zaterdag 12 oktober 2013

New toy! Naish Hokua GT 9'5

Time to step over to a more  wave orientated SUP!!

From Starboard Element 9'8 Silver AST to Naish Hokua GT 9'5.

Length   9'8 to 9'5
Volume 153L to 140L
Width    30' to 29'5'



The outline





Can you see the differences?

  
  


The change in specs looks minimal but on the water im sure these little changes in specfs make a world of difference.  


The Naish Hokua GT 9'5   has a smaller pointy nose

Super thin rails!

A lot of tailkick! 


The rails are extremely thin, especially on the back end!


Curious how this SUP will do in the dutch breaks. The first day that we have some decent swell over here, ill give it a try!  My new waveSUP ill bring on over to Ireland too for the Boardkings wavesailing trip coming up next week! That'll be fun for sure!


Stormchase and the Flikka Experience - IJmuiden 8-10 Beaufort

The other day, the 10th of september 2013, we had unexpected Stormchase conditions on port tack.  IJmuiden was definately the place to be.
The wind was howling and raising up fast. I rigged up the Point-7 SWAG 3.7m2 and took my Quatro quad LS75 underneeth.
Im always in for a stormchase like that, luckily i didnt forgot my Swag 3.2m2. But i managed to hold onto a 3.7m2.
my playtoy for today - LS75.

Some new quatros 2014 models were laying around aswell. Hereby the Quatro pyramid 84.
Ready to go.

I asked my buddy Zuke to come over at  IJmuiden, because it was happening here right on this spot! It went off! Luckily he listned and came straight away.
 
Maestro Zuke here below.
Zuke and i were both overpowerd on the 3.7m2.
My friend Robin was on his neilpryde combat 3.3m2. Torben was going skyhigh with his Point-7 Salt 3.6m2 combined with his magical Flikka HC team carbon 80Liter. (more about that later)

Max windspeeds  35.6 upto 50.7 knots.


The winddirection changed a few times from onshore to sideonshore.

This time i had a hard time to find good control over my board. The board felt slippery, had many spinouts and breaked out a lot going out over chop.
 Port tack sailing we dont do often here, perhaps its one of the reasons.
For the first time, i had the orginal mfc fins setup underneeth. They felt so much different compared to my maui ultra fins. (which i borrowed to someone else)
Probably that was one of the other reasons, that i had so much trouble going out over the heavy breaks. Not having the MUF's what i'm used too.
I did some high airs + some backloop attempts. Most of them where out of control and crashed a lot.
Ofcourse i had my bits of fun out there :-)



into the bottom turn




 Bottom turning the Jem H. style ;)

  BAckside off the lip
 bottomturn

Crashed the backloop below.



Later  on, i asked Torben to switch boards, but not sails. Only then you can experience best the difference between 2 boards and how they feel and react on the water.  
I placed my swag 3.7m2 on Torbens Flikka team carbon 80liter, 222x56.5. I was wondering how a full quad rocker shape would work out in these  extreme conditions.

Well, i can say it rocked big times! All of a sudden i had complete controll. Didnt break out once, full speed going out. When i landed the board a bit sideways jumping over chop, the fins pullled the board straight away into the right direction. No spinouts and maximum grip in the bottom turns! Wow! whats happening there. Its the Flikka magic i've been told :-)


DAMN what a difference compared to, what i thought it was a really insane board, the quatro quad ls75. The flikka custom won in every aspect and catogory of wavesailing is all about.
No bullshit there,  im sponsored by neither brands, but Flikka custom boards is really pushing limits there with outstanding quality products and even better shapes. Try and be convinced!


You can guess. I didnt want to give Torben his board back allready, so took it out for some more laps.
Torben experienced the same, but then otherwise on my quad LS75. Less control, more spinouts, breaking out in turns.  Perhaps the LS shape works better in cleaner conditions and not IJmuiden at its roughest.

Up to the next Flikka experience!!

Im having a new custom project coming up.
 
 
More details about that one later.
Its going to be insane!



zaterdag 5 oktober 2013

Mellow day at the lakes @ Strand Horst 29-09-2013

This week the wind came of an easterly direction.
No good for the northsea, no swell either.
Time to hit the lakes over here.
It was a while ago that ive been cruising.


Flatness at times.



At first i rigged up my Point-7 AC1-2K13 7.2m2 with my AB+59/95L underneeth.




The gusts were very short and was standing to much besides my board because of that.
A bit later i took out some bigger machinery, the Mistral AB+123L/75.
Put on my Maui Ultra Fin Slalom race 40cm underneeth. What an great combo that is. Enough lift and nice speeds aswell. The max speed on this boat was around 58kmh, with an 10sec of 55kmh. Today i did a distance of 61 kilometres.




Between the breaks i took the effort to shoot some pictures from everyone that was having fun out there.  Unfortunatly no actionshots from myself this time.
But a alot  people were the lucky one having a nice shot of themself.  

Boardkings sharing the stoke!




Click here for the 100+ pictures took today from everyone 


a few shots to get an idea from todays session




 Always wondering where your old sails end up?  well on a day as today you can find them all here at the lake Strand Horst!!! :-)





See you next time! Cheers.