October, Autumn really started

Sunset at MV2

First time Maasvlakte 2 beyond the red poles.

October has been a very good month for me in terms of sport activity. Eventhough the autumn pushed some colder wet weather into the Netherlands including the earlier sundown. I was still able to manage quite some running in the evenings and SUP in the weekends.
Every Tuesday, together with Jacob, we did 9 km of running in low pace. Thursdays I tried to run my 4,9 km track in fast pace and in the weekend on the SUP depending on the weather between 7 to 8,5 km in fast pace again.


Early October at the MV2 near the containers

The freshly bought (beginning of Oct.) GPS hart rate monitor from Garmin, nicely recorded all activity data. The hart rate monitoring and working with it with alarm zones is definitely something I still need to get used to. But, when familiar with it, will be of great help to control the hart rate and make trainings on a lower pace, I am very confident about that.

Its all about collecting data, trying to use the data in training programs. Still need to learn everything that for sure.


The wind kicked in, still plenty guys in the water.

Last Sunday morning at sunset was the first time for me at the final part of the recreational beach development of Maasvlakte 2, it is open to public now for two or three weeks. The swell was forecasted at 1,5m decreasing towards the afternoon with an increasing wind to from 7 to 20 knots.
I was the only SUP boarder in the water together with approx 15 surfers. The waves broke and different places all around and it looked like the swell came in from 2 different directions. Good fun but difficult conditions for me. I had two short runs and one long run which made my day.

Hopefully soon the wind will be West in the weekends for a few downwinders, it has been too long now since I had a good downwind run.

This week I decided to have a rest week so no training activities. And next weekend I will try to test paddle the Hobie 14 race demo. I am very curious how the demo will go, I expect the board to be much faster then the Naish Glide 14 and also more stable because of the greater width.

 

Having fun with small waves.

 

 

 

Beautiful Sunday

Me on the good old Whopper, Love the board!!

 And lucky we were in the Netherlands! Small waves but the weather was oh so nice. To the beach with the whole family and ...the SUP!

After a quick paddle near the beach. I went to the shallow waters near Ouddorp lighthouse. It was pretty crowded with Kayaks and a few SUP's. I really love paddling at the sandbank when waves come in from the North(west).


The Kayaks were practicing in the small surf conditions, looks pretty difficult to me, keeping your balance. Helmets might be indeed a good idea. But sure these guys had great fun.

As said the waves were very small but sometimes quit nice. The good thing for me as starter SUP surfer with goofy position is that the waves at the sandbank usually break to the left and keep peeling to the left. With a bit of luck the runs can be relatively long.




The other guys also had good fun, hope there will be more and more on this spot. It is roughly 10 minutes paddle from the beach to the sandbank. Some small current but noting heavy, easy to paddle through.


Even de 7,4 JP wide body in these conditions did well!

Cheers, hope to see you next time.
 

Jacob in action

Like this photo!!

Jacob in volle actie met zijn Forlula set.

Wave Sup, wat is het meest geschik in Nederland?

Het volgende stuk heb ik gepost op de stand up paddle forum naar aanleiding van de vraag:

Wave sups in Nederland. Lang vs kort mogelijk, breed vs zo smal mogelijk.

Ik heb nu 2 jaar een Whopper (10 bij 34 en 168L) wat ik persoonlijk een super lekker allround board vindt. Ook in de golven vindt ik dat ie het prima doet, snel glijd, zeer stabiel, etc. Mijn gewicht is 95kg en ongeveer 1,90m lang. Een van de hoofd redenen dat dit board toen is aangeschaft is dat het met 10voet nog net in mijn schuurtje past en de hele familie er ook op moet suppen.

Volgend jaar wil ik een nieuw wave board kopen, het gaat zowiezo korter worden maar hoe kort weet ik nog niet. Ben zelf wel gecharmeerd van die Minimal van Gong, lekker kort en breed (7,9 bij 34) met redelijk wat volume. Die wil ik zeker een keer proberen.

Meestal sup ik bij Ouddorp en dan zijn de beste condities op de zandplaat voor de deur, dit is ongeveer 10min paddelen met soms best wat stroming. En dan is een relatief lange smallere sup comfortabler (9,5 bij 30 of iets dergelijks) om hier naar toe te paddelen. Daar twijfel ik nog dus nog over.

Een smallere tail en een relatief brede neus (en of middenstuk) zijn denk ik beter geschikt in Nederland, zodat je tijdens de surf lekker achterop relatief wendbaar bent en toch volume bij je hebt om aan te paddelen. Maar dit is meer gevoel dan wetenschap.

Allround dus denk ik.

Downwinder Stellendam-Hellevoet

Another nice day for a downwinder, with the Naish Glide14, love this board. You have to get used to it but Glides with almost every wave.

Viv dropped me.

The Haringvliet waves can be quite nice to glide especially just before the marina entrance and lighthouse. However I am looking forward to the first downwinder at sea. Hope it will be soon.



And off we go.

Had some pretty nice gusts on my way to Hellevoet. Westerly winds are ideal for this route, sometimes difficult cross waves. Good practice though!

Olympus TG-1 TOUGH (2)



Self portrait taken from the SUP Board

So, I have taken this camera along with me during a Stand Up Paddle small 7,5km downwinder. It was hanging around my neck, to carry it with me but also to be able to point and shoot quickly.
The play after shoot function is now turned off so that the camera is ready directly for the next shot, this is what I like with sports photography. And so the camera was set to Supersport function.


The one thing I am stil looking for is a function were you can lock the focus point. Now the camera has a moving focus point in the screen and this is sometimes the water closer to you then the object further away. Hope I will find this setting.

After the SUP session I shot some of my windsurf mates while swimming in Supersport function with continues shooting. It is almost if you are filming when taking the shots, I like that very much and the results are not bad either.

So far I am very happy with the camera and it defintely allows you to make shots from different angles. Didn't do too much yet with the GPS function. Will try that later.

Close up action

Like this differnt angle

Water studio portrait

What do you think of this water portrait?! The studio is a toy rubberboat upside down with natural light from beneath.
And a super exited model as you can see.

Love this one!