About Erik Loots

At young age learned how to sail (with 420 sailboat), after a few seasons sailing Erik wanted more time on water.  The neighbors had some surfgear they wanted to get rid off and donated it, started windsurfing around 2002, with a custom 95 liter ex-waveboard from mid 1980 (masttrack way in front) and a pink sail.

End 2003 Erik bought a used North Sails Spectro 3d 8.0 and 7.0, with recommended mast. This was very competitive gear at his local windsurfspot (Geestmerambacht). After buying  the Starboard Hypersonic 105 wood the speed was good and Erik was speed-addicted for life.

The first experience with a real racesail (Neilpryde RS5) was in 2005 thanks to Marcel working at the vandenberg shop, this made Erik buy a Gaastra Nitro5 6.3 and Starboard Isonic 105 DRAM. This was much faster than my normal freerace gear!! After  working a lot beside his study, Erik bought a few Arrows Maxx Speed sails (2006)+ 2 Carbon Art Speedboards. To finance the speedgear all big gear was sold, since 2007 Erik has only bought sails smaller than 6.7 (to be competitive in speedcompetition).  For a few long periods with a 6.2 or 5.8 only as biggest sail (sometimes frustrating). This boosted Erik his efficiency skills a lot, paying out double when using a big sail or when the wind is stronger.


Stats

• lenght: 1.94m
• weight: 84kg (05-2010)
• education: Bachelor of Build Environment
• birthdate: 27-10-1986
• sailingstyle: very dynamical sailingstyle, favorite is fullpower and leaning a bit back while having the greatest acceleration possible. Underpowered trying to keep gear as loose as possible
• Hometown: Broek op Langedijk, the Netherlands

There is only one goal for me and that is being competitive in a wide range of speedconditions. The ultimate goal would be surfing once 50kn these days, it is possible I know for sure.

In 2008 Erik started speedsurfingblog, first the blog was about the personal journey. Lateron speedsurfingblog also featured articles to promote speedsurfing/windsurfing. In mid-2010 the goal is to make speedsurfingblog much more accessible for a broad public (also non-windsurfers and windsurfers in other disciplines)