MG Windsurfing

Pouring rain and a light breeze from the north west, small chop - some good ingredients for testing the new Sailloft Mission in 7.5 and the Patrik Slalom 110. This combination is really fast - if I may judge it as a freestyle windsurfer. When jumping on the board I immediately felt comfortable. However, as soon as the first gust hit my sail and the whole gear started to accelerate like crazy, I really had to watch out for not missing the straps and get catapulted. I am used to my freestyle board, so the strap position on the slalom board felt weird. You actually have to position your feet on the rails and put a lot of pressure on the fin. Placing your feet into the straps is like fastening a seat belt when you get ready to go super fast with some crazy speed machine. Jibing is as easy as tacking with that board and sail. I was positively surprised with how easy to handle a sail in that size is. There must have been a massive step forward in sail design within the last couple of y...

“Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” ― James Joyce, Ulysses. A trip to Sottomarina in November and sightseeing in Venice...    If you want to buy the most expensive cup of coffee in the world, don't look any further. The way nature arranged mountains around some lakes in the Alps makes for reliable winds. Waiting for wind and reading the Financial Times at Lake Garda in autumn.  Driving in the Alps means crossing tunnels, especially when you drive from Innsbruck to Feldkirch. My new board equipped with some super light Kovalski straps. 

The title says it all - I spent some time in Northern Germany at the beginning of the new Year. I have had two good sessions but the light was just really bad for filming and taking photos. So the quality of the footage is not as good as it should be. I still tried to make a little video that tries to capture the gloomy atmosphere of a typical winter's day in Northern Germany. It basically shows some slow-motion footage, combined with the atmospheric music of Iceland's Mùm. A grey sky, some light drizzle and a chilly wind were on the menu. The wind was really light as well and the spot, Meldorf, quite choppy that day. So I couldn't do all the moves I wanted - like a Kabikuchi or a Culo 540. On top of that, I sailed with a really sore back which has now kept me off the water for more than three weeks already. This may be the reason why a lot of the moves do not look as fluid and powerful as before. I am currently doing everything to overcome this issue and I want to...

Grey skies, patches of dense fog and drizzle ... Welcome to Northern Germany in January! Well, it's been quite mild still. And the wind has been really reliable these last couple of days, too. Unfortunately, I haven't used my waveboard once but probably should have done so two days ago. But somehow I always end up freestyling. At the moment, it seems as if it's really quite rare to get some decent wavesailing conditions, unless you are fully committed and willing to spend a lot on petrol or diesel. Also I have never been the one to complain about bad conditions or small swell. For me, windsurfing is all about the feeling. Be it a fast rotation during a burner or culo, a floaty jump or a nice top turn on a wave - all this is windsurfing. Conditions at the Speicherkoog, a small artificial lake close to the North Sea near Meldorf, were not really pumping yesterday. I was on 4.6 and the 90l freestyle board. It was still a lot of fun to windsurf with Jannes and to push each othe...

Known as one of the poshest parts of Germany, Starnberg can also offer some good windsurfing conditions. I sailed a place called St.Heinrich today. It was a very picturesque scenery with a small Bavarian church and the Alps in the background. Also it was really mild today, which made for a great short session. My back is still not back in shape but I'm trying my best to improve my strength. I was told to take it easy windsurfingwise but it was just too tempting. The only bad thing is that I lack power in most of my moves but I think it will come back soon. January is going to be a month of some serious physiotherapy and I hope to back in full shape by the beginning of February. I also hope to be ready for the EFPT event at Lake Garda, which is hopefully going ahead there in May. Tomorrow looks as if some nice Foehn winds will kick in. It's going to be really mild as well - perfect for sneaking a little session in before Christmas dinner. a burner sequence  the same mov...

I don't want to bore you with too much writing this time. All I can say is that the EFPT event in Six-Fours-les-Plages was probably the best windsurf competition I ever attended. Thumbs up to all who made it happen. I also wish that the EFPT-crew around Tom Hartmann and Hanna Poschinger will have the opportunity to do a lot more events like this one. Thank you so much. The atmosphere was friendly, the judging was fair, the food was good and the conditions were just extreme. I am also quite happy with my result. I got 9th in a very strong fleet of 36 riders and I noticed that despite having a full-time job and living 600 kilometres from the nearest coast I could sail some good heats. But on top of it all, it was so great to see some friends like Romain and Xavier, who I met in Marseille already three years ago, and to go sailing with them and also to do some sightseeing and hanging around. Last but not least, I would also like to thank my sponsors Patrik Diethelm Boards, MB-Fins an...

I think most windsurfers in Bavaria spend lots of time in front of their computer screens checking webcams and wind reports in order to get an idea of the latest conditions. It can be very discouraging at times to wait for wind that will never really materialize. But every once in a while you can catch some wind - given that you can make it to the right spot in time, which is, again, not a very easy thing to do when you have a full time job. That cloud reminded me a lot of Table mountain in Cape Town.  Today was a public holiday in Germany so I wanted to take it easy. However, I couldn't help but check the Kochelsee webcam at 7 in the morning. There was still a lot of fog around but I somehow felt that it wouldn't take long for the wind to pick up. In fact, the wind arrived at around ten to eight. It was still really cold when I went into the water about half an hour later. I choose 4.6 and 90 litres, which was alright in the gusts. Conditions were rather marginal to say ...