Best Wishes for 2011

Wish you plenty of wind, fun and new personal speedrecords in 2011!

Cheers,
Erik

Severne Reflex II online!

http://www.severneracing.com/reflex_2.php

Speedsurfers Poll

Not soo long ago the speedsurfingblog readers voted in this poll http://www.speedsurfingblog.com/2010/12/poll-about-speedsurfing.html

Now it is time to use the 146 votes and draw some conclusions:

• 95% does speedsurf
• 44% uses speedsurfing equipment (speedboard, speedfins or speedsails, etc)
• 66% (also) uses slalomequipment for speedsurfing
• 30% only uses slalomequipment for speedsurfing
• 87% uses slalom/ freerace/ freeride equipment for speedsurfing
• 8% only uses specialized speedequipment

30% only uses slalomequipment vs 8% only uses speedequipment = +- 4:1

87% uses slalom/freerace/freeride vs 44% uses speedequipment= +- 2:1

This is close to what I believe, when considering a slalomequipment range often involves 3 boards - 4 sails versus speedequipment range involves 1 maybe 2 boards and sails. I believe in speedsurfing we have this spreading speedequipment : slalomequipment = 1:3. And this could be interesting for development, this misuse of slalomequipment for speed.

This Mistral Board is HOT

Chris Lockwood on the smallest Mistral speedboard

Black Project Fins

http://www.blackprojectfins.com/?page_id=281

The Black Project Type S is a new speedfin design too me. Tom Hammerton and Martyn Ogier ride/ developed/ tested these fins. We know Martyn from the speed:world:cup and Tom from Hotsails but also high speed on Maui between breaking waves.

The design makes me remember the Kai Kopf fins some years ago. I bet there is plenty of control in this design.

A good thing might be the way these fins are milled (CNC), a good finish can just add sometimes this 5-10% extra performance.

Mobile Speedsurfingblog.com

Speedsurfingblog now also mobile available
http://www.speedsurfingblog.com/?m=1

Thanks to Blogger.com :), I think blogger is just the best after this service added. Easy blogging, but enough possibilities once you want to do more with your blog.

the Invention of Windsurfing video

Wind & Water - the Invention of Windsurfing from Joseph Schuster on Vimeo.

Never saw the video, have to share it. Just great, and also some speedsurfing included :)

Hydrofoil and speed

It just looks AWESOME

Does a hydrofoil and speedsurfing match is the question. For hydroptere it works, but on the windsurfer we don't have room for a crew tuning the foil angle of attack. This is the only very succesfull sail powered craft for speed. When looking to the years of devepment behind hydroptere I would almost believe there is NO way to exclude minimal 2 guys optimising the vertical lift foils.

But now you can order the AHD hydrofoil, it is not very speedy but still a functional hydrofoil windsurfer. For 0-15kn wind. Possible up to 3 times the windspeed. If I would guess the topspeed would be between 45 and 55km/h (30kn). With one hydrofoil it is a bit magic to fly over the water, keeping balance, searching balance, gusts....

I bet a good match will be THIS sail with the the AHD hydrofoil...

But back to speed, that is what we like to do!! Can we use hydrofoil ever for speedsurfing?? It would be AWESOME, it would be THE speedsurfing invention of the century.  I hope it will be possible to do some speed hydrofoiling, soo I started thinking is it possible to make it work.

There is only 1 problem, the board position is quite unstable. Maybe 2 or more hydrofoils are the only way like the 3 pictures on top. Or I was thinking about this discovery footage (what else...) about a speedboat with 2 wings integrated  in the hull above the watersurface and making the boat stabilize at high speed, this boat could not hydrofoil but once it hitted chop/waves the boat was extreme stable in the air. Use speed, this  "steady" airflow from the front. Maybe ultracrazy, maybe something efficient. At least fun thinking about it, speedsurfing in the future

Poll about Speedsurfing

A new poll, which should give more insight about todays speedsurfing. I bet the group speedsurfers or windsurfers with GPS is quite big (if you count also riders without pure speedequipment).

Speedvideo Port Saint Louis 2010

Really high quality video summarizes the event perfectly!! I like it :)

Tried to make something out of "not-so-good-footage"

I used one session a headcam  (oregon scientific) for a test, because I would like to do an awesome video someday. The footage turned out to be not so good, today I tried to make something out of it. It was a typical 2010 windsurfing day, lowwind-cloudy-sometimes sun with my favorite 2010 slalomboard the iSonic 111, together with wad1team friends. Don't remember the date, but I guess the max. speed was +- 30kn or 55km/h.Thanks Chris for borrowing this headcam.

I learned a bit more frames/sec would be great. 640x480 is OK I guess for internet use.

Back in the day - 1992 - Martin reports

 Martin van Meurs made himself popular in the Netherlands.  Promoting GPS-speedsurfing, recordattempts and the idea speedsurfing is just the best thing ever.

Read about Martin his thoughts some years ago. I translated some parts which are interesting

"In 3 years we should go 100km/h"
"On a speedboard you're constantly tightrope walking, searching for the ultimate balance between board and rig"

"If you make 1 mistake in 20 seconds on the 500m course when doing 70km/h you loose easily 10-15 places in the ranking"

"What is the speedlimit? -far far away, by improving equipment speedsurfing will change. In the end it will be only depend how far do you dare to push it (100km/h or even faster)."

I downloaded these scans of some magazine from a surfforum a long time ago. (for when there would be frozen water). Good news is I have some other nice photos/content of speedsurfing before 2000, I am just waiting for the original publisher to allow me publish these.

My 2010 story on www.star-board.com

Many thanks to Thewes, Sacha and the rest of the starboard crew for making this possible!!! http://www.star-board.com/AutumnWinter2011/news_events/read.php?threadid=10199

Patrick Diethelm online - 2 speedboards

http://www.patrikdiethelm.com/ is online, he chose to develop 2 speedboards. 43cm and 50cm wide. And the boards are not slow as Torsten Mallon demonstrated

Metal speedfins (aluminium, alloys, stainless steel)

 We know G10, glass, carbon very well for speedsurfing fins. But speedsurfers and windsurfing development looks often for innvoations or ways to improve performance (make it easier to go fast)

These photos are found on www.surf-forum.com, the german windsurf forum

Extreme thin blades, I wonder how long this would last.

In the boatworld you see much more metal underwater. But for windsurfing glass or carbon is leading all competitions. No wonder actually with all the possibilities G10/carbon/glass offer.

Craig Hollins AKA kato does 553,5km distance in 24hours

I just read on the gpsteamchallenge site Craig Hollins did the most distance ever on a windsurfer in 24h (in the gpsteamchallenge). http://gpsteamchallenge.com.au/sailor_session/show?date=2010-11-30&team=16

Not normal this is a great performance. Craig used his Carbon Art Slalom 52 and a few KA Koncept sails. Check out the link for photos and other info.