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So it has been quiet a while here. I had some problems with my website but it's fixed now so I'll update
on what happened the past time..
First of all I moved to Utrecht and now I'm living there with kay, good fun!
Then we had a lot of snow here, it's insane. We did a lot of snowkiting and snowboarding.
I've been to winterberg as well for a few days and now I'm getting ready to go to the wasserkuppe tonight,
after that we'll continue to the ISPO in Munchen and then continue to Garmisch for two more days of
snowboarding. Good stuff coming up!
Well my writing sucks so here you got some pictures:
And we are starting up a club for kitesurfing, wakeboarding and snowboarding here in Utrecht.
So make sure you become a member of us! For now just on facebook but we're working hard to get the website online.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Utrecht/Alfa-Beta-Surfa/280686722467?ref=ts
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About two months ago a guy from the north of the Netherlands contacted me if I could give a presentation about Ditchboarding. He had seen our movie from a while ago and was looking for people who were doing something that was a little against the law but not harming anyone.
I was really stoked about it, but thought that the short movie we had wasn't enough. So I gave some friends some calls to get them together to make a new one, a better one! So off we went, carrying 3 cams, the car of my parents because it has a roofrack and some rope and boards.
We've shot this movie in two locations on the same day. On one hand I'm sad i'm not in it because it's good fun.. But it was really cold and since I wasn't even able to walk normally bacause of my ankle I'm glad I didn't go in the water.
We've posted the movie on Dumpert.nl as well where it got 80.000 views which was really cool!
So Many thanks to my parents for letting me borrow the car(which she will never do again after she's seen the movie), Kor Sander and Kay for riding in the freezing water, the farmer for entertainment!
Well, here is the movie anyways:
http://vimeo.com/7072271
By now we also did the presentation and we had a blast of a party afterwards. Great night, thnxs Floss.
This is the flyer of the evening:
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So it has been quiet here for a while. This is because about two months ago I strained my ankle and so I didn't have much news. Today though I started riding again and started in a good way as well! There were some really nice waves on Wijk and we had lots of fun riding those! Good fun!!
Then there are two publications as well, one in the calender from the dutch kiteboarding association(which you can order for 10 euro) and there's a picture in the kiteworld, this is really cool!!
All picture credits go to Sebastiaan Hogeboom!
Hopefully the next updat will be my new gear and some snowkiting action again, I'm really looking forward to riding in the snow again!!
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Like every year there's a really cool kite event on Texel.
This is not so much about competition but more about riding together, party and just have a good time. I love this principle so we went there. We meaning, pretty much al the people who went to norway and then we added Kor to it.
The forecast was sick! 40 knots of wind for friday and saturday, then a little less wind on sunday, only 20.
Good ingredients for a weekend of good fun!
We decided because of the forecast to go there friday morning although the event started saturday, but we couldn't let that wind get away. Around 1 o'clock we arrived and the people on the parkinglot told us it wasn't that much wind. So packed with the 7 and 9 we went to the beach. I don't know what they were talking about because I was overpowered on my 7 in the end. Great fun those big air jumps!! After some nice pizza we went to Martijn's place where we were staying(Thanks a lot!!), we had some drinks there and then went to the Koog where there was a really nice party! For some reason the bar thought it would be fun to put like a couple of thousand banana's on the sealling.. So it ended as a massive foodfight and everybody was completely covered in bananas! NICE!
This day was the best way to start a weekend! I couldn't get any better we thought..
The next day started with a hangover and a REALLY good breakfast made by Martijn's parents. After that we went to the beach to check out the conditions, it was quite gusty between 30 and 45 knots and there was a lot of rain.. Some went out to kite, I waited. My theory worked out perfect, after rain you'll get sunshine.
When the sun came out I went to kite and we did a hangtime contest, I ended up at the 3rd place with a hangtime of 5.07 sec.
Great fun doing those big air jumps!!
Of course our big friend Arien from Obesessed kitevids made a nice movie from the weekend as well which you can check out over here:
http://www.vimeo.com/6403564
That night we had some more party fun with banana's.
Sunday we went for a nice downwinder and pancakes with the whole group. Really nice.
What a great weekend it was!
Thanks a lot to everybody for being there and especially for Martijn and his family and the Texel locals!
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I made it to the cover of the Kite magazine here in the Netherlands, really cool!!
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I've been home for a week now, already starting to get used to it again. We had some light wind the last weeks in Norway but in the beginning we had some sick conditions there! You can see the pictures in the Gallery! Being home made me able to work a bit on my website and I decided it was time for a new design.
I hope you like, I think it's much better! Also I've been out on the water a few times and I'm really suprises by the temperature, it's really good!
Obsessed Kitevids also came by in Norway, to bad we didn't have so much wind when he was there but he still managed to make a cool movie!
Check it out in this link!!
Well, that's it for now, hope you like the design and the movie!
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While I was driving to Norway, where I'm at now. Obsessed kitevids created a Really nice movie out of the footage we made in Brazil.
You can check it out HERE
When I have I'll post some updates from Norway to, but that'll probably will wait till next month.
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Yesterday I had a meeting with Dragon here in the Netherlands and they had some great news for me.
From now on they are going to support me with Snowkiting and kiteboarding! I'm really happy with this, Dragon is a really cool brand that creates very functional and cool Goggles and Sunglasses!
Dragon Website
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So the last week in Brazil we still had a lot of rain but also a few days of very good kiting.
But when there is rain you don't have so much to do, we got pretty bored.
We decided to go to the Cashaca museum wich is about 60km from cumbuco so we just rented a Taxi for the whole day wich cost us about 15euro each. What an expencive country it is!
We had some good fun there. Free trying the Cashaca(the stuff they use to make Caipirinhas), using waterbikes, stealing mango's from the tree and more stupid stuff you do when you're bored. But is was a fun day with good fun!
Later that day we made friends with owners of a new bar/cafe/restaurant in front of our hotel. They were cool. They asked if we had any stickers for them to put on the fridge so we completely filled it up with Skullcandy stickers. They really liked it and asked if we could paint it on the wall. With nothing to do because of the lack of wind we agreed. Next day went to the market in the next city(Caucaia) and bought paint, pencils and some more stuff you need to have for painting. After some great drawing of Kor we had the logo on the wall and started painting it. Turned out pretty good, at least, that's what we think.
Then we had two days of good wind and we decided to try kiting on a new lagoon. A lot of people told us it would be full with rocks so we really had te be carefull and not crash. Well, we just concidered it as good motivation to land the tricks. We did some nice filming here wich we will put in a movie later with Obsessed Kitevids, so keep posted here!!
Now being home for a week already, normal life starting to pick up again. But I'm also getting ready to go to Norway in a few weeks. This year is going to be awesome! There are a lot of friends coming over, gonna meet friends from last year. And I also made a few friends in Brazil that live in Norway who I'm definetely gonna visit!
Nice weather...
Told you we were bored..
Cashaca Museum with my friends, Bram the Beast and HardKor
Funny Brazilian guy(nickname: RED) owner of the Skullcandy Restaurant
Polly, the best dog ever! Just point at somebody and he's gonna try to bite him! HAHAHA!!
Skullcandy restaurant!
Finished, what do you think about it?
Getting ready for what turned out to be the last kitesession in Brazil.
Started with this one and will and the trip as well with it.
We had a really good time, enjoyed every moment of it!
Thanks for everything,
Bram en Kor!
Nobile
Thrill-Seeker
Dakine
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Long time no talk here. I had some problems with my website, alle the pictures and newsitems were gone! But with all working again here a new update from us here in Brazil.
The weather is shit at the time! We had last week rain almost everyday and the wind went down really fast. Pretty obvious that the rain saison is kicking in.. At the moment we're in Cumbuco again after being in Jeri for a while. We've been doing a lot of kiting on the 7 there and took some nice pictures with Salgado, a local photographer there. After taking the pictures with him we decided to head back to cumbuco because it's cheaper here and we are running out of money.
So back here we have 3 guys from Chile in our pousada where we've been hanging out with. We even went to see a bit of inland Brazil. Crazy what you do when there is no wind haha.. Yesterday we went to fortaleza to visit mercado central, a market what used to be a prison but that now is a market. We bought some souvenirs there and then tryed to get back to Cumbuco with the bus. This is quite a hassle if you know that Fortaleza is a city with 4 million people who don't speak english and that there is one bus that is going to cumbuco but you don't have a clue where that bus is leaving from. In the end wwe managed to find it and got back in cumbuco.
so for now that's except that I have a nice picture to show:
 
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Jeej.. We made it to Brazil again! With a big hassle caused my my new kites and boards arriving to late to take them on the plane I had quite some stress about it, but most of it worked out in the end. Only the boards are still a hassle to get them here, mainwhile I brought my old board wich is still rippin hard!
So now I'm getting back in the rhytm of brazil. Wakeup, eat some fruit, go kite, have lunch and chill a bit, kite some more, eat some cheap food somewhere, have a drink in the bar and then go back to the appartment to chill a bit and go to sleep.. That's pretty much the everyday song.
Yesterday we took some pictures so I don't wanna keep them from you guys:
(check what's in the sink!)
I placed the rest of the pictures HERE
 
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After it had been prosponed for a lot of times because of lack of wind last weekend we finally had the dutch nationals. This was the first time for me since two years that I was not in the organisation I thougt. Only the friday befor I got a call that the photographer wasn't able to be there and if I wanted to take pictures.
I was going there anyway to compete so taking some pictures wouldn't be a problem.
The pictures I took are also on the site, you can find them here.
Then me and the competition..
I fucked up.. Saturday the wind was offshore and although I hadn't been riding footstraps
for a few months I decided to ride footstraps because I couldn't walk back upwind when I was riding boots. The worst decision ever, I sucked riding straps.. Lost my board with every jump I made and so I got kicked out inmediately.. Hoping for the doubles to get back in the comp.
Sunday I came on the beach and there was 22knots side onshore... WOW!! GREAT this was wat I was waiting for! I couldn't get the smile of the face knowing I had to start in the first heat of the day. I would show them now what you can do in boots( I was the only one riding boots)! So I did, I had the best heat of my life landing almost everything what I can. Perfect, I was really happy and advanced to the next round easily.
Then disaster stroke again, 10 minutes before my next heat I went out of the tent away from the warm tea to get ready. But fuck, my lines were tangled! In my rush I didn't take them out as quick as normal because of the stress it gave me. So when I got my kite up and went to the water to put my boots on the green flag came up already! No more time to put my boots on so I grabbed a footstrap board again.. That did it, this one was a little better then the other one and I could stay in the board for several jumps but I was so pissed that it went shit anyway.
Now I'm just going to focus on Brazil and Norway, some sick stuff is going to happen this winter!
But I've learned a hard lesson, have your equipment always ready properly before a comp.
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I'm really happy to announce that Bram Bast, Kor de Jong and me are going to Brazil for two months!
For me this is the third time but still I'm really looking forward to find some new spots new Jericocuara but also just for training hard to learn some new wakestyle tricks. I already have my eye on quite a few that I really wanna stick when we are going back to the Netherlands. Also really cool is that my Nobile teammate Judith Roetman is coming to Brazil as well, we're definetely gonna take some sick pictures and will shoot some really nice movies!
Also I arranged that I'm going back to Norway(Haugastol). The beginning of march I will go there and I will stay two months there for some great snowkiting. I'll probably go to Sweden again as well to do the Nordic masters.
Stay tuned for some sick pictures, movies and whatever coming up when we are in and when we are back from Brazil and Norway!
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This month there is a nice article about snowkiting in the Kitesurfmagazine. I wrote it last year and now, with the winter coming up they placed it in their magazine.
Here is the article:
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March this year I was thinking of making a movie in the dark with colored lights. I spoke about it with Obsession kitevids and he thought it was a great idea and we would definetely do it this summer. Well, it took a while but last saturday we made the movie and now it is online! I think it came out great although it was very difficult to ride because you couldn't spot the landing.
Here is the movie:
http://vimeo.com/1903003
Thanks to Obesession Kitevids!!
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I'm really happy because I just got invited for the Red Bull Surfcamp. We had to sent in an movie and than Ruben Lenten would pick out 25 kiteboarders wich are going on a big Sailing boat to one of the Dutch Islands with Ruben and als Robby Naish! I'm really stoked to meet him and I think this is giong to be one of the best events ever! After this weekend I'll write a nice report here. Let's pray for some wind.
The ship:
And the invitation for the event, wich was on the television as well:
http://www.freecaster.tv/1000195_1005821
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After working on a nice travelstory to put here my computer thought it would be nice to just close down internet explorer. So I'll start over again and tell the story of our holiday to France.
With Bram Bast(one of my best kitemates), Suzanne(my girlfriend) we went to France for a three week holiday with a Caravan that we've borrowed from eXventure which was really cool!
In front of the caravan was my volvo, the car that also survived Norway for two months so this was going to be an easy one for her(I'm only riding girls).
After two days of driving we arrived on our first campsite, Lac de Serre Poncon in the south of France. It was a nice place where I had been before a few years ago. I thought there was good wind there but unfortunately this time the wind abandonned us. Gladly we had our boat with us so we just chilled out on the lake cruising around. We also went walking in the mountains and visited some small towns there.
After a few days we were done there and decided to go to Sete, this was on the coast of the sea close to Spain. When we arrived there all the campsites where full and we really didn't like it there because it was full of people who were just drinking and partying(Like to do that to but not every day). We decided to drive a hundred km more to the south to Leucate. We arrived here in the evening and it took us a few hours to find a campsite with some place for us. Finally we got one for just one night. The day after we found a really nice one close to the kitespot and with good warm showers. After putting the caravan there really quick we went for a kite session because there was really good wind!
When we arrived at the kitespot they were teaching with three meter kites and riding on sevens, we only had nine meter kites... F*ck it! Let's ride! We went on the water and after we got used to the spot we started to go higher and higher! I remember one jump I never had before, it was at least seven seconds and Bram said it was about twenty meters high, almost hanging as high as another kite that was at 12!
After a few hours we were really hungry and went back to the caravan where Suzanne cooked us a really good meal! How good is that!?
Then we had a few days without wind. Most of the time we just went to the beach to build sandcastles and do some skimboarding. It was nice and relaxing but we really wanted to go kiting again! So we were lucky and one day we got some thermical wind, first not to much but later it was about 20 knots. With my 12 I had a really nice session and Suzanne took some pictures from the water with my new lens(sigma 10-20). Perfect session till sundown. The best session of the holiday when I look back at it.
We had a little more wind after that and kited one more time before we went back. On the way back we stopped for a few days near a river. It was a really nice place and we went to some watersprings and caves. I also caught a fish which was eaten by the neighbour on the campsite.
When we were back in Holland I had one more week without work and in that week I doubled the kiting of the holiday so that was nice. Then you know again what a nice country we live in, it might be cold but i'ts definetely windy!
Au Revoir!
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At Sticked, the beginning of the season I had some good chats with the Nobile guy here in the NL. And after I did some testing with the new nobile 666 boards and kites I was sold!
So I'm really happy to say that from now on I'll be riding Nobile on water and on snow as well!
Having fun on the Nobile gear:
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Two weeks ago already I got back from Norway after having a really good time with the Dutchies and of course with the rest of the people in Haugastol as well.
When the Dutchies where in Norway we did some filming. Arien has been working on this Vid for three days and I think he did a really good job on it!
You can see the video HERE!
Back in Holland I went to Sticked to have a good time and we did. We had a really good weekend with some wind, sun and fun.
Now it's time for some stuff that is not that much fun but somebody has got to do it, I'm going to work for Benn & Jerry's for a few weeks. haha..
Cheers!
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