Better late than never, but here is my kbo report from 2 weeks ago
We went to the big Kiteboard Open event in Noordwijk, we drove off on saturday evening, after a short powersession on Kornwederzand. I was not feeling too good, because I had been sick for the past days, but with some painkillers you can do anything, right? When we arrived in Noordwijk, we set up our camp and waited for our friends from the north We went to the beach and checked out “the party”, which (as always) did not take place We went to bed not too late, so we would be fresh in the morning.
Sunday, the event started! A nice big setup with a lot of kiteboarding brands and things to do for the family visitors. We tried to kite, but the wind was not so good. A small competition took place, for the nicest looking jump in both professional and amateur categories. I tried to do a nice flat 3, but I missed the bar and my leash broke loose! So my kite was floating towards open sea (due to the offshore wind) but a rescue boat brought it back to the beach
At night, we went to the party. It was pretty crowded, so we also spent a lot of time on the beach and parking. We had a good time, but decided not to go to bed too late because there was a wind forecast for monday!
Monday, there was no wind. We waited on the beach, because the forecast said there would be some wind in the afternoon. And it came! Finally, riding with power on my 12m for the first time ever on a KBO
The competition started in the afternoon, and my first heat went really good. The judges said they would give points to high jumps and crowd entertainment, so I decided to go for it. I was super powered on my 10m, and opened with a mega kung-fu, some loops and offcourse also some normal powered hp’s. I ended my heat with a kiteloop slimchance, which I (almost) landed! At least I was advancing to the next round, where I decided to take out my 8m. However, during the heat the wind dropped, causing me to be underpowered. I could not do any high jumps, but managed to land a 313, backmobe, kgb and slim. That was not good enough, mainly because of the lack of high jumps I think. Anyway, I did not advance and I packed my stuff.
The pricegiving was cool, with 3 friends in the top 4 and my girlfriend Annie on 3rd place too. We congratulated everybody, and then we went back home. I had to recharge for 2 days,
Finally, the movie is finished. Last night we worked untill late to finish it, and I have just uploaded it on Vimeo. The movie is available in higher quality now!
A friend of mine, Frans Vegt, shot some footage with a mega-cam. The movie is not edited, the original footage is in slowmotion. Nice HD quality, check it out!
This weekend, we had the 1st edition of Friends of Friestyle in Stavoren!
I had never kited in Stavoren before, so I was curious about the conditions. The event started at 9.00h, so we checked in and registered. At 10.30, the skippersmeeting started, with not too many riders. The pro’s had to go first, because we need the most wind. We started in a heat of 4, all riding together. The conditions were reasonably, good wind but choppy water. My first heat went not perfectly, I crashed some tricks and the other riders were doing very good. Because there was wind and time left, we decided to have another heat. In this heat everything went well for me, sticking a kgb, slimchance, 313, blind judge, backmobe, kiteloop kgb, kiteloop hp, and switch kgb. Now it was much more unclear who had won, because heat 2 was the opposite of heat 1. Therefore the judge decided there had to be a 3rd heat, to battle it out once and for all. He would judge this heat clean, so everything could happen! My heat went about the same as heat 2, except the kiteloop kgb, I crashed that one. Instead I did a L3 (kiteloop backmobe). We were all very happy with our heats, and it would be surprise who won. I had no clue, so I decided to just sit it out and wait for the pricegiving. I kited some more, landed my first kiteloop slimchance, then got a (not too warm) shower and then we had a nice barbeque. The pricegiving was very exciting, with Jelle Hak at the 4th place, Jerrie vd Kop 3rd, I was 2nd and Bas Koole took the 1st place, but with very little difference inbetween all places! We were all happy for each other, we all ride together often so we know what tricks one can do. I hope to be at the next Friends of Friestyle event next year too, hopefully with a bit more riders, the same high level riding and good atmosphere!
Results: Pro comp
1. Bas Koole
2. Tijn van Esch
3. Jerrie van der Kop
4. Jelle Hak
Amateur comp
1. Joost Wagter
2. Daan Wagter
3. Mike Pelle
Female comp
1. Annie de Jong
2. Lisette Blankenstijn
3. Judith Roetman
4. Pietie Terpstra
Hi all, yesterday we arrived in Leucate, after a 1300km drive. We left on Saturday evening, and the drive was pretty easy (car did not break down)
I will try to update every night, with pictures. Check back soon!
Update 1
This morning we woke up with the camper shaking of the wind, so we got out of bed and looked around for a while! We are new in this area, so we had to explore first, find the spots. We decided to go to “la Franqui”, where the PKRA was held. This was comparable to Valdevalqueros in Tarifa with powerfull Levante wind, really gusty 20-35 knots wind and chop. We kited for a few hours, shooting video and taking some pictures. I think we made some nice shots today.
After the session, at about 20.00, we went looking for a LPG gasstation, which we found at 30km’s away. It is sometimes hard to find, but cheap hehe. Now we are in Narbonne, a town nearby a lake. We will check out another spot tomorrow, so tomorrow new pics!
Pictures from today (click for big):
Update 2: Today was a really good day, with again blasting Tramontana! We went to the more “crowded” spot, on the lake of la Palme, and the conditions were just like home! Standing deep water with little chop, only with over 30 knots wind, some guys even measured 40+ knots in the gusts. I was having the time of my life, making the biggest kiteloop ever(!) so high I nearly shitted myself because I thought I would land on the beach. Luckely no accidents happened, but the wind was again very gusty and not all that good. We checked out another spot, which should be very good, a 10km drive on the beach was needed to get there. After 2 km, we decided to go back, the sand was not that good to drive and we nearly got stuck. We had some dinner in our bus and cleaned it up really nice, after that we went for the supermarket in Claira or something, but it was closed 21.30. So instead of buying food, we went offroad again in the field which was really funny!
Tomorrow we try the spot in this area (more south and less gusty winds).
Pictures of today:
Update 3: Hello again, today we are live from McDonalds Cap d’Agde! This morning we drove south, allmost to the border of Spain. We checked out a spot named Saint Cyprien, where the wind would be less powerfull and more stable. Well, after about half an hour drive and one “free” windshield cleaning (I said no, don’t expect me to pay..) we found the spot. It was blasting offshore, same gusts as Leucate. Instead of kiting, we had a short sun-bath and then we decided to drive back north, towards Montpellier.
We found a spot in the Wind/kitesurfing guide, which would be good for this winddirection (north-west), and the wind also felt a lot calmer. We arrived in d’Agde, and found a good spot to kite. We pumped our 12,8 and 11,9 metres and went for it! It was pretty good, I was on my 12 in the beginning and landed a lot of tricks. Then I filmed Annie for a while, and the wind increased. I went out on my 8m, nicely powered and Annie filmed me for a while. Unfortunately, it was a bit gusty and clouded, so the footage is not all that good. No kite pictures today, only video. Now we are at the McDonalds, where I baked pancakes. Got to love the internet connection here! We will drive back to d’Agde for the night, and then go more north tomorrow for more kiting!
Pics of today (no kite):
Update 4
Today we spent the day searching a good spot… Man, a hell of a job. After leaving Agde, we tried to find a flat water spot near the sea. After a nice beach lunch (we should have kited there!) we tried to find good spots near Sete, and we found some kites in the air but could not get to them (only under 2m high cars allowed). Then we drove to le Grau du Roi , but also there no access for “campers” (everything about 1.8m). Then we tried a spot named ‘l Estiquette or something, but the access to the beach was 11 euro, so we drove to St. Maries de la mer, and we parked as soon as we found something that looked like a spot. We had a short underpowered session, because the wind was almost gone. We have some nice pictures and little video footage of it, but we are not satisfied. We decided to check out Beauduc, but we don’t want to go offroad in the night so instead we drove to Arles, for a refuel and some food. Now we are at the McDonalds again, for the internet connection. Because Beauduc is in the middle of nowhere, I will probably not update this post tomorrow and maybe even longer.. No worries, when it is good overthere, we will have loads of footage on the way home!
Pics of today:
Update 5 Back home! Man, what a trip! The last 3 days in Beauduc were absolutely magic, non stop wind and nice temperatures above 20 degrees, I even got burned a little on the last day.. We have about 250 photo´s, and we even managed to fill the entire DV tape on camera. A little filtering to do, but I try to get a few online by tomorrow. Now I need to sleep, because it still was a 1300km drive which we drove in a day. The camper held well, I just sprayed all the mudd and salt off heheh!
More tomorrow!
Here is my new movie, Tijn @ Tarifa 2009. Not so much freestyle in it, I have used all the footage I had. Thanks to Steve Verels for filming (in nice HD) too!
Enjoy!
The download will be online soon, you can download it via Vimeo if you are a member.
Also, I was at the Sticked Season opening 2009 in Mirns, one of my homespots! It was a nice weekend, with wind and great riders! We arrived on Friday evening, and chilled out with our camper homies. We had a nice campfire, and drank some beers. Saturday the sun was gone, but the wind had arrived! The competition started at 12, so I was really stoked and went on to try the wind. I was on my 10, but it was a bit strong so I rigged my 8! I was riding for about half an hour, then I went back to ask when the Procompetition was starting, because I had to compete. It would start in 45mins, so I warmed up a bit and waited for the start. My first heat was against Johnno Scholte, Klaas Adema and Stefan Permien. I’ve competed against all 3 in the past, so I knew the level of riding. Stefan would be the biggest competition, which he prooved in the heat by landing the most tricks. I landed a backmobe and kgb clean, and some other stuff, but crashed my slim. It was enough to advance to the next round, I was 2nd in the heat. Stefan was 1st. The wind was really low, so Klaas had trouble to land his tricks and Johnno didnt land so much either. I had to wait some time for the next round, and especially enjoyed watching Youri Zoon’s heat, man what a style and power! Youri, you are my new favourite rider The wind was decreasing and increasing, so it was hard to get the right kite. When my 2nd heat started I was up against my friend Bas Koole, Stefan Permien and Leander Vyvey, so I had to give my best to advance. Unfortunately, I was out on my 10m and the wind dropped. I was underpowered, and I only landed my backmobe By the end of the heat I knew I did not advance, but I was curious who did. It turned out to be Stefan and Bas! I was a bit disappointed, so I took my 12 for a ride. The wind was gusty, but after a while it was really good. I watched the finals from upwind, Bas Koole, Thomas deHaene, Stefan Permien and Youri Zoon were ripping it up! Bas ended up 3rd, Stefan 2nd and Youri was well deserved 1st.
My final ranking is shared 6th place, not my best but at least I beat the current 2nd and 1st of the Netherlands
The KiteSurfMagazine wrote a nice article about the Dutch Championships 2008! There is also a small interview with me, because of my 3rd place. I have placed a copy of the article, my interview is yellow-marked. Click for big!
Wednesday, I went out for a nice afternoon session. The forecast looked great, but when I arrived at the spot the wind was gone..
I pumped my 12 anyway, hoping for wind. I got lucky, because after a while the wind started to increase. I had enough pressure, and I was training all of my tricks. However, after a while I missed my KGB! I tried to save my neck by sticking my hand in the water, but it was really shallow and my hand got hurt pretty bad… At first I thougt I broke it, but I could still move my fingers so I thought it wasnt that bad. Unfortunately, the pain was a bit delayed because of the low temperature, and it started to hurt more and more. 2 friends of me helped me out by driving my car (and myself) home, to the hospital.
We had to wait pretty long at the hospital, but after an hour we got reinforced with a bag of potatoe-chips (thanks Floris ) and right after that the nurse was ready to X-ray my hand. Luckily it was not broken, but the doctor said it was not so strange to think it was, because of the big swelling on my hand. I am happy it is just bruised, it hurts but I will probable be recovered before Sticked 2009
*** Update ***
Allmost 1 week further, and I am still in pain. I can lift and hold light things now, and the swelling has disappeared, but it looks like I have a more serious contusion than I thought..
I did some kiteloops in Tarifa, Steve Verelst filmed a couple of them. It was about 40 knots side-off, I was the only one on the water (not even windsurfers!) so I did not stay on for long. Here is one of the better results, in slowmotion
I will begin to upload and edit more pics and videomaterial soon, I only got back home just this afternoon after a 35 hour drive so I will take it easy today. More to come!
Hey all, I’ve been in Tarifa for the past few days. We arrived here after a long drive, which did not go exactly as planned..
We drove off on friday the 18th, after we visited my dads wedding It would become a long night, without any sleep. Saturday morning, when we were past Paris, we heard a ticking sound from the engine…. Oh oh, bad news. We called the ANWB, the firm where we have our camper insured for the trip, and they called a truck to tow us away. There would come a new camper for us, as replacing transportation, and our own camper would be brought back to Holland.
After a long wait, the new camper arrived on Sunday the 20th, but what a surprise! This was not a comparable car like it was supposed to, but a really big camper with barely 15.000km on the clock!
We drove a bit faster than before, using the cruise control for comfort hehehe.
We finally arrived on monday evening, really tired but glad we made it (even though it took us 4 days). We looked up Steve Verelst, who is staying in a nice house halfway the mountain. The next days we had nothing but wind, riding everyday on a different spot! We are enjoying ourselves pretty good overhere, the sun is doing us very good. The Christmas days feel a bit weird, without the cold and relatives, but this is good too. We have made some pictures the last days, but no video material yet. We will try to fill our DV tapes, but it is hard to find the time when you are riding for the first time in weeks! I have 1 pic I want to share, one of the camper on our campsite
Will keep you updated, now I am going to take a nice warm shower in our brandnew camper hehe!
We went to the beach and checked out “the party”, which (as always) did not take place 
We went to bed not too late, so we would be fresh in the morning.
21.30. So instead of buying food, we went offroad again in the field which was really funny!
