Steven

Steven Van Broeckhoven has a new website :) He's going to Tarifa next week for six weeks to prepare himself for the coming PWA 2009. His first year !!

I'm curious if he's going to provide us the same surprise as he did this year in the EFPT (also his first year) by ending 4the overal!

On his new website will be able to follow his training so be sure to check it out from time to time !

Yann Sorlut - Waiting :: part 2

I don't know if you remember some time ago the movie of Yann Sorlut, but they have made a longer version of it with some crazy guys and some wonderfull effects :)

Check it out!

Hit the lip !

Looking windy :)

Although freezing cold and kinda rainy, it still looks like a very windy weekend :)

I hope i can make to the water and surf a bit longer then 15 minutes before freezing blue... :):):)

All and all, it was OK

Today i had a mixed session. The wind was coming late and was not so strong as predicted, but still it was a nice handful for the 6.4 AirX. Although they predict for tomorrow some nice winds, i doubt that i can make it, because again it is coming quit late...
Tuesday (thank god for public holidays) it's going to be 24 knots, a bit of rain but still some nice temperate for this time of the year (10-11°C). There are some photo's taken, but i don't know if they ok enough to publish, i'll see...

Finally some riding again

Although it is almost a week ago, i had a relative nice but short session last week. The wind was flaky, not to strong, nearly not long enough (only 2 hours worth mentioning) but i enjoyed totally. It was almost 2 months ago that I've been on the water.. i hope that we will get some more windy weekends because until now it has been very sad..

Still didn't buy a new wave board, still a bit doubting what will be the best for me. But some good news, I've ordered Tricktonary II but i can only open it when it's Christmas.. :(
Polakow movies are on their way to, can't wait to see them !!

Surfing Rat

I just read a funny article. It's about a fourteen year old who's teaching his rat to surf :)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1078449/Pictured-The-incredible-surfing-rats-taught-ride-4ft-waves.html

New Wave board

What should i do, what should i do... since my mates are more and more into wavesurfing (and i always loved it) i'm doubting to buy a new board. But i can't decided which one... Who can help me?

I think i'm going for the Kombat Technora 07, 87 liters because this one give me enough pleasure with light and high winds... but still not sure yet..

Yann Sorlut - Waiting

Definitely worthy of looking at. Very nice movie (a bit short) and super smoothly edited!!

http://www.riders-contest.fr/site/member/?id=553

My first wakeboard session.

Since there was no wind for quit some time and the weather was outstanding (a lot of wind would have been better of course, but still) I decided to join my work colleague Stepan Wagenknecht to join him on his wake board session somewhere in Holland.

I must say, I had a lot of fun and it is a lot physical tougher than first presumed. But definitely a do again. For a first timer, I didn't do it that bad... by the end I was able to go halfway the full lake, which was a bit more then I suspected to achieve :)

Stepan in full action :)

So Stepan, thx again and see you on the next session :)

Second Part of Domburg

The second part of the 'photoshoot' is on swell.be !!

Be sure to check it out!

New Domburg photo's

At last I managed to get some photo's online of our super trip to Domburg.

Enjoy!






More follow later on (and this time it won't take as long as before :))

Stacked

Just a quick post. I know, I know, I still have to post the photo's of Domburg but i didn't had the time, yet..

In the meanwhile, check out this awesome vid of Gollito and Paskowski!

Domburg vacation

It is a real real real shame on me that it took so long. But here is the first photo :)

The others are coming soon, including a more travel like story with it.

Domburg - Holland

Well, it's decided. We're going to Domburg. It's not as extreme as the previous choice, but looking @ the current forecasts the better one. Not as far away is a bit of a plus to because we can get an evening session on arrival and stay longer on Sunday's...

Hoping for lot's of wind in combination with glazzy waves so we can both windsurf as surf.

Blancs Sablons - France

We are thinking about going to Blancs Sablons @ France.




Judging from the pictures it can get pretty epic !!

We'll see how it will be.. it looks pretty fine, but it's well over max. distance of 600km

Last minute weekend

Yesterday went for bike ride with Gino and somehow we decided to go on a 4 day windsurfing trip next week. We don't have a location yet, but it should be somewhere @ mid/north France or north Netherlands. Reason is fairly simple, we can't drive much further otherwise we don't have any surfing time left. But we want some wind or @ least wave security so that we can either windsurf or golf surf.

So if anyone has suggestions, please share it :) Very mucho thanx !! You're always welcome to come along also.. i've heard that Jelle C. is interested to :)

Steven Van Broekhoven

UPDATE: Steven took the 4the place in the double elimination @ Milos beach. He has secured his 4the place in the overall results. Congratz dude !!
-------

He did a great job @ Lefkada, Vassiliki. He became fifth (shared spot) which has allowed him to step up on the overall ladder by becoming fourth overall. Not bad for a first timer he :)

Next stop is in the north of the same island. Hoping that this time their will be enough wind throughout the whole competition so that at least this time the doubles can be finished.

Check this movie out! It's a Dahab compilation from Gollito and Paskowski with some truly amazing awesome freestyle action !!

Two rookies surfing

Like i told you guys earlier on, i was editing some footage from our first surfing session @ the Maasvlakte - Holland. It was a fun, enjoyed the weather and the sea very much. Conditions were not bad at all for two rookies enjoying themselves.. The best replacement for windsurfing when it's not windy if you ask me :)

So here it is, our first surfing movie :) If you got some tips to improve our style (very much needed) then don't hesitate to let me know..

Now for those of you who want the see some real action, check this. Real cool photo's, look likes an awesome spot to me !

Check this link out for sure dudes, real massive wipe out's. Some real crazy stuff! Glad that it wasn't that bad with us...

Belgium Riders

As the title gave it away a bit, i'm gonna promote 2 Belgium Riders today. First Roeland De Rycker. He's posted a new movie about an after school session on Grevelingendam - Holland. It's really well put together. If he keeps this commitment and level raising, it won't take long before he joins Steven on the EFPT trips.

Speaking of.. tomorrow starts the EFPT @ Greece and the conditions are looking better then last time i checked. If it stays like this, were gonna see yet another great EFPT show.

http://www.swell.be/swell.tv/play_349.html

While Steven Van Broekhoven is preparing himself in Greece, several story's are publicized about him. The one thing that always comes back is "Most improved Sailer" or "Most impressive Sailer" and they are right about it :)
Check his reports @ teamthebunch (site is in Dutch though), unfortunately his forgotten his cable so he can't send us pictures for the moment..

Source

Prokids 2008 :: video report

As promised, a short video overview of the Saturday (very) low-wind freestyle ProKids 2008 contest. Enjoy!

Vassiliki Freestyle

Wednesday 4th June, start of EFPT Vassiliki Freestyle @ South Lefkada, Greece. Club Vass is hosting the first time this great contest and just they are, i'm pretty exited to see what's going to happen. Hoping that the wind will pick up because right know, it's nowhere to be seen :(

Steven had broken his big toe @ the ProKids weekend (2 weeks ago) but is now practicing his moves at Greece. He's there together with Maarten van Ochten and it seems that he's fully recovered. Will see in a couple of day's if he is right about it...

pic from hauft.at, PWA Podersdorf

Current week

Not much posting time this week, so just a quick update. I've viewed the Brazilian Search from Club Ventos and it has delivered what it has promised. I'm sure that anyone who had read their website will agree... it's a relaxed movie, pure Club Ventos style. (remember their monthly diary videos from 2007) Clean and hard action when the wind blows but mostly more background information about the riders and spots. Let's not forget, it is a movie about the search of a new spot for Club Ventos.
Off course, a bit more windsurf action is always nicer but if the wind only blows 2 of the 8 days then... you know..

Anyway, my next movie to watch will be 7 Sons of Freestyle from ContinentSeven. Just arrived this week and really looking forward to watch some kick-ass freestyle action! Off course, a short review will be posted :)

Short movie about Prokids low-wind freestyle action will be posted short after the weekend with another short movie about my first surfing action @ the Maasvlakte - Holland with some bonus material ;)

the Brazilian Search...

Get the biggest surf adventure of the year on your screen, today!

This DVD shows what happened during ClubVentos Beach Search, when Kauli Seadi, Kevin pritchard, Marcilio Browne, Andre Paskowski, Baptiste Gossein, Robby Swift and seven other PWA riders helped us to search for a new beach to open our second windsurfing center. It turned out to be the biggest surf adventure of the year, and its now time for you to discover what happened, and what they found... Download from ClubVentos for Free!


I'm already waiting on the finishing sound of my download, i will let you guys as soon as possible know what i think about the movie, although a free movie about windsurfing can't be bad. Please don't hesitate to give you're opinion.

BK Freestyle - Grevelingendam

I deeply hope that finally some wind will kick in this weekend. It's, if i'm not mistaking, the first real BK Freestyle this year. The go or no go can be viewed @ the Belgium Surfforum.

The contest will be held at Bruinisse, Grevelingendam and i will be there, probably as judge and other wise as film / photographer. (Also i'm a bit hoping to get some surf myself to)

In the mean while, here's a little video you can enjoy from Maui with Naish, Levi, ...

Prokids Brouwersdam

The weekend of 17 and 18 may was the weekend for the Prokids contest. I went for a quick look and was hoping to get some surf myself later on.. what a bummer!!

Although it was fun to watch our Belgium Pride to compete in the marginal low-wind conditions it still sucked. With the exception of a couple of gecko freaks (witch by the way gets boring if you only keep repeating the same move) the only other moves where buddha's, splits for the girls and some flip trics.

After i while, i got so frustrated of the lack of wind i went back home. Saturday was kind of a boring day. I've heard that the wind kicked in Sunday, but it was a bit to late since i had all kinds of work to do... so i was even more frustrated :(

I filmed a bit, perhaps i'm going to edit and post it or perhaps i don't... will depend on how much spare time there is left.

Current weekend doesn't look very good either, i hope it changes because this weekend is also the very first BK Freestyle. Probably without Steven van Broekhoven, because he has broken toe from last Sunday.

Newly arrived AirX

Last week my new sail arrived!! It turned out to be a real beauty, i just love the red color!! Can't wait to test it out on the water, i'm just waiting for my boom and more important some wind. A bit of a bummer. Last 2 weekends were without wind, not even enough for my newly 6.4 :(

Although i can't say much without having sailed the sail, while rigging it felt really light, even slightly lighter then my 5.8 search... can't wait to test it, it feels like the moves are going to be there without time!! man, i'm stoked !!

Penguin wetsuit

Although it ain't about windsurfing, the following is slightly related :)

Found an article about a sad, lonely and cold penguin, called pierre.

Penguin Pierre was a bit ashamed about his boldness and was left out by the group. Oceanic Worldwide had decided to take the challenge and made a really cool fitting wetsuit for him to feel better. And it worked! He isn't left out any more and he even gained wait again :-)

Oesterdam

30 April 2008, what a day! A bit discouraged i went to the Oesterdam. It was the only day they predicted some wind for the whole week and with some i really mean not much, a lazy 12 knots. But man oooh man, was i happy when i arrived @ the spot. Although i don't have a windmeter, i'm pretty sure it was @ least blowing 17 knots.

I got my 5.8 and Twintip combo and got on the water, it was even more then presumed, it had to be 20 knots. So rather overpowered i surfed a couple of racks before Tommeke Peeters arrived. Then we treed to practice some styling :)
Did some major crashes, one even so hard that it ripped up my harness. That was very very though cause i didn't had a spare one and stopping is word i don't know. Surf until you drop was this time what kept me going for real ;)

In my resting period i did take some pictures. For the ones asking themselves, why are there so many of Roeland? Simply because he was the one practicing the hardest!

Update: PWA - EFPT Podersdorf

As you all could read on the PWA website, due to the very light wind conditions only one single elimination could be preformed.

Kenny was unfortunately not strong enough to beat local Sammer, but Steven managed to pass by Chico and even Kevin Mevissen. But in heat nine he got stopped by Tonky Frans (who ended up 3 in the event). Which means that Steven is currently on the 9 spot on the PWA list !! Not bad for a first timer!!

In the EFPT ranking he's currently moved to the 5 place, because of M. Brown who did again a splendid job by becoming 2 in Podersdorf. I'm not sure why Brown, who's a Brazilian dude, is listed in the EFPT list... if somebody's knows, don't hesitate to post some comments.

To sum up: conditions where very marginal, the moves super and congratz to Steven for his super performance!





Pictures taken from the PWA site.