South Africa SURF test (40 boards, 40 sails)

I know it was very quiet on the blog for the last few weeks.

I was busy testing boards and sails in South Africa for SURF magazine. This 5 week test is the most comprehensive test done in windsurfing. This is already my 15th year as a tester. Time is flying by.

Rigging in Platboom, Cape of good hope

We have been coming here in South Africa for the last 12 years already. Our base is Langebaan where we do all the flat water testing. For waves we have 3 options; Swartriet, 30km from here , Cape point, 200 km from here and Elands bay, 100km from here and famous from the Endless summer movie. If you are prepared to drive you can windsurf a lot but in the last 3 weeks we have already driven 2800 km to find the waves and the wind.

Baboons at the Cape of Good Hope

However we were successful because we had 16 days out of 20 of water time. If we would have stayed in one place you would have 5 days max. This year South Africa is up side down. Most of the time we have had wind from the right and cold and rainy conditions which almost never happens and if only for a day.

Rainy and muddy conditions

For me wind from the right is actually better since I am used to that from Maui, for most of the other testers it was a little adjusting.

This year we test 75 liter wave boards, 85 liter free-wave boards 110 liter slalom boards, 4.7 wave sails, 5.3 power wave sails, 6.0 free move sails, and 8.0 slalom sails.

Only in wave boards we have 18 boards, single fin, twin, triple and quads.

Platboom, always amazingly good

Witsands, this year mostly wind from the right. At our last sessions, I saw a big shark there.

Stephan, test leader and Photographer

Next time I hope to have some action photos. Today we leave for Elands Bay.

Aloha from South Africa

South Side Swell

The wind is back on the North shore with a small North West swell. But the South side had a late season South swell hiting Maui. La Perouse, beauitful as always had a great display what happens when the swell hits shallow lava bottom there.

Big smackers rolling in La Perouse Bay

My Daughter Soleil enjoying the view.

Surfer record in South Africa + new online Magazine

Watch this link on the BBC to see a new record attempt to get as many surfers on one wave as possible. And we think that Hookipa is crowded sometimes. It's not official yet but they counted 103 surfers on one the wave for 5 second or longer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8290351.stm

Then below here is an image, we get excited about here in Maui. The swell forcast. The deeper the red, the bigger the swell. Looks like we will get some nice Hookipa time in a couple of days. Although after sailing Hookipa the last 3 days we have no complains about wind and waves. 2 days ago We had some Manta rays in the line up while we were sailing. Off course GP got some great pictures. http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/2009/10/manta-rays-at-hookipa.html


This is the new online Windsurfer International Magazine October Issue. Check the link to read the magazine it's free. http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/50192322#/50192322/1

Also, We have a new Wave world champion. Josh Angulo just won in Sylt in hard typical German conditions, cold windy and unorganized waves. Very little wave riding lots of jumping.

Aloah from Maui

MAUI is going off & PWA world cup SYLT

Friday morning Hookipa

This september has been great. Every week another swell comes in and the winds have been good almost the whole month.

The last 3 days stand up paddling in the morning in Hookipa then in the afternoon a windsurf session in Kuau or Hookipa. Maui at it's best.

Here are some early morning SUP pictures

Here is one shot of Phillipe and one of Robby Naish taken by Giampaolo. http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/

Robby is still going as strong as he was many years ago.

He has some amazing shots from Hookipa while I busy sailing myself in Kuau just a half a mile down wind. A beautiful day with mast high waves and 4.8 sail.

Also, Hot Sails Maui has 2 team riders competing in the Wolrd cup in SYLT. Diony Giadagnino and Paul Zeper. Paul is a young new rider. He just got the new 2010 Hot Sails BOLT .

http://hot-trips.blogspot.com/

Aloha from Maui, Bart

STARBOARD 2010

This week I went to Hood River to check out the new 2010 Starboard windsurf & Stand up boards.

After a short flight (5 hrs) to Portland and a short night at a airport hotel, I arrived in Hood River at 6 AM just in time for the dawn patrol stand up paddle on the Columbia River Gorge. USA importer Declan, Ste and Drew from Vancouver Island, Adriano from Argentina and a couple of US starboard dealers all joined the paddle up and down the river.

The whopper, 10'0"*34 is a stand out. What a great board. On a river, in the surf, as a windsurf board or stand up board, this board is a crowd pleaser.

This year is going to be another year of a lot of new stand up models. Starboard comes out with 15 wave and cruise models in 4 different constructions and in the beginning of the year they come out with a full new line of race boards in 12'6 and 14'.

The stand up evolution is going fast. a lot of new shorter boards came out but also board with more width. It going to be an exciting year.

The windsurfing.

In the afternoons we went out to try out the new boards. I want to high light 2 boards. The Atom. A thin 99 liter 'fun'board. You can ride this board remarkably well without foot straps. Off course also with straps. A board not made for ultimate speed or performance but for pleasure. All though the performance is good , it's a joy to ride everything is easy on this board.

Atom

Then the quad. A 4-fin wave board which came instead of the evil twin and the evo line. I was amazed how well this board works. I didn't notice any drag the 4 fins have, it went remarkably well up wind and turns on the spot. This boards needs off course a lot more testing in Maui in some real waves but the preliminary results are very promising.

Quad 76

After the testing, I checked out the DaKine headquarters. A buzzing place full of creative people making the latest designs for DaKine Windsurf, Stand up, Bike, Snowboard.

Back in the days DaKine was small Hawaiian company making foot straps and now it a giant, combining funcionality with Fashion, available all over the world.

Hood River was a joy but it's also good to be back in Maui with the next big swell coming up Friday.

Glenn in Oregon

Here is a video I got today from Glenn Haslbeck. He is the Hot Sails Maui's main graphic designer and responsible for all the cool sail designs. From Super freaks to Fires. He just had a trip down the Oregon coast. Enjoy the ride & Aloha

The Windsurfer - Oregon Session from Glenn Haslbeck on Vimeo.

Back on Maui, Hookipa full on!

Take a look at the pictures below, Dagmar took . A happy camper,

A couple of hours after I landed back from the Netherlands, I was in the water enjoying the superb swell in Hookipa. It's always great to be back on Maui. 4.8 the 74 Evil Twin what a combo. looking forward to the new quads from Starboard.

Every body came out of their summer sleep and was in the water. What a great start of the coming winter months. This El nino year promises to be a very swelly year indeed.

Aloha from Maui