3 Day of competition Mui Ne

Hello everybody

Yesterday was the 3th day of the competition here in Vietnam and started the second single of the competition. The wind picked up again like usually at 1 O'clock to give the start signal for the first heats. Due my 6th place result in the double from the day before I was already in the second round where I would meet Bubble who advanced against Tilo who's not really lucky with he's opponents here.

The wind was pretty strong and I was actually a bit overpowered in the gusts on my 4.3 but made a perfect heat with my first skopu's in my live during a competition and finally some really good burners. True this moves I could advance against Bubble and would be up against Taty Frans again. To fight for a top 4 place.

It's pretty much an impossible jump but I gave my best, I started with a nice kono followed by one of my biggest shaka's on the way in so far for me. On the way out I didn't sail so perfect in the beginning but could pick up my game again in the second half of the heat and made another skopu on the way out. I also almost did one on the way in but just ruined it at the end when I actually already had the move so that was bit of a bummer. But still did Burner and culo coming in so had a pretty good heat! Effectually it was a very close call with a 2-1 decision losing by half a point from Taty which was really good but also a bit frustrating as I lost yesterday also by half a point against Steven.

The rest of the day where the finals with some great action and the first double loops from Taty and sick air chacho from Golitto. But on the way in it was Kiri who was really ruling against any other sailing doing everything in the air and at least 1 meter higher than the rest to secure he's first place again against Golitto who was really on fire today!

Today we have the double so I hope I can work up till 6th or even 5th place again as Steven was injured yesterday at he's knee from he's pushloop against Tonky the other day, but maybe will try to sail again today to defend he's 5th place, we will see!

Stay tuned

Cheers Dieter



PWA Mui Ne Day 2

Hello everybody!

Today we sailed the double elimination in a nice wind from around 25 knots with pretty much the same conditions as yesterday only maybe a bit lighter wind as I was now sailing on my 4.3 the whole day. Which was the perfect sail choice for me today.

As I became shared 5th in the first single elimination I had to wait 2 rounds before I could go on the water to do my first heat to defend my top 10 place and get ranked up higher. In my first heat I would meet Andy 'Bubble' Chambers who was really on fire yesterday with a good heat against tonky but now had to fight his way up again till me. And was having a consistent sailing again today. So in the double we got right up into the strong heat already and for sure no easy heat in this doulbe. Against Bubble I did a great heat, I was focussed and managed to get some really good moves like, Kono, Shaka-flaka, toad, burner and some more nice moves which made me pretty sure I would win this heat against Bubble which I did.

In the next heat I would be up against Phil Soltysiak from Canada who was the only one who could end up in the top 4 on one of the events last year beside the normal top 5 combination, and was ranked 6th last year overall which would make it a really hard heat! But it just started perfect because I started my heat with a huge kono which felt really high, and like I was told afterwards by the judges was one of the best kono's so far of the competition. This gave me confidence to put on a good heat for the rest of it and get me to sail to victory to get in the top 6 which before I came to vietnam was not even possible in my wildest dreams so was really stooked to hear that I won against Phil who was also sailing very good.

Next up was Steven van Broeckhoven, so a Belguim heat fighting to get in the top 5. I know from before it would almost be impossible to beat Steven as he did very well last year and was again in good shape this year but I gave it my best shot. The heat was going pretty well but during my attempt for a toad on the way out I lost a lot of hight which I had to gain back and lost some time also with a crashed move. In the end I did some good moves like a kono followed by a culo right in front of the judges. And managed to get a burner but not a really good one which was not good to be able to win this heat but on the way out I had a great run with airflaka,shakaflaka and ending with a nice double ss chacho gave me still a chance against Steven. In the end Steven won like I already thought before the heat but it was really close only losing by half a point which gave me a great feeling that I was on the right way that I even can put some pressure on the top 5.

In the end it was a great day with for the moment a 6th possition after the double which is a good start from the competition, 2 more days so maybe we still can finish another double although the windpredictions give only wind for one more day but we will see!!

stay tuned!!

Cheers Dieter

PWA Mui Ne day 1

Hello everybody

After some good days of training here in Mui Ne with lots of wind.Today finally started the competition here in Mui Ne, with some great wind around 25 knts what gave some great action. With only 25 competotors here in Vietnam I was already seeded for the second round against Nicolas Ackyzcian from France. After the skippersmeeting at 1 a.m. we had one hour to warm up before the competition would start at 2 a.m. . During my warmup I didn't really feel so great in my sailing but still was sailing okay to give me some good confidence for my heat against Nicolas.

The heat before my heat I went upwind from the course area and went to put myself ready at the beach from jibe's where everybody gave me tumbs up for my heat and gave me a great motivation to go and sail a good heat. I was using my S-1 4.3 on my flare 88 which was perfect for the wind not really overpowerd which you don't want to be in the chop here. As my heat started I had full concentration and started of with a great Kono on the way in followed by shovit (while attempting a shaka) and than following with a nice Funnel oh. Which gave me so much confidence for the rest of my heat. In the end I did almost all the moves I wanted like Culo, Shaka, airflaka, funnel 900° and so on. To end with a Toad on the way out which I just learned here and don't land that save yet so I was super happy! When I came back and I heard I won I realised I got for the first time in the top 8 at a single elimination already.

My next heat was against Taty who was really sailing well, which ended up in a very bad heat for me, I started fine with a kono and a shaka on the way in but afterwarteds it only whend wourse, I think the top moment for me still was in that heat when I went for a massive shaka and ended up doing it al in the air to crash like coming out of an over rotated Airflaka. So I knew I lost already before I came to the beach. Next time better I would say! And still I made it in the top 8 which made me very happy! Also see Kiri winning on he's birthday was very nice, the finals where sick to watch and gave me an idee where I still have to go and work for!

Tommorow we have the double so I hope I can get to 7th place or maybe better will see.

Stay tuned!

Cheers Dieter

Day 7-12

Hello everybody

It's been a week since I updated my blog, it's been pretty windy the last days here especially the day after I last updated my blog. Already from the morning it was full power windy, around 12 I was already out on my 4.0 fully powerd up, to have a whole day of great surfing.

The wind always gets a bit stronger around 3 and so it did also on that day which made its
 way to strong for my 4.0 but because I didn't want to rig me 3.7 I decided to go for some backloops on the ramps that where building up that day, the landing was just not working out yet, but it's definately possible to do them here on strong days!

The next 2 days it stayed windy for 4.7 and Tilo and me had some good surfing sessions where we could get more used to the conditions and to the big chop here, getting more ready for the conditions.

Also Phillip, Max and Brain arrived 3 days ago and since then there where 2 days of good wind, yesterday and 3 days ago, you really can see everybody is struggling with the conditions in the beginning, but after a while is getting more used to it. I think the competitions is really going to be interesting but probably also very tough, but I'm looking forward to be training one more week before the competition will start!

Next updat will be faster again as there is a good wind prediction for next week, hopefully we get some good pictures again! I also want to thank pascal for the pictures he took!

Cheers Dieter

day 4-6

                                                           hello everybody

After another day without wind, it finally got a bit windy on Friday, but with only 12-15 knots it was more waiting for a gust on my 5.3 than really surfing and training like I had hoped! But eventuelly didn't happen for Friday. Friday also Tilo Eber already arrived who is still fighting a bit against he's big Jetlack he has from coming to here. After looking to the windpredictions again it seemed like Saterday with become a great day with some good wind.

And finally Saterday we got some real winds over here in Vietnam. The wind picks up around 12 to get the strongest around 3 in the afternoon before starting to turn a bit more to the north and getting side to side offshore towards the evening. Which makes it very gusty around 5 and is so the perfect time to get out.

I arrived at 12 O'clock on the beach and immidiatly putted on my 4.7 for my first session, harnas on and ready to go on the water, my 4.7 was nice powered up and I could finally start practicing again my power moves but more of all get used to the conditions. The conditions here are SUPER choppy which makes it very hard sailing on this spot. When I was sailing on my 4.7 it was still okay and wasn't that hard sailing yet, but as I took my 4.3 after lunch it became a lot more choppy and harder.

The wind became a lot stronger and I was really fully powerd up on my 4.3 to get even a bit overpowerd towards the end of the day. Sliding moves where very hard doing in this chop so I was training more the air moves, like shovit-spock and making big shaka's on the way out. Toward the evening you got somethimes some nice ramp hopefully today the got even a bit bigger so we could go for backloop, but will see, first breakfeast and than will see wath the wind and the conditions will say!

My day yesterday was perfect for me at least, I also found out that day I passed all my exames from January so I was also super stocked with that!!

Cheers Dieter

Mui Ne Day 1-3

hello everybody

Since my arrive here at Mui Ne here 2 days ago it hasn't been windy jet so I didn't have any surfing action so far but looking to the forcast there is going to get change in very soon!!

After 2 days sitting in the hotel at Ho Chi Mihn City it was finally time to go to Mui Ne. We got picked up in the morning around 8 O'clock to leave for or 4,5 hour drive till Mui Ne. Before I was thinking I would still sleep a lot in the car so the travelling wouldn't feel so long but I soon found out that wasn't going to happen, getting out of Ho Chi Mihn City took us already 1 hour just because all the scooters that are riding around which makes it really chaotic on the road as you can see on the picture below.

But the rest of the ride wasn't any better, if you know there is now highway here and only a single carriageway you can imagen that it goes a lot slower than in Europa. But besides that it became even more intresting and dangerous out of my point of view when I saw the speed limits where conected to which kind of vehicul you where driving. A big truck was only aloud to ride at a speed of max. 40km/h while a normal car was aloud to drive up to 80 km/h which resulted in crazy take overs where I was wondering a lot how the still made it without crashing! But all besides that we got the time to see a bit around how the landscape is looking from vietnam which is very green!

In Mui Ne were staying at the Ever Green Geusthous, which is 1km away from Jibe's, the surfclub where my surfgear is stocked for my stay here. It is a very nice hotel (bighouse) with very nice rooms and very friendly owners, and for its price incredible big!

As there was no wind yet I just filt my days with packing out my gear, getting my footstraps on and taking a swim in the swimmingpool. But from of friday the wind will kick in and than I will be able to train hard for the upcoming competition! Tommorow there is a small chance for wind but not to much!

As soon as it gets windy I will do another update with finally some action pics!

Cheers Dieter

Bangkok at the Starboard office



hello everybody

Since my exames where done as january ended it was time for me to gather my stuff together and leave for warmer places, where there good wind and nice tempertiors. It was time for me to go to Vietnam! As the first PWA competition is going to start at Mui Ne I thought it would be a good idee to do my wintertraining at the very same spot as the competition would be to give me a good preparation before the competition will start and this month on the 25th till the 1st of march.

Now I'm already in Vietnam but not yet on the spot (Mui Ne Beach) but still in the city of Ho Chi Mihn where I landed around 10 hours ago. I'm staying in a hotel not to far away from the airport in a pretty cheap but nice hotel. Here I will stay till monday morning till I get picked up together with my sister (who joins me on this trip) to go to Mui Ne.

Before this I was 2 days in Bangkok at the head office of Starboard to meet everybody behind the scences and get an idee how everything works around at one of my head sponsors. I was staying at Tiesda's house which was on the other side of the lake as the office. The marketing manegar Sacha showed me around the whole company but also around a part of Bangkok, for sure the biggest city I have ever seen in my whole live, with around 12 milj. inhabitants it has more people living than in my home country Belguim, so you can imagen how busy it is.

It was great to finally meet all those people which I was been mailing with but I didn't know personnally jet. But the most intresting thing I found was to see how they where making the boards and how they got there new designes drawn out for the boards. Besides that the wakeboard cable next to the office was cool to get some nice refrechmend and have some fun on the water and get some pictures of a bit of action. It was only the second or thirth time I wake-boarded before so looking at that it went pretty well. For sure taysting for more.

As soon I'm in Mui Ne I will post another updated (which will be in 2 or 3 days) and will afterwarteds update my blog much more freequently to let you know everything about this trip!

Cheers Dieter