Leucate trip! Comments Off

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!

New movie and Sticked 2009! Comments Off

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!

Tijn @ Tarifa from Tijn van Esch on Vimeo.

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

I liked the weekend, next stop: KBO