We are all still waiting for Anders Bringdal to bring home the speedsurfing title (I know he is Swedish, when I say home I mean back to us windsurfers). He posted a 48.03knot 5x10 second average on the 11th November and apparently did even better in a previous session but had GPS problems. He is showing the Kites that they are not so far ahead, and seems to be beating them at the moment in the wider Luderitz Canal. Videos are here.
The Speed Strip at Luderitz
Anders going quickly
Headcam View from a Kiter
(Bet he is quite worried so far from the shore)
More information can be found here (but not much more unfortunately.) http://www.luderitz-speed.com/. It is a shame that we are getting very little information about this from the organisers. Most of the news comes from speculation from the websites and forums that most of you no doubt browse as well.
Here in the UK we have the nominations for the Windsurfer of the Year, all details can be found on the UKWA site. http://ukwindsurfing.com/woty/
I have my own opinions on how this works and think it is a shame that others who have made a huge contribution to the Speedsurfing scene are not able to be voted on. For example; Steve Thorp who was the first British windsurfer to break 50knots with a GPS, and on British waters as well. Ian Richards who has achieved very high speeds and competitive scores across the board on GPSTC without sponsorship of any kind. Not forgetting 'The Bus' for his selfless efforts reporting all of this while raising money for the Heart Foundation, and coming second at Speed Week in the novice category after serious illness 10weeks before. Having said all that (with a bit of shameless self promotion) I guess there are other disciplines and if there are 5 windsurfers to vote for in each category then things get complicated (not really though if they can use a speadsheet and count!).
Good luck to Zara Davis for the speedsurfing category, I hope she brings the title to the speedsurfers and this can in turn encourage more women into the sport.
Elements of Speed 2 has been e-published on Windsurfer International, and it has proven to be yet another fantastic article with some great tips about the slingshot. I wish this was available a year ago when I started speedsurfing, then I may have got first place in the novice category at speed week.
Boards magazine have just announced that they are no longer going to publish monthly hard copies, and turn their efforts to the virtual world. I think they will have a long way to go to catch up with Brian McDowell and Windsurfer International now, especially due to some of the styles he uses to publish with that lend themselves very well to online media. Good luck to Boards though, I will miss their monthly magazine but it will save me a fiver every month. They are going to do a bi-annual 'journal' with an additional beginners annual. I hope it is something extra special and I am obviously willing to lend a hand with any speedsurfing reporting they would like me to do in exchange for some kit tokens.
Some plans for next year for the website and beyond are starting to come together. After feeling that my health is improving slowly now, even if the Statins that I am on make me forgetful, kill all my energy, make me forgetful, make me ache, and make me forgetful. I have decided that I need to return back to work full time after considering if I would be able for few months while I recovered. This is not going to stop me doing as much as I can on this website, some days I do find it easier to write than others (I think currently that is due to these Statins though and how forgetful they make me, did I mention that?).
The plans will start local initially, I have got together with Windtek, our local shop, to organise a Speed Ladder for Portland Harbour. This is something they did, but quite informally and there was never a prize, some windsurfers were not allowed to enter which was not fair. We will ask people to enter online when posting their scores on GPS-speedsurfing.com, I will put up a monthly score sheet in the shop. Each month we will give a mini prize (probably a framed picture or card) with a larger prize at the end of the year. It will be done for both Windsurfers and Kitesurfers so thats the bad news out of the way.
Other plans include running an event at Portland Harbour in the Easter holidays with a focus on speed, a dabble with slalom and hopefully some promotion of the sport to da yoofs init. This is all in an ideas stage at the moment as we will need as much help as we can (we being myself, Windtek and Weymouth Watersports)
As for wind and results this month on the GPS team challenge. For the UK its currently crap! So crap that I have only been out 4 times which is nearly as bad an effort as the month I had a lung full of blood clots! Hopefully next week there will be some wind with a bit more force from the correct direction.
Good speed and winds
'The Bus'
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