Last day Belgian speedweek.

WInd was too gusty/shifty for a valid race. Had a last day on the water of my 2 weekes in Gruissan. I have surfed 10 of the 13 days.... ;-)

Last day of Gruissan Speedweek. Again very gusty Marin onshore winds (10-18knt). Therefore we met at La Nautique again. Overall very well organized event with bad luck of the wind direction&strength.

I had to take again my "biggest sail", 6.3m², because I only took my small speed equipment with me, normally perfect for Tramontana. But sail was by far to small, so I had to take my old "steamer", the iSonic122, to pass the lulls. Most others went with 7-8.5m² on the water.

So I did just a few runs to test the SL-P380 under a 75cm wide board. The overall trim was extremely balanced and the fin took absolutely all loads I tried without stalling and gave the setup a very "neutral" and controlled characteristic. The drag of the wide board limited max-speeds but was still okay for its design age, the wind strength and my skills and training situation ;o)

On and Off wind. Started with good hope with the 6.2 an 90 liters => a long walk back to shore. Took 125 l and 7.2 => in the gust it was ready for take-off. So took back the smaller gear and had a few nice runs half wind (even my top speed was half wind). Stopped just in time, so i did not had to do another long walk back like some other guys.

The bad: the predicted wind didn't came through.

The good: the predicted rain didn't came through either.

So no race today, because wind was too gusty. Sailed all day with my big board (Falcon SL104) and 6.9m². I really start to enjoy the board and I am happy with the results in the chop. Later on I changed for 10 minutes to Falcon SL80 and 6.3, but my energy was already gone and my max speeds never reached those of the Falcon SL104.

At the end, I finished 9th on the Belgian ranking (out of 21) and 20th on the internationale ranking (out of 41). Very happy with the results in my first windsurf competition ever. At the price-giving I won a Sonntag Fin GPS4-26. I can't wait to test it under the Falcon Speed!! Thanks Joerg !!

Overall a very nice week with every day some windsurfing (6 days), sun, friends, good food & booze. Unfortunately no tramontana this time. Next year again?

Highest speed this week but I did a lot of swimming because of the gusty wind. It was all or nothing this day.
The set was going good when the wind blew. The fin did  a great job.
 

Tuned up the 7.9 this week.

This sail ROCKS!

Laatste dag en mooie afsluiter van de Belgische speedweek.

Spijtig genoeg was de wind veel te vlagerig om zelfs maar een heat te starten.

Direct voor de Futura gekozen om wat lange rakjes over het Etang de Bages te trekken.

Zeer mooie spot.

Did a short free riding session with 7,0m² on the XF80 because again there was no race.

Bizar because I sailed over 12 runs over 500m with speeds exceeding 27 kts, and that's the minimum for a valid race.

If I would have taken 7,8 and XF 90(in case of a race I would have used this combo), speeds would have been faster ofcourse.

People keep on calling it a lottery, so strange that alway's the same people are the winners.

My advice is very simple; buy more tickets(sail more runs) that helps a lot.