The Bonaire Trip!!

Hello Everybody

For my last training of the winter before the season started I decided to go Bonaire for some pure flat water training. I was invited by one of the young rising stars of Bonaire Amado Vrieswijk to stay together with him and his family for my 3 week so we could train together whenever he didn’t have school and it was windy.

Amado going big on a windy day in Bonaire!

With waiting on a good forecast before I would leave to Bonaire I had an awesome first few days with 4.7 fully powered up on the magical blue water of Lac bay. The first 2 days were in the weekend so I got some hours in sailing together with Amado going from the flat mangroves till the bit more choppy waters in front of Jibe city. Always keeping pushing each other with him trying to do moves I couldn’t do and me not wanted to be tricked out by a 16 year old always trying to add something extra to the move he did. It’s a great way to train cause you push each other to do more than whenever you are sailing alone and as soon as you hit the beach it’s again about what we were going to try the next session! He is definitely one of the guys to watch out for in the future if he keeps training and improving like this.

one for the camera

last evening session on 4.7 pic. by Caeser

After the weekend the wind got a bit less but was still enough to be planning on my S1 4.7 especially in the mornings and the evenings when it always got a bit more than during the day. I got 2 nice evening sessions in together with Youp Schmit sailing till sunset before heading home after a whole day on the beach. After 3 more sessions like this the wind totally dropped out for about a week with no sailing at all. That week was pretty much filled with doing some work for school, cliff jumping and just swimming at the beach. I also made it to the national park of the island for the first time which was a great experience!

cliffjumping to cool down!

After a whole week without wind I already almost came to my last week in Bonaire with another bad forecast for a week without wind making the trip pretty windless.. But never mind the forecast whenever Kiri Thode is back on the island. Being at the beach it seemed like there was a very little bit of wind not enough for planning consistently but maybe for pumping.   I decided to give my S1 5.0 another go as last time I didn’t really feel much of a difference with planning faster than my S1 4.7 but I knew I wasn’t going to plane on that for sure so I thought it was worth the shot. A bit different trimming and off we went on the water. In the gusts it was just enough to get planning with some pumping to do a freestyle move and wait again for the next one. After 15 min the wind picked up a bit more and we were planning almost the whole time with no pumping. After 2 hours the wind totally dropped again and there was no chance of planning anymore. Although it was light it was still a great session as it wasn’t expected! In the end I had one more good really late evening session till it was too dark to sail on my S1 5.0 before I left back home again.

Now I’m at Podersdorf where we will have the first PWA of the year. I will be posting blog updates as much as possible during the event so keep reading!

Cheers Dieter 

Dahab the back-up plan!

Hello Everybody

After waiting already for a week on a good forecast for Bonaire to book my ticket and get some pure freestyle training done I made a last minute plan. As I was going to book my ticket to Bonaire for the upcoming Saturday with still no good forecast I noticed the ticket a week later would be 200 Euros cheaper. With a ticket the next day to Dahab for a week from about 350 euro’s with 4 days of sailing guaranteed looking to the forecast spending 150 Euros more on a ticket for 4 days of good sailing didn’t sound too bad. So said so done both tickets booked and 24 hours later I found myself in warmer Egypt again!

this are all screenshots from a small filming session at baby bay.

The day I arrived the wind died of just a few hours before I came as it is almost always only windy in the morning in Dahab I had the time to get my stuff ready for the next day..

The next day I woke up early and by 8 I was already sailing on 4.7 waiting for the wind to shift less offshore and get the best session of the whole trip started. By 9 the wind turned to the good direction and picked up even more after sailing a small hour overpowered on 4.7 I decided to come in and take my smaller 4.3 sail. I have to say it was the first time I was sailing on death flat water again since a while and it was just SICK!! Everything went perfect that day and gave me really the love again for flat water freestyle. I sailed that day 5 hours before the wind dropped and felt it really well the next day..

The next day it was a nice session from about 3 hours on 4.7 before the wind dropped out earlier than the day before. It was again a great 3 hours of sailing at speedy’s where the water is nice death flat till it becomes too busy around 10.30 as all the guest from the centres are out than. After speedy I would usually go to Kamikazie as it becomes the better option with less people and some wind swell which can be nice for jumping or air moves. On Sunday we got a really nice relaxing day to get our body fresh again for another 2 days of good sailing.

Monday started pretty calm with again a 3 hours session on 4.7 like Saturday. But the most wind we got the next day with a great session on 4.3 fully overpowered in Baby Bay. I didn’t really find my rhythm during the sailing but still it was great to be on the water again knowing the trip for one week was fully worth it! I tried to make the best of it and still went out for a small session on 4.7 in the afternoon before the wind totally died of..

With the last day with no wind although the forecast still really looked good I couldn’t do much else than get my stuff packed again and make myself ready to go home again. With everything packed and ready to go for the next day it was time to go into town to get a nice meal with all the people who made it again an amazing trip and always make me have an amazing time in Dahab . The next day it was an early wake up to get home for 45 hours before leaving to Bonaire! More about that in my next update!

Cheers Dieter

my winter training part 1

Hello everybody

It's been almost 2 month's since I wrote for the last time on this blog. It isn't because there wasn't enough action to tell about as there has been plenty going on but more the fact of time and lack of good internet but I'll be catching up with my 3 reports to let you know about all my winter training in a countdown to the first PWA event in Podersdorf in less than 3 weeks with a weekly update from of this sunday.

The first one I'm going to put online is my update from Australia Part 2

After the last update I did, I left for a week of wavesailing. And what a week of sailing it was with a lot of k’s, first I drove up to margs to get a good day of sailing in. It was light winds but still more than good enough for 4.7 and a 70 liter wave board, the waves where average for margs with waves from around 2,5m (which is the same as a good to big day in Netherlands) and it was pretty crowded but I had an amazing day and was so glad to get in some nice clean waves! After that it looked like it was going to be good up north with nice swell and good wind. So urly wake up, getting everything packed and up to Gnaraloo a trip from about 1550k one way and all in one day! I was pretty tiered by the time I got there but all of the short sleep and the long drive was gone once I saw the waves and the wind.

picture by Carsten Puth (lancelin)

4 proper days of wavesailing was what followed next and a death body was garanteed by the end of the week. I think that was the most hard week of the whole trip, having my license only since janaurie and already be driving about 3000k in one week with 5 days of sailing full on in the waves I was just naked! I was pretty much death by the time I arrived in perth the next week. I was actaully a bit happy it wasn’t going to be windy the first few days although I knew my trip was coming till an end..

Backloop at coronation on the NUG

After 2 days in Perth I knew enough to make the decision to rebook my flight home to one week later and get some more time in the australian summer, everything arrenged for staying a week longer it was time to have a look at Lancelin, with no wind around it was kind of nice to do a bit of a touristique weekend just enjoying sunsets and the wonderfull nature of WA. I also scored some normal surfing that weekend to keep the hairs wet and get the body moving but most of all I loved the sunset me and a friend had on the big sand dunnes of Lancelin, just amazing! To top it af I still got a little session in just before I left up to geraldton again with unussual Northern winds in the morning.

 picture by Carsten Puth (lancelin)

With a good 2 days forcast and no wind for the rest of my last week anymore it was time to head up to Geraldton again for an amazing 2 days of sailing in finally some winds which where stronger than 25 knts!! The first day it was still flat and it was all perfect for freestyle with already wind around 10 in the morning it was a day with a lot of sailing!! 4.7 in the morning nicely powered up and than 4.3 weather in the afternoon altough a 4.0 might had been a better choice as I was pretty much fully max out on my 4.3. In the evening you could see the first peaces of swell coming in for the next day so everybody was excited to go for some good jumping the next day as a good swell preduction was given. 

picture by Carsten Puth (geraldton)

In the end its always the best when you’re last day of sailing on you’re trip is one of the best, swell came in nice wind from around 25 knots and heaps of good ramps to get some good airtime on! Beeing still a bit tiered from the 6 hours sail the day before I still tried to sail as much as possible but had to give up before the last sunset session as I just couldn’t move my arms up anymore! Those 2 days made the rebooking of my flight to one week later totally worth it as there wasn’t any wind anymore after that. In the end it might have been a good thing that there wasn’t to much wind anymore as I had to get the car sold again before heading home. As I got the car sold it was clear the trip came to an end and it was time to go home for a little bit..

shaka on the NUG at coronation

Thanks for all the people over in oz to make this trip again an other succes and see you next year!

picture by Carsten Puth

Cheers Dieter