Packing for Karpathos

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Give advice to other experienced sailors is often not necessary. But going to Karpathos is a bit different. Even if you have been there before you might forget about the demanding conditions. Gusty offshore winds with 30-50 knots and 30 C and sunny. A lot more wind and temperature than what Windguru indicates.

Here is my list:

- Boards: 44 and 53 cm wide, 65 and 83 litres

- Sails: 6,3 and 7,0 (You can go down and up one size on the boards and sails if you bring more than two, I bring 4 sails and boards)
- 26, 28 and 30 cm fins, standard speedfins, i.e Tectonics, C3 Venom, BPF Type S or Deboichet UW,

- One extra mast, i.e. an extra 430 might be very useful

- Check or replace all your mast foot-tendon joints

- Change all harness lines to NP vario (they breaks in the worst catapults)

- Bring a weight vest or something other vest that floats

Add always 5-10 knots

- A helmet (we riding against the rocks)

- No wetsuit is needed, but thin shoes are nice

- Camelback, when it is not the World cup no caddies will serve any water

- Energy powder

- A lot of guts!

The new fence

The fence to the neighbour is completed. Well, maybe a few boards need do be replaced some day, but I think they will do the work until next summer or even until 2013. That´s the upside with sailing on Carbon Art. The boards are so extremely well built, that they stay in shape even if I use them a lot. It will be interesting to see how the slalomboards works. I get sometimes a bit tired of some sponsored sailors that on different forums raise all their boards to the stars. Some of them have no idea what quality is and what boards works best. But myself I have definitely found my home now. I will never ever sign any top contract again and race with boards that not perform 100%. Carbon Art does not sponsor their sailors. (But I do not say that I never ever will ride other boards!).
I know that some are saying that I have too many boards. Yes I admit I have. I think there are about 25 boards around in my house, garage and trailer and I use only about ten. But some boards cannot ever be sold. I will write a blog post about those boards when it becomes colder…! By the way, my wife got more books this week than I have Carbon Arts, read about that here.

New speed fins from Maui

These last weeks before going to Karpathos some goods arrives almost every day. Masts, boards, boardbags, GPS, nutrition drinks etc. And today some interesting new fins. Black Project Fins has proven to build the best slalom fins I ever used and now they have built some new speed fins. I have never seen such high quality fins before, so it will be interesting to try them. The models are X40 and X45, which stands for the expected speed! They are about 215mm and 225 mm deep and are the new modern design with a wider base. They are very thin but also assy. Karpathos is a place where we sail around 37-42 knots but also choppy and tought upwind. I hope they will work OK upwind. In worst case I might have to switch fins at the start!

The new RIB is all about speedsurfing

Only a few speed spots in the world is safe when the wind is hauling with 40-50 knots. 

On many spots that we are sailing at, it is offshore winds and it is often 1000 km to the next shore. And some spots are not accessible with cars. You either have to walk for hours or sail very far. Some spots needs to be pre-checked before you do a + 40 knots run. Some spots needs the obstacles to be marked before you sail. Sometimes you need to put out buoys to mark gates for speed-courses. And sometimes when you arrange an event the wind is at another part of the country. It is like the same idea as when you see Robby at Jaws on a jetski, it is nice with support and resque. That why we, the serious speed sailors, need boats and that’s why I bought a new RIB. But it took a while before I found it. 

First checking the Internet of used Zodiacs in Sweden. But they where all quite expensive. It ended up in buying a brand new. The local dealer offered me a Zodiac 550 Pro Open, with Evinrude 90hp and a trailer for over 35.000 EUR. But checking around on the web, I found Chas Newens Marine in London and they offered me the boat for a lot less. So now I have the tool for exploring new spots. The west of Sweden has 10.000´s of small islands…! (The RIB might be use for family trips too!)

karpathosspeed.com

OK, it is less than 3 weeks left before I return to the Paradise. And I have to admit that I do not only love to enjoy the sun, food, all friends and the turquoise water. Most of all I enjoy to compete. And the best summer in my life so far was in 2009 when I participated in the Speed World Championship on my holiday. I was a beginner and it was just for fun. Over 100 speedsailing days later I will return for the third time. In the middle of the financial crisis there will not be any major event in the island of Karpathos this year either. But still this is the perfect place for a speedcontest. Paradise Bay is 900 meters from  the airport, with one storage booth for every rider containing up to 5-6 rigs and all boards you need. And in the end of the speedstrip there is a huge veranda/stand where you could watch the race from the shadow. 5-6 days a week the wind is roaming with 30-50 knots from the island.
So the last year and and also this year I arrange "King of Paradise". If you want to do some serious speeding this summer please join me to Paradise Bay!! Here is the event site!