Already almost a week ago I finished my first Wave Special in 2012 at Moulay in Morocco, well, it has been another very interesting week with four days of SUP and Surf and two windy days continued with a loong trip on moroccon highways towards Tarifa. Tarifa, finally back, it has been almost three years that i last vistited one of my most favourite Spots, to Windsurf and to live. It was about time, and i am just super glad to be back here and sad that i don´t even have three weeks in this most southern point of Spain, but since i got here i had some amazing days with full Levante and one day resting.......  just love being here......  

Today i went for the first time to the Spot at the Dune.......  well, this one has never been my favourite Spot along the coast between Tarifa and Cadiz, but today i realized once again why......  I felt like a peace of wood in the middle of an industrial saw.......  sharp edges of Kiteboards and Lines close (very close) by .....   it seemed like the Kitesurfers wanted to show my every single Pixel of their latest graphics as close as they could...  When I started counting I stopped at 178 Kites and still much more to go..... and all that right in front of three Windsurf Centers.......  just crazy and not my Spot to Windsurf for sure and after watching the behaviour of most Kitesurfers I don´t have any motivation to go Kitesurfing again...........   well, not the best day for sure..............  but at least it was windy and I got on the Board and practise a bit......  the forecast looks sick...  I will keep you informed what´s going on over here....

My personal SUP Winter is over, Windsurfing hasn´t happened that much since a few months as the conditions just failed again, thanks to La Nina by the way, the weather phenomenom that visited Isla Margarita two years ago and decided to stay for a while, but she be packing already to leave pretty soon, believing all forecasts .....  SUP was fun in the wave sat the Northshore of our Island with my new Fanatic Pro Wave 8´10" SUP and also along the southcoast shorelines and Lagoons around El Yaque Beach....  It all stopped for me now, as I packed my stuff as well and left to Germany for a few days before heading south again, to Marocco for our first 2012 Wave Special in Moulay....  Hey Bruno, I´m on my way !!

Bruno is the owner of the Fanatic Boarderscenter Magic Fun Moulay and a really nice guy as Miloud Elabdi as well, his employee and one of THE guys rocking that Spot....

well, no my fingers get a little stiff with the 30 degree celsius difference of air temperature i just had.....  so will post you some more very soon....

Semana Santa is on, full on better to say....  El Yaque is close to explode by just too many people and cars and it feels as even houses and cars are jumping to the never ending vibes .....  I kept myself busy by taking pictures of the scenery....  what else to do when the wind stopps again right during Semana Santa....  I got a nice little galery at the El Yaque News Facebook page for you ...  Semana Santa Galery

Respect is a word well used around here, but many times i wonder if anybody knows what it actually means, to show and receive some respect....  well, at the moment we can see the zero respect time coming .. again...  it is getting close to the crazy Semana Santa week, but already now during the weekends many many people come to El Yaque Beach, to enjoy a day at the Beach and drink, while parking cars where they are really not supposed to park, blocking other cars and just any house entrance they can find as it seems, leaving all their waste behind, driving like crazy through the crowds walking on the street or boatwise through the crowds of Wind and Kitesurfers and swimmers....  it´s those times where i can´t  talk a single word, when my head keeps on shaking I think still when i´m sleeping....  I just hope it doesn´t get tooo bad...  but i´ll keep you updated, with new Semana Santa pics as well, of course

Ten days Coche Island, usually kind of nice experience with the nice watercolours and bright white sand....  well, this time it has been more grey, with clouds covering the sky almost every single day and rain pooring down a couple of nights...  back at El Yaque Beach it´s not too different; i´ve had two days on my 5,4 and 95 litres but hello, IT IS MARCH.......  the month where I am used to use my 4,2 plus Waveboard most of the time, where I go Downwind to Punta Canero for some amazing Jump Sessions....  well,......  not this year so far........  I really hope it is gonna change soon....  If not I would have to look back onto an entire season using 5,4 and 95 litres....  my biggest gear.......  and not my favourite....  well....  still I got one month left.... and I cross fingers 254 hours per day.........

Our Video Clip about the first FAnatic Pro Camp in El Yaque is now online :

http://vimeo.com/36826665

I hope you like it...

Our First Camp finished already a week ago and since than we had no wind or just not enough for decent Windsurfing, well, now it seems the wind is coming back, pure sunshine, stabil weather makes the Beach look pretty nice and the wind improve.... BUT, actually no european woud like to stay at the beach at the moment, it´s a short venezuelan holiday, Carnival....  Not only that once again there are just too many people, boats, jet ski...  at the small beach, the recently built stage right at the Center of the Beach powers music at full volume onto the people, hammering into ears, legs and stomach....  wow !!!!  Venezuelan seem to like it as they start dancing at the Beach, but even far away from the stage you can´t understand your own words....wow again !!!!  it´s like in traffic over here...  or full speed or stopp - music full volume or switched off ...

We just finished our first Fanatic Pro Camp at El Yaque Beach, one reason why I didn´t actualize my Blog in the past two weeks, my focus has been more on the Event, our guests, Video and Foto....

The season so far hasn´t been nothing good, well, better as past year but still i am using my Fanatic Freewave TE 95 and the North Duke 5,4 every time i am on the water, my biggest gear and so far there was no chance to get to the smaller stuff, well, during our Camp in two or three days i could have used 5,0 but not necessarily.

Regarding our Camp, how lucky were we !!!!!

Rain and no wind before and after the Camp and exactly during our Camp pure sunshine and windy 24 hours per day, each day....  But not only because of the conditions it became a really great event, just anything was good, Center, Equipment, Beach, Happy Hour Bars, Dinner Restaurants, BBQ.....  I am crossing fingers already for our next Camp in March to be as good !!!!!

Our Event Video will be online very shortly, so long you can check our Windsurf Camps, Images and more Videos here :  www.windsurflabor.de

Today I was just writing the date 11th of January into some mails. 11 days in the new year already. Something has changed in those days....  ???  well, let´s see....  the last day of 2011 I have been Windsurfing and on my SUP Board for a while, in 2012 I had some very nice SUP Sessions already up in the north of our Island with some nice sets of waves, but still i haven´t been once on the water with my windsurfgear....  the windforecasts and some locals are writing about 20 - 25 knots, which are far away from reality at the moment...  The only people on the water are some Kitesurfers with their biggest fly elements, but at least most national tourists have disappeared and the ISland got more empty, less crowded and so of course also the beaches....  it´s nice to see the sand again.....  while we are waiting for some decent windsurf winds, we take the drive to the northerly surf spots as an almost daily routine by now...  also not too bad...  

But surely the wind will be back soon as well and than i´ll have some more windsurfpics for you as well....  so long i am just posting some of my new El Yaque Landscape / Ambience images......

Christmas is over. It has been a new experience this year when i could see the way of latin Christmas celebration which is pretty much different to the european way and looks more like New Years Eve....  with loud music, party and massive fireworks....  

During the day it can´t be missed that something is going on, christmas holidays also in Venezuela, our Beach completely filled and overloaded and the way towards the water is sometimes hard to find and always a fight through people yelling at you because you try to carry your gear safe to the water....   Luckily the windforecasts once again are completely wrong, as they predict winds between 18 and 25 knots and we are not even close to the ten knot mark....  so I can avoid the beach and people without any bad feelings and do my gardenwork, which i don´t really like but which has to be done.....

At least we had two stormy days, with rain and some little waves just before christmas to get on the water ... At the last day I put my GoPro CAm with the Mastmount into my sail to shoot some video and images and on the last run back to the beach the cam got lost, even with security leash and mastmount fully intact....  not the best day....  But only two days later I got my first Christmas present when a local fisherman brought me a little black bag with my GoPro inside, which he found between some rocks while searching for some seafood...  all good in the end...  now we are waiting for 2012 and some improvements of the conditions and some more windsurfers over here, so far not many people found their way to Margarita......

Converting El Yaque - my home village in the Caribbean indeed is changing, as it became famous for Windsurfing, than Kitesurfing also, now national Party and family tourism without any watersports is growing and the wind seems to have decided to stay away as it is not needed here anymore ???  Well i can tell that the wind has been pretty poor in my first weeks. I had some nice Windsurfing Sessions, but only a few hours in five weeks...  pretty disappointing. But my SUP skills are getting better as we get some nice surf waves almost every day at some Spots at the Island. Sometimes that means to stand up at 5.30 in the morning and drive almost one hour up north or north east, but almost always it is worth it. But now even in front of my door in El Yaque we get some swell and i can carry Board and paddle few meters to the beach for real fun....  but also the ind also seems to finally come back and give it another try .....

It is certainly not the best Surfspot at our Island but maybe The Spot which almost always works somehow, Playa Guacuco in the Northeast of Isla Margarita and as the Wave forecast is pretty poor at the moment, we took the chance and drove all the way up North and actually it became much better than expected. It has been pretty Choppy and messy on the way out but once the wave built up it was pretty good and even good enough for a couple of turns on one of the chest high waves....  Good start in the day even when a Surftrip up North mostly means to stand up at five in the morning and leave home at latest 6.....  

It has been a nice mixture of sun, rain and clouds this week. The rain at night helping my garden work, on one hand at least and during daytime it has been nice and sunny, with a couple of wind hours for my 5,4 sail with the 95 liter board. Was nice to be back on the water and to see a normal November again, plus those massive and mostly really beautiful clouds, creating insane sceneries and sunsets, but still the village is very empty, international tourists wise, the venezuelans do find their way to El Yaque Beach with their massive coolers full of alcoholic beverages, but almost none of them do any kind of watersports, so we have been never more than 5 Windsurfers together on the water, sharing the breeze with a handful Kiteboarders only......

Time is flying by and when i woke up this morning I couldn´t believe that i got already ten days again at the Island of Margarita. On one side I still feel as I just arrived yesterday on the other side instead it also feels as i would have been year all year around, same people, same place, same weather, same problems and same positive things. What is different to the last year is that it is raining much much less and I got already some days on the water, even I could need a bit more of decent Windsurfing. A pretty strange and slow weather situation over the Atlantic Ocean just stopped anything we could use for some fun, Wind and Waves....   At least we get some amazing Sunrises and Sunsets served every single day....  pure beauty....  

I just uploaded a few new pics onto my most recent images site and of course my first pics of the week into elyaquenews.com

It is my second day back in the Caribbean, after arriving thursday night with a quite expensive and sweaty trip in the back. It was the first time I had to fly via Caracas when coming from Europe and it was the first time that i had to pay that much for that little Windsurf Gear ......  650 Euro for the lightest bags i ever travelled with....  wow.....  plus one of my sails arrived broken...  very nice...  

after checking out at Caracas International running with all my stuff to the national airport, which actually is no problem at all, only a bit hot when arriving from cool europe, a little delay at the departure to Margarita and there I was again, the caribbean got me back for some more months. Of course it is nice to leave the airport and stand under palmtrees, wake up the first morning, under palmtrees and watching the sea, even better when it is windy, as it was my first day..  sunny and windy weather...  gear prepared, realizing that my brandnew sail broke during the travel..  and than onto the water anyway....  shorts and lycra shirts instead of wetsuit and still too warm...  great !!!!  a little rain at night and i have been adapted to caribbean life in fast forward mode.......

Only few more days in Europe, before heading over the Atlantic Ocean and to the Caribbean for the winter. Only few more days to enjoy the autumn, the coulours, the sun, the lower temperatures and the low humidity before being back at 80 % humidity, warm rain and lots and lots of sun and heat....  All packed, also my new Fanatic SUP Pro Wave which I´ll hopefully use by the end of this week as well as my WIndsurf Gear....  it´s been a while now without and wind and water....

Hopefully the weather over here remains calm and dry the next days to really enjoy and have a good ride to the airport.......

Time to get organized, time to plan and time to get ready. 

We just finished the schedule of our 2012 Clinic Tour with our Windsurflabor.de Windsurf Camps - Fanatic Pro Camps and so it is time to plan all my 2012 trips, compare prices and organize nice programs for all who will join our Camps next year....  luckily I can do that type of work whereever i am and so i can also enjoy the beautiful colours of german autumn, which makes me go out early in the morning to take some nice sunrise images which i will post in my most recent images galery here at my website and at my facebook site....  

Soon i have to leave and will spend my winter in the Caribbean, back at my second home. Caribbean Winter means sun, nice people, beautiful Islands and hopefully lots of wind an waves for my sport. I am just working on my elyaquenews.com website as well to show you more than ever about our beautiful Island plus we  will have  a little Video Channel this year as well plus the well known pic of the week galeries...  I hope you will enjoy them...

Still I am in Germany, waiting for my flight into the sun... but actually the sun is back also in Germany and the freezing temperatures of last week have improved a bit - good enough to get up early and enjoy the beautiful sunrises over the little lakes surrounding our little village and for some excessive Bike Rides.....  A couple of hours along the beautiful Rivers, enjoying the landscapes and nature, every single day...  it is nice to live autumn again....  while the rest of my year usually is pure summer.... unluckily i will be leaving before the first Snow, but well, can´t have it all.....

At least i got the opportunity to get some new Images for my germany galery and to upload onto some stockfoto sites....  

I hope you´ll enjoy the images which you can find at my Tom Brendt Photography   Facebook site....  or just in my latest images site here at tom-brendt.de

It took a while to decide if to publish some of my images at Facebook or not and create my own Photography page there.. but now i think it was about time and i just started my site at Facebook with a couple new Galeries, which i hope you´ll like... of course you are allowed to klick on the  Ilike button when you like the page....  see my FB Photography site   If you can´t see it...  just go for Tom Brendt Photography

With the end of our 2011 Windsurf Camp Tour and with no more Competitions to come this year, my next season has already started right away.... Our new dates are fixed and confirmed, Flyers designed, Posters in work same as our 2011 CAmp Videos and our Main Video Clip...  plus all the preparations for my El Yaque News Winter.... as we will have many News and Details at www.elyaquenews.com  again to make the Site even more interesting...  already now you can find just anything about my second home at this Website but a little TV / Video Channel will follow......

So long I enjoy life in Germany, Running, Biking, Inline Skating, Indoor Snowboarding and searching for some nice new Foto Sceneries.....

Busy times, busy summer...  but travelling is almost over for this year, after coming back from Kos in Greece I went straight to our Wave Special in Moulay / Morocco, the second one this year at the Fanatic Boarderscenter Moulay in 2011 and again we had some amazing conditions, even when the wind has been lighter than in may, we had waves each day and wind at 5 out of 6 days...  almost perfect, plus we´ve had the spot all for us, completely alone... amazing....  than back to germany, for one day...  well, actually for more but with only one day at home straight on to the PWA Worldcup Sylt, at least for the last weekend and the pricegiving ceremonies of Gollito and Yoli, plus seing all our Fanatic Team again at the Fanatic and North Tent....  if you will be there as well, just pass by to say hello !!  

Time to Blog again, after two weeks at the Island of KOS in Greece with a quite expensive but not working Internet Connection and blogging, when possible, at our Windsurflabor.de Blog. Well, two weeks Fanatic Pro Camps at the Island of Kos are over, unfortunately with less wind than in our previous Events at the same place, but still we had two very nice weeks with very nice people. But on the other hand we could feel the difficulties the greek are living with at the moment and sometimes it felt as one of the mayor income possibilities are not being seen or clear enough, the tourism.... But well, it´s not on me to discuss those things, just felt a bit strange sometimes....  and we hope it´ll all be better in the near future.

With only one more Camp to go, our Wave Special in Moulay which starts the 21st of september, the end of our 2011 Camp Tour is coming very close and I started to organize the next Tour, with new Destinations and even more Camps, there should be something for everybody.

As well I will focus more on my photography work in the wintertime and got some more Motivation after seeing my latest Cover shots.....

A week ago i was just waking up in Germany after having arrived from the Canary Islands and now I got already almost one week at the dutch coast, spending little family holidays in Zeeland plus some Fotoshoots and Video to get published after our little Trip here and before leaving in a week to Greece, where we will hold our next Fanatic Pro Camps at Fanatic " The Boarderscenter" Kos. Only thing is, that so far there has been no chance to get any Footage together. The first days we spend under blue skies and pretty nice temperatures, before the weather decided to change drastically and forced us to sit at home, watch lightnings crashing into the Sea and the rain getting our gear soaking wet. Wet is ok, if it is on the water, playing around and falling and crashing, but if it is while trying to get some bread dry home it is actually not that funny... But well, that´s part of life and when you head towards the north sea coast it is also something you should always expect....  I am pretty sure that Greece ill be different...  so long I work on my latest Bikini Shots we did at Fuerteventura and I just put my new Holland Galery online

My days (months) at the Canary Islands are over, I can easily look back to weeks with lots of wind, only that the quality of the wind hasn´t been really what it usually does in canarian summer. Last Monday i left Fuerteventura, but only to repack my stuff, load the car and drive over to the dutch coast, little family vacations and i have to say, after so many years coming here I still lve the north sea coastline, the landscapes, people even the weather, which is quite up and down, changing from full sunshine to thunderstorms and back, but well, nothing to complain. yesterday i had my first little SUP session here to check the water temperature and conditions. It has been much warmer than i thought, only that the little waves were way too chaotic and choppy, but fun in the end anyway

Day two after finishing our Windsurf Camp at Fuerteventura and two more days at the sunny, sandy and windy Canary Island. As always I have been pretty happy and stoked once I arrived at the Canary Islands quite a while ago, but I am also kind of happy when I leave, knowing that I will be back again. Maybe it is that I know the villages and Islands already too well and would like see something new and different, or is it the steady winds, hitting my tired body or the fact that you got sand everywhere all the time and there is no chance to avoid it ?  Can´t tell, but on one side I am a little sad I´m leaving very soon but on the other hand i am really looking forward to all coming in the next months.... Holland, Greece, Morocco, Spain, Germany, possibly Denmark and Brasil, before it will be about time to saddle down for a few months and relax a bit more, without hours, days at airports and in planes.....

Wind plus wind plus wind....  that has been the formula of our latest Windsurf Camp at Costa Calma / Fuerteventura...  it has been the ....??....  edition of this Event at the Fuerte Funcenter and for sure it was the windiest we did...  it was blowing every single day and sometimes on the limit to be too much to really learn and practise something....  with a morning and an afternoon group, lots of theory and hours and hours on the water, the week was flying by and i can´t believe that it is already over...  back to shooting images, Foto and Video in the next days before leaving the Canary Islands after two and a half months, three Windsurf Camps, two at Lanzarote and the one here at Fuerteventura and two PWA Worldcups. The next Stopp will be a bit colder but hopefully also serve some nice conditions for Windsurf, Surf and SUP... in Holland...  a week at the dutch coast before heading over to Greece / Kos for two more Fanatic Pro Camps ( still few places available by the way)

Before leaving i surely will add some more images to my Fuerteventura Galery

During my absence at my private BLOG i have been writing little daily reports about our Windsurf Camp here......

The Worldcup Competition "stress" is over and we got a few days to relax a bit, work on the images and reports plus do a few more Fotoshoots (images you´ll see shortly) Now it is time to foucus again on our Fanatic Pro Camps, the next one is starting tomorrow at Costa Calma - Fuerteventura and the forecast looks amazing, actually pretty hard for two days but ok...  it will be a nice week for sure.I´ll keep you updated here and at our Windsurflabor.de Blog.... Again it has hard to believe that we´ve spent already a few weeks here at Fuerteventura. The next weeks will be much more busy again, Camp here, than straight to Holland, Greece, Germany, Morocco, Sylt, Brasil, Venezuela.....  I will have to change my nice Rapa Nui Cafe with airport Bistros, but still is something i really do like.....  I just uploaded my 2011 Fuerteventura Galery   

See all our Events and the daily Camp Blog at www.windsurflabor.de

The PWA Freestyle Worldcup at Fuerteventura is over - i can´t remember having seen a Worldcup here like it has been this year.... usually there are two options at Sotavento...  or the wind kicks in full power or there is just no wind and it gets hot (that´s what is happening right now) But this year the Contest looked pretty similar to the previous Events in 2011 at Aruba and Bonaire.... The Sailors on their biggest Sails, pumping into Moves trying to catch some of the gusts, sometimes it even reminded me on penalty shots after tied football matches.....

In the end it was Steven van Broekhoven who finished first and secured his first Worldtitle, well done Steven !!  Same to Sara Quita Offringa, only that it was already her fourth title in this discipline.....  

Now we got some time to relax, get some Photoshoots done and prepared for our Fanatic Pro Camp Fuerteventura which will start next week at the Fuerte Funcenter at Costa Calma

I just uploaded my PWA Freestyle Galery for you

Sometimes it is just hard to believe and sometimes even harder to think about why the wind so many times drops exactly for a big Windsurf Contest and the weeks before and after are just windy....Well, that is what´s happening right now at Fuerteventura where we have been sailing with sailsizes between 3,4 and 4,2 full power for the past two weeks - today is the inscription for the Worldcup and the first real no wind days in weeks, plus it is raining..... Looking at the forecasts, it actually doesn´t look so much better for the entire contest...  only for day one after the Freestyle it all looks normal and windy again....  It would just be great to have a real high wind and so extreme Freestyle Contest after a couple of very light wind Competitions where all Competitors had to struggle to perform their moves and where the most radical manouvers were just not possible..... I spent my time already wit taking some pictures of the Island which you can find here in my most recent images galery....

It was one of those days where the timing just went wrong. When we arrived to Sotavento Beach yesterday, the sea looked white, the wind was super strong already and i decided to do a little Fotosession for some tuiton reports i´m working on, especially the how not to do´s we needed, so I crashed lots of times for the Camera, getting blown away a couple of times by the big gusts.... and once we had quite some images on the Chip, I went out again, this time for fun but with the time the wind just picked up even more and the waves got much smaller....  So no need to change my Freewave Board with the Quad Waveboard and the 3,7 i left at home anyway as i didn´t think it might get that windy...  well, today it´s all packed, even the 3,4......  latest news from Morro Jable a bit more south was a windspeed of 45 knots.....  

It is already our fourth day at Fuerteventura, unbelievable. I think that time was flying by with the immense Windspeeds we had in the past days...  I have been sailing my 4,2 but was just well overpowered all the time while most other windsurfers were flying on their 3,7s... Today is the first calm morning, with a nice offshore breeze but it looks as we would have some amazing winds in the afternoon, again....  well, this way i can at least rest my knees a bit which didn´t feel too good after yesterday´s rodeo Sailing.... The tough Choppy Waters made my body hurt but only my body, while some guys came off the water with their boards in two pieces....   To start the day we got used to it by now to spend some time in the beautiful Rapa Nui Cafe on top of Costa Calma with a great view onto the bay, so for sure we won´t miss when the wind kicks in again....

Time is flying by, as usual, and my time at Lanzarote is already over, time for another change when we head over to Fuerteventura tomorrow morning. Somehow sad somehow also ok to have a little change. But certainly i will mis all the super nice people here at Costa Teguise, that´s for sure. It is just always nice to be here....  So tomorrow we will exchange the Lava Rocks with the sand... Let´s see what Fuerte will offer us this year, actually i think we know that exactly, I feel like i would knw each sandkorn at Fuerteventura already since we´ve been there already many many many times.....  

Today at Costa Teguise it looks windy again after a light wind day yesterday which i could use for a little Micro Wave SUP Session...  I think i will be off the SUP Boards for a while now....  More news at my Blog from Fuerteventura...

It is the best to fall asleep and even nicer when you wake up in the morning... the sound of the waves breaking outisde... actually we don´t live that close to the sea, we got nice seaview at our actual home at Lanzarote, but with the swell being a little bigger these days we got no problem to hear those mountains of water collapsing onto the Beach and the rocks....  

It has been a real fun day on the water, even if the wind was a little to north and so also a bit gusty (and way to strong for the 4,5 i was using) it was really nice to be on the water, and use the overpowered sail to easily go upwind with my Fanatic Quad 79 to get back towards the Beach (better the Rocks) of La Pulga and get one wave after the other.....  i wasn´t really surprised that i was that tired at night and wouldn´t have needed the waves to fall asleep....

today the wind is a bit lighter but the waves are still here, for another nice session and maybe with the 4,5 as the right choice today......

check also the Galery of yesterday´s day at Costa Teguise

I will start with the white start of the day... the PWA Freestyle Worldcup at Lanzarote is over and Gollito could win again, already his fifth time here at Costa Teguise and finally this year he could proof his skills after difficulties at the first Events with very light winds and on Flatwater.....  The master of the Airmoves hit back today !!!  Very nice and great to see....

The Black side ??  well not really black for my personal Windsurfing it has surely not been the best day, I went out before the Worldcup started today and with my first Jump I crashed my Mastfoot, unluckily that was at one of the last waves of the Las Cucharas Reef, which means actually not really close to the Beach, and as none of all the Windsurfers around me went for help, I went for a nice 1,5 hours swim with my gear....  luckily i made it back right on time to sprint over to the Competition Area and follow the last Heats of this Worldcup and see Gollito winning....

All good I thought, time for me to get on the water for a good session this time...  I bring my Board to the beach...  forgot something at the Center, when I come back to the Beach I see a huge gust taking my gear and smashing it onto the rocky way....  So this session was over before it even begun.... enough for today, better to stay at the beach and take a rest, to repair my Freewave and have a nice day tomorrow on my Quad.... Forecast looks amazing....  By the end of the week we will leave this beautyful Island and head over to Fuerteventura.....

I know we are blessed that we can do where many people dream about, Travel the world and Windsurf, besides all the Fun (there is some work involved actually as well....) all the new impressions and people we see and meet, the fun of the Travel is not what it has been before. Most Airlines don´t like to take the Windsurf Gear anymore and that with the Boards (and so the Bags) getting shorter and lighter. The biggest amount of money we have to plan now for the extra baggage, ok so far, but when it happens that you still have to discuss at the Airports and than you arrive at your Destinations, alone, without your gear, that´s when the fun factor goes down to zero, so maybe you can imagine how many faces of the Competitors of the Worldcup here at Lanzarote look like, while they are still waiting for their gear to arrive. The Worldcup starts today by the way. Worse it hit Worldchampion Gollito Estredo. Sitting in his plane, ready to take off from Venezuela to Spain, the Anti Drug Control stopped the plane, emptied the plane including the baggage to check everybody and everything all over again, five hours....  Of course once they finally took off the chance of getting the connection flights arriving in Spain was impossible, so worlds number one still sits at Madrid while all other riders (those who got their gear) warm up and inscribe for the Competition.

The positive, it was very nice to see all guys again after good 8 months and to see the actual Freestyle Level with super fast and high spins and rotations in all possible directions....  

I will report here in my Blog and with a final report about the Worldcup....  Hopefully it doesn´t become a very short one, the windforecast exactly for the three competition days went down to very low..... and to very strong right after the Event. 

And indeed some people might have been surprised today be the little breeze kickin´in at around 2 p.m. as just everybody thought that no wind will arrive today to the east Coast of Lanzarote, they all went partying hard last night, after the Rookie Cup, where I got second with my Team the Mafiosos...  Thanks Nadji for the disqualification at race 2 by the way...  ( just kidding, it was a real fun event where results didn´t count) and in the beginning it seemed as i was the only guy on the water going for some Freestyle before little by little one after the other showed up at the Beach and on the water asking to be silent please....  well, it was fun to not be too silent....  was it my fault to get wasted last night and trust the windforecasts ???  well, i don´t think so and so they deserved a little pain today....  :-)  let´s see what the week brings...  the Worldcup Setup is done, only that no rider has arrived yet as they just finished the Worldcup at Aruba and have to make it over here quickly.....  Hopefully the wind will be better as it is announced in most forecast....  as we got already enough light wind Freestyle Competitions in 2011

UP´s and Down´s is what we live every day or every week in our life, but i don´t want to write about some psychological stuff but more about the actual weather and wind situation as they seem to know what are ups and downs as well...  after a very very windy week a couple of days ago, the wind here at Costa Teguise - Lanzarote has dropped a bit and the temperatures has gone up, maybe as a little welcome to all the tourists who have arrived by now to the Island, looks like the calm days are over. Much more people are now walking on the streets, cars are rented out, sunbeds are occupied and empty places at the beaches getting fiewer, but watch out, the next up for the windsurfers will com soon and with full power. Already tomorrow afternoon the sun addicts should hold onto their umbrellas and parents should watch out a bit better for their kids playing in the shorebreak...  For me that means one more resting day, and yes, Miguel, yesterday i really rested :-)  while a day before some little waves teased me onto the water with the SUP i gave my little holes under my foot a full day to rest, and another one today, probably....

Also at the PWA Freestyle Aruba the weather is playing games, dark clouds with thunder and lightnings, strong winds mixing with absolutely no wind...  Not exactly ideal for a Windsurf Worldcup, but conditions over there might change today as well...  let´s hope...

is what i tell myself over and over again at the moment, to not go onto the water today. Actually i was hoping for a no wind day at Costa Teguise - Lanzarote, but the season seems to really have started and the conditions are just great each day, actually really good, when my body would feel the same as it did before the wind has started, not only that each muscle is aching and really needs a rest, also did i hit a rock almost a week ago with my foot and since that day i got two nice holes under my foot where you really don´t need them. Already walking is a challenge today, imagine standing and jumping on that windsurfer....  so, I will stay at the beach today..... maybe take some Fotos so that you can enjoy what i see at the moment each day....  

I already uploaded some Fotos to my latest images site...  check them out and i hope you´ll like them....

Today is also the start of the PWA Freestyle at Aruba.... and so feels my stomach, even if i can´t be there personally i am still almost as nervous, maybe even more since i can´t help Gollito or Yoli...  You can check the Freestyle live at pwaworldtour.com

My second week at Lanzarote is almost over and so my second week Fanatic Pro Camp at Costa Teguise. So far it has all been a really nice time, with very nice people, great attitudes and motivation, a lot of fun and laughter....  Only the wind was playing games with us all the time. The windforecasts promised amazing and perfect conditions, but what we got was far from perfect, even if it was was we needed to practise during our Camps, still it would have been nice to get more of the conditions the forecasts were talking about. Especially now in week two, where jumps are in focus we could need a couple more knots windspeed and some more waves......  So when we decide to head out with big boards to play a bit in light winds, the wind picks up , we go on the little funbaords to go for planning manouvres and jumps, the wind dies down.....  we sit at lunchbreak, the sun comes through and the wind picks up....  we get into the wetsuits and run to the beach and onto the water, of course, the wind dies down....  it all feels a little like somebody is playing a little too much with the wind switch....  lets see how the next two days will be........  of course i´ll kepp you updated...  you can follow daily reports also at the www.windsurflabor.de Blog

I´ve been thinking ultimately how I could describe some situations i could just see and live, crazy, weird, sad, hopeless....  ??  well, i am back to the canaries after good 9 months and some things have changed over here, last the economic crisis was THE theme number one over here and many people surely suffered a lot, lost jobs or were close to loose their business. A year later the whole situation seems to get worse but also nothing has really changed...  and isn´t there a chance for change in each crisis ??  at least that is my point of view...  for me a crisis is a chance as a crisis will not stay forever and economy will grow one day again and than i would like to be prepared and to be there...

we will see what is going to happen in the near future....

and what about the weather ??  wherever I go or went in the past months it has been the same story, the weather has been completely weird, the wind hasn´t shown up but it´s been raining much more than usual...  well it is a La Nina year still and i guess we have to sit it out and wait a little and look forward to what we´ll get right after...  but indeed at many places the wind has changed quite a lot, different sail sizes have been used in the past years and long stabil wind seasons almost don´t happen anymore, doesn´t matter if egypt, greece, caribbean or canaries....  good to have the SUPs  :-)

After a pretty long, and windless, winter, the time has come to travel the world again. It is certainly lots about waiting at Airports, sitting hours and hours in airplanes, negotiating about the Windsurf Gear at Check Ins....  and being pretty exhausted by the end of the summer, much more it is about enjoying all the new impressions, even i got to know most places where i will travel to this summer. My first two journeys have been to Morocco and Egypt, bit critical countries at the moment, so what would expect me, would it be different as in the previous years, well, much more security for sure, but the rest was as beautiful as always and to be at arabic airports i actually like a lot, so many different cultures to see and just different to what i am used to see day by day. Next fight, next airport, Cologne, Nürnberg, Frankfurt, Agadir, Cairo, Sharm el Sheikh and now Lanzarote. Yes, back to the Canaries, lovely....  i am already really looking forward to it and to our two clinics we will hold at Costa Teguise at the FBC / CNS Windsurfcenter, one of my favourite Centers regarding Service, Gear and People....  let´s cross fingers to get some wind and also some waves in the second clinic week....    as warm up i just checked my Lanzarote Galeries again.....

How worried i´ve been before leaving to northern africa after some bombings and violent demonstrations....  a little, yes, of course....  but more i was really looking forward to return to a really nice Wave Spot with Moulay Bouzerktoun and the chance to even get involved in some trouble, besides some long swims during possible big swells,would  be pretty low....  so happy i went again to Agadir and took the three hours taxi ride to Essaouira, our home base for the first Wave Special in 2011....  It hasn´t been that good the weeks before our Clnic, but exactly at the first Wave Special Day wind and waves kicked in....  just perfect...  2 - 3 meter waves each day....  the first days, the last two days much bigger....  and even if it has been a little big for some of my students over there, just anybody had a lot of fun and surely will return to this amazing little Wave and Windsurf Village in Morocco.....  I will for sure, already in September when we will hold our second Wave Special in 2011 at the same location.....  you want to be with us ??  just check www.fanatic-boarderscenter.com   or   www.windsurflabor.de    you´ll find complete reports about our clinic at  www.fanatic.com   and www.north-windsurf.com

Wow, it has been a week already that i am back in germany, a very sunny and warm week actually....  i don´t know if this week has been better than the entire winter in the Caribbean, where a rainless week didn´t happen as far as i can remember...  :-)  but also my time in Germany is almost over, tomorrow morning i´ll be off to Morocco again, to our third edition of the Wave Special in Moulay....  hopefully we´ll get some conditions there as in the past we really couldn´t complain at all...

Of course I will report about the Wave Special in the www.windsurflabor.de  Blog daily....  with some images of what happened over there.....   so now busy time starts again, with many hours at worlds airports, i don´t know how many flights in the next months and lots of nice and beautiful destinations, i just hope i get to enjoy them a little as mostly i´ll be there for work and off again.....  we´ll see....  a little private time on the water would be nice after a very very calm wind winter......

Pretty hard to believe my season is already over, especially when looking back and onto this winter´s statistics.... i guess i´ve never sailed less in 6 months, spent more time in a gym, running or biking, plus endless sessions on the SUP Boards....  I really had lots of fun when i came here and one north swell after the other hit my favourite Surf Spot at Margarita...  lots of fun until we decided not to go anymore, because of several reasons.... so staying in El Yaque waiting for wind was on...  I guess we did the best to still get the work done and not get too bored, but for proper Video or Fotosessions there was juts no conditions...  just too cloudy all the time... of course i shot some landscape images ( see images )and a bit of the atmosphere under those massive mountains of clouds, but after all it has been a little disappointing....  well next time will be better again for sure....  leaving El Yaque i am wondering how it will look like when i come back, as soo many constructions have been started and so many changes are being discussed for the Village....  I´ll see and be surprised  I suppose...  Now back to Europe, where Sun is shining at least while I had to pack my Boardbags under the rain.... (and with like 99 % humidity, so sweating like hell  :-)   )

So my next Blog entries will be from good old Europe and Morocco....  

Another day in which i come back home, wondering what is going to happen with the (former) Windsurf Paradise El Yaque and remembering how it has been when i first hit ground at this caribbean windsurf beauty, that might sound a little weird and like one of the grandpas telling stories to their little grandchilds...  well, so many things have changed over here in super fast forward mode...  I can´t remember to witness something similar somewhere else...  Only few years ago the Wind tourism was massive, one Windsurf and Kitecenter after the other, close neighbors...  all hotels packed from November until May and still quite some watersport fanatics during the rest of the year. Hotels only closed for a month or two in autumn, when few venezuelan tourists came over here  but always stayed in the city of Porlamar...  Bars and Restaurants tried to do their best to make anybody happy after a great day on the water....

So i am always wondering what´s the cause of that change, why Bars and Restaurants are now closed almost too many times between the venezuelan holidays, the Bodegones fill up their stands with tons of alcohol as it happens now again and remain closed for the rest of the day....  pretty simple to answer actually, Wind and Kitesurfers come for their sport, national tourists for Party and to consume...  good for the business... but just bad for the atmosphere....  the Wind community which it has been, has disappeared and a new Party Beach for maybe 6 weeks per year created....  sad but that´s the way it all seems to go...  new Posadas and small shopping malls are still getting build, Bars open and Beach and Village gets cleaned just before national season.....  No wonder that with Condor also the last european direct flight to Isla Margarita will stop their flights by the end of the month......

I still try to wake up, even if it feels as i would be typing right now.. watching the weather, watching the clowds...  and that´s exactly where i start to ask myself if i am dreaming or awake....  it has been the worst wind season i have ever witnessed so far, i have been sailing maybe ten to twelve times....  since October 2010 when i came back to Isla Margarita, in good hope of a nice Windsurf Season, great Photo and Video Shoots and keen to learn some new Windsurf Moves....  well that hope has vanished completely....  I waited and hoped until mid march, the date when the wind finally started....  and i had to start working day and night, as just too many fotoshoots and videoshots had to be done, since clients were waiting for two or three months already for wind and blue skies, too......  so i got to sail 30 minutes one day, on a very good day almost one hour.... some days zero.... and now that i have most work on the water and at the beach done and start editing, which can be done also in the morning and night and i would have some time for my sailing, the wind once again has gone, clowds are back and forecast predicts rain for this week....  so i hope it better is a dream.....  and i will wake up soon, it is October 2010 and I arrive at Isla Margarita with hope for a nice season.....

I expected nothing less than another windy day today in El Yaque, as it got better and better the past days, but what happened today was just awsome...  already early in the morning the wind exploded and we needed to rigg our 3,7´s...  pure fun...  even if most toursits didn´t feel the same way and decided to stay at the beach and watch or hide in the windshadow...    For me it has been pretty perfect... for a flatwater session, bit more waves would have been even better, but also just with the enormous pressure in the sail it was easily possible to get the right lift .....    so pure fun..  at least for good 1 and half hours.. until a very strange movement damaged one of my muscles in the shoulder and stopped my session.....  just checking which muscle it could be to get it fixed for the next days..  :-)

Finally !!  The wind really seems to be back in El Yaque, or what i say not back, it wasn´t really here before, so the wind finally has arrived and increases with every hour... in the past four days we had to use one size smaller sails every single day, so yesterday i was fully powered up, sometimes over, on my North ICE 4,5.... some little ramps made that day a real fun day to enjoy and maybe today we get even more, so for the 4,2 and some more wave...  i guess that will be the first real day to enjoy in 2011 than.....  what Gollito, Deivis and Yoli, but also french Anthony Ruenes did during their Training Sessions...  Top Secret  :-)  but just amazing.....  will keep you updated about what happens here today

Will it ever stopp this year ??  I feel like living at a kind of british caribbean Island, palmtrees, beach, warm sea...  everything here.. but so are the daily rainshowers...  unbelievable what is going on this year in the Caribbean...  we are already in the last third of a 100 percent wind month and we have had two windy days so far.....  but lots and lots of rain three months after rainy season....  well, at least i got ill at the right time and with the rain it is pretty easy to stay at home and rest, before the real wind hopefully starts soon.....  at least i had also some time to report about our new Kite Beach, which is truly amazing and will bring back the fun to all kite addicts, who didn´t like El Yaque as Kitespot before....  you can see all details in www.elyaquenews.com

After some more rainy days in El Yaque - in march, which i still find very hard to believe - we finally got a sunny day yesterday monday, though it started with massive rain showers in the early morning hours as well. After spending a couple of hours in venezuelan government offices to get some paperwork done, I decided to use the beautiful light for some new Images, images of parts from the little village i haven´t captured before. A big area in El Yaque has changed completely, currents have moved sandbanks and the beach and built a beautiful and very large lagoon, the new Kite Area with a beautiful Bar, the Iguana Bar, right at the new Kitespot, surrounded by nice fisherboats, perfect Location for a nice coffee before lunch. Well it was nice to see some very nice new parts of a village where i thought i would know each stone and tree by now....  you can see some of those images here...   or at www.elyaquenews.com

After the two Fanatic Pro Camps already behind, and the wind still not having arrived, the days are getting longer and longer...  but while everybody is waiting for wind at least i got enough things to do, like reporting from the Killer Mountain Challenge last monday (you can see the full report and images in www.elyaquenews.com )  a couple more Fotoshoots, and i finally can finish some tuiton articles and Clinic and Center Videos....  not too bad even if I also yes do watch the palmtrees and the sky to check for wind much more often than usual, but without any success. THe weather situation indeed is the worse i´ve ever seen here and there is no real change in sight....  so back to the Computer and Books, charge my Batteries of my Cameras and keep myself busy as much as i can....

CArnival is also over now and we all hope that those crazy crowds have vanished by tomorrow, it has been very very similar to the usual easter holidays party week and just being on the street became already a bit dangerous, with just toooo many drunk and crazy people behind the steering wheels of too powerful cars...  fingers crossed that it will be over for real now...  so we could have some more relaxed weeks before easter comes....

It has been our second clinic in 2011 but the first at a Club Mistral Center and we are very happy about the new Cooperation between Windsurflabor.de and Club Mistral. It just worked out very well, very nice people, great service, the newest Fanatic and North Sails Equipment and very nice participants. But unluckily the windgod wan´t on our side during this week. i am still wondering what is going on in El Yaque this year, i´ve never seen soo much rain and so few wind in a season at El Yaque Beach, especially after a really great season in 2010 i expected a little less this year, but this, no way.....  anyway we had a great week together and even in light winds anybody improved a lot. Thanx to Jan, Fabian, Friso, Christina, Björn, Jens, Ladislav, Franz and Jhonny for all the motivation and a very very nice week. This way i always remember why i started to do clinics..

The next Clinic up to come will be the Wave Special at Moulay in Morocco

I will have a couple more weeks at Margarita occupied with videos and Fotoshoots before leaving to northern africa.......

In between I will have tons of new Images and Stories for you at www.elyaquenews.com

Wow, already another week is over, the week between our two El Yaque Fanatic Pro Camps, ok, there is still one more day to go before we start our next camp at the Club Mistral Center in El Yaque, but with all preparations done, or some still to be done, it feels as we started already...  checking the windforecasts, i just hope that the clowds will disappear and the wind will come back here right for the clinic....  by now i only see clowdy skies and the palmtrees only slightly moving, even if forecasts predicted 23 knots....  well, as soon as the sky clears up, the clowds vanish, the wind will be here and provide us an awsome set up also for clinic no two.... I will BLOG again on www.windsurflabor.de  during that clinic week....  and don´t forget to check the pwaworldtour.com  website starting this friday 25th  when the first 2011 worldcup starts at Mui Ne in Vietnam with 4 times Worldchampion Gollito Estredo trying to defend his worldtitle one more time...

After quite some work in the past weeks and our first Windsurf Clinics which ended last wednesday, I decided to relax this week a bit more to get well prepared for our next Clinic starting Thursday 24th at the El Yaque Club Mistral Center....  well, so far there as no real time to relax, some foto and video jobs were waiting to be done and the same for our house and garden....  

At least I went to the Reggae Fest 2011 at the Canoa Restaurant and Loung in El Yaque which was pretty cool actually, lots of people and some of the best Reggae bands....  nice atmosphere right at the beach, of course also there i had a small mission to take pictures of the Event for elyaquenews.com  but it was pretty fun actually....  You can see the entire Galery in www.elyaquenews.com

My first six days of Windsurf Coaching in 2011 have just finished, the Fanatic Pro Camp El Yaque finished yesterday after some really nice and windy six days and with some great people participating. We started the 10th of February with an amazing Windforecoast, which, we would find out throughout this week, wasn´t really accurate, but anyway we got some nice Conditions to practise on the water and the low wind times we spent on the Simulator and with excercises at the Beach, before getting some nice drinks at the Beachbars for Happy Hour and equally good food at our Dinner Restaurants in El Yaque. Now that those days are over I got exactly one week to rest before we start our first Event ever with the Club Mistral Center in El Yaque for our second Clinic this year and i´m pretty sure that it´l get at least as good as number one. one week to get some sleep, and do a lot of paperwork, planning all upcoming travels and clinics and do a couple of Fotoshoots...  yes it´s busy times right now, which i actually really like much more than to wait that anything might happen.. During the Events I also write daily reports at the www.windsurflabor.de  BLOG, so if you miss my words here during the clinics, just check out our event website

Finally I can keep on writing about a windy El Yaque, after all the rain in the past, some windless weeks now the wind seems to finally stabilize and blew already with good 25 to 30 knots in the past days, in company of a little swell, prefect for jumping and the daily show of Gollito Estredo, Deivis Paternina, Yoli de Brendt and also Diony Guadagnino who came back to El Yaque right on time for the windy Season. For myself, I had some really enjoyable sessions, too. I feel much much better by now and had my first sessions with my North ICE 5,0 and 4,5 and the Freewaves 95 and 85 this year...  so far i´ve been using only my 5,4 but that seems to be over....

Finally !! Yesterday was my first time on the water after more than three weeks and trying to recover from the Dengue Fever...  And it was not the worst day to get back...  I had a good first Session with my 5,4 North Duke, before I  started to be fully overpowered and had to change down to my 5,0 ICE, the first time this season !!!  And it felt just good, even if i got small minor cramps at night but it was worth it !!!  Today I also started to be back on full day working, with quite some stuff to do in the city before sitting at my Computer a couple of hours, sailing again with 5,o....  Than a 2 hour Kite and Windsurf Fotoshoot and a couple more hours in front of the Desktop....  like that.... and pretty sure it will continue that way, especially with my first clinic of 2011  starting this thursday....  

Still i can feel the influence of this nasty Dengue Virus in my body, which just doesn´t want to recover as fast as i wish too, but ok... little by little.. still there is one more week to go before we start our first Clinic of 2011 in El Yaque. Yesterday was the first  time after long time that I went to the Beach in the early morning hours for a small Fotosession with PWA Newcomer Deivis Paternina and really enjoyed the atmosphere, the clean Beach, no people around, only one Windsurfer and one Kitesurfer using the morning breeze for their perfect start into the day, but already a couple hours later i realized that i haven´t missed too much in the past days or weeks which I had to spend home and mostly in bed...  the beach looked the same, unbelievable how fast people can litter a place again and the wind was pretty up and down and didn´t look as too much fun actually...  but well.. as long as there is some wind, almost anybody is happy and the strong wind months are still to come.....  But it´s only about two weeks before the first PWA Freestyle Contest in vietnam, so while Deivis Paternina was training hard the past weeks to get in form, Gollito Estredo still steals the show as soon as he hits the water, not only with some insane performances, also again with a couple of new Moves where one would say "Impossible"....  

I lost the count how many days i have spent home now with my Dengue Virus, but it was the first day that I missed the Beach, because it has been a sunny day, where the wind was hauling through the windows, whistling along the walls while I was standing behind the glass watching the white caps on the sea. Yes, sometimes it is not too bad to have a house close to the Beach or at least close enough to check wind and waves. 

My first challenge of the day has been the shower in the morning, the Dengue had caused an allergic reaction on my skin and the last two times showering the result was an unbelievable aching body for like 2 hours each....  so today i took some slow steps and took only some drops of water as try out in the beginning before finally taking that shower... and in the end it was all good, next sign that it is getting better finally....

It´s been quite a while that I had my last flew, especially here in El Yaque, a little cold sometimes after some long foto sessions in the water, but waking up or actually already going to bed with my body aching badly, my eyes exploding and swifting that pain over into my brain....  long time ago...  well, now I am here, sitting in bed and trying to keep my eyes focussed on that screen... and outside it looks like a really sunny day and the palmtrees are bending over since the early morning, which means a good sailing day, for the rest of the people here and the el yaque webcams don´t work this year and so i can´t even follow the action at the beach...  at least i could upload some of my latest images into my most recent images page, fotos i shot for the www.elyaquenews.com....  you´re more than welcome to check my fotosite and those images same as all my Travel, Lifestyle, Action etc. works.....  

That was the day...  a pretty cool Windsurf Session with my 5,4 Duke partly completely overpowered, like for one hour, before the clowds destroyed the wind, so change gear, get the SUP and into the waves we had today..  as soon as i got to the Spot I got hit by a Kitesurfer three times...  actually there was only that guy and me and still he managed to hit me with the lines three times...  ok..  wind picked up again, so back onto Windsurf Gear, little jump Session while Gollito Estredo was going of a little one more time with massive Moves, showing why he´s the Worldchamp I guess, and than a little SUP Session for Sunset in the windshadow of the El Yaque pier, where a little but ok wave was rolling in

I guess it was not only me being close to getting crazy, pretty crazy actually, after the wind just didn´t want to get through, just didn´t want to blow along the El Yaque Coastline. Two months with ver few movements on the water, but now it seems to get much much better, it has been the third day in a row where the wind was blowing, but today certainly was the strongest day and finally I could go for some Moves without pumping, pulling on my sail like an idiot, finally there was the wind for quite some pressure in my 5,4 Duke and later the 5,9 ICE.....  If there wouldn´t have been Gollito Estredo, Deivis Paternina Freestyling around me and Ricardo Campello landing Flatwater Backloops, I would have felt pretty good on the water today  :-) anyway finally I could do my Sport again after waiting almost too long

Already a week past in 2011, still i don´t feel that anything has changed, actually i never do, since for me it is just a change of numbers above my signature or reports. But what hasn´t changed is the weather, the rain at night and the clowds during the day disturbing the wind system... i should take quite some images and video footage by now but it is almost frustrating to wake up each day and again there are just no conditions at all for neither of the two. At least I got some new images for the pic of the week galery at www.elyaquenews.com

So now i´m using most of my time to organise our next Windsurf Clinics, first of all the two Events we got in El Yaque, the 10th to 15th of february at Planet Allsports El Yaque and the 24th of February until 01st of March at Club Mistral...  www.windsurflabor.de

Good to have the swell when we need it. The past weeks have been pretty ok and some nice swells have reached the coastlines of the Island of Margarita, so we get on the Board sometimes at least....  In El Yaque itself instead it just became a bit more difficult, first of all because the wind is missing to possibly get some fun and decent Windsurfing and when a slight breeze makes it through and towards the Beach, the thousands of people sitting and lying on their sunbeds and just everywhere make it really challenging to get into the water, sometimes i ask myself why those drinking tourists, which have not the slightest interest in watersports or sports at all, choose El Yaque Beach to spend their time in the sun....  Ok, at least this will be all over within the next ten days and maybe we´ll get back onto the board... so long we´ll drive around and search for the right break to be surfed...

That was a pretty crowded new years eve in El Yaque...  crowded as never before, impossible to find a parking lot after 11 p.m. and just full at the Beach and certainly the best fireworks El Yaque has seen in history.. unluckily some private parties cut off the music for some decent parties afterwards and so it was all over pretty soon ...  Now, the first two days of the new year were just full full full....  unbelievalble how many people at this little Beach, even the rain couldn´t stop the people to get here. If it would have been windy, it would have become a challenge to get the windsurf kit into the water....  but, no wind.....  at least a decent swell is predicted for these days, only that all beaches will be as full as El Yaque, but maybe it´s easier to get in the water with the tiny surfboards.....

Well, it seems as the end of 2010 is time for Covershots... now I got another one at the new broschure of the FBC (Fanatic"The Boarderscenter")

We took this picture during our Fanatic and North Sails Fotoshoot at the Planet Allsports Center Soma Bay last May

I just can´t stop watching the images of those tons of snow all over europe, pretty unlucky for those who were or are stucked in the snow for hours and hours, missing work, coming late for flights, trains etc to get back home or important appointments, right before christmas. I am really no christmas guy, but i do love the snow and actually it is one of the few things i really miss sometimes when i live with the sun all year around, with none changing waether. Not Complaining !!  Sure that life is great, but the christmas markets in germany, covered in snow, sipping some of the Glühwein... you don´t know what that is ???  a special hot wine, just great when it´s cold and in the right atmosphere, so not really in the Caribbean.

Well here Christmas will be pretty different once again. The rain has vanished, but lots of people have arrived, venezuelan holidays, means people drive to the beach with huge coolers, full of rum and whisky, or whatever but sure it´s alcohol....  at late afternoon they just sit in their cars and drive back to their city appartments...  there were some really nasty accidents already in the past week, so better stay off the road as much as i can. Hopefully it won´t be as crowded as it is through semana santa, the easter party week...  but with some of the main beaches at the island closed, it might easily happen..  i´ll keep you updated with the pics...

I am happy to just upload my new website, hopefully you like all info you can find at my new created website. No fancy designs or animations, but a lot of Information, Reports and Galeries.

Already with my first blog entry I can publish also the latest cover of the german Kitelife Magazine. At the actual Issue one of my Images, taken during the CORE Kite Fotoshoot at Isla Margarita, was chosen for the Cover. This Images has been right in front of a pretty wrotten ship warack at Playa Guamache, right in front of the entry of Isla Margarita´s Ferry port.