Monday, December 20, 2010

Andrea Cucchi on AC-1

Very nice video with Andrea Cucchi on AC-1. A boss who really enjoys his products!

click here

Thursday, August 19, 2010

TOW & PKD

During the months June, July and August I went surfing 2 times. Not a lot of TOW (Time on Water) that is. I often lack the energy to go windsurfing because off my PKD (Polycystic kidney disease).
I was diagnosed to have this disease about 10 years ago. I now have a kidney function less than 10% and I have to take a lot off medication to reduce side effects. Medication such as blood pressure control, hard rhythm control, calium reduction, osteoporosis medication, arthritis medication, veins medication, …

Currently there is no cure for this illness. The only thing that can be done is to get another kidney. There is also a machine that can filter your blood but it is inefficient and it takes 3 half days per week to filter the blood.
There are 2 possibilities to get a new kidney: From a dead donor or from a living donor.

My blood type is O+. That means that are a lot of other people on the waiting list to get a kidney from a dead donor. I would take about 4 years from the moment that you are on the list for transplantation.The other solution is to get a kidney from a living donor. But then you first have to find someone who is willing to donate you one of his/her kidneys and the kidney has to match your blood/tissue.

I got a lot of luck here. My wife wants to donate her kidney and the blood/tissue matches.

Somewhere in the autumn I will get 2 operations. First they are going to remove my 2 kidneys and then about 6 weeks later me and my wife will be lying in 2 different surgeries at the same time. One team will remove one kidney from my wife and put it in me minutes later.

I hope that all this will work fine and I hope that my lovely wife will not suffer too much and will be recovering quickly.

I hope be windsurfing again (at full force) by the summer of 2011.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

PWA Live

It is now possible to follow the PWA Slalom Races at the Costa Brava live. The top racers have a GPS with GPRS which send GPS data live to a website. If you have the PWA Ticker also open you can see what 's happening.

Screenshot of the first Final today.

Race 1

Monday, June 7, 2010

May Sessions

Ouddorphaven 06/05
To make it a tradition I went surfing again on my birthday. Last year I was lucky and I could break some PR’s at Herkingen on that day. This year the wind was N to NNO so I went to Ouddorp haven in the afternoon. The wind was a bit on/off and I was on my P7 AC-1 6.3 for the first time. The sail wasn’t rigged 100% and I couldn’t get the trim of the board right. I also made the mistake of choosing a fin which was a bit to big and a sail that was a bit too small. There were 2 other guys using a real speedboard with a 7.0 and that proved to be more efficient. However I’m still pleased with the speeds since I was also getting used to the spot. It has some really shallow area’s which made me surf with the brakes on. There was also some rolling chop on the speed course. I think this spot will work better with NO winds.

Kessenich 24/05
There was more wind predicted inland than at the coast on Monday the 24th. Time to check out Kessenich again. It had been a long time that I went surfing there. Kessenich has quite large gravel extraction which is filled with water from the “Maas”. The disadvantage is that you also have a lot of boats during non-working days. The best winds are winds from the East. Today the wind was North. A bit gusty but fairly strong in the gusts. My surfmate and me both took the SL78. He was on the RS Racing 9.0 and I was on the P7 AC-1 8.7. Although there were a lot of wind holes we were planning all the time and had al lot of fun. I also got some good reactions from the locals on the P7 sails. “Looks very nice on the Black Machine” it sounded. I think I will be going more there for afterwork sessions because of the short drive. Another nice thing there “freshwater and a nice beach”.


G-dam 29/05
Wind from the South at the G-dam. A lot of people were waiting for the wind to increase but they were mislead by the trees the covered the wind. Out on the water there was enough wind to plane. Very pleased with the low wind performance of the P1 AC-1 8.7 with the Exocet SL78. My secret weapon for lowwind is an old JP Slalom 48cm fin in G-10 which I made a bit thinner. Works great.

G-dam 30/05
Wind in the morning coming from NW then N then W. Went to the “boothelling” and waited for the rain to stop. Then drove back to the G-dam and the wind again turned from N to W. It stopped raining. I went out with the AC-1 7.1 with the SL78. (Gusty) Then the wind increased and I took the SL61. I had mounted the backstraps to the last holes. This didn’t work in combination with the 7.1 and the chop. Then the wind increased even more and I wished I had the 6.3 ready. I went to the beach and at that moment a thundercloud was passing by with a lot of wind. I was glad I was on the beach. After that the wind decreased a lot. End of day for me.
Very difficult conditions and I was always on the water with the wrong set.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Ouddorp Haven 12/04

I had a nice session at Ouddorp Haven on Monday 12th of April. The wind was decreasing when I arrived at the spot but the nice weather still made it good fun. I had chosen a short fin to make sure I didn't hit the ground. The spot is very shallow and that is a bit scary at times. This time the fin was actually too small to get decent speeds. The AC-1 7.1 felt like I was sailing a 6.7 with the power of the 7.1.
Jo and me

Marco and me

Realy crowdy sometimes

A perfect day

Friday, April 16, 2010

Point-7 8.7 AC-1

AC-1 2008 & 2010


First time on the water with the Point-7 8.7 AC-1 and the impression is power and control.

Friday, February 26, 2010

More Black stuff

Point- 7 sails. I ordered some AC-1 sails together with C-100+ masts. I first came in contact with Point-7 when I went to Lake Garda in 2008. Then I saw the new sails on Boot 2010 and I was convinced.



Point-7 stands for 0.7 which is the highest score you can get in a windsurfing competition. The sails are originated from Italy and the company was started by Andrea Cucchi. They now also have a testcenter on Fuerteventura were the sails are designed by Peter Munzlinger.
Following this link to see some action on the P-7 site.