Invitation to 'The Bus' from SpeedsurfingBlog

I feel quite honoured, this morning Erik Loots invited me to become a collaborator and editor on his well respected Speedsurfingblog. I do believe him to be one of the pioneers in terms of attempting to get our loved sport out to the masses. I have edited my first article that he wrote about the "10 SpeedSurfing DO-NOTS!" He has many informative articles and all along I had no intention of trying to compete with any others out there, I want to work with all the other speedsurfers to get our sport more well known and respected.

Myself and one of my team mates at Portland Harbour were talking the other day about the Speedsurfing world. It is a small world and most people know each other and have done for years. I feel like a newcomer, I am and need to earn my respect which can only be done with a decent 5x10sec average and 500m run. The established gurus including Pete Young who I was talking to regularly get close to spot, national and world records, and sometimes better them in the right conditions. Look at Jacques van der Hout and Hans Kreisel to name but two from the Netherlands, they have pushed the limits of this sport at every opportunity, and in fairness created a lot of those opportunities by going to La Franqui and the right spots whenever they could ;-) What I want to do with this site, and now with the help of Erik and his small team of writers is give more credit to these world class sportsmen.


Its not only the top guys that deserve a bit of credit and their own little bit of fame, its also us normal ones who achieve our goals occasionally. For example my good friend who helped me with the raffle for the British Heart Foundation and the National Windsurfing Festival just achieved his 30knot average and joined the '30 club'. To Gav I want to say really well done, I am really chuffed for you.....now its 31 to aim for ;-) That is the beauty of the sport, and I think that is how great the speedsurfing community is in the way everyone is stoked for each other when PB's are achieved, no matter whether its a 30vmax or a 47.12 5x10sec by Chris Spottiswood of Australia. 

Another thing I wanted to report is; I have just received a second set of images, this time from Matthew Burridge who designs Demon sails and 5-Oceans sails (some magazines/marketing will publish differently but he does design THE LIGHTEST sails going!). I think these are real moody shots and will look good on any living room wall. Once I have had a few printed up I will decide what is the best way to sell these, again with proceeds going to Windsurfing for Cancer Research. I really want to thank Matthew for his generosity in sharing his art for this little project, I believe his sail loft is doing really well at the moment and I wish him all the best for the future.

Once the scores from today come in I will do a little report from comments I can gather from people online, I think a few records holders will be worried today if they are not on the water, I could not manage to go speedsurfing today after a session yesterday which gave me my second best ever 5x10sec average and alpha, I am getting more consistent with the 2sec peaks a lot closer to the 10sec averages. Erik Loots tips on SpeedsurfingBlog have helped me on my way to that, along with the people I windsurf with. 

Late Edit....Just read a rumour that Steve Thorpe has a 50knot reading...........come on post on GPSSS you buggers......thats the problems with WK, its so bloody far away, even us armchair speedsurfers get impatient wating to see the scores

Hope you all had a cracking session in North West Europe or where ever you sail from. 
by 'The Bus'