Luderitz tech talk

Luderitz tech talk

Interesting stuff in Luderitz after seeing results and footage, never before it was this good documented. Theory and results are matching and everyday or every run more is almost equal to higher speed. This men made canal demonstrates a few principals. Most interesting is to see speedsurfers go faster and the visual changes we receive through facebook http://www.facebook.com/luderitzspeedchallenge.Up to now it is interesting to see is that control=speed is valid, but there is a catch.
Looking to the board position of the leaders in the rankings it is very much equal to lightwind efficiency speedruns. Not saying that it is lightwind or easy over there… It doesn’t look completely like the previous records where efficiency was not this important.I stick to Antoine and Anders, but there are a few other good examples too. Both Antoine and Anders manage to keep LwL (lenght waterline) most stable and short on average compared to others. This has too do with time on the course, skills and ability of finding/making the best solution for stable platform. After a few days when everybody optimized their equipment I wonder what the differences will be and who will lead??The fact that Antoine did the best time by changing down from 5.8 to 5.4 is giving me confidence in this analysis. A smaller sail has behaviour of less movement/influence on boardposition and easier to accelerate or hold on to a long acceleration.

What will happen in even higher wind???
 It will be interesting, outcome will tell a lot about (future) speed windsurfing. 2 scenarios:

  1. Course gets a bit more rough meaning the boards nose gets smashed/pushed up a bit more, LwL should be a tiny bit longer/ lower nose to support a stable position. More stress/force though on body and maybe here is a slight problem (causing speedlimit?)
  2. Course doesn’t change much, efficiency ride still possible?? Maybe the efficiency ride is the only way to go faster??

Below video of our dutch speedhero Jurjen, the only one without added weight. It gives a good view on the course. I bet with a bit more time on (awesome speed)water Jurjen will smash the Dutch record again.

 

Erik Loots

Erik is windsurfer for 10+ years. In his daily life he is professional in construction dewatering, advisor, troubleshooter. Erik likes adventures, explore and to challenge himself. During his life he is trying to get the best out of it and have respect for the earth, nature and future generations. The modern world is about sharing, in this blog Erik shares his experiences, selfreflection and lessons learned.