THE SUPCUP St. Maxime,France

A great day, getting first in the long distance in France on the Starboard ACE 14'x25"

More than 100 competitors from all over Europe came to compete in St. Maxime SUPCUP 2011
Racing is getting big in Europe and Stand up is starting to explode.

But first things first. After a long 36 Hours flight from Maui, through LA, San Franscico, London, Amsterdam, to Nice. Yannick, the president of the Cigale surfclub and organizer of the SUPCUP 2011 and Nini (his friend) picked me up in Nice and took me to St. Maxime right oposite of St Tropez. They gave me place to stay and showed me the area. Even took me on a Giant Speed boat.

On Friday I met with Team Starboard France. Joining us was Sebastian Catalan ( world record holder Kite speed), Ryan James (No 1 England), the team manager france, Pascal Pouget and the French importer for Starboard Sebastian. We went for a paddle on the cape and had a nice meal in St. Tropez.

The whole Starboard team Sebastian, Sophie,Pascal,BArt, Ryan and Sebastian

Nini and Yannick, Surfclub La Cigale, invited me for a dinner in St. Maxime

My favorite Race board the STARBOARD ACE 14'0" x25"

Ryan James and me after getting 3rd and 1st in the long distance.

Saturday The 12'6 Elite race
I had a difficult start. The counting in French wasn’t very clear and to 5 instead of 3. So after a slow start in 15th place I managed to get to the outside bouy just in 2nd with no#3. 4 and 5 right behind me, I went after Eric Terrien who was in 1st.
After one round (of 4) I was comfortable in 2nd and 30 meters behind Eric. At the second time at the outside bouy I had some strange chop from passing boats while turning around the bouy and I fall in, after that my comfortable 2nd became a 4th place.
I had a NEW 12’6 which worked OK going out with its wide nose it got a lot of resistance against the chop of the light 6 knot head wind, but going in zick zack around the 5 bouys the board worked well. In the 3rd round I waited and checked out my options to get passed them. We stayed close together going out against the wind then going in I could pass #3 with small glides and hard paddling. In the fourth round I did the same stayed right behind #2 until the outside bouy and worked hard going down through the bouys to get 1 or 2 glide. In the end of round 4 I could pass #2 Geatan and finish in 2nd. I was hoping to battle with Eric for 1st but because of my mistake falling in, it became a battle for 2nd.

1St Eric Terrien (Nidecker) Spain
2nd Bart de Zwart (Starboard) Hawaii/ Holland
3rd Geatan Sene ( Mistral) France
4th Dulou Ludovic ( F-one) France

Team STARBOARD

Sunday The LONG distance 15KM

There I knew who to watch for and listened carefully to the French count down. A good start with Eric Terrien, me and Ryan James in first, 2nd and 3rd.
The wind was 5-15 knots against us most of the way along the coast until the halfway turnaround buoy. So hard work but my kind of conditions. I passed Eric and got a few meters on him, Ryan also passed Eric. After Eric shot back on a tiny downwind part and Ryan fell in. During this downwind part I felt I was strong and knew I had to gain the most on the long stretch back downwind. Eric stayed right next to me all the way to the halfway buoy, testing every so often my strength and paddling hard for a minute. But every time he back off again when I showed I could stay on the same pace. Eric wanted to take off right away at the downwind home stretch and got a good glide and passed me. I took my time and made some space so I could look for my glides without Eric directly next to me. This worked out great I passed him, and worked hard to get the most out of the small glides. I gained more and more distance on Eric and paddled hard to the finish line with a minute on Eric. Ryan James paddled really hard too, making a 3rd place and making up for a few mistakes the day before.

1St Bart de Zwart (Starboard) Hawaii/Holland
2nd Eric Terrien ( Nidecker) Spain
3rd Ryan James (Starboard) England
4th Nika Leonard (Naish) Italy

Ryan and me talking strategies. Ya right!

START

Woohaaa!

MAUI WINTER

Here is a small impression of a Hawaiian Winter. A few weeks without any blog post. But here is a movie I just made

Waves, Stand Up, Whales, Tropical Green, and lot's of Aloha

MAUI WINTER from Bart de Zwart on Vimeo.

Finally we have strong trades back. Lot's of windsurfing and downwinders in the next days ahead.

SUP Training season starts again. I have been training all winter but in a lighter modus. In 3 weeks we have the first race and from then on the summer through until october.

First race will be the Catalina RACE. A 40 mile 2 man team race from Catalina Island to Dana point. I join EJ in Dana Point for this race. TEAM STARBOARD. Whiiiha

We will make sure we have some footage to show after the race.

ALOHA,

Bart

AUSTRALIA

The DOCTOR SUP Race in Australia


Since a couple of days I am here in Western Australia for THE DOCTOR , Australia's premier SUP race. I met with Scott Mc Kercher, STARBOARD's main board designer and tester, who showed me around in Perth and Rottnest Island.
On the 22nd we left in the morning for Rottnest Island 15 km from the coast. At 1:00 pm
The race started for the Stand Up Boards. First a sprint to the first buoy then 11km slightly from the side and then the remaining 18 km straight form the back. The finish was in Sorrento.
Until last minute I was trying to decide between the ACE 12'6*25 or the RACE 12'6 *29. I decided for the RACE because it just catches a waves easier. The ACE is better in flat water.



Probably the RACE 12'6* 27 would have been my first choice but I would have been impossible to bring that board from Maui with the flight connections I had. But even the slightly wider one I was using is still very very fast.
The wind was a lot lighter then for casted. Everybody started off fast, to win the bonus $500 1-km sprint. Paul Jackson and I were the only ones who could catch on with the two 17 footers in front of us. But still just to fast for us to get to that first mark in 1st. When we got further out we started working the bumps and getting glides. Because of the light winds it was super hard to get a glide but your efforts were double rewarded when you did. After the 1/3 mark I caught up with Courtney on his 17 footer. So I kept working to stay close to Paul Jackson who was just ahead of me.
After 2hrs and 53 minutes I got to the finish in 2nd place with Paul still just 2 minutes ahead of me. It was a hard race and I gave everything.

Thanks to STARBOARD for their SUPER fast boards, Black Project fins, DAKINE and Kanaha Kai Maui.

Top 3, left to Right, Bart 2nd, Andy 3rd and Paul 1st

The water tasted so nice after the race

Jacco ( Paul) and me talking story after the race.

Next race in Margret River on Wednesday. In the mean time Scotty and I will be testing next years boards.

Aloha from Down Under

Stand Up world Tour Big Island

Kai Lenny wins the last event on the big island and the overall world title in the wave Stand up World tour.
I just came back from the Big Island where I joined the party for Kai with his first world title. His dream was always to win the world title in windsurfing , which took a quick turn when he won the first world tour event in Sunset, Oahu.

Kai

Luau prize giving ceremony


Top 3 World Tour
Kai Lenny, Peyo Lizarazu, Antoine Delpero

Watch the video of the final day.

More Maui winter swells and my best stand up wave ever

What a day.

First a 2 hours session in Uppers Kanaha. After I passed by almost any Maui spot. Hookipa, Kuau, Baby beach, Pier one. Most were closing out and impossible to get out. So I ended up in Kanaha were you can always go out. Only this time there were 15 other guys in a place where you are normally by yourself.
Here is a little view of how it was.



I wasn't totally happy about the morning session so I went out again in the afternoon. I was still huge, Jaws was breaking just a couple of miles down the coast.
Kaua looked do-able once you were out. I went ot Noriagas and met Mike Eskimo with his french friend Bruno. We took of though the shore break, through a little channel which was the mostly open. And ended up outside. The waves were huge and hard to get. When They have this size they also have a lot of speed. The only thing you can do is, go deep, paddle hard and be lucky that there isn't a huge set showing up on the horizon. Twice a set almost got me. So I didn't waited around to long and found a big, good a frame wave and got my biggest wave I have ever riden on a stand up. A thrilling ride which lastes longer than I hoped for but finally closest out on me when I was almost in. Mike and Bruno weren't that lucky. The next set first got Bruno then 2 wave later Mike. Both their leaches broke and boards ended up where I was waiting inside. They had a exciting scrary swim but got washed in pretty quick. So no footage or pics.
An exciting day in een exciting week.

Here is the rest of the diary

Monday tow in what I thought was the biggest swell of this winter with some great rides and great swim (wipe outs), wind 2 BFT SW Waves XXL
Teusday, wind 1 BFT NE, waves XL, action Tow in
Wednesday wind Var 1BFT, waves M, no action
Thursday wind 3-4 BFT N,sail 5.8, waves M, no action
Friday wind 5 BFT, Sail 5.0, waves M windsurfing in Hookipa
Saterday wind 3BFT NE, waves MStand up family session in Kanaha
Sunday wind 2 BFT NE, waves XL, 2 Stand up session, Kanah & Kuau

Below are a few pics of last week with a small swell in Kuau.

SUPer day and Hookipa heaven

Woke up early today to do a Stand up session with Hizkia before work.

We checked out Kuau and Kanaha Kai and decided that Kanaha Kai looked to small and windy and Kuau kind a big so I decided for Kuau where only a few tow-ins where playing. Hiz took some shots.

Getting out was hard work

But once on the wave very rewarding.

And then here are some shots Hizkia took of Hookipa yesterday. There was definetly some size to it and good action too.

Levi still the king of Hookipa

Keith also a contender of the crown.

Nice aerial off the lip from Hot Sails rider, Andres

Aloha

OLUKAI Stand up Race, The Movie

Here is a little movie of the Olukai Race.
The LOW close to the island is still blocking the wind. But we had a nice swell the last couple of days. Plenty of water action, stand up paddling, surfing... Enjoy the show.
Aloha

Maui Winter

We had some rough weather the last couple of weeks. The last days we had Kona winds and a short period but very big swell. Here are some pics of the last days. One f the days I managed to get out on a Stand up and went out windsurfing in Kanaha. I will try to upload the video later.

Aloha from Maui