I would suggest, easy (upload track, an compute result), share what you like (that max speed or maybe an awesome average hour), add friends that joined your session (Erik .. was there too), add story (I broke my fin again when crashing into a fishing net), attach picture (broken fin).

All great sessions will be on your storyline of facebook with great detail etc. I suggest you to "like"-button below this if you agree this would increase fun.

New records, speedsurfing-2012-style

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loots) — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 11:38:00 +0000

I have noticed this morning something crazy when I looked to facebook and some windsurfing websites. Speedscene, the main topic of this blog, is soo dynamic. So many interesting new trends(etters)!! Speedsurfing looks to me way different than when I was fully 300% commited and only looking on the GPS numbers.

The newest GPS speedsurfing leader Jurjen

A new trend is 90km/h is no barrier? How did that happen? I think the dedicated riders are getting results after years of time investments. I cannot imagen a not-GPS-speedsurfer will lead future speedrankings on any course. It is exciting to see changes in the top-10 of the world, best example at this moment is leader Jurjen van der Noord. I know a time when we had about the same performance, I would say even the choice of equipment wasn't really different. Now I see Jurjen has found that edge, trust, vibe, etc. (I think there are thousands of words to describe). Jurjen is not alone, next to Jacques, Hans and now Wouter looks like stepping up

I see speedsurfing has become more popular around the gps-speedsurfing-ambassadors. These ambassadors are the drive for the sport. People like Lea (redsurfbus) or Mark van Osch (windsurfing.nl) and many many others. It is good to see the enthusiasm is still spread and highly contagious. Another type of ambassador (or maybe there is a better word) is Angelo Pecere and his Ghost of Speed project, I have contact with Angelo and feel this project is something magic. It will be footage from the out of the box answering: what is speedsurfing in the Netherlands? I have the feeling this project will be one of the biggest if not the biggest achievement for GPS-speedsurfing, time will tell.

I will continue follow the speedscene as it is more interesting than ever. Today I hope to do a bit of speedsurfing myself, need to try my new speedboard-fin and sail. Probably a session messing around with settings. To be honest not dreaming of records any moment soon, I know what it would take for me and at this moment not possible. But stopping is no option I am desparate for the thrill of being out on the water, finding the edge, some hard physical work and after that speedsession many days of muscle recovering required. Transmit windforces on the water, a simple relaxing addictive task. Lets see what more 2012 has to bring.

PS For speedsurfing-ambassadors this blog is always open for new writers/bloggers!

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