TRAINING | South Africa

South Africa 2013 This winter windsurfing in Holland has been really good. Actually the weather conditions where quite the same as we usually have in autumn. Lot’s of wind for days in a row and air temperatures up to 14 degrees C. I booked my ticket on the 23rd January to Cape Town.Just a few days before leaving the weather conditions in Holland changed rapidly into a serious winter. Which resulted in lot’s of snow and cold air temperatures, so great timing. This will help to reduce injuries, stay fit and to be more than ready when I need to perform.For this year I choose bringing a SUP to (JP Wide body 8’2), in order to spend more days on the water when not having any wind. 

This was a great choice because we’ve had some days without wind and just great waves. During a couple of SUP sessions we’ve had nice encounters with marine animals such as dolphins and lot’s of seals. In comparison to last year this year was much more windy, actually when the wind was kicking in I was mostly of the time stacked on a 4,5 or 4,2 and only just a few times on 4.8. So quite different. There was also lot’s of more swell, even at Langebaan, Langebaan is knowed for being a flat water spot, but because there was lot’s of swell on the ocean with the right wave direction. We scored awesome bump and jump conditions at Langebaan, having some airtime at Langebaan was really unexpected. After all Cape-Town has been treating us very well, providing us with lot’s of windy and wavy days. When we didn’t have wind Steven van Broeckhoven and me where visiting the gym on the regular base. When having waves we scored a couple of really awesome SUP sessions. Big Thanks to Steven en Sveta for staying with you and as well Sveta for the every day 5Star+ cooking we’ve been really spoiled.

Photos: Oliver Staufacher/ Hylke Bakker