Back in winterwonderland!

 So I'm back in Belgium after 3 weeks in Cape Town! 
I didn't update anymore when I was in Cape Town since I had some uploadlimits with Vodacom.
It's very cold and takes some getting used to again. I'm missing the sun and the friends that are still there having a blast!
It were probably the best 3 weeks of my life in South Africa, had so much fun on and off the water and enjoyed every second of it.
I'll definitely go back there for a longer time.

Some bad news too: in the last week I twisted my leg in Big Bay, my foot, ankle and knee were pretty swollen but on the x-rays there was nothing to see luckily. Just sprained my ankle and got a tear in the medial band of my knee. That's not so bad so I guess I'll be out for about 4 weeks. By then the water will be a little warmer here I hope.
Only missed out on one good session in the last few days so got lucky in the first 2 weeks.

Hating the crutches at Cape Good Hope hahaha

Katrien, Filip, Wout and Robin also arrived, so it was a good group to hang out with.

On a windless day I also went skydiving with Michiel and Sarah, that was very exciting. The freefall was something I had never experienced before and would definetely like to do again. 

Too bad no pictures or clips of the fall because no gopro's were allowed. 

Robben Island was also on our to do list. Very small Island with lots of history. 

Had a fun time there with Michiel and Sarah, good memories.

With Abe Opperman, our tourguide

Ex-con of Robben Island, now tourguide with a funny accent and intonation

Michiel and his Canon

Now some windsurfing!!!

We didn't do a lot of spots because the wind and waves were mostly good for Sunset and Bigbay. 

However we went one day to Witsands and it was huge on that day! 

Was stacked with 4.0 and over mast-high waves, so that was a pretty rough day. 

Had some high jumps but wind was to much to really do anything. 

Checking the conditions at Witsands

Nice size waves, Pierre Antoine

Shore Break Witsands

Nick on a shore break wave with his antenna

Cutback

Landing a backloop with Witsands view

We went to Melkbos on a day without waves too, but that wasn't a big succes. A lot of double and triple waves in the shore break so not much to waveride. Had some good frontloops and tabletopfwd's that day, and some spocks but not much more.

Tablefwd

Little tweaked aerial at Melkbos

Melkbos view

For the rest we had a lot of good sessions on Sunset and Big Bay.

Got a few very nice pictures taken by Michiel De Vogeleer and Sarah Bachgada, Filip De Meester, Joñas Handekyn and Nick De Wannemaeker.

I had some days where backloops were going very bad, and other days where better but I really need to get more consistent on those backies. Jonas gave me good advice so I'm confident for the future! 

The best sessions I had were the ones Joñas and me were alone on Big Bay, we surfed until we couldn't properly see the waves anymore. Those days were perfect and we were so happy to have the waves for ourselves for one time, because we had some days that were just to crowded on the water.

Big Bay with 4.0 evening session

Joñas ripping, like always!

Together with Jesse and Joñas we climbed up to Lion's head which I told already in the previous post. But here are some pictures now.

It was a pretty exhausting climb with a few sketchy climbs but the view was worth it! 

Jesse and Joñas

Another session on Big Bay 12 January by Joñas:

Sarah took some good photos and clips too on Sunset, thanks for that!:

These are taken by Nick on Sunset:

In the meantime we went to Monkey Town in Somerset West. Had lots of fun there and saw some weird monkeystuff there. 

Showing its business to Sarah

This bird made me instantly think about the Saw doll !

This one was crazy for Sarah and got really mad when Michiel hugged her, hilarious!

My last session was in Big Bay with 4.7 and 4.0 on 17 January.

In the beginning of the afternoon I took pictures of Michiel on his 5.0, and then Michiel took pictures of me on 4.7. 

Got a really good tabletopfwd on photo, a small backloop and a nice turn: 

Sail and boom taking it hard!

As is the gopro!

Nice backloop view

The last evening we had a nice sunset diner at Doodles. We had to rush things a bit but still enjoyed it with Michiel and Sarah. Thank you to them and the rest of the group for taking care of me when I couldn't do everything on my own with the crutches. 

Last look at the magic mountain!

Had a great time!

So for now I'll be taking it easy with the knee for about 3-4 weeks and then back on the water again I hope.

It's difficult to get Cape Town out of my head at the moment to be honest. 

Also I want to say thank you to Naish for the great gear they make! I didn't have a single problem with my Boxers during the trip and they endured all the punishments with great ease! 

Still love the feeling of the 4 battens, suites me perfect! 

I'll keep you updated about how the knee is healing and when my first 2013 session in Belgium will be! 

Keep on ripping! 

Max

First sessions in Cape Town!

First of all, Happy Newyear and let's hope for lots of wind in 2013!

Tuesday we arrived at Cape Town airport around 14.30h, we had to pick up the cars and then straight to the guesthouse, but nobody there to let me in. We then went to Big Bay to see if the conditions were ok.

It was more than OK, nice waves and hard 4.0 wind. Just had to get rid of my luggage in the guesthouse. Luckily Harry Vogelezang just packed after a session on Big Bay, so I went with him to the guesthouse and raced back to Big Bay. 

Nick just got out of the water with a broken mast when I arrived, first session and bad luck!
Rigged the 4.0 as fast as I could and went out. 

First backloop was a score, good landing so good beginning of the session. 

Had some good waves, but I had to get used to the conditions, quite different than Belgian waves.

4.0 Big Bay

The next 2 days there wasn't any wind so Jesse, Jonas and me went sightseeing to Lions Head, great views and a hell of a climb. 

On the 4th predictions looked good for Sunset, I was eager to go on the water again since nice waves were coming in. 

Michiel and me went to Milnerton first, Michiel rigged 5.0, I rigged 4.7 but conditions were light in the beginning. Floating outside and coming in with a set. 

Wind got better fast and it didn't take long before it was too hard and offshore.

4.7 Milnerton, breathtaking scenery 

4.7 Milnerton, thanks to Sarah!

We drove to Sunset to rig a 4.0, very windy and big waves. Had some hard backloop crashes because it was so gusty. Some good waverides but we didn't stay long on Sunset. 

We decided to have a look at Big Bay. There was only one guy on the water and waves were looking great.
Jonas and me went out for the third session of the day (4.3 and 4.7), the sun was already setting when we went out but the waves were too addicting! 

Jonas had some nice aerials and jumps, great views with the sun behind. 

I had some good backloops, some tabletop-fronts and a super nice tweaked aerial, didn't think I would land it but stayed on, got some nice gopro-footage of it all. 

Too bad it was getting too dark, but the both of us were super stoked about this last session and the day.

4.7 Big Bay evening session

Can't get better than this, Big Bay

Jonas and me had Big Bay for ourselves

Spraying Big Bay

Saturday the wind didn't pick up strong enough, tried sunset with 5.4 but  not even hard enough to plane outside. Jonas and me had some good waverides, but not really a great session.

I also want to say that my Witchcraft board is just perfect, I can really put it where I want it on the wave. It likes to get pushes hard in a bottomturn and I haven't had one time when it lost grip. Cutbacks are so much fun, even with the 5.4 on it.

5.4 Sunset, getting better on the cutbacks

I hope the wind will pick up today (sunday 6th) because everybody here wants to rip ofcourse! 

Stay stuned for a next update! 

Greetings from Cape Town !