search for a new spot

yesterday, heidi and i went searching for a new wavespot on the island. there were some rumors and we had checked countless 3d views on google earth for spots to match with the wind and wave directions.

we took our rental car (a nissan micra a.k.a. 'stretch limo'). one possible way led directly from a small village (well, just some houses), called st. john, so we took the turnoff just behind those houses. well, the 'road' would have been suitable for a mountainbike downhill race and even with a jeep it would have been a torture. we kept going some miles until we decided that it was too dangerous and even the way back was an adventure :)

we were looking for the other way afterwards and found a freshly paved asphalt road leading to the spot from a different direction. the asphalt being so smooth, you could even go there with a skateboard... :D

if you could see heidi's eyes, they would tell you 'boah, ganz schön heftig!'

the spot itself looks really nice but it did not convince us 100%... the wind has to be really strong to sail there and there is no reef, so there's a big shorebreak and lots of rocks and rock plates. would be sick for shooting some stuff there though.

as it is so easy to reach (just like 15 minutes from our homebase), i guess we'll go & have a look from time to time to catch the spot when its working.

get on the pussywagon!

yiiiihaaa! we finally got our tandem! harald and i were looking for the good old F2 tandem (i guess it was from the mid 90ties) for quite some years now. this spring, we got word from a friend from Rhodos that he might sell his old station tandem to us. some weeks later, his new station manager visited our station at karpathos and brought the piece with him.

the mission was clear: from the beginning on we were always thinking of getting a 'pussy wagon' style board as a tribute to uma thurman in 'kill bill'. kuri bought us some yellow paint in pigadia and i brought some plotted stickers from home.

well, it was a matter of just ablout two hours to create a new legend! the board will be there for the (rare) case of low wind.

due to the heat, the paint was dry after only an hour or so and we could go and ride it! 5,7 and 6,1 were perfect sail sizes and after a few attempts we finally dialled our first ever fully planning jibe.

as we have the speed world cup here next week (and the greek nationals starting tomorrow), everybody is in a speed rush and so we took our GPS as we were wondering, how fast we could make the baby go... well, considering its length of more than 4 meters and its volume of 250 liters we didn't expect to get too fast, but we finally could reach 45 km/h (about 24 knots)... not too bad for lightwind conditions. :D

oh sweet daily routine...

we are down here in karpathos for one and a half weeks now, still had no time for an update to my blog... daily routine is keeping us from communicating with the outside world.

heidi in 'el schack'

the wind is insane (what a wonder, this time of the year)... 30 degrees and bluebird every day and constant 30-40 knots of wind (7-9 beaufort). we went to 'el schack' alot, so heidi could surf as well (conditions at the main station are very demanding right now)...

my best friend after surfing :D

we'll push on to our foto and video project in the next couple of days, up to now, there was only time for some scenery shots. turned out, not to be as easy as i thought with the 5d... finally, canon has released a firmware update so you can now adjust aperture and time manually. the problem is (ironically) the wind though. quite hard to get a nice shot (even with a big tripod) without wind-shake... ;)

trickwise, its going quite good as well... spock is getting better and better and i started practising the flaka yesterday. due to the strong wind in devils bay i could work on the backloop as well, but the waves are still a bit too small.

had some great greek dinners the last couple of days! 'under the trees' is one of our favourite restaurants which had its reopening this spring, so we went there last night for a superb feast-style dinner for less then 10 bucks per person... cheesy sunset included! :)

first day...

my office for the next 4 weeks...yeah, we are finally back 'home'...

the flight went smooth, the boardbag arrived safely so everything is perfect. we got our car the very first night, including a funny looking roof rack so we can go to all the other spots from now on.

the wind is pretty gusty right now, too much from the north (needs to be more NW). so there is a annoying swell pushing sideways against the wind waves. devils bay was a pain in the ass to surf, so after a quick look we decided to give 'el schack' a try at our very first day.

what can i say? i only hope, that this spot won't get as crowded as the luvspot (which is only 500m upwind)... it was almost perfect (little gusty there as well but otherwise really nice freestyle grounds)...

spock try a.k.a. 'der sterbende gallier'

karpathos has never been crowded, but this is almost like being robinson crusoe, alone on his island... :)

finally switching to summer mode...

YES! it's done... pleasure season 08/09 is finished, so is the first issue. well, to be exact the final finish is still to be done and some texts are still missing, but my part is over for now and it's time for heidi and myself to go back to our second home tomorrow: karpathos!

as we already have all our windsurf gear waiting down in karpathos it seems quite easy going, but its always a hassle nevertheless to reduce the weight of each bag to the allowed 30k's. furthermore, we wanted to bring heidi's brand new freestyle-wave board with us which should turn out to be quite a hassle.

the story behind this is, that airberlin (the only airline going directly from MUC to karpathos) does only take two (windsurf) boardbags per flight and (as you can imagine for a destination like karpathos) these two spots are taken within minutes after they publish the flight plan for the season.

all attempts to book the board transport failed, so the only option was to give it a last try at the late night check-in already today. if that wouldn't work i'd have to take the boardbag to vienna, from where our friend harald could take it on his flight (AUSTRIAN is acting like an airline, not like AB wussies...).

so i was prepared for a discussion upon life and death when i entered the terminal building. to cut the long story short they ended up taking the boardbag anyway and (whats even funnier) without any charges. turned out that the 'service card' i had hoped to get the transport dialed with and that i had cancelled as a pre booking did not work out, was still in their system and so was the door opener for the unbelievable... hehehe...

more to come the next couple of days with lots of shots fo sho!

going home...

once again, it was an insane trip! both productive and a good hang out at the same time. whistler COC is always the best choice to go in summertime, same goes for travelling with the isenseven crew! big ups to all of you!

i left whistler at 4.30 am, the crew still missing in action... this can only mean, that the cowboy-party and the afterparty have been insane :) :) :)

the ride down to vancan went smooth, despite some road construction sites on the way ('50' means you can go 100 in canada :D), so it did not even take me 2 hours. it was nice to go past downtown vancan... too bad that all the stores were still closed at that time.

meanwhile, i arrived at toronto pearsons airport, sleeping the whole 5 hours on the flight. now waiting for boarding to the flight back home to munich.

thanks everybody, especially the isenseven crew and of course fabia and ken at COC... i'm already lookig forward to come back next summer! YIIIHA!

cowboy party!!!

end of week 2 at camp of champions... so COWBOY party was on tonight... the norwegians came to hang out at our crib as warm up... good decision, although we had to sacrifice a dinner at earls for it...

as i have to leave whistler by 4 in the morning, i had to stay sober... nevertheless the bullriding at garfs was hillarious! didn't make it until they had found the winner, but the rides were pretty insane already before i left.

give it to me, baby!

klausi, eiki and peter piper a.k.a. pete rock a.k.a. rancho

fabia, isenseven-branded for life!

thanks to the isencrew... i don't wanna leave, but i have to... it was an insane time again, hanging & shooting with you guys! bye bye for now!

COC nightshoot

we got the chance to do a nightshoot at COC today. peter könig, ludde lejkner and markku koski came with us. the crew started by 6 from the base station with some trucks and we went up to seventh heaven chairlift. the weather is insane right now, not a single cloud in the sky, warm temperatures, still a super good park though...

peter piper high above the park.. best conditions possible, i'd say!

we had a nice sandwich dinner, everything was organized perfectly by COC... afterwards, it was time for the shoot. the light was SICK! first mission was the big kicker, the backside hip was due later on. the boys threw down some nice & stylish tricks and i got some really good ones. thanks, guys... it was one of the most memorable shoots i did so far...

going down in pitch black night with the chairlift (which was hauling ass... i'd guess double speed) was nice and we got back home to our crib late night.

THANKS, FABIA AND THE WHOLE WHISTLER/COC TEAM... NIIICE!!!

happy canada day!

first of july is canada's national day, and as you might expect it, you see maple leaf flags everywhere. the weather is more than perfect... 30 degrees down in the valley and flawless bluebird. the park is really nice and we got some cool stuff dialed today.

the bear family made its daily appearance, obviously also happy about the nice weather.

alex' haircut (which hits perfection anyway as the small video demonstrates) decided to go for a different look and went for the whole deal: canada's first and only flower-afro...

after riding, we went to merlin's, a bar at the blackcomb base station and had a nice late lunch with a couple of pitchers there. for dinner, we have reserved a table at sushi village. can it get any better?