The Speedsurfer

Movie review: Ghosts of Speed

Cast: Jurjen van der Noord, Jacques van der Hout, Hans Kreisel, Peter de Wit, Renske Hijlkema, Caspar Verhaagen, Wessel Douma, Niek Looze, Walther Siksma, Jan Hendrik de Bruin, Luc Salomons and many +30 others

Director:  Angelo Pecere

Audio: English (Dubstep, electronic and ambient)

Sound: Bluman 

Story: An italian guy (the director) who visits the Netherlands, the movie is through his eyes, experience what he experienced in the Dutch nature and a few Dutch "ghosts" chasing high winds plus flattest water. These invisible, deserted places are the ultimate playground for the fanatical and amateur windsurfers.

Rating: 5/5 

Review: This movie is a beauty, the storyline is interesting and makes it possible to understand, experience and fall in love with the Dutch landscape. It shows the (Dutch) speedsurfing lifestyle in a way never seen before, this makes the movie quality stand on lonely height. Angelo even managed to surpass my expectations, the first movie that makes it possible to translate my speedsurfing addiction to others. All best emotions in speedsurfing are captured on the DVD

Quality of video is good, but music and sound edit by Bluman is absolutely something special. The audio and video are made to fit perfect together. I like to listen to music and all 40 minutes was a joy to listen, see and experience during the projection at Kater funsports windsurf Shop. This professional edit and cooperation between Angelo and Bluman is the second reason why this video is attractive for everyone, not just windsurfers.

Extras: Tips from the fastest windsurfers for windsurfers

Price: € 10,-- euro 

Order your DVD here

Jurjen van der Noord performance far above expectations!

No doubt, Jurjen van der Noord is the biggest thing in dutch (GPS) speedsurfing since I started using a GPS on my windsurfer. Almost no one saw this comming a couple of years ago, I remember the days where I often was about as fast as Jurjen. Later we became teammates with Starboard / Severne. Last year the performance increased like mad and nobody could exactly point out why?

The best fact is Jurjen is just a normal man with a good job, you would not know he is this crazy fast speedsurfer when talking with him and his humble personality. His professional approach for chasing records is unique and will be example for many future (GPS speedsurfing) record hunters. There was a lot of positive and negative buzz in the (dutch) speedscene about this performance in Luderitz, Jurjen is the first GPS Speedsurfer who pulled this off, and it is not easy to:

• Get the trip financed with sponsors (yes, for record hunting a good campaign is needed to get enough support!)
• Be fit at the right moment
• Keep at ease and being able to show your best or even grow during the event
• Having the right equipment and knowing how to adapt settings to "never known unique conditions". His custom made board he used worked!! No testing or several proto's possible, it worked, thats engineering on high level!

Jurjen thank you for showing us "how it is done like a professional"! You are an true inspiration, you even managed to get me excited for records!

On the water Jurjen is serious fast, see here how fast: http://www.gps-speedsurfing.com/?mnu=user&val=111113&uid=1438

Jurjen his official 500m videotiming record:  51.26 kts = 94.93 km / h

Luderitz equipment talk

Mistral Speed `production board as fast as custom`
Many riders use a mistral board, I am a fan of Chris Lockwood his designs too. I see a very stable ride and not supersensitive for fins, though this is a little gamble for me. From boardposition on the water there seems to be enough opportunity for rougher-highwind conditions. It is amazing this board is for sale, most others are customs. For example the fastest board of Antoine, which probably is a Christophe Fiorentini board.

Sails many differences and similarities 
I like the look of the Neilpryde, Loft and Severne (based on ranking). All 3 sails have good downhaul, not too much though but with a extreme belly. Is this is extreme belly needed for the tiny turbulences at the first meter from groundlevel, eliminate drag?? Or is it just lift that is required for such a deep downwind course?  When looking to my own trim I use a bit more downhaul and more outhaul (flatter sail with more loose leech). I think it has to do with the extreme course and deep downwind angle. The Gaastra Sail surprised me, the performance we see by Cedric Bordes is outstanding!

Fins, fins, and many more fins

Is this the recordbreaking Gasoil design?

I heard of Gasoil before, but what an amazing speed by Antoine, Anders, Patrick, Farrel and Nick (Lena too?). If I see it right it is no widebase design, so old fashion ;).  Though Jurjen van den Noord is the exception, using mXr Fins, which are more widebase design, no problem for 50kn+ and congratulations the dutch fans are extremely proud!!!! In the end I wonder which design will be the favorite, it is interesting to see Antoine changed from mXr to Gasoil yesterday and we see numbers never thought possible before. Is there less need for extreme low center of effort (advantage widebase fins) on the Luderitz channel? Looking to the latest postings there is a new trend. Widebase should be a bit more draggy, though the low center of effect normaly gives plenty of control back making the ride more stable, hence widebase fins drag/lift lower and faster. If the Gasoil fins has equal amount of lift (without lifting the board out of control in gusts) I can imagen a small advantage +-1% though, that is what it takes for records.

If something interesting shows up, you read it here.

Luderitz tech talk

Interesting stuff in Luderitz after seeing results and footage, never before it was this good documented. Theory and results are matching and everyday or every run more is almost equal to higher speed. This men made canal demonstrates a few principals. Most interesting is to see speedsurfers go faster and the visual changes we receive through facebook http://www.facebook.com/luderitzspeedchallenge.

Up to now it is interesting to see is that control=speed is valid, but there is a catch.
Looking to the board position of the leaders in the rankings it is very much equal to lightwind efficiency speedruns. Not saying that it is lightwind or easy over there... It doesn't look completely like the previous records where efficiency was not this important.

I stick to Antoine and Anders, but there are a few other good examples too. Both Antoine and Anders manage to keep LwL (lenght waterline) most stable and short on average compared to others. This has too do with time on the course, skills and ability of finding/making the best solution for stable platform. After a few days when everybody optimized their equipment I wonder what the differences will be and who will lead??

The fact that Antoine did the best time by changing down from 5.8 to 5.4 is giving me confidence in this analysis. A smaller sail has behaviour of less movement/influence on boardposition and easier to accelerate or hold on to a long acceleration.

What will happen in even higher wind???
 It will be interesting, outcome will tell a lot about (future) speed windsurfing. 2 scenarios:

1. Course gets a bit more rough meaning the boards nose gets smashed/pushed up a bit more, LwL should be a tiny bit longer/ lower nose to support a stable position. More stress/force though on body and maybe here is a slight problem (causing speedlimit?)
2. Course doesn't change much, efficiency ride still possible?? Maybe the efficiency ride is the only way to go faster??

Below video of our dutch speedhero Jurjen, the only one without added weight. It gives a good view on the course. I bet with a bit more time on (awesome speed)water Jurjen will smash the Dutch record again.