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

11-city tour

After 5 days and 27 hours and 32 minutes of paddeling and a 4th place overall, my 11-city tour was over.
This was one of the best races I have ever been. The organization, the support, the competitors and the sceneary was amazing. 5 days of paddling, eating sleeping, eating, paddling....
We had to eat incredible amounts of food to keep our body fueled up for the next day. Our Maui chef with his 2 kitchen angels did a great job in the kitchen. The weather this week was stormy, rainy and every now and then a little sunshine which made it a real challange to fight the up-wind stretches. I am working on a little video of this race. Here is a preview with some pictures.
The start in Leeuwarden.

Stormy conditions made it a tough race with 6-9 hrs of paddling each day.

Up wind battle on the first day

Connor with 14 yrs, the youngest

Zane always in good spirit and a joy to have on board.

The Dutch scenery

Every day a we had a battle going on. Mostly Byron (USA), Xavier (SP),Eric (FR) and I where battling for the first four places.

Rough weather almost every day.

Going for second place on day four.

On board the 'Zuiderzon' our home for 6 days.

After every race we had a massage which got us in shape for the next day.

The end Results after 5 days
1. Byron Kurt 26:44:19 --- 2. Xavier Masdevall Garçon 27:12:30 --- 3. Eric Terrien 27:13:16 --- 4. Bart de Zwart 27:32:33 --- 5. Mark Raaphorst 28:23:40 --- 6. Erwin Janssen 29:08:49 --- 7. John Hibbard 30:27:01 --- 8. Zane Schweitzer 30:46:56 --- 9. Gerhard van Geest 30:48:41 --- 10. Paul Schuitema 31:49:37 --- 11. Conner Baxter 32:45:13 --- 12. Martijn van Deth 33:53:40 --- 13. Anne-Marie Reichman 34:12:05 --- 14. Donna Badome-Raaphorst 34:33:57 --- 15. Patrick Smits 19:30:29

Thanks Annemarie, Dan, Toos (Annemaries mom) and the CIOS crew for this awesome event.
2 more days and it's time to go home to Maui to see my wife and daughter.

Aloha from the Netherlands

Stand Up Race in the Netherlands- 11 city tour 220KM

Two days in this amazing 5 day- 220km race, everybody is sore and tired. But it's all worth it. Today was almost a repeat of yesterday. Byron Kurt (USA) took the lead form the start. Xavier from Spain, Eric from France and I followed at 2 minutes for hours until the 15 minute break in Hindeloopen. The landscapes are incredible. Yesterday we battled the wind the whole day for 7 hours. Today we paddled against the wind the first half and then we turned North and had the wind in the back all the way to the finish. Sorry I can not upload any pictures from the boat where we stay on during this race but the official website has plenty. http://www.supfryslan.nl/
All the racers sleep onboard an tradional dutch 'platbodem' ship. This makes a perfect place to talk story, have dinner and put all the boards.
So after 2 days my ranking is 4th about 10 min behind 3rd. Still a lot of hard work in the next 3 days and 140 KM.
De groeten from the Netherlands, Bart

Business as usual and SUP

The wind is back to full strength. In Kanaha, Hookipa and Spreck it was business as usual. Sail sizes 4.2 to 5.0. Everybody happy. Both remainders of the recent hurricanes turned out to be little 2 day squals.

I did a little downwinder today to get ready for the 11-city tour, a 220km race through the canals in the Netherlands. September 1-5. http://www.synso.nl/sup/?page=home. Annemarie Reichman organized this race ( see picture below). I will updating the blog every day during the race.

Below here is Maui Margie Warmuth, always good for a smile , a little help and support to anybody in Kanaha beach park. Thanks Margie

Starboard just came out with their latest models. The quad. 4 Fin boards, what I have seen so far they are pretty smooth. Even shorter turns, more surfstyle feel, and still great performance. I can't wait to try them myself and I will let you know as soon as I did.

Aloha from Maui.

Hurricane Felicia

The wind has been very, very good the last months. It was almost going to be to good because hurricane Felicia was coming. Luckily the Hurricane is downgraded to a tropical storm and maybe even a tropical depression which means the wind will be almost like any other day this month. A real hurricane hit on Maui is very unlikely. The records show no data of a hit the last 50 years, but only 15 years ago there was a hit on Kauai.

The image below is today's. You can see the amount of moisture which is going to hit us. But the tropical High to the North, remains strong so it will only be short disturbance before the trade will be blowing like they did all this month. Happy Sailing