This afternoon we climbed the Chief which is a 2000m rock face where people also basejump of. We didn’t climb the face but took the pathway around the back … was hard enough though! Freaking bears around that area so we were better of leaving the leftovers of Taco Bell down at the beginning of the trail.

Thanks to Mike Dowie for doing most of the great pictures I uploaded and also Jim Hegan for supporting me with some really cool shots.

Well … tomorrow night my plane is leaving and I am actually sad about that. Usually I am always happy when I get back home because it’s nice there too but this time I could have continued like that for at least another two weeks. It was so cool we could get a ride in Randy’s huge bus and didn’t need to set up tents or check into fancy hotels and pay a fortune there. It was a great time and I can’t wait to get back to BC!

Meeting was at 11am. We discussed a few rules and went over the starting sequence. I was lucky to find a guy who could borrow me a sick raceboard. Adam (he won every single race today) had another prototype of a highwind – raceboard with him that he didn’t use. It’s a NJS board designed by Nils Stolzechner and it worked just great! It was cranking today and the board was perfect. On the upwinder I could ride it flat and get the maximum upwind performance of the four fins and on the downwinder I could lean back, pull in the bar and shoot towards the buoy.

The first two races I came in at 4th place, the 3rd race I screwed up the start and ended up on 5th place and the 4th and final race of the day was just great. I was battling with Adam for first place until the very end. Unfortunately I didn’t win but it was alright. It was good racing out there today.

Now we’re gonna go to town and see if there might be some party.

Later

Sebastian

When there’s sunshine the thermals kick in with about 25 to 30 kts of wind and it’s just smooth. There’s a big spit with flat water on the one side and a river on the other. Further downwind there’s an estuary with channels you can ride and gras in between. On the leeward side there’s terminal for cargo ships. If you’re just getting started with kiting there’s a rescue service. It costs 15 bucks to ride here for the day which I think is alright for what you get. They’ve prepared the spit quite a bit in the end. There’s sandbags to secure your kites, carpets to protect your feet and gear from the sharp gravel, toilets and a kite-center. The food in Canada just like the food in the States super delicious. A burger is a burger out here and not a small meatball with a bun like the stuff you get in Germany! Love it!

These thermals are supposed to work from April until September. I reckon when you aren’t afraid of a little bit colder water (a 5/3mm wetsuit is just fine) it’s a great location to travel to! The guys said that it was windy for 34 days in a row – until I showed up of course! Anyhow tomorrow it’s supposed to be sunny and we’ll pretty sure have good conditions for the racing!

Check the event page for more information: http://www.squamishwindsports.com/regatta2010/
Here’s the spot on Google Maps.

Stay tuned for the race!

Sebastian

Heard good things about the place. There’s a massive spit with flat water on the leeward side! Oh yeah … it’s been a lot of chop the last week. I wanna ride in flat water so bad.

There’ll be a big race during the weekend and I hope I’ll be able to get a board from a local dealer for the event because I only brought my Flyradical M with me. We’ll see if it’s gonna work out.

Tomorrow we’ll get moving direction mainland and Squarmish! Then we’ll be there for an event the next weekend.

Sebastian

the spot is mind blowing here! It’s a little choppey but apart from that whenever the sun is shining and the temperature – gradient is big enough it’s blowing with 20kts+. In the lake there’s a big wale (the lake is connected to the sea) that show’s up every here and then to breathe. After Mike and friends picked me up at Vancouver airport we took the next ferry to Victoria, slept over there and then hit the road to Lake Nitinaht. It was so crazy … we drove on the dirtroad for several hours seeing nothing but trees and a few rivers. Arriving at the campground I wouldn’t wanna believer there’s a kitespot here until I spotted the first kites in between the trees. The wind is so smooth here, it’s amazing!!

Well, the competition is about to start so I better get down to the beach. More infos and pictures later today.

Regards from the middle of nowhere,

Sebastian

I’ll have to see what I do about the competitions. Think I won’t compete in the first weekend because I need some time to get back on track and do all my tricks after not riding for so long. The second weekend I’ll be competing. In between Mike and me will travel around the amazing countryside of BC and shoot some photos, so stay tuned!!

Sebastian

We’ll be driving to the Folgefonn – glacier and pray for wind so we can snowkite on the top of the glacier. Then we’ll be shooting on the lake of Voss. Brought my big wetsuit since I heard that it’ll be freeeeeeezing cold there! We’ll see …

Anyway … gotta go and pick up the guys who are heading to Flensburg today by train. All the way from Holland … I am happy I don’t need to do that trip on top to the 1000km ahead!

Stay tuned

Sebastian

Sebastian

EXEAT 2 Thailand ‘10 – The Movie from Flysurfer Kiteboarding on Vimeo.

During Sunday and Monday we were not that lucky regarding the wind. On Sunday no races were sailed nor any freestyle heats finished. Still, it was nice to have a day off and chill out on the beach. It was supposed to get windy again really early on Monday – morning so the organizers set the skippersmeeting to 5am!! Yeah … that’s right … 5am! The plan was to party until then but unfortunately they stopped the music around 2am due to some rules in Holland. We were “lucky” anyway and there was not enough wind for doing more freestyle.

When I woke up I had to rush to the beach like crazy because they decided to start one more ultra – lightwind courserace. It was kind of crazy … half of the fleet didn’t even make it around the course.

It’s sad that again there was nearly no wind on this event. We finished 5 races but no freestyle. Overall I finished on the 8th place.

Now it’s time to study again …

Sebastian