Saturday 2 November 2013

2 EFPT Brutal Beach and Vice european Champion


Hello Everybody

I was planning to write a bit more earleir this blog again but didn’t really find the time.. Since Sylt there has been happening quite a lot! First of all it’s been pretty windy at home allowing me to do some freestyle but also some wave sailing again. During one of my sessions about a week before I was going to leave to the EFPT I twisted my foot quite far and had to take some gas back again but all was still good for free sailing as long as I put on my bandage to support my foot.

No handed flaka at Amstelmeer

2 weeks ago I left together with Rick Jendrusch to the last EFPT of the year at Brutal beach. Last year I was able to win the EFE event in front of Tonky and wanted to do the same this year. With only one day wind predictions out of the east and the possibility to have a boat everything was going to come down to the second day of competition. Forecast was good, the organisation was super but the wind wasn’t really quite there, after a late start all hopes where already gone to finish a double elimination wish meant no second chances and pressure was on every heat. To get the European title, there had to happen a little miracle as Steven had to finish outside of the top 5 and I had to win the event to get the crown, as Russia was a 300 points event and France only 100.

super strong day of wind at home

With light winds there was the decision to run again in a best trick format where the best 3 moves would count each way during 10 min. heats. It was all the time searching for the good gusts and there was quite some luck involved. I had really good heats considering the wind and managed to get through till the final but each time with less and less power moves as the wind was really dropping quite fast. I was happy I made it to the final already and now I wanted to go for the win again. The only thing I was missing in those 10 min. was wind, while I was always able to make up to 8 moves during the previous heats I only managed to land 4 moves in the final and attempted 6. Steven got the best gust at the other side of the area making an airfunnel funnel and culo in one run which obviously made me lose the heat as I couldn’t even do anything to put on a fight as I was just standing still... But we know we had only that day the boat so we got a result but how much it presents is another question. I don’t say the result would have been any different but it would have been nice for everyone incl. Steven to show what we really could do instead of doing e-sliders and flakas to advance into the next round.

light wind shaka on Freek 5.2

In the end I got second in the single and also was sure of my second place on the overall behind Steven! I’m really stoked with that and it just left me relaxing through the weekend as I knew I would be second overall and at least top 3 during the event. In the end there didn’t come enough wind anymore which left us with a lot of Tow in action where I didn’t compete in because of my foot and left me waiting for the price giving on Sunday! I’m very happy with my second place overall but can’t wait for next year to go one place higher!

the trophy's! 

Since I was in France I missed the second competition of the Belgium Championships of Wave and couldn’t defend my title where I was quite bumped with, as it would have been nice to get this tittle for a change! But luckily I got back home in time after a whole night of driving to catch one of the best storms of the year. With pretty nice waves for Belgium and weather for 3.3 and 3.6!

going for a goiter on 3.3 almost landed this one, getting closer

More to come soon as its been howling at home and it doesn’t stop! 2 more weeks before leaving to Australia, can’t wait!!

good waves for Belguim!

Cheers Dieter

Saturday 12 October 2013

PWA Sylt 5th place and 5th overall!


Hello everybody


About a week ago the last PWA of the year ended in Sylt in some of the coldest conditions I ever sailed competition in. Sylt is the biggest and longest event of the year taking in total 10 days of competition and 4 disciplines makes it always a bit harder to know when you exactly will have to sail. The first days the Slalom was running and the Freestylers where on standby in case it would get wind enough. Lucky for us the main concern during those first days was slalom making us be released at 3 or 4 in the evening.

Together with Starboard and Severne teammate Amado Vrieswijk we packed the car to go sailing in the south at a spot, which should be one of the best on Sylt, and maybe even in Germany the owner of surf school Sudkamp told us. When we got to the spot we weren’t disappointed while the slalom sailors where on their biggest gear racing we had the best session we could imagine. 5.2 weather fully powered up on the flattest water you could imagine and nobody else around! It was perfect to do that little bit of extra training just before the contest. The day after we did exactly the same and could even sail on our 4.8 and sailed till it was dark before going back to the event side.

Amado flying high always great to sail with him!

Thursday and Friday were the days the Freestyle finally got started. With still easterly winds the competition was sailed far outside which made it harder to choose the right sail but luckily for me I was in one of the last heats and could see where the rest of the guys where sailing on. I took out my Freek 4.8 and Flare 91 as most guys where on 4.5 and 4.8. The combination was perfect being sometimes a little bit overpowered in the gust but most of the time nicely powered up during the whole heat. My first heat I was against Max Mattisek from Austria who improved a lot the last year and is always sailing good heats. I had a perfect heat with moves like Pasko, kabichuchi , burner and so on. After that I was against Phil Soltysiak where I sailed another good heat against with maybe my sickest kabichuchi of the event, which helped me to win the heat and make it in the top 8.


 The next heat was against Golitto Estredo, I knew I had to step it up a little bit if I wanted to win this one and took a little bit more risk, trying to go higher on everything and put my best heat together. The first 3 minuts of the heat I was sailing the worst I sailed from the whole elimination but I could still produce a really good heat the last 4 minutes. I knew it was going to be close and I needed one more big move with 15 sec. on my watch I was hoping for a good gusts which I got but just could not get the good pop on my spock culo making me land it very wet.. in the end this made the difference making me lose in a 2-1 decision losing by just 1 point.. So now it would all come down to the double elimination.

On Friday the wind was a lot lighter making me choose straight away for my 5.2 to be powered up enough against an on fire Ricardo Campello who was sailing better every heat. I sailed a perfect heat and although he landed pretty much a shovit-‘air’spock straight in front of me I knew I had won before I even heard the result so I sailed in very fast to have a drink and warm up a bit as it was only 6 to 7°C (without wind-chill). Next heat I was against Anthony Ruenes  (one of the guys who battled for 5th place) I sailed a  quite good heat but not really my best one as the wind got really light. In the end I did enough to advance and sailed to the beach again to hope that Taty won from Davy Scheffers as this would secure my top 5 position on the overall! When he did, all the stress was from my shoulders and I sailed just to have fun.

Against Taty the wind was still light but I found more a rhythm in this winds and changed my tactics of moves a bit because of the lighter wind. I sailed really good and scored one of the highest scoring heats for me this event getting even 54 points on one sheet! Next heat I was against Kiri Thode, I was getting so cold by this time I almost couldn’t feel my feet anymore and was just dreaming of getting underneath a warm shower at this point but I still gave it my best to get a top 4 result finally at the end of the year. The wind was light and it was searching for gusts but I put a good heat together and just like against Golitto I knew it would come down to the last move which had to be high scoring. I went for the chacho in the last seconds and landed it just a bit wet.. In the end I thought I lost for sure but after hearing I only lost by half a point I was a bit bumped it was so close. Luckily this feeling disappeared very fast as Kiri improved his heats and finally could get the world tittle after all these year of being so close to it! Big congratulations to him!

The new world champion Kiri Thode!

 For me 2013 has been a great year but it isn’t over yet, the goal in the PWA is reached with a top 5 placement but with one more event to go on the EFPT the season isn’t completely over yet. To get the overall title here will be hard as there are only 100 points to win, which would mean that Steven has to finish outside of the top 5 to have a chance to win the overall title so the main goal is to defend my first place there from last year and hope I can win it again to finish the season really good but I know this wont be easy!

Poster for the EFE end this month!

Cheers Dieter

Monday 23 September 2013

PWA DAM 7: 9th place

Hello everybody


It’s been a week since the PWA at Brouwersdam has ended after a great week of sailing, relaxing and partying at the DAM 7 festival! Having a world cup at your homespot the place you learned so much is always something special and seeing the amazing setup of the event made it all look unreal. There wasn’t a long travel to the competition but just a one-hour drive, it wasn’t a new place and instead of asking all the locals what the wind was going to do you where the guy they came to instead of the other way around.


During the week we got some really good wind from the NW that makes it quite flat for the wind there is. In the single elimination I was straight up against Julien Mas who is one of the top sailors in France and would made me go straight full on from of the start. I had a pretty good heat and advanced against Max Mattisek who made the big upset of the day by defeating Davy Scheffers in round 2. After winning against Max who was really sailing well I was up against Steven. The wind got super strong and I was fully powered up on 4.0 and even a bit overpowered in the gusts. I didn’t sail a really good heat and couldn’t really put on a fight against Steven who was sailing amazing in the strong wind conditions.

The next day it was time for the double elimination, the chance for wind was pretty big but it kept us waiting the whole time as it only kicked in around 1 or 2. By the time I had to sail it was already 7 in the evening and I was up against Davy Scheffers who was having a great comeback in the double elimination with some amazing sailing. I knew it would be a close heat but I gave it my best, I missed my big moves I was training on after Fuerte like no handed burner and flaka shaka but still managed to sail a really good heat with moves like spockculo, skopu both sides burner 900°, really big kono etc. In the end the heat came down to the last move of Davy which was a no-handed burner 900° jumped 3-4 seconds after the horn of the end of the heat as you can see in the link below. It was a super impressive move which made the heat turn into his favour, although he only had his front foot standing in the foot strap 1 second before the end and putting his second one in as the heat ended still having to duck and jump the actual move after the end of the heat it still counted which in my opinion is a wrong call as like this you give an advantage to the people who do their moves switch compared to people who do their move normal stance.


As I saw the footage only the next day so I couldn’t do anything anymore and had to go on with my 9th place.. I’m not the best loser I admit that but when I know it was fair I can put myself over it pretty fast and be happy with the result but now I can’t. I lost the chance to defend and assure my top 5 ranking for 2013 and to get a good result on my home spot all-in 4 seconds. But of course this is all my opinion, I would say that if you agree the move of Davy should count I lose on a fair way and I deserved to be 9th, if you think the move of Davy shouldn’t have counted you agree I should have got a better place than 9th. I had an amazing week at the DAM 7 and can’t wait till next year to improve my result and look back with no mixed feelings. In a few days I leave to Sylt for the last PWA of the year let’s hope I can get a good result and get back into the top 5, which is still my goal of the year!

Just have to keep on smiling and keep enjoying every second on the water!

See you there!

Cheers Dieter



Friday 6 September 2013

The Last minute trip to Egypt


Hello everybody

the only windy day at home

It’s been a long time since I wrote something on this blog but Augustus has kind of been busy and hectic, a pretty good reason for that was a last minute trip to Egypt. The wind at home didn’t show up since I got back from Lanzarote besides one day and the forecast for Egypt simply looked amazing. After checking the tickets I was on the airplane one day later and caught literally the last flight to Egypt after the conflict in Cairo which if you belive the media was spread all over the country and made Egypt unsafe.


When I landed in Egypt there wasn’t to much difference with other times, no burning cars, no tanks driving true the streets only less people and no taxis driving to Dahab after 7 p.m. as this wasn’t allowed by the government. This made me stay one night in Sharm for the first time ever as normally I go straight to dahab, which is a one-hour drive. Although I was there on one of the worst nights of the “revolution” there was nothing to notice in Sharm and pretty much whole the Sinai (which is the touristic and windy part of Egypt). After I arrived the next morning in Dahab with just a few more police officers at the checkpoints, Dahab was still the same as it always had been, windy, sunny and warm!


Like always I was staying at club Vass who where exceptionally calm because of the revolution and all the bad news in the media, just like all other windsurfing clubs actually which gave more place on the water which for me was pretty nice! Anyway just as the forecast promised the wind was there every day for the whole week, with 5 out of the 7 days even wind in the afternoon that allowed me to sail 4 hours every single day at least and was great training for the upcoming event in Brouwersdam which starts Sunday! Besides the great sailing where I came for of course I had great days and evenings with friends and the local boys from Dahab to relax after all the sailing with a BBQ on the beach during moonrise as my absolute favorite!


When I came back home after a week everybody told me how bad it looked on the news which made me just amazed with how good the media is with turning things there way and make it look like whole Egypt is in war while the conflict was still only in Cairo, the media made the biggest disaster in Egypt out my point of view by turning the facts and killing the tourism to Egypt which still is perfectly safe! With a lot of flights cancelled to Egypt it’s hard to still get to Dahab but if you can I only can say that is as safe as it always has been before! However for upcoming week I wouldn’t go to Egypt as you can much better come to the DAM7 and PWA worldcup at my homespot Brouwersdam! Next update will be from there! If you want to keep more up to date be sure to like and check my fan page on Facebook!


B.t.w.: one more question to think about concerning the Egyptian “revolution”, after all flights where cancelled how many things did you still read in the news about this ‘unsafe’ country?

Cheers Dieter

Monday 29 July 2013

PWA Fuerteventura 2013, 5th place!

Hello everybody


The second PWA contest of the year has just passed and saw 2 full double eliminations completed during 6 days of competition with not the strongest Fuerteventura wind yet but still 4.4 weather every day almost!


It’s the 4th time that I can remember we did 2 double eliminations on the PWA after 3 years of competing but it’s the first time ever I saw so many amazing heats with super high level starting from round 1 up(I had from of the start a close heat against Yarden Meir which made me realise I was sailing too save)!  For me the contest went super good, I felt prepared and on the new Severne Freek I felt super comfortable! I could show a much higher level in my heats than in Podersdorf and felt I was getting closer to the top riders and sailed some of the best heats so far which could get me even higher in the future.


To make the 6days competition a bit shorter I’ll just pick out the best moments.

2nd heat in the first single against Amado Vrieswijk:
After the close heat against Yarden I was straight up against one of my best friends and teammate Amado Vrieswijk from Bonaire. Knowing he is one of the young guys to watch out for this year and was making a lot of big upsets in Podersdorf I knew I had to sail one of my best heats to win. I had my best heat so far in the competition landing, spock culo’s , culo spock, burner 900° etc. And big switch moves on the way out to make sure I could win this heat to make in the top 8! I was super stocked when I won but I would have preferred to meet Amado later so we both had a good result, which he still got in the end with an amazing 7th place!


Heat for the top 5 in the first Double against Antony Ruenes:
Me and Antony had already a lot of close heats the past years as we usually end up against eachother in the single (besides this event finally!) and I always have to sail my absolute best to win and I did sail at a level where I could have gotten further than 5th. I landed a massive skopu on the way out, big shaka flaka and a lot of good moves on the way in making me score 53 points on the judging sheets. I wish I could have done this over again many more times but sadly enough I peaked a bit to early to get even further in the double elimination (lost with a 2-1 decision against Kiri the heat after that), being a bit tiered of sailing so many heats after eachother could also explain a lot.


2nd heat of the second single against Adrien Bosson
Adrien Bosson was for me one of the most impressive guys this event who really showed a great level. So again not an easy second heat which forced me to sail really good again as I didn’t want to lose my 5th place from the first Double! I sailed again a 50+ scoring heat and got the feeling I could win my next heat if I sailed like this again against Steven Van Broeckhoven, I did on the way out but on the way in I missed my big moves from the heat before which made a repetition from last year not possible to score a top 4 position in a single elimination


In the end I finished 2 times 5th in the double elimination and had the feeling I could even do better but I will bring all this positive energy in to my training for the next event at Brouwersdam as I would like to keep my 4th place on the world ranking which will be hard but not impossible!!


Cheers Dieter