E-Vento Sardinia 2009 log
Monday
08.30
Advance Kites invited me to the E-Vento event on Sardinia, which takes place from 18 to 20 September. I found a nice cheap flight from Belgium directly to Sardinia, where I will stay with Gianluca Marcis until the event starts. Luca is an Advance Teamrider too, he won several waveriding and racing competitions. I hope to learn some waveriding from him, when there is wind and waves.
I am leaving from Amersfoort, the Netherlands to Charleroi, the small Airfield south of Brussels. My dad was so kind to offer me a lift to Belgium, an offer you can’t refuse! So we drove off at 08.30, planning to arrive at 11.30. My flight leaves at 13.45, gate closes at 13.15.
The thing is, Belgian people don’t know how to make road signs, so when we were about 20km from the airfield, we had no clue where to drive. It was kind of stressfull not to know where the airport is, with only a short amount of spare time. When we found the signs (they are so small you cant see them until you pass them) we found our way to the airport, luckily and arrived at 12.45. Perfect timing, my dad dropped me off at the gate and I checked in. No overweight (yeah) because I did not bring many things. I packed my 8 and 12, shorty and harness, some boardshorts and tshirts (it is supposed to be nice and warm there). I left my board at home, because I can take one of the Advance Crew I am going to meet on Sardinia!
14.30
Flying somewhere above Europe, I have a nice seat with loads of footspace. As always, I hope to find my bag with kites on the other end. No free food or beverages on this plane , so I plan on being hungry until I can have some real Italian pasta. I think I will watch a movie now, and then learn some Italian from my pocketbook.
15.30
Flying over Corsica right now, looks very nice. I can also see whites on the sea, so maybe there is wind at Sardinia too. I bought a Pepsi, 1,80 for 150ml… there goes my savings hehe.
18.00
I am now at Luca Marcis’ house, he is trying to fix the window blinds in a really dangerous way 
No wind here at Sardinia, hopefully tomorrow. Will update later on!
Tuesday
11.00
Just went out for a nice cappuccino, Italian style. The weather has changed, it is now nice warm and sunny. We are expecting the thermic to kick in this afternoon, so probably some kite action today :-).
Just finished packing the van, we had a good session today. The water is nice and warm, and the wind was a bit gusty but okay for 8m. I rode the Kappa L, which is more wide and long than my own Omega Wake, it took me a while to get used to it. After I mastered the board, the landings were easy. It is great to see so many Advance Kites in one place! Now we go out to eat, I am kind of starving because we Dutchies are used to eating at 18.00 hehe. No pictures from today, while I have been on the water the whole time. Tomorrow morning we drive to San Teodoro in the north, to prepare for the event and make some photos of the new material.
Wednesday
19.00
This morning we drove to the event in San Teodoro, which was about 3 hours from Cagliari. Advance Kites boss Alessandro showed us our new home, a beautiful apartment right on the beach! We filled the apartment with kites and boards, all nicely displayed in the living room. Because there was no wind, we surfed instead. First I went out on a Advance wave board, but it was a bit too small for me to ride. Then I got out on the SUP board, and finally rode 1 wave yeah. We have a whole bunch of new 2010 Kaiman’s here, and it is told to be even better than the last version! If there is wind tomorrow, we will go out and give them a good test! Also the new Kappa board will arrive tomorrow, looking forward to riding it. More updates tomorrow!
Thursday
20.00
Today we started building the stand on the event site. A lot of other Advance related people joined, including Yuri from the Advance office and Arthur Catalani, Italian freestyle rider. After carrying about 20 new Kaimans to the stand, we went out for a kite session. The wind was offshore, and decreasing and gusty to about 15 knots. I was out on the new Kaiman 10m, which proved to be suitable for wakestyle tricks. We had a small photoshoot, and I was able to ride without a wetsuit :-).
When the wind dropped out completely, and we had a nice lunch. After lunch the wind turned to side-onshore, and increased to about 18 knots. I went out on the 10m Kondor3, and Arthur and I had again a photoshoot. This time with good result, we have some really nice pictures with stylish moves, blue sky and clear water. Heaven for a Dutch brown-water rider like myself! We were also testing the new Underwave Sultan harness, which will be in production soon. So far, the harness did good, we had no rash on the hips after a few hours of kiting. Underwave is becoming a very complete company with a diverse line of products, from dry/wetsuits and harnesses to t-shirts, bathrobes and footstraps.
Now we are about to go out to dinner, and then to the opening party of the event, which will take place somewhere in the city.
Friday
23.00
Wow, no wind today whatsoever… We spent the day brainstorming about possible improvements on the Kondor, tomorrow we will decide about it in a riders meeting. It was very interesting to talk to Carlo, who is the head of the Advance R&D.
In the afternoon, the new Kappa board arrived. I love it, the graphics are cool and it will be available in 3 super sizes: M- 131×40, L- 130×41 and XL- 132×42. I hope to ride the L very soon, what a perfect size! I have made some pictures of it, as seen below. Tomorrow hopefully some wind, but there will be no competition for me because there are too few international riders (only Mario Rodwald and I).
Monday
Saturday we had the ridersmeeting, which was very nice to whitness. I never seen a brand that works this close with the riders, because we discussed all possible improvements on the kite. I hope to be testing a prototype soon, because the goal will be to make the perfect freestyle kite. After the dinner we went to a party, which I really enjoyed. It was a super nice setting, with good food and a pool with colored lights. After we went to the local dancing, which was fun too.
Sunday we went out for some more kiting, and there was a guy from the organisation of the event filming. I think there is some nice footage! After a while the wind dropped out, so we stopped kiting and started to pack the stand. We left the nice beach house and drove to the harbour to go to Italy by ferry. I was a bit sad to leave because I have met a lot of super friendly people, which I will definitely want to visit again!
On the ferry we had a nice dinner, and then we went to “bed” in the cabin. (I slept on the floor because I was not planned to travel back on the boat hehehe.
I have left the island with an new sponsor, Arbeke. Arbeke is a clothing brand from Sardinia, which focusses on powerfull riders in all sorts of extreme sports. I hope that my bag is not overweight because of the new clothes 
For more info on Arbeke, visit the website!
Now I am in the headquarter, looking at all the new stuff, and I had a tour around the place too. Tomorrow morning I will fly home, so I won’t be making any other updates in the meantime. I will receive some photos of kite action, which I will put in here when I get them. I have had a great time visiting Italy and will definitely come back soon!