Great call to drive to Kirby this night. The only option was a train ticket for 3,28 in the middle of the night. But with the 2 auping beds in Wouter his van it was possible to sleep in between the driving shifts. 

We arrived at 7.15 am on the carpark of WK and we slept for 2 more hours.

We hit the water at 9.30, after half an hour of sailing i had already a 84 average, Hans peaked 51 knots and Jurjen was really flying and improving his speeds every run. Hans his averages were very good already in the beginning, i could live with the fact he would beat me today so i just sailed along the wall without taking to much risk of slingshotting, my runs were 85,6 all the time. I noticed that now i'm getting older i don't want to take big risk anymore by sailing on the edge, all ok but if you want to battle for the top spots you just have to take more risk and have bigger balls.

Hans made a big crash due to something he hit in the water, so his session was finished. As i lost al my energy i decided to have break to load the batteries. Jurjen was flying and must have had duracell batteries as he was going up and down many times. After a while he came over and ask for a computer to check his averages. 86,16! Wow, big respect for his average, the fastest GPS session ever sailed in Europe i guess. 

Thanks to his numbers my motivation came back and i had to take more risk to beat the average of Jurjen. This time i was slingshotting myself more downwind and this resulted in 2 peaks of 49 knots and better averages. Back on the carpark we check my average on the computer and this was still not enough, 86,05. So i had to make one more good run. It looked like the wind dropped so i was dissapointed and waited for some better gusts. I get a bonus and made my fastest run of the day with a max peak of 50,035 knots! Yess.

This was the best i could do today. It was very close and we are all winners by sailing personal bests on both topspeed and average.

No specific news about the fast riders from UK, so maybe we see some surprises.

great day at kirby,nailed a few 10 secs but then got too windy for my 5.4, farrel and steve kindly put a 4.6 rig together for me but ithat was a bit small but it felt sweet, thanks guys,

Dutchies were flying and gave us all a masterclass again , well done guys.

Lots of pbs were scored today, probably DARRENS being the sail of the day ,well done mate and congrats to everyone else who scored pbs or just got down the wall.

Tough luck on HANS who snapped his board in half at serious speed hope your ok.

All in all an epic fun day, bit more wind tomorrow.

Great stuff everybody! Must have been a sick session!

Maybe I should of picked a more gentle day for a first outing on a propper speed board but afer 20 years of wondering what it would be like to ride the wall @ kirby I can finally say iv done it.

A massive thanks to the gang down there for all the help and welcoming me even though I still had my shorts on over a wet suit.

Wow guys that's business. 2012 big time. Congrats Hans, Jacques and Jurjen. Drive safe.

Wow Thorpy 2 sec 96,19. and a run of 87,03 fabulous...

Hopefully no spikes because this would be great for GB and the surfersworld.

Arrived early afternoon to see Hans walking back into the car park holding half a board, 10 mins later Farrel comes over with a bloody nose to claim back the weight jacket he lent me after just destroying his main one in a wipe out, the wind re-defined the definition of nuking for me and quite a few people are changing down to 5.0 or less and the smallest I have with me is a 5.2 - nervous ? Yeah sure I was !

I was pretty tensed up on the first couple of runs and even though they gave 10 secs of 39 kt and 40 kt I wasn't at all relaxed so I took 10 mins out to 'have a bit of a talk to myself'. Back on the water after the chat, I felt totally focused and went and scored a 43.6 kt max with a 10 sec of 41.8 kt. Got more and more relaxed as the session went on with similar high numbers (for me anyway !) on all runs :-) Saw a 44 on the dial but the software has taken it down to 43.989 kt  :-(

Claimed new PB's in pretty much all the main categories, still on a high, awesome day :-)

Thanks to Ian.R for the loan of the Casper / GPS Speed 25 cm fin and to Paul.B for lending me a weight jacket and thanks to Howie for his dedication to storm tracking the big days.

Worth getting up at 5am for... ? YES

Brilliant day - broke a few PB's and didn't break any kit !!

Well done everyone who sailed today - especially Ian R, Steve T and Mark B - some great PB's and top speeds... not forgetting Darren M for his mega PB

I need a smaller board ! At 74kg the 44 is perfect for 5.2/5.8 days... but I need a 40 for the 4.6 days... if not smaller.

Brilliant day - thanks for the video Cleggy :-)

Wow!

Hans Kreisel contacted me and asked me to come to West Kirby with him. I hasitated a bit because we only had 1 day. I'm glad we went!

After a 12 hour journey we arrived in West Kirby. The wind was houling already, so we rigged our smallest sails. I rigged my Severne Reflex II 5.6 and used my Starboard W44 2011 with a C3 Slingshot 21. In the morning i needed some time to get used to the spot, but my speeds went up and up. Jacques and Hans were a lot faster a that time. In the afternoon i found the WK-speedbutton. In one hour time i managed to do an average of 86.16 km/h (46.52 knots) and was faster then Hans and Jacques. Hans broke his board so he wasn't able to fight back. Jacques was very tired but somehow found new energy and managed to do some good runs. My energy was gone so i wasn't able to battle anymore. In the end Jacques was a little faster. Neverthelss i'm very stoked about my new personel speedrecords!!

My equippement was working just perfect. The Reflex II sails have such a huge range wich was very convenient in the gusty conditions. I was in full control all day. All in all the fasted day so far, but something tells me that this isn't the limit for me yet!

The people at WK were very friendly and helpfull, thank you for your hospitality. I hope to be there again.

Note to oneself !      I should make sure I add all the sbn files when uploading.....I'm made up now I've got a PB on my averages & Max 2 sec.     

      I would just like to congratulate Thorpy for being the fastest man ever to sail a windsurfer !

Top Dog !!!

He Jurjen, top 5 in de wereld

wauw, super gevaren man

Edit function will not work for me so have reposted to include the correct fin the black project X45, will be nice to do more runs with it and the 5.2 if theres ever a next time like this one.

Great day at kirby, proper windy and should have used 5.2m a lot earlier, it wasnt until my 5.7 blew out of my hands and across the lake that i realised I need to change down NOW, i'll just put it down to inexperiance with the speed kit.  Just missed a 45 ave maybe next time LOL.

  PB 48.05 1 sec which was nice, but to go any quicker i think it could be time for a smaller board for my once or twice a year road trip.

Anyway it was fantastic to sail along with a few of the best speed sailors in the world, cheers guys it was great to be there.

Well Done to all those who got out and set PBs,

my speeds were not that good probably down to me so knackered.

The 5.2 sets fuller on the Arrows 400 mast but I thing the Tushingham 100% 430 Bottom/ 75% 370 Top letts the head of the sail twist more which may have been better as the course was not to broad and gusty

50KNOTS  BLUE STEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Was after this for a while now superstoked almost did 51 fuck!!!! 

Epic day at The Kirb

Decided last minute to go a good decision i think ;) but the trip was a bit killing had to work the day after and it wasn't fun felt like a zombie. 

Was in full control today and was getting up to big speeds really early and was leading till disaster struck my fin hit a plastic bag or something like that because it was immediatly stand still and was doing 48knots at that moment and could hear my board snap due to some sick forces at work. The only thing could think of was this is it and was sure it was going to be a nasty crash. But it really wasn't could have been a lot worse. Heard i swong round my sail and my vario harness line snapped like it supposed to. What happend after that i don't know but i bounced on the water 2 times and looked at a lot of stars when i my eyes were open again no serious damage to me only a bit stiff neckmuscles and a headache and no sail damage at all :) . Was happy Anne Evert was fast to get in the water to help me out because i was a bit in shock thanks mate. 3rd time i hit in my surfing days i hit a bag but that was half the speed of today and it's a lot more intense with this speeds.

Decided not to go on the water again because i didn't feel balanced anymore and i'm sure i will get better speeds next time and didn't want to risk injury and a sense of insecurity. Because lately the brake is off and planning to keep it this way.Getting used to sailing 90kmh peaks and thats a good thing can't wait for the next good day on one of the special spots.

Respect to al the guys with PB's   

@ Steve ur really fast mate but 54 ........  

Great stuff Hans and a real shame you had an early end to the day. I honestly think you'd have gone a shit load quicker when the wind peaked.

I know what you're saying about 54, for sure it's slightly rediculous, but if you'd have caught the same run you may well have done 54knots!! I'd already done 3 peaks of 49 and this one felt Sooo much faster..    it was like getting the gust of the day, then getting the gust of the century just as I'd settled in.

But for sure I think 54 is an error on the gps. Having said that even if I only use the data from the 'slow' gps my 2 second max is 50.48 knots. I'm always going for the peak speeds as I know I go faster when going deep, I find 10seconds closer to the wind much harder.

Hopefully this run of wind will continue for a bit and we just keep going quicker!!

Great to have you guys over again. Think we'd still be happy with 44 averages at Kirby if you weren't showing us whats possible. :)

Maandag even kontakt gehad met Jurjen waar hij dinsdag zou gaan varen. Er waren verschillende opties, waaronder West Kirby. Na overleg met vrouwtje is het West Kirby geworden. Wat een dag. Ik had de wind wel wat minder hard verwacht maar als de wind wat minder werd deze runs gemaakt. Iedereen gefeliciteerd met jullie pr's. 

absolutely splendid Jurjen ! 

Great, congratulations to all new personal bests!
Respect to the driver over 50 knots!
In Vollerwiek also was much wind, only the cold and the personal condition was not good and after the second run of the mast is flown me apart ... game over! :-(((
The days after WInd tired of only the water level prevented new rides.
The hunt continues ... 

Thomas

Reposted using just the slower gps..

repost to try and fix brand ranking