Combined Hvoet / Bdam sessie.
Sometimes it's your day, sometimes it isn't... Today was NOT my day !! Started this morning together with André Hoogendam at Hompelvoet. We both rigged 6.3m² on our speedboard. Once on the water we saw immediately that there was alot more wind then we expected. We both reached the place-to-be after a few crashes on our way to it (airbone, spinout, over powered...). The angle was just perfect, the wate was flat. Hell yeah this will be a new PR today !! Did my first run, but i was way overpowered. Sail completely open but the water was flat, so no risk. Told André that i would try another one or two before heading back to switch for a smaller sail. André had some troubles as well to get evth well balanced so we decided to head back. I was completely focussed trying to read the water surface as good as possible trying to come back in one piece. Didn't look backwards anymore and when I reached the shoreline (after only one 'crash') I couldn't find André on the water. Went to the top of the 'emergency port' staring at the water surface which became white and wild. Couldn't find him at all. I knew he had some issues upwind, so maybe he arrived at The Punt? After a while Danny Verhaar came along and he went looking direction Ouddorp. If he didn't find him, he would give the KNRM a call. The water temp was still ok and with that kind of wind, you reach the shore line quite fast. After a while André came out of a 'new style ambulance'  and evth was ok. I rigged my 5.6 and wanted to go back to the spot. In the meanwhile the wind increased to +40 kts and the waves were huge !! After only 50m and several tailwalks I decided to go back because I was all alone on the water and everybody was planning to go to Bdam. The NK was cancelled due to the high wind
Arriving at Bdam, there were allready plenty of guys (15-20) ready to hit the water. I rigged my 5.6 again and when I walked to the water line, the rain stopped and the wind suddenly increased to 50 knots (meetgegevens Bdamse gat 2, + 25 m/s). The water surface turned completely white and I struggled back to change for my 4.7m². The 4.7 doens't work with the Falcon 51. Very strange feeling. On the Missile XS it was a nice combination, but not on that board. The course was very broad and the sandbar never came free, so there were always some nasty chop to overtake before going all the way. The wind decreased again a little and downwind I was a bit underpowered. Did only one 'descent' run, but too short and stopping was a risky buisiness in the chop. In fact everytime I was trying to do a run, there were 2 words coming in my mind: 'THE BRACE'. Very similar conditions as the day I crashed and lost my balls: Same broad coarse, same wind strength, same choppy water, same foot in front, i used the same sail and also the big names (Vdsteen, Volwater, Kreisel) were there. Couldn't help it, but it played around my mind all the time. I didn't had the balls to go all the way. It wasn't easy today and I was kind of 'happy' that I saw alot of people having difficulties. If I really pushed it, i could dial in some high speeds, but at what price? My board was too big for the conditions, but I don't want anything smaller anymore. With 45-50 kts I should stick on my wave gear (or stay home). I will never be fast guy in strong winds, so why take the risk everytime?? A solid 35-40 kts and not too broad should be the max for me. However didn't expect it to be that rough today. Too bad we didn't went to Hompelvoet immediately with our 5.6m². Water was nicely flat, angle was perfect (not too broad).
In a year full of 7.8-sessions I was really counting the days for a nice speedday. Drove 360kms, rigged 3 sails and came home with these results  . A session to forget fast, but the company of some soulmates made it still a good day. Nice to see K10 going wild on her wave set in these conditions !!
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