CRASH! BOOM! BANG!

Do what you can to avoid this transportation from the shore

I am alive. I can walk and talk. And I am very happy about that. But I have had some terrible close calls. My worst sporting accident was when I landed on my head after 50 meter free fall snowboarding in 70 km/h seven years ago. It took me over 8 months to get back to fulltime work. I am still not fully recovered from that brain concussion. During the last three years doing speed surfing, I have broken the nose, three eardrums and a rib-bone, a few fingers and some minor things...

A lycra over the vest, keep the things in places

But I could have been dead. Blinded by low sun, racing downwind with 32 knots straight into a 5 cm shallow reef at Soma Bay. The impact was very hard on the back, the neck and the head. But thanks to the helmet and the neoprene-vest, I was fully recovered after only a few days. My advice for every serious speedsurfer. ALWAYS use the helmet, and always wear a vest. Even in low wind. If you use weights, do not carry them too high on the back, because that could give you a serious whiplash, like Anders Bringdal had at Fuerteventura. I have also seen a bad feet and ankles accident. Therefore I don’t use bigger straps than necessary. We are not into wave jumping! I want the feet to get out of the straps when falling. Not breaking them. And when I´m sailing alone, which happens quite often, I wear a cheap mobile phone in the aquapac.
Remember, wearing a helmet is cool. 
That signals that you have something to protect!

Valentine´s Day - A BOUQUET OF BEAUTIFUL FINS

Photo by my very understanding wife ...

I would like to wish all speedy windsurfers a happy Valentine´s day.  I am celebrating this day sorting new fins from New Zealand and Hawaii. The C3 Sting´s looks good in the middle sizes and I look forward to test them versus the new Black Project Type R and Speed. When I have ordered fins from C3, I have bought 3-4 every shipment for a year. But when I ordered Black Project, I thought - what the heck, I will finally end up buying them all anyway. The exchange rate was good, I bought all sizes. So I got a beautiful piece of bouquet on Valentine´s Day!

HOW TO FALL LIGHT(ER)

I would say that with doing the right thing (blogposts part 1, 2 and 3) you can reduce your catapults to only a few a year. But shit happens and you could compare it with skiing downhill or skateboarding; if you never fall, you have not pushed it to the limits. And that’s what speedsurfing is about, go all the way to the limit and a bit beyond.

There are a few different way of falling in speedsurfing. As long as you fall backwards or slide, it is not a big problem, but when you are hooked in and you could not fight the drag forward, the rotation is unstoppable. In this moment you have to react in fractions of a second. Because you are low down with a seat harness and a high boom postition its is very hard to get unhooked during the fall, but it is possible. A bit bit easier to hook out just when the catapult started. That’s possible if you don’t fight against it very hard in the start of the rotation. You have to pull yourself up and forward. When you are in the rotation, bend in your head. By doing this it will save your neck and also make you in better control of the rotation. Prepare to land flat out with your body in the sail. The rotation is like doing a front loop but without the board on your feet. This also minimizes the risk of land hard on the mast or damage the sail. I also try to relax just before the back hit the sail.

NOT TO DO CATAPULT FALLS – PART 3

Antoine Albeau on the tail

Sailing in the right way is the third most important thing to prevent falls. You might wonder what I mean with that. Well, if you read this you are probably not a beginner in windsurfing. You have done thousand of laps forward and back at your local spots. But have you tried to use a 7,8m2 sail in 30 knots of wind and going downwind in 140 degrees for 500 meters? Important is to choose where to let go. It is simply not a good idea to let lose in 100 cm chops. At my local spot we don´t have a reef or sandbank, we sail in a bay in the shallow water. More or less choppy, still we run in almost 40 knots speed.

But I don’t go for downwind speed if the wave-chops are over about 70 centimetres. And if when sailing in chops, look at the surface 50-70 meters ahead. Then you have a few seconds to react. The most common mistake that make you get a catapult when sailing is when you get a gust and don’t fight it. If you chicken out, it’s most likely that the tail will raise and you will fall. Therefore; GO! 


(But there are guys that do this the opposite way, Magnus Bengtsson, one of the best Swedes, always hook out when going really fast downwind…!)

NOT TO DO CATAPULT FALLS – PART 2

A full sail below the boom works better downwind

Trimming the equipment and use the right stuff for the conditions is the key to avoid most catapults. This is not simple and it takes a lot of effort to achieve a good trim. The basic is to have a sail, board and a fin that match the wind and the water. Sailing with the wrong sizes and the wrong combination will always end up bad. The next thing is to trim everything in harmony. The mast foot position, boom height, downhaul and outhaul are the central points to work with. For example, you have problems that the board sits too much on its tail and the front is high, try less tension at the outhaul, the deeper sail below the boom will make the board more stabile downwind and you don’t have to move the mastfoot position forward.

Use a marker pen to improve your sails

Often a combination of both will make the ride easier. When I have a new rig or board, I change position of the mast foot 4-6 times the first hour, often only a centimetre at a time. The same thing with the boom and the sail; work with small changes. Generally a few extra centimetres of downhaul will helps most average sailors. 
My most valuable advice is: use a marker pen and write on the sail, when you have found the best trim!

Part 1

NOT TO DO CATAPULT FALLS – PART 1

Just another stone marked

45 degrees  rake

The most basic thing not to fall is to sail where it is safe. Sound very basic, eh? Well this is probably the most common thing that takes me down. If there is a rock, a stone or just the bottom I will hit it in + 30 knots. Always. Therefore my best advice is, before you plan to run fast, check the water first. At my local spot I have marked over 150 stones with sticks. When you go with 20 meters a second you have to know where to sail. The sticks have probably saved the same numbers of fins the last year. The tide is also important to mind about. Up here in Sweden where I live, the tide is less than 20-30 cm, but in most other part of the world it is a lot more. Last year in Egypt I forgot about the tide and ran into a 5 cm shallow reef with my for the day brand new board and rig in +30 knots. I am very happy that I survived the impact. The board and sail didn’t… The “funny” thing was that just an hour before I had past that area many times. And at Karpathos the fastest part of the strip is when you pass Chris Schill´s red Zodiac just before the bay ends in a rock wall. So make sure you have enough water to sail on!

Excel the Catapult

I would say that the biggest obstacle to bare off and enter the ”high-speed-mode” is that most windsurfers are afraid of the consequences of falling and hurt themselves.

The basics in sailing fast are to go as deep downwind as the windforce and the location that you sail in, let you to do. Sailboats don´t go as deep as windsurfers and windsurfers don’t go as deep as kiteboarders. But the biggest obstacle for most windsurfers to bare off and let the equipment work free, is that they are too afraid. I have seen so many GPS-sailors that just are sailing in figures eights all day.

The crashes depend on different things. Spinouts, tail walks, nose-dives, sudden gusts and hitting different objects (rocks, stones, weed, seals, ice blocks, branches, fishing lines, sandbanks, the bottom etc).

If you want to sail faster than 30-32 knots you have to relate to this and you have to accept the fact that you will fall hard sometimes.

 My following blog-postings will focus around this, stay tuned to read soon more about:

• How to prevent from falling
• How to fall "lighter"
• How to protect you

The truth about the weight vest

Cutting chops at Devils Bay

The human tennis ball... I use some extra floating.

When you have tried everything else to get speed, you eventually end up with yourself. How could you change yourself as a rider? The weight vest might be the answer. Weights have been in use since the late eighties at the PWA-slalomevents. When I shared house in Maui with Svein Rasmussen (he sailed for F2/Thommen/Guy/Wild Winds) he was using weights. Svein was (and still is) about 15 cm shorter than Anders Bringdal, Bjorn Dunkerbeck and Phil McGain but he was competitive in the slalom-discipline.

Today most guys in slalom are tall and heavy, and I must say that both of them help also in speed. I would say that a ”perfect speed body” is around 100 kg and around 190 cm. (220 Lbs and 6´3´´). We can’t do anything about our length but we could work with the weight. A normal vest is carrying about 6-10 kg. Most top sailors, even if they are tall and heavy are using about that amount. But I heard of some fast speeders that have used up to 18 kilos... For myself, I found weights good when sailing in high wind (+40 knots). The heavier I am, the easier it is to cut the chops with the narrow speedboards. Also it prevents tailwalks. It gives confidence and might you able to take another 10 knots wind. For a few runs I used it in Luderitz. But using a vest a full day is not to recommend, the back and the arms will tell you when it is enough!

Slide in the weights into the pockets

What vest are the best? Well I use a Pro Limit that I think Martin van Meurs have developed. It looks like a copy of the Liberty but is not so solid and well manufactured. Still it is OK and for sure better quality than the one I have seen from F2. Anyone that can recomend a premium vest? 

What weights should you use? Well, I use lead plates that I have bought in a metal-shop and then have sealed with duct-tape (lead is a poision). But the best weights are the ones that you get by exercise, windsurfing and protein!

PS I have to raise a warning finger before everyone is buying a vest. Anders Bringdal got a serious whiplash when he hit a sandbank some years ago; he got the weight package in his back head. He was really bad for almost a year. And sailing with more than 2-3 kg´s is extremely tiring ;-)

The secret speedstrip at Soma Bay

Even if we walked back, they called the military

Very many things have to interact perfectly together to give the right conditions for high speed runs over 40-45 knots. At almost all known spots in the world the right conditions only occurs a handful of days every year. The wind force, wind angle, current and tides, seaweed, humidity, water depth, moving sandbanks etc. There are so many buts and if´s.

800 meter flatwater along the strip

Soma Bay about 10 km north of Safaga in Egypt, hosts one of the worlds best speedstrips. 

Almost all of the obstacles I just mentioned above do not exist. A perfect 800-meter strip in about 135 degrees, you can sail 1 meter from the beach, 5-8 Beaufort five days a week, most wind in the summer. No weed, no currents, never choppy water, only super nice.

 - Well, what are we waiting for, you might wonder? 

Markus Emanuelsson, speeding in 37 knots with 20 knots of wind, a few minutes before the army arrived...

Well the answer is 7 Beaufort or 7bft-kitehouse. It is a kitecenter situated where the strip starts. For some reason the german people that runs that centre has decided that windsurfing is banned in a area of 1,5 kilometres. If you sail anyway, they will call the military and in about 15 minutes later, armed men in trucks are coming. For real. Not a nice laid back atmosphere at all. My opinion is that this would be the perfect place for a Speed World Cup event. Lots of hotels, near the airport, very safe speedstrip and very consistent and reliable winds.  I would love to go there again.

Anybody who can help us get access to this perfect beach? We only need an area of 10 x 800 meters...
Maybe Mohamed El Baradei can help us!!

Fins, fins, fins, fins and some more fins...

Some of my Tuttle-fins...

I ordered some new fins from New Zealand yesterday. I really need them. This time nobody talked me in to buy them. Well nobody really are trying to sell fins to me by hard selling, but if someone is saying something like "I love this fin", I probably will order some different sizes a few days later. I newer get any discount and the prices are around 150-250 dollars per fin. Plus shipping, toll and VAT... Still I am very pleased every time I get a package. Why? Well for some reason the fin-makers always are short of stock, and I almost have to beg to get them. C3, Deboichet, Black Diamond and Hurricane are harder to get than for example Tectonics, Lessacher and Choco. If I really like one fin very much I sometimes buy an spare in case of hitting a stone. I wonder how many fins more I will buy this year, and what make.

Sold some before Christmas, room for new!

If you don´t speedsurf you might wonder why I have hundreds of windsurfing fins? Well, we use different fins for different conditions. Depending on water depth, weed, chops (small waves), boards and sails, we use different fins. Later this winter I might blog about windsurfing in icy water (I can tell you already that you should not have a straight fin when you hitting an iceblock...)

PS If Larry Tuttle got one dollar for every fin with Tuttle-base he would have been very rich...
PS 2 (Be cool, I have more fins than on the pictures, the US-box and powerbox fins are quite a few...)

A quick visit to Sandy Point

In November we did some "speed tourism" in France and visited ”The Canal”, a holy place for every speedsurfer. Now when I am in Australia I just felt I had to go to Sandy Point. SP is the place where they frequently are posting + 45 knots sessions. So the last week down under, we did a 2300 km detour down south and back. First we went home to Tom Chalko. Everyone that have a GPS from Locosys have probably visited his website when setting up the unit. http://mtbest.net/

But the meeting with him and his fantastic farm is probably better to read about on my wife’s blog… 

Tom guiding me to the secrets of SP, click on pics to enlarge.

Anyway Tom asked us if we would like to go for a jungle hike or go windsurfing. Go windsurfing, today? I replied. The forecast was 5-10 knots from east. (The wrong direction and I knew that Tom’s biggest sails are 6,3). Well we went. And I must say that I was amazed when we came down to SP. The wind was around 10-15 knots and many guys were out on the water. Tom help me rigging the KA 6,3 for no low wind and I mounted my biggest fin, a C3 28 Venom. 

Starboard Futura 101 and KA 6.3

We had a great day with speeds around 25-28 knots. The speedstrip of the day was on the opposite side. The tide was going out and we sailed against the tide, so I think every run was about 2 knots slower. Also the tide made it very choppy. And as the day went by, the wind became weaker and weaker. Still extremely fun to sail. The Starboard Futura 101 had no excellent top speed, but easy to get going.

I was thinking about Per Andersson, the late Starboard legend when I was sailing. The small KA sail was working surprisingly well but it felt a little bit like sailing in jam. After about 5 hours, I asked Tom if we could switch boards so I used his Carbon Art SP50 the last run. Suddenly I was doing 32 knots instead of 27 knots. The board is important. But I also have to admit that in the end the tide was not so strong. Thanks Tom for letting me use our stuff, it was a very memorable session!

Christmas Greetings from OZ

While northern Europe is suffering from severe cold weather and snowstorms, we enjoy that the summer has arrived to Wollongong in NSW. Christmas Eve was the first day we only swam in the pool. But today at Christmas Day we had another stunning day at the Towradgi-beach. The idea of this holiday is to spend some time with the family so we all are doing boggieboarding (or bodyboarding as they say here down under). It is interesting those small differences in the language. We are calling windsurfing ´vindsurfing´ in Sweden, but down here it it is called ´sailboarding. Guess they do not consider windsurfing so much surf... Anyway, we are all improving our skills in boggieboarding, and I hope to manage a 360 before we are going home ;-)

Happy Christmas everyone that are reading this blog in Russia, Spain, USA, Greece, Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Croatia, Ireland, England, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden!


P.S. Some houses here would make Chevy Chase full of envy.

Wollongong - Second day and a second chance

Lake Illawara from Mount Kiera lookout

Click on the image to enlarge

Loft 5,3

Yesterday we arrived to Australia (after a non premium experience with Soutern China Airlines). Today was the first full day and when we woke up the ocean was boiling. Maybe gusts up to 50 knots. Here I am in the middle of the summer with no gear... After picking up the rental car we went to a shopping mall, went up to Mt Kiera lookout, took a walk at the Botanic Garden and eventually we went out to the lighthouse at the harbour. A lovely day with the family and freinds. But half past six a took a drive to the Yacht Club at Lake Illawara. (I knew this was the best place to find some local windsurfers). About 5-6 guys where out. Most of them on smaller wave or freeride boards and all of them had wavesails around 4,2-5,5. I asked one guy straight away if I could borrow his kit only for a few runs, even pay him well, he had a Severne-sail about 6,3 and used a GPS. But he replied that it would be better if I go north of Sydney and rent some stuff there (1,5 hours drive)... He thought I would break his gear. Can´t blame him, when getting a question like that from a complete stranger.

After a while most of the guys came ashore and they all started to chat with me. One had an old 5,3  Loft O2 sail with a big hole in the foot of the sail. After a few minutes he offered me to use his stuff. Oh, I was soooo happy!!!! I was so execited that when I did 5 good runs I did not switched on my GPS properly... But he was very very kind and let me do another 6-7 runs. I felt soooooo good, even on a old freerideboard and a non cambered sail with a 30 cm hole...! The gear was not trimmed at it very best, but it worked surprisingly well. I did over 33 knots in peak, the conditions was almost exact the same at Torkelstorp where I live, so it was easy to sail over the chops. But it was also very very much weed, actually the same sort of weed that we have at home, and he had a straight fin 35-37cm fin... When I get back home I will send him some good stuff. I think he will enjoy some nice Lessacher fins !

Port st Louis - just not what I expected

I had never been in the south of France. All computer racing games I have done, I expected something else, like "Cote de Azur-Need for Speed-something". Camarque was completly different. I was more thinking about the swamp-land where Shrek lives. Maybe not November makes Port St Louis it best, but it looked like it had it best days (about 50 years ago). The breakfast consisted of a cup of coffe and a piece of bread and butter. But the lunch and evening meals was great. Very good meat, pizzas and seafood. They even had red wine for the sailors at lunch! The setup for the contest was a 500 meter run with videotiming, which means gates, one man zones, jibing marks etc. The first day we raced in gusty 30-60 knots offshore winds, only myself and a few more sailed through the gates... The locals seemed to look at the rules just as guiding. ;-) One of my frontstraps went off after my first run and I only did one more run the first day. I have to admit that I was not good prepared for this event. Then we had some sunny and calm days when we explored the canal at St Maries de la Mer with the veterans Andrea Baldini and Jan Krijn van Dijke. Holy Ground! Another day we went for a roundtrip to  Marsielle.

The last day we had to race in onshore conditions. Thats the disadvantage with videotiming, it is too much work to move the course. Dumping onshore waves up to 2,5 meters was not good at all when I only had brought speedboards to the event. This contest had a ranked of 3,5 because of the videotiming and some prizemoney. It a little sad that 2 heats made that big difference compared to all heats that where sailed in Sweden and Germany with only 1.0 rank. I hope the rules will be changed next year. Anyway, we had very warm and nice weather, good food and cheap hotel. Apart from the onshore saling, I must say that I like Shrek´s land! 

Port St Louis was also a turning point for me, I entered the event with Naish Sails and ended with Loft Sails. I am 100% sure that this will improve my performance and looking forward for the next season.

Weymouth Speed Week 2010

Team Sweden takes a rest

The contest i Portland Harbour is soooo different to any other speedevents. First of all the course is open twice a day, no matter of the wind. Everyday a Cup is the prize to chase. In the main contest, only the best 500 meter run during the whole week counts. That means that is up to you to go out everyday and sail for the Cup of the day. Or go for a photo session on the oceanside, or chasing T-shirts downtown Weymouth. Every night we gather at a local pub for a meal and some beers. And 100 competitors including the crazy guys with the boats. Wow!

Swedish Championship 2010

The first weekend in October each year it is always the Swedish Championship speed windsurfing in Kungsbacka Fjord. 2010 was no exception. Oddly enough, the wind has always showed up in time just to those days.


This year, however, gave the forecast at a highly unusual southeasterly winds. 36 Swedes and a Dutch guy showed up early on Saturday morning. While we rigged it was blowing around 20-25 knots but when the course was readyvthe wind was out.

Marcus Richardson from Växjö

After lunch we launched a first heat. Almost no wind,  but when it was five minutes left came a gust of about 20 knots and the entire starting field disappeared down towards Kalvø in one wing beats. It looked more like the start of a long-distace race. The wind was over 10-minute intermission, and about as far into the second heat. Each sailor caught in other words, only with a single real run per heat. For one heat to be approved must be 25% of the sailors to be over 28 knots of average speed. There was some concern that we would not do this in four juniors with BIC Techno-boards with daggers also participated in the speed class. The concern was unwarranted, and we passed that limit a wide margin. After the first day Marcus Richardson and Johan Gelander was in second place.

Anders Björkqvist waiting for the gusts with great patience

Before the second day promised weather forecast gusts of up 30 knots. The wind was a bit more than the first day, and made it possible to sail back relatively easily without having to swim too much.


Half of the field ran speedboards of about 85 liters. In the fourth race was the competition's best wind gust of about 30 knots that lasted decently long. I did some runs on my Carbon Art SP44 cm speed board. We where about 7 sailors had speedruns over 33 knots.

Eight sailors were on top 2 during the 7 heats, but given that we could run the full seven heats so the end result was still fair.

Swedish Championship was also a race in World Cup Speed Windsurfing, so now we have again a lot of Swedes in the international rankings. I ended up 4th which is my best place in the Swedish Championship for many many years...!

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 ;-)

2008 - Learning to speed

2008 was the first year that I sailed speed with a GPS unit. I bought four new slalomboards from Naish; SP80, SP95, SP110 and SP128 litres. And camber sails, Naish Stealth 5.8, 6.4, 7.0, 7.8 and 8.8. I had no idea what fins I needed but Choco Mach 1 and Fireblade and Lessacher Chamelot looked alright. I was very happy with my wave-booms from Chinook, so I bought also the racing-booms from them, but they where far too soft.

In early March something terrible happend. I had some kind of infection in my ear and became deaf and lost my balance. For 4 weeks. God I was depressed. But slowly I begun to get my hearing back and in May I was on board again.

The second obstacle, on the way to the first speed contest all my new boards fell off the roof on to the highway in the middle of the night. 4 broken boards, not a good start...

The third problem, how should I tune this stuff? At the first slalom contest I used a 30 cm fin to the the 7.8 sail. The whole run was a big spinout. The first speedcontest I used a 6.4 sail on the 80 liter and did runs of 32 knots. Every one in front of me uses either 7.0 or 7.8 and was sailing faster. I had simply no idea how to trim the gear and had no top Naish-sailor to ask. 

What the hell should I do? Well what I did was spending almost 70 days on the water at home trimming and tuning. And when it was time for the Swedish Championship in October I had found the speed in some of the boards and rigs. I won one heat and did well in the rest. I finished 5th that year overall in the Swedish Speed Tour 2008.