MG Windsurfing

After a little more than a year's work, I could finally finish a travel feature for the German SURF magazine. It sheds light on some hidden gems in Northern Germany. This region has more to offer than just the North and Baltic Sea. There are also numerous lakes that are great for windsurfing. They are often surrounded by deep forest and a lot less popular with tourists than seaside spots. But see for yourself and get a new copy of Germany's and probably Europe's biggest windsurfing magazine - SURF magazine. You can also watch a preview right here. (Footage on my travel report from 2:36min) http://tv.surf-magazin.de/video/Video-Vorschau-surf-5/9076ce1b8444d7fbf40c49b8e009dd16

It never gets boring. Inspiration is everywhere. You sometimes seem to just follow the mainstream for a little while but before you know it you are thinking out of the box. The mainstream says: Go to that particular spot in that particular wind direction. Go there and try the moves that the other riders try. But life is short and doing the same thing over and over is just lame. So get up and get out there, try something new. Go for new moves and discover new spots. You might have to search and wait. But in the end, it may all be worth it. Maybe it's just a brief moment in time: That green wave which you see breaking in the corner of your eye when rushing down to its bottom. That feeling you get when the wind kicks you up in the air and you land at full speed. Or maybe it's that moment when you see your friends progressing. Windsurfing is so full of possibilities. There are so many great moments out there, waiting to be lived. spock nightsession burner it's ou...

Saturday was the first day with proper westerlies in a long time. On the menu: big chop, gusty winds and a solid crowd. westcoast-pictures.de  took these great shots despite the bad light.

The weekend started out really windy! I had a quick session at Walchensee yesterday. It felt like a typical spring day if it hadn't been for the cold water. I just sneaked half an hour of windsurfing in between a lot of revising and preparing my classes. The atmosphere at this lake is always something special. However, I feel the need to have some better conditions in order to improve faster. I often watch the latest videos of the PWA guys and am keen to try stuff like double culos or air kabikuchi. But when you are just slightly powered up on 5.2 in some gusts, how is one supposed to do that? Here are some pics: no-handed flaka attempt grubby kono after a grubby

The second part of my travel podcast series is now online. It features some very different conditions: from light-wind sessions on some beautiful lakes in the mountains to well powered up freestyle-wave conditions on Gran Canaria. https://vimeo.com/86029454 This video also traces how I came back from injury. You can see how I rather take it easy in light wind conditions in the first part of the video only to come back to my old level in the second part. Even though work commitments currently have me living far from the sea, I am still 100% into windsurfing. I also want to enter more competitions in 2014 than I did in 2013. I know that I don't have perfect conditions for training but I think that having to deal with this just makes me stronger. I cannot wait to see where the next episode of my travel podcast series is going to take me. From Bavaria to Gran Canaria from Mathias Genkel on Vimeo .

January is usually that time of the year when things get a lot more quiet when it comes to windsurfing. But this year, it was quite different. I could find the perfect work-life balance and was on the water at least once a week. This keeps me motivated for the warmer sessions that we will hopefully get quite soon. Tomorrow looks good - strong foehn winds and warm temperatures. But let me get back to the beginnning of this month when I headed up north after one or two mild sessions on the local lake. I had a great session at the Baltic. After a whole week off the water, well, five days that is, I could get in a good session today. But things went crazy in the beginning. I checked the webcams and Walchensee looked good. But the picture was really deceiving and it just looked like that in real time:  Nice water colours but not windy enough. Snow on the shore Getting from this spot to the spot that works with south winds was quite a mission. But in the end, it really ...

Early morning winds were gusty and hard to sail in today. I was on 4.4 and the wind kept changing directions and strength. The chop was all over the place. It was still nice somehow. I then had lunch, worked a bit and went for another session. It was so warm here in the afternoon that it didn't feel like winter at all - no hoodie, no gloves. I managed to catch some great gusts in which I did among other moves a double spock. Here are some photos and a double spock sequence. Bob Chachoo attempt Today was a public holiday in Bavaria celebrating the 3 Holy Kings.