Now the community www.gps-speedsurfing.com is growing and got more and more members it is finally time to stand on their own feet and claim records that are reconized by all members of gps-speedsurfing and gps-kitesurfing. After 5 years intensive use of gps-handhelds we all know how good they perform, and when the handhelds fail.

GPS-speedsurfing/kitesurfing announcement:

Record ranking:

From March 1st onward people can start kitesurfing and windsurfing for our new 1x10 record ranking. There are some minor technical problems left before we're able to start up the record ranking and the GPS Speed Record Technical Committee is finalizing technical aspects related to the latest firmware version presented by Tom Chalko. This might take a few days. In the meanwhile our members can start the new record hunt.

If you consider to enter the record ranking make sure to use two GT-31 devices and download the latest firmware which can be obtained at:

http://www.mtbest.net/setting-up-navi-GT31.htm.

In case a rider expects possible high speed conditions before the final rules are presented please contact Roger van Tongeren (windsurf) or Rob Munro (kitesurf) with a short description of your record plans.

Now I guessed the older speedsurfing/speedsailing communities like WSSRC, ISWC, IKA would never agree. In my profile you see I am a Civil Engineering student, result of that is 1 year experience with high precision measurements by gps, total station, etc.

A gps handheld measurement with just with (or without) doppler is WAY different, compared to trimble-gps/videotiming.

• gps-handheld measurement without doppler, coordinate precision low, displacement precision low
• gps-handheld measurement with doppler, coordinate precision extreme low, displacement precision very good
• Trimble GPS, coordinate precision good, displacement is ok
• Videotiming, coordinate precision good but 1-dimensional, displacement only over the whole course.

A trimble system is now compared with a GT-11/GT-31, and according to the results they found a run with a difference of 1.7kn over 500m. For most cases this is not very big difference, but for speedsailing it is. I think you can't really 'easy' compare a trimble gps measurement with a doppler measurement. You know why??? The trimble is only very good in coordinates, and the NAVI is only very good in displacement. How do you know when putting data in a model that the NAVI and Trimble are on the same place???

As a civil engineer I have experienced the NAVI giving a whole day data exactly 30m next to the real coordinates. With a constant speed is this no problem, but when a speedsurfer accelerates the difference can grow between the 2 divices. Especially when you have to sail between to points (500m)

The gps-speedsurfing ratification is not measured in [m] but in time [s], so for the gps-speedsurfing community I think this ranking will be quite spot-on. I would advice serious speedsurfers to go for the www.gps-speedsurfing.com ranking, in the end it is just more fun, more opportunities, less costs, and sponsors/other windsurfers are now paying enough attention to the gps-speedsurfing 'fun'-ranking. And for 2009 I still haven't heard any event/recordattempt with videotiming...


Related:
-speedworldcup.com___Handheld GPS World Record Claims not recognized by ISWC and IKA