Neilpryde RS:Racing Evo II [preview]

Van BLOG

The new RS Racing (EVO2)  from the Neilpryde development program should be around Februari 2009 in the Netherlands. The sail does look like his previous brothers, only one very visible change. The change is above the boom the mast became shorter and the sail wider.

I heard this change is giving more range. I don't know if the topspeed is improved or still the same, but for lightweight like me it will be easier since the sail is a bit softer.

Only one thing I keep wondering... Is the sailprofile like the RS Racing or like the RS Racing EVO1? I like both, but the EVO1 profile was giving extra control and extreme speed in lightwind conditions. A big difference with the RS Racing (evo 0). I would prefer the evo1 with an changed outline, but we'll see.

Check this cool video from Neilpryde: "Race against the machine"

Tectonics Falcon F1 & the rest

The tectonics falcon f1 is often used for speedsurfing, many pro-riders sponsored by other finbrands use these fins in "real-world" conditions. Sailors like Antoine Albeau, Ben van der Steen, Peter Volwater, Dirk Doppenberg, etc.

Why is this fin sooo favorite in real-world conditions is quite hard for finproducers. Since the tectonics doesn't have a lot of lift, or very less drag. This fin has almost no grip, and you can actually see the boards angle of attack with the water is bigger than most other fins.

To be honest with you, I also own a tectonics falcon f1 25cm. The rest of my tectonics collection is sold, since all my personal records are sailed with Select fins. But, I still like the tectonics falcon f1, because this fin is pushing the sailor in the right direction.

This fin is a good example of "slippery" fin, slippery is a good habbit for "average" surfers like me & you. Why would a slippery fin be faster in some cases, I am thinking of 2 reasons. (1) You automatically take a longer fin 2-3cm longer (better in big chop) without overpowering, (2) and your subconscious go in the right mode (the "I don't want a spinout"- mode  instead of the "power"- mode). Conclusion: for extreme choppy waters a slippery fin could be the answer.

However a lot of other sailbrands have a similar design (copy?), have test them all, but here is the list, maybe you guys know more.

Select Devil   (better in extreme chop/ deepdown wind, less topspeed)

Choco Mach F1

Deboichet SL5 ? (SL6 or SL7 ???)

Vector EX

New Year surfing!!

On the 1th Januari 2009 a group of 20-30 windsurfers is going to celebrate the new year on the Amstelmeer, the Netherlands. I don't know the whole story, but last year it was fun according to local Bert Hoving

The surfers are supposed to do at least some windsurfing. If I guess now the session will be short, tempratures and low-wind is not very motivating. I'll try to be there to, maybe we can set a new record! Last year the record was set on 20 windsurfers.

If you also want to be there, send me an email. Just to check if the little event will continue. I hope my source isn't joking.

Cheers,

Erik

2008 Photoshow

Fincover (how to make a decent one)

Before select I had Tectonics, and yes the tectonics fincovers are very good. Tough, stick on the vin. But I sold all tectonics exept for 1. A few months ago Caspar finished 2 speedfins for me. No covers, so finally a excuse to make a bunch of vincovers for my own. Asked my mother and she made 10 covers in less than a hour. With a normal sewing machine. Now my fins are protected onshore! And I like the look of a 'wooden' fin

Doesn't mean the fins will last forever since I am quite a pro in finding stones @ the bottom.

Start your own BLOG

To start a own blog is just a matter of a few minutes work! And with Blogger it is totally free, even possible to make little money. 

So start your own freestyle, windsurfing, speedsurfing, slalom, race, formula, etc. blog! Because it is really easy to add a blog to your own google reader (RSS), and so other surfers/readers can easily read all your international & local news. 

I am really a huge fan of google products, it just works! All my pictures are stored @ picasa which is also superb.

Steps:

1.  get a google account, you will get a gmail adres
   
2. Log on in blogger.com (choose a good webadres, it will look like  yourname.blogspot.com)
3. Add as many gadgets as you like, like youtube video's, picase webalbums, ads, etc...
4. And you can start blogging

When you are blogging for a while you can find your blog back @ www.google.com, this way when people search for "footstrap position" and you have written a  article about footstrap postitions you will apear in the results. When the blog is fun and you post frequently you will get automatic an audience.

For my Blog statistics I use Feedburner Pro, really nice fast and free to use. It doesn't get better than that. I first used motigo, but with those stats I had constantly problems with pop-up ads.

For a little money (almost nothing) I added google adsense, now I used some ads for a month and I have earned totally $ 2,15  But there are always successtories, some people make a living out of blogging...

If you need some help, just comment, I'll get automatically noticed...

Select S07 M (2008) review

The ultimate Select Slalomvin, click here for select website, you can order these fins in every rake/lenght you like. I have tryed a 25/30/34 S07 M, and it is really a upgrade from the SL7. It works really nice with my Carbon Art boards, but I also like underneath the Fanatic Falcon.

Power 

The S07 M can control diffcult conditions, this is because the lay-up is a bit more forgiving. However I never felt I lost any power, so the design is on the edge. The SL7 is really close to his brother, when you are sailing on 100% flat spots the S07 M has no real advantage. But in chop this fin makes it easier to accelerate/control. Which mean in competition you are able to keep full throttle, instead of getting really tired.

Little victory!

The last USM (ultimate speed meeting) I actually had with the S07 M 30cm the highest topspeed/ 10sec run out of all competitors. The difference was the easy handling, and I could keep up all day.

Finish

All S07 M fins I have seen had a very good finish, no raw edge. So this fin may be a little more expensive, but it has a good finish! There is one maybe even better finished model (hard to see)

next week: Select S07 Speed

Hydroptère vs Windsurfing, is there any hope?

On 21th of Decembre 2008 Hydroptere had huge numbers on the dail,  and on the 3th of Decembre Sailrocket did also an amazing topspeed.

• Hydroptère did 61kn peak
• Sailrocket did 51.8kn peak

Windsurfer, do we have a advantages left?

I have been searching the internet, and I see a lot of concerned windsurfers. Will we be able to beat those monsterboat's? And nobody can answer that question. I know only a few advantages of windsurfers, those can't be beaten by boats:

1. We can move 90% of the total weight during a speedrun in less than a second, from the mastfoot to the backfootstrap. I think this also explains why "we" windsurfers can survive extreme windgusts. Kiters or sailboats can't keep into the water.
2. Windsurfers and Kitesurfers can sail almost everywere, easy to move, and a bit cheaper.

But why did we lost our top position?

There are some disadvantages for windsurfers too, and we have to work at those. I can't believe it is impossible. The main problem is lack of knowledge, what do we speedsurfers really know? In this world a very little group of individual speedsurfers have done serious research. The big research is often very moderate...

1. We have to get more information on taillift, especially what is the finlift we need? The "best" fins are making the bottomlift of your speedboard almost zero. Finian Maynard mentioned after his speedrecord he didn't feel any chop... This is what we're looking for. Holy grail of control & massive speeds
2. Less drag on findesign, look @ the hydroptere massive foils, bottomsection looks like a supcavitation section to me! This could also explain why the boat started to accelerate @ very high speed, when  the vacuumbulb is complete a massive drag-reduce will follow, or in other words the lift increased a lot (gust). This foils looks very intresting, a normal foil combined with a supercavition section.. But also the supercavitation section looks normal behind the first 3% of the foil.
   
   
   
    
   
   
   
3. From my sails I can't actually think of any better. The Neilpryde RS Racing which are simply really the best, are just all most sailors could ask for. Some other brands are really close, but NP has that very good balance between stiffness vs twist vs profile.
4. Boarddesign, for ultimate speed, I would think the board has to be good in flying. So a good noselift is required. I think to get started the boarddesign has a lot of influences. Overall the boarddesigns are also very good at this point. Plenty of good designs like the carbon art speed, fanatic falcon speed, f2 missile xs, etc.

Boats & kiter problems

Can they keep it down? Foils under angle like the hydroptere are the smartest solution, but every design with a sail under a an angle (like sailrocket, kiters) have serious issues keeping just on the water. I'll expect many extreme pictures of boats /kiters flying above the water.

Van Speedsurfing BLOG

Van BLOG

Neilpryde MXT extender

Since I use Neilpryde sails I had to get rid of my Chinook RDM extender (which are allright!) And get a SDM extender. I almost bought an chinook SDM extender (also a good extender), but why not try the neilpryde extender.

The Neilpryde X6 extender it is!

I was a little bit affraid the extender would be disappointing, but after a few months using it I can't be more excited about a extender. Ok it is a little bit more expensive than most extenders.

Ok it works best with "Power M-base" , the pin version was not yet available when I got it.

Why I am so excited about this system:

1. You get a good rope with the extender, not the best rope, but a good one, lasts at least 50 sessions. For the best rope go to Kater Funsports I forgot the name, but they'll know.
2. Don't need a rig winch, I never liked the winch. It was to easy to downhaul, and when I forgot it I couldn't downhaul my sail. But most important, in shallow area's like "Strand Horst" I can adjust downhaul in 1-2min.
3. Not extremely heavy equipment, but still very stiff, also not really fragile constuction
4. Power M-base system works really nice, even with very cold fingers you can get the sail from the board.
5. The mastfoot is easy adjustable, and stays on position. Before this systems I had often a mastfoot that was to tight (not easy adjustable) or moved to the front of the masttrack.

I highly recommend every addicted surfer this system, it works!

New Blogger Template

It wasn't easy, but I have finally a wider design that works. The old template was easy compared to this stuff. I had to think back to my computerlesson on school a few years ago, to get this one started.

I hope you like the new design! Main reason to change is because the old design was just to small. I couldn't dump all hyperlinks.

Would also like this template for your blog???

Download here:

http://bloggertricks.com/2008/07/stylish-3-column-blogger-template.html

I encrypted some code parts for myself, can help with "small" problems

JP into Speed???

It looks like JP is going into speed, haven't found anything on the JP-Website, on the net the dutch importer pronounced a top10 dutch speeders also signed with JP. Can't wait to see what the productionboards will look like.

The JP proto/custom speedboards that Jaqcues van der Hout has look very promising in my believing. He told me I could try them next time on a windy day.

Basic shape I have seen in 30sec, a pinny tail/ very thin/ low volume/ monoconcave. I like 2 things, that I sometimes wish my carbon art had them... Very Thin & monoconcave make the board in my believing potentional toooo fast. Low volume isn't comfy and a pinny tail makes it even harder to find a good fin.

However a guy like Antoine could do some magic on it, Bjorn watch out...

I'll keep you posted!

Hydropthere, Worldrecord broken?

Rumors l'hydroptère did today a topspeed of 61kn (113km/h), how did this happen??? And also the rumors are followed by a 500m record of 55kn (101km/h). 

It seems the day ended in a catapult, I mentioned it earlier but those french sailors are taking risks for the Nautical Records. 

I am quite happy my favorite boat might be new worldrecord holder!!! 

Translation: "The Hydoptère capsized and then returned to about 400 m from the coast, the mast and foils, wings so that the trimaran fleet above the sea, ending 

up under water. 

Caused by the wave and a gust of wind damage occurred while the Hydrofoil reached 55 knots. Stabilized on 500 m, this speed would

 have been the world record in sailing."

Is it a outright record or not?!? I'll keep you up-2-date!

More News:

http://www.hydroptere.com/

http://www.lefigaro.fr/

Starboard Isonic 2009 Ad

Just another very nice ad for the isonics, I have owned one (Is105, 2006), but when I saw this picture it was on first sight hard to see what they actually mean. 

Graph comment

From the graph I would say this is some kind of board with pintail, correct me if I am wrong...

High speed & vertical lift

Is bottomlift important??? The nose & saillift (front) and finlift (back) should level the speedboard. Only problem is to find the right settings & fin (very hard). The select sl7 or RS7 is really giving good constant llift fin, once you know how it works you will like these fins!

Release point

It is nice to see what starboard thinks of the ideal release point! It makes it easier to tune your board right. I guess they sorted it out... Actually why don't all manufactors provide this information!

UPDATE CHECK THIS: http://www.speedsurfingblog.com/2009/02/starboard-isonic-2009-ad-part-2.html

Vliegerweer.NL

Yep, the Kiters also have a better site for windprediction in the Netherlands, it is all together, saves a lot of time before the surfsession. Thanks to Peter de Wit who told me about this site. 

Site includes:

-Windguru

-Windfinder

-Watersportweer

-Weeronline

-Tide

-and more

Check out: www.vliegerweer.nl

I always use Den Helder since that is close to my homespots

How To: Start Speedsurfing

Like going fast? Do you want to know who is faster? Now for everybody gps-speedsurfing.com has free statics & help to start speedsurfing.

Speedsurfing is for everyone, don't think you'll need a speedboard or small slalomboard. No everyone can join, even if you only have a freestyleboard. There are many different rankings, and you can set fun goals like:

-Be the fastest sailor on your homespot (or country)

-Longest distance sailed on your homespot (or country)

-fastest gybe

-Fastest formulaboard

-etc.

So freeriders, wavesurfers, slalomsurfers, formula, etc. try and join the club. Be the first to join of your homespot! Be the fastest on a waveboard ever, do 1000 miles a year! Etc. There are millions of challenges!!

What skills you need before starting speedsurfing???

• Being able to surf in the footstraps
• Being able to use a harnass
• Being able to get a windsurfing equipment planning

3 Steps to begin speedsurfing

Total costs speedsurfing= gps + aquapack + sandisk SD card = 110 + 35 + 10= 155,- euro's

STEP 1_______Buy & tune your GPS unit

There are 2 new gps units that are good enough: NAVI GT-11 and NAVI GT-31

In the secondshand market a garmin fortrex 201 or gecko 201 is also fine, but don't buy a new garmin! Why? Garmin gps is no accurate enough, good for amateur sailors. I think most ofthe time a new NAVI is cheaper than a new Garmin. The NAVI costs like 110,- euro's. Take a sandisk SD card to save all your sessions, it is a lot easier to read the files out of the NAVI with sd-card.

The gps unit need some waterproof cover like aquapack, the aquapack costs like 35,- euro's

Everything about your gps settings/setup: click here

STEP 2_______Register

Register under your real name on gps-speedsurfing.com

STEP 3_______Download software

For beginners I would recommend gpsresults to post your tracks on gps-speedsurfing.com, this software is free for 1 month, and the easiest userinterface. You can also go for GPSAR (software works for 3 months), but GPSAR is more difficult to understand. From the downunder you got realspeed, this is the only one I never used.

Start posting surfsession

Put your gps in aquapack and start surfing!! After these 3 steps you can start posting your surfsession, you and your (surf)spot will get noticed! 

Select SL7 (2008) review

This fin is a glass moulded fin, made under extreme pressure. You can buy this fin in 8 sizes, and all of them are fast. Before I used Select-Fins everybody always told me "moulded fins" comes together with "inconsistency". These rumors came from people with a lot of windsurfing experience. Now I have used several SL7 fins (15 different ones) I can promise that the lay-up is very consistent!

Reduce finlenght

The Select SL7 is very powerfull compared to most fins. I came from Drake Slalom Pro, Tectonics Falcon f1, Tectonics Goldwing. But when using a SL7 you can reduce finlenght due the extra power this fin gives, just take for example 1cm off your standard drake slalom pro 34! The windrange over 1 size is huge, for example I use the 29cm SL7 from 12kn till high 30kn.

Select SL7 is this a speedvin?

If you look at the Select Website, you will see that the SL7 is a slalomfin. But in fact one with a very thin profile 9%. Also a blocked twist helps powerup and deepwind speedsailing. The fin has a bit more control than most speedfins, and the profile quite basic. But the magic lay-up and thin profile makes this one of the best speedfins in the world.

Select 2009 model...

I heard there comes a new SL-model, can't tell more. But it sounds even faster!!! Can't wait to try the updated SL7.

Flaws

In the Netherlands we all know that Select fins sometimes do have some flaws at the trailing edge. If your fin is whistling, or you think it is not allright you can always send me a picture. 80% of my Select SL7 fins are hand finished by myself.

next week: Select S07 M (2008) review

Best Christmas Card Ever

Thanks Ger for the card!

Fanatic Falcon 2009, first ride

First impression

When the boards (falcon 95 & 110) were pulled out of the bag the colors & finish are like last years. The shape is a new kind, the boards look way thicker, and outline is more round. Also when you feel the bottomshape the V-is definitly there, in the front the new fanatic falcon has real suspension Deeep double concave.

The video & first ride was on 21 Oktober 2008, on my homespot Amstelmeer, the Netherlands.

On the Water

A few days before this session I tried the Fanatic Ray, which seems very similar. The ride of the Falcon is quite similar, only this board rides closer to the edge and feels more alive with fullrace sail (RS Racing). The real fun starts when you want to catch another surfer, because the new fanatic falcon goes easily a bit upwind without any loosing any speed. After you got higher up than the surfer you want to catch put on throttle, go a bit downwind, and you'll fly past him.

Real speedtest hasn't been done yet, sadly it is winter out here. Crosswind I got up to 30-32kn with max 18kn wind, chop was 0,5-0,6m. Not bad!

Navi Gt-11 Amaryllo Reset... new settings

For a half year now sometimes my gps is taking a break inbetween my session, and  sometimes I know valuable data is lost. Sometimes my average speed is way down...

Lately hen I tried to read the SBN-file it took 15min before GPSAR PRO finally opened it, and it looked like every session I got more spikes. I don't like that!!! GPSAR PRO did crash several times.

I think this is simply a software problem, so this is what I have done:

1) Software Reset

-Download right firmware : 1115.zip

-upzip file and you get: NAVI_FW.S file

-Put Navi gps CD in computer

-Install firmware software NAVIFU.exe

-attach gps with usb to computer

-put gps in on-mode

-run NAVIFU.exe

-Select right updat file: NAVI_FW.S

-Select right com

-Start update

[for more detailed steps click here]

2) Format SD-Card 

-first put the data somewere safe (cd, extern harddisk, etc)

-Format SD-card with computer 2-3 times

-If it doesn't fail formatting the card is good enough 

3) New settings  [some guys improved the settings!]

Only thing I changed is Hold Key, I like the keylock function, without it I had a few times the display didn't show me the last run.

Memory Card
LOG SWITCH:__________ON
MIN SPEED:___________1 KT
NMEA ITEMS:_________SBN 1-SEC
FILE SIZE:____________CARD SIZE
FORMAT CARD:________[erase all data from memory card]
REMOVE CARD:________[after this command you can remove the card]

Data Logger
INTERVAL:____________1 SEC
MIN SPEED:___________3 Knot
SAVE TO CARD:________[copy session to memory card]
CLEAR:_______________[datalogger session will be cleared]

Alert
BUZZER:______________ON
OVER SPEED:__________40 Knot
ALTITUDE:____________OFF
TARGET______________OFF

Settings
LANGUAGE:___________ENGLISH
TIMEZONE:____________+1(Amsterdam) 
UNIT:________________NM
FUNCTION:____________NAVIGATION
DOP:_________________0
TIME FORMAT:_________24H
DATE FORMAT:_________YY/MM/DD
ARRIVED:______________50 Feet
MAP DATUM___________WGS84
POSITION:_____________DD.DDDDDD
USER GRID:____________L=E102 s=1.000000 X=500000 Y=0
POWER MODE:__________NORMAL
DGPS SOURCE:__________OFF
INTERFACE:____________BINARY
BACKLIGHT:____________ON
BACKLIGHT TIME:_______10 SECONDS
CONTRAST:_____________[middle]
EXT. POWER MODE:______OFF
USERNAME:____________(Your Name)
USAGE:________________[stats... usage wayoints etc..]
DEFAULT VALUE:________[back to factory settings] * Don't Press or start again!!
NMEA BIN ALIGN:_______OFF
SPEED AVG TIME:_______10 SEC
SPEED GENIE:__________25knot
HOLD KEY:____________MARK
SERIAL NO.:___________1003281
VERSION:_____________V1.62 (B1115)

Video Session 19 Oktober

It is almost 2 months ago, but really worth posting. What a day, nice tempratures and chop hopping. I was on my Carbon Art Speedboard 50, with Neilpryde RS Racing 6.7 evo 1.

Together with other local sailors I did some nice blasting, no stress, a lot of fun!

Trick of that day was to think there was no chop.

Many thanks cameraman: Wouter Loots

Please let this long/cold/windless winter be over!!!!!!!!!

Fanatic RAY 95 (2009) [test]

Fanatic Ray 95 (2009)

This board is very simple to ride, you don't need to be commited. On this video the lowwind capability is showed. On the flat there are almost no difference acceleration to any other v-bottom slalomboard.

Is it faster than other slalomboards?

Crosswind it seems to be as fast as slalomboards, however pointing/overtaking/windrange is not as good as the falcon for example.

Videosession: Oktober 15th 2008, Netherlands, Oosterland "the brace"

When we tested the Ray on the Amstelmeer I really liked it, and on gps I didn't see much difference between falcon 89 and ray 95. It wasn't completly fair since there was a little bit more wind when I used the ray.

On the Amstelmeer I didn't looked for flat spots, and the ray doesn't seem bothered, it is quite in its element in difficult conditions. For most people it is nice the ray is in those conditions not on the edge. For ultimate topspeed I found it not very fast accelerating over 0,5-1m chop, but very steady and high average speed. (OK, but who wants to go 35-38kn or 65-68kmh over big chop)

Getting into planning was not very fast, the falcon 89 was a bit faster into planning mode. However when you are not pumping into planning mode, the ray will be better. I got into planning around 12kn 4bft, but think about 15kn/5bft if you want to get planning without to much effort.

Sails & Fins

When testing we used 6.2/6.7/7.2 NP RSRacing, all sails worked fine, I think 6.7 is the sweetspot. The standard G10 fin that came with the board worked very well, first time for me I found the standard fin fast enough! For some better upwind&downwind a Select SL7 helped.

Boardscore:

• Upwind: 7
  
• Downwind: 7
  
• Crosswind: 9
  
• Acceration: 7
  
• Windgusts handling: 10
  
• Windlull handling: 7
  
• Plug & play: 10
  
• Planning: 6
  
• Jumping: 8
  
• Gybing: 10
  
• Standardfin: 8
  

Ray short description:

A board made for easy tuning, gybing and never out of control. Yet very fast crosswind.