Reflections from Karpathos Speed 2013

Stopping and also checking the speed line

Time to conclude this years Karpathos speed event. It is the 5th year and my 11th week on the island. Karpathos proved once again to a very reliable place when you want offshore wind during fixed dates. I is not many places in the world with 7-9 Bft every day from the same angle and with no rolling sea etc. Also the service that we have with airport pick up, storage and rescue is unique.

This year we where less Swedes that participated, but instead more Dutch and Ukrainian sailors joined the event. We really had a great time together. If you want to know more about the event and how it turned out, you can read here Karpathosspeed.com

Some reflections about my own sailing

I have got a lot more used to the spot than the years before. This year my pulse almost never rose at all. And I did not find the place gusty on the upwind at all. It was extremely easy to sail every day. About 800km during 14 days in a row, with speeds around 38-42 knots everyday.

This year both Daniel and myself used our sessions to practice and trim for Luderitz. The difference compared to other years is that we used smaller boards, sails and assy fins. And I also did practice to stop from 39-40 knots on 25 metres many times.

The boards that I brought this year where Carbon Art SP44, SP48, SL55 and SP60. I do not want to write bad about any fin-brands, but on the good side I must say that I am surprised how well the Gasoil Assy fin worked both upwind and downwind on the SP44. I tried a lot to trim the new SP48 but struggled with the fins. Daniel had better flow with this board than I. Maybe a better fin and also the board size suited his weight better than for me. Hard to say, but I will try to find more carbon fins in sizes 26-28 with medium lift.

I am also surprised how well the SP60 worked as both slalom and speed board with 7.0 sail on flatter water in lighter winds. It went upwind better than a formula and I peaked the top speed at 39 knots in moderate wind. On the sail side we, all the Loft riders, preferred RDM on all sizes. I used mainly Racing Blade 6,3 2013, but also 7,0 and some runs with 5,6. The first two sails needed a lot of downhaul, and the 5,6 the opposite. This year I use less spacers and it seems to work well. The feeling in this year’s smaller rig are great.

SP44 and Loft 6,3 high wind trimmed

Maybe the whole combo has got a lot better year by year. Because neither Daniel nor myself had any problems with catapults or any serious spinouts. Balance is the word! I feel I am writing a lot of positive bullshit above, pushing my sponsors etc. Sorry if you feel that, what can I say more than that Daniel and Markus E where also very pleased with their sails from NP and Simmer!

Next year I will NOT bring the 7,8 rig and a lot of G10 fins will also be left home.

I made a little video from this year that explains why we keep on visiting the Island of Karpathos. It is the reliable offshore wind, but also the fantastic town Pigadia, the food and all the nice people we meet. The Greeks but also all others that are visiting the island every year.

from Karpathos with love from Anders BQ on Vimeo.

Time to book in Karpathos 2012

It is time to book in the high-light of the year. For the 3:rd year in a row, I will arrange "King of paradise" at Paradise Bay (former Devils Bay) on Karpathos in Greece. It is a very relaxed event but still very competitive and a lot of hard racing under the hot sun. Besides from concistent gusty winds 6-9 Beaufort and sunny days, we also enjoy the best food and friendly place in the world in the small town Pigadia.

Even if it is a 15 minutes drive to the speedstrip, I recommend all visitors to live in the town, and rent a scooter or a car to go to the surfcenter at Afiartis.

Follow the event here: karpathosspeed.com

3 Fast Weeks at Karpathos

Back home after 3 great weeks at Karpathos in Greece. 17 days on the water and almost 900 logged kilometres at speeds between 35 and 43 knots. This was the 3:rd year in a row and for me the weeks at Karpathos is very special in many ways. I get the opportunity to test trimming and I can improve my small gear sailing. I brought 3 speed boards and one small slalom board, four sails, five masts and 40 fins. The conditions are very demanding with gusty winds around 20-45 knots, 5-9 Bft.

The last 2 years I have arranged an event called King of Paradise. The event site is Karpathosspeed.com

This pic is not Photoshopped!

 It is a GPS-event and we count the best 250-meter runs. That format is quite demanding because if you want to perform you have to be on the water as much as possible. You never know when the best gusts will come. Still I find it relaxed, and it always nice with some competition when you do speedwindsurfing.

Training camp

I am very happy with my sailing in Karpathos this year. I do not get many days with small speed gear so it very learning to get that many windy days in a row. It is like a training camp with the best mates in the world. This year I also had great help from Dirk Jan Knol with trimming my new sails from the Loft Sails. I did six new PB (personal best) and finished third in King of Paradise all three racing weeks, and was the fastest of the day a few times (which wasn´t easy with top world cup sailors as Dirk Jan Knol, Daniel Borgelind, Markus Emanuelsson and Magnus Bengtsson). Also fast "locals" like Nick Vardalachos and Panagiotis Drakopoulos where sailing with us.

Some reflections

At gusty spots where you need good upwind properties and high speed in the acceleration into high-speed, a small slalom board could be easier and faster than a speed board in the same size. I ended up sailing my Carbon Art SL55 rather than the SP53. With the SL55 I logged speeds over 42 knots and 10-second average over 40. Another reflection, I found the C3 Venom and Black Project Type S, the best fins in my quiver. (I sailed with 6 different top-fin-brands).

PROS and CONS with 3 weeks at Karpathos

+ I got very fit

+ Developed my small gear sailing enormous

+ Very good food

+ Airport pick up and storage and resque by Chris Schill

+ New PS´s

+ Great sailing mates

+ Competitive racers

+ Windy

+ Technical spot

+ UFO at Bella Karpathos Pizzeria in Pigadia

+ All people on the island are very nice and true friendly

+ My family loves the island

- Sharp and slippery rocks

- Short speed strip

- Technical spot

- 3 weeks slips away too fast

- 48 weeks until I go back again

And a video of a "standard" + 40 knots run, Carbon Art SP44, Loft Racing Blade 6,3

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!

Karpathos calling

I would like to announce that there will be a speed-event 2011 at one of the best speed-spots in the world. Afiarti, Karpathos, Greece. Also known as Devils- or Paradise bay. The event will take place in early August 6-10:th, between the two PWA-events at Fuerteventura and Alicate. The outline is to host a European Speed Championship Tour-event. But since the prize-money from 2009 not have been paid yet, the ISWC will not give any speedevent in Karpathos that status at the moment. I hope we will have positive news about that before May. But an event will take place no matter of that, and we will race during 5 days for a Trophy. The format will be heats on a fixed 250-meter course along the beach and we will use GT11 or GT31 GPS for the timing. Officially I, with my club are the organizer. But if we manage to solve the 2009-debt, I will bring experienced staff from Sweden to manage the event.

For me Karpathos is just no any beach, it is a very emotional place. Thats where I made my international speed-debute and it is also a special place because of the unique atmosphere. The island is in a very much way unexploited and therefore also welcome us, the windsurfers, to come and compete. And at no other place you have a fixed speedstrip with a public gallery with shadows and chairs, storage for 250 rigs and 150 boards at the shoreline and 99 % wind exceeding 6 beaufort every day!

You can follow information about this on Facebook at this event side. By joining the Facebook-event we also can show the Municipal of Karpathos that if they solve the economics we will come.
The official event site is KARPATHOSSPEED.COM

King of Paradise 2010

In late Juli 2010 I arranged my first international speedevent. King of Paradise at Karpathos. I just love Karpathos and I wanted to go there again after sailing the Worlds in 2009. I also wanted company so when the World Cup At Fuerteventura was cancelled, I decided to to it by myself. Chris Schill offered me the speedcourse 4 hours a day and during the first week we was 15 competitors. I ended up third after Markus Emanuelsson and Daniel Borgelind the first week and won the two other weeks. We had wind for only four days, but the week after I was more lucky with strongers winds, but not soo many friends to compete with. I logged speeds over 42 knots which is fast for the special Karpathos speedstrip.

Karpathos - In the paradise playing with the devil

In the same moment you hate it and love it. Devils Bay or Paradise Bay. The two names of the spot really says everything. On one hand you have 20 steady knots of wind, the water is 27 C and its sunny everyday. Windsurfing in the Paradise.

The other hand. The gusts is roaming with plus 50 knots and the water is boiling and the sudden gusts knocks you down on the way upwind like hit by a heavyweight champion. And when entering the speedstrip you are kicked in by an invisible foot, after a few seconds you lose most drag, but just a few seconds before you hit the stonewall in the end of the beach, the best wind kicks in with hypersonic power. Go as far as you dare, before bailing out. The devil is playing with you!

2009 - a taste of the world

If the first year was more about learning to speed, the second year 2009, was about tuning the sails, finding out more about board design and get some racing-experience. A big advantage was the support from Naish International. The - 2009 range was refiend with cut-outs and small adjustment on the footstrap setting. I also got their gun-needle Naish SP60.

The new sails in X166 felt a lot better then the year before. Still hard to get to know how to trim.

But at the first contest of the year Anders Bringdal showed up. I haven´t raced with Anders since Tylösand 1997. A lot of things to catch up with, but also a great help with tuning gear. Anders helped Robby Naish and Nils Rosenblad with testing and tuning prototypes for the Stealth 2008 and showed me how to tune them and also told me to try to use other type of masts. A difference of about 1 knots extra and I saved a lot of hours of trimming.

But on the second swedish contest I fell and broke my eardrum.  After that day i NEVER sail without my helmet. A few weeks later I broke my rib in a catapult. Why should it be easy?

Anyway, in late July my family and I went to Karpathos in Greece for vacation. The same weeks the World Speed Championship were going to take off. I had applied to start, but due to my low ranking I was not even close. But they decided to let the Greece Speed Championship the week before be a qualification and give the best five wild cards to the Worlds. That week was hardcore with wind-gusts up to 60 knots. Devils Bay was like a cooking boil. But I managed to sail the Greek Speed Championship and be the best "not worldcupsailor". My best run was 37,5 knots on the scoreboard.
I reached my goal to enter the World Championship. When the main contest started, my body was aching and I sailed with small sails on my 80 liter slalomboard all week. I enjoyed life at it most, even if I finished 33:rd it was great to race. Those two weeks at Karpathos were just magic.

I wanted to do some more international events. In early November I went to the European Speed Championship in Dungervan Ireland. I only brought two boards. (And what hazzle it was to get my stuff over to Ireland). Anyway Dungervan turned out to be a big waiting game. But the last day the wind came. I went out with an extrem downhauled Stealth 7.8 in 35 knots of wind. After a few tries I made a very fast run with a peak speed over 40 knots. Unfortunatelly the wind slowly died and I stood and waited for a strong second gust.  It never come anymore wind and my avarage over 2 runs was only 34.5 knots. I finished 6:th in the Europeans and 11:th overall in the worldcup. Compared to 2008 it was 130 places up ;-)