Begin 2007 I sold all my expensive North Sails/ masts/ booms, my brother sold all his Neilpryde sails/ masts/ booms. And my little boardcollection Mistral Razor+ F2 Thommen 270II+ all fins. With this money I imported 2 Carbon Art Speed boards and bought 5.1+5.7 and 6.3 Arrows Maxx Speed+ magic stix masts+ AMEX carbon boom 160-220+ chinook extenders (my brother bought the bigger sizes)+ 6 tectonics fins. Totally I invested all my money about 4000,- euro's in a complete speedsurfset. This was my only shot, if it wouldn't work my speedsurfing career ended.
My first session on the Carbon Art was on Strand Horst with the Arrows Maxx Speed, the feeling was really good and gave hope. Eventhough nothing fitted like normal windsurfing gear (I did about 2 hours rigging)
May-2007___I did 3 session on Strand Horst in good wind, just a medium breeze. Good enough to get used to speeds around 70km/h.
26-June-2007__The Day my speedsurfing career went high speed. Lots of +70km/h Runs, topspeed was 77 km/h. The day itself I took small steps up the speedladder, much fun! Upwind I felt unbeatable sailing past all big hero's.
July-2007__I spoke Bert den Boer one of my best sponsors ever, his loyalty has impressed me a lot! After a good conversation Bert offered me his very own Gaastra sails+ masts. From this moment I used Gaastra Vapor 5.5 or 6.5. Still these sails are one of the very best I have ever sailed. Now I think it had a lot to do with the good battentension (Bert did that I suppose?). Bert den Boer asked me what shop I prefered to sail for, my choise was easy! I wanted to sail for Kater Funsports together with the local hero's Peter de Wit, Rene Mienis and Serge Beumer.
2-Decembre-2007__I ended 4th place USM, what a year!!! Incredible
Decembre-2007__After testing some S07 Speed proto's I wanted to join Select fins. Thanks to Peter de Wit I entered the team.
Januari-2008__After heavily frustrated about online forums I decided to try work my way up and report this on a blog. Somehow I was (still am actually) not accepted by a few forum members........
Januari-2008__After heavily frustrated about online forums I decided to try work my way up and report this on a blog. Somehow I was (still am actually) not accepted by a few forum members........
April-2008__ I got my new Gaastra Vapors 2008, however after much trail and error I couldn't get a good feeling about this 5.5 and 6.7. Now I blame my own lack of expertise to tune up a sail decent, really a shame I had to leave Gaastra. There was at that moment no gaastra rider with enough speed experience to help me further. I still regret this change of sails.
June-2008__Gerrit Kater, Peter de Wit and Bert den Boer helped me a sponsorship with Neilpryde. I knew for sure the NP team would have enough know-how to help me further.
1-Oktobre-2008__USM 27th, My worst result in 2008, I felt I was stuck in a downward cycle. I had to change something but what????? Thanks to Peter de Wit and Caspar Verhagen I found the upward cycle lateron. Peter and Caspar educated me very good, this helped a lot finding oppurtunities.
March-2009__My biggest board has been the CA Speed 50 for a really long time, but to get some better training I bought a secondhand Fanatic Falcon 91.
23-March-2009__ After 1 crazy session on Amstelmeer with Falcon 79 I decided to change my CA SP50 for a Fanatic Falcon 79.
May-2009__I decided to go my own path again, eventhough everyone was wild about the RS:Racing E2 I chose to buy the RS:Slalom MK3, the first session with 5.5 was hopefull again. 78kmh average.
June-2009__ I Bought the Fanatic Falcon speed, because I was always faster with this board on Strand Horst. And BOY this board is fast on strand horst!!!
July-2009__I decided to end the Select Sponsorship, I wanted freedom of trying more fins. But as a teamrider I wasn't allowed.
August-2009__Joerg Sonntag made an appointment with me, he was making fins again. We met in 2008 and spoke a little about fins. Also Joerg met me in la Franqui 2009 holiday. After the first test on Amstelmeer I knew what fins I wanted!!! The best news Joerg asked me to be headtester for speedfins, my answer was YEEESSSS!!!
3-Septembre-2009__With the first Sonntag-Fins GPS_2 260 series I was able to almost break Gerlof Hansma his Strand Horst AVG. 2nd in 71-80kg class now!!!!! 75.13km/h AVG
5-Septembre-2009__With the brandnew Sonntag-Fins SL-S finetuned on my request I was able to finish 1th in the (later) unofficial FSM Amstelmeer. The event became unofficial because the conditions were to hard ;).
14-Septembre-2009__Crashed my RS:Slalom MK3 total loss, according to Jan Wolters the crash was quite hard... I was totally down, this happened after crashing 3 booms, 2 board had to be repaired now this sail. Total in 2009 I had to pay a lot of money to keep on speedsurfing. I was a bit dissapointed lack of gear kept me down. I felt when I open full throttle nobody could pass me, but my gear just didn't survive long.
Begin Oktobre-2009__I had a good discussion with Gerrit Kater about my current situation. From Neilpryde there was no room for improvement in my deal. However Gerrit understood my situation and decided to support me the last bit I needed.
16-Oktobre-2009__Finished 8th on USM my best result since 2007!!! I was carefull not wanting to break any gear. Another good news was short after this USM I found work to pay all my gear/costs in 2009..
22-Novembre-2009__Haringvliet made me aware of my bad tight-angle speed. Together with Joerg Sonntag I decided to join Gruissan BK event.
January 2010__ Rolf Aalders mailed me about a photosession, we met half january at his work in Utrecht. I really would like to do this photoshoot right now, but still ice on the water (19-02-2010)
Februari 2010__I met Mark from www.sportzeker.nl after a very good experience with his insurance in 2009. We agreed to do more and sportzeker becomes a partner of speedsurfingblog.com
January 2010__ Rolf Aalders mailed me about a photosession, we met half january at his work in Utrecht. I really would like to do this photoshoot right now, but still ice on the water (19-02-2010)
Februari 2010__I met Mark from www.sportzeker.nl after a very good experience with his insurance in 2009. We agreed to do more and sportzeker becomes a partner of speedsurfingblog.com
![[review] Sonntag fins SL-S](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwJy9fLoHL2JcwxbAl9w5d__570mKetnI0pS564HaxJQPtiDlcdS4n0bYtX-BDmOIr3inWXms5rG2bjPm1Cwm9gfy5A9bLYcxMZhf7OnG_wqM4qmRLtZj_bl98KXbNeCX59uLlzPERCAg/s210-p/Sonntag+fins.jpg)
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