just another awesome day at the beach

Lil post update with this photo of me taken by Jimmie Hepp's (from this gallery). Thanks Jimmie!


After quite a spell of intense surfing action, today some windsurfing action was back (at least at Hookipa).

The wind was very offshore (which seems to be the rule this winter) and that made for some pretty freaking clean waves. I thoroughly enjoyed my early session. It wasn't a long one for three reasons:
- the wind got a lot lighter on the inside
- it got more crowded
- after so many days of surfing and SUP surfing, my arms were sore. Correction: ARE sore.

I took a few pics, but the light really sucked.
First one is Keith. His first turn on his first wave (a solid logo high one) was one of the best turns I've ever seen at Hookipa. The radius of that turn was unnaturally short and he hit the lip super late. I had the pleasure to watch that from just a bit downwind in the channel. Scream worthy.


This other two photos are of KP.



Sorry, no more worthy shots from today's session.
But I got some GoPro shots from... when was that?... some day SUP sesh!
I remember this cut back. It was a snappy one.


This is one of the best GoPro shots I've ever taken... I'll make it my new FB profile photo.



UH-HU... the surfing gorilla.



The day before this session, I had another sesh in which I saw Brett Lickle's intriguing SUP "idea". When I saw the photo of this bottom turn, I immediately decided to go for it too. Guesses are welcome...


The paddle is your third leg constantly in touch with the water, you can paddle with the aid of a powerful tool instead of your bare hands, you don't have to go from laying down to standing up in a critical and steep section of a wave, you can move faster to the right take off spot... god, SUP surfing is SO MUCH easier than surfing!
That's why it got so amazingly popular.

That's also why I still prefer - by far - regular surfing. Mmm... I wonder if Brett's idea will change that... I doubt it, but it might add some points to the SUP's ranking in my preferences. We'll see! Top secret for the moment. Post a guess. If you know Brett's idea, that's cheating. If you guess it right, I won't publish the comment, but I will mention that you guessed it right.


Another lil top turn. Notice the stroke of the paddle in the wave to help the board turn and get more speed off the top. So much easier...



Talking about Facebook, I think of it as a brilliant way of wasting time. It's brilliant because despite its effectiveness (you do waste a hell lot of time), sometimes it gets you to some interesting stuff.
This is a classic story written by my friend Olaf about his Baja trip. This photo (taken from this gallery) will definitely intrigue you...


Read the full story here.

One more last thing about Facebook. I have way more friend requests (I don't delete them... I just leave them there) than actual friends. My very unpopular policy is to accept requests only from people I really know, otherwise my update page gets even more time-wasting...
As I wrote already, it's not particularly thrilling to be informed that someone that you don't even know is getting ready to go to the gym on the other side of the world...
Thanks for reading my blog anyway! :)

PS. Been appreciating this Ligabue song lately. Just two chords. And a lot of soul.