Whitsun in Hanstholm

Here's a few photos from our last trip to Thy. We had 2 days with something close to epic windsurf. Two days with good wind, big waves and sun :)



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This is from Sunday afternoon just before we got in the water, at this time the waves was still quit small. During our session the waves got bigger and the wind got better and we surfed until dawn... This was the best session of the season until now!



Really like this one with the spay from a pier in the foreground and the lone windsurfer in clear blue water

Monday the wind stated blowing again in the afternoon and within a hour it changed from nearly wind still to gale force. We sailed 4.2 which was our smallest, even though we could easily have sailed 3.7. Here is a few shots from Monday.







It was quite hard to hold the camera still in 16 m/s thus I had to discard most of the photos as they was unsharp.

Surf or Ski

Until now the winter in Scandinavia has been the toughest I'w ever experienced. There has been frost and snow from mid December and there is no real sign of milder weather. Normally we get a few days with snow during a whole winter.

Friday the 12 of February a new snowstorm hit Bornholm and the south-eastern part of Skåne. On Bornholm people was evacuated and most roads was closed until Saturday. In Skåne things didn't look that bad Saturday morning, maybe because the Swedes are better handling these snow-conditions.



With the snowstorm a decent size NE swell was forecasted for southeast Skåne. This was about to become my coldest surf session ever. Air temperature was -2 degree Celsius and water temperature was -1 degree Celsius.



The ice forecast was right, the coastline was not frozen, it was only slush-ice with ice cubes.



If it hadn't been for the slush-ice I think the waves would have been quite good.



What to do when you can't surf because of slush-ice? Go skiing, luckily we brought ski and snowboards :)


Rider: Roelf Hans

The reef was then exchanged with this nice snow ledge.



But where is the lift?


Rider: René Brask

And it was possible the get a few turns


Rider: Vincent Bakker

And quickly we had build a small kicker


Rider: Roelf Hans


Rider: Vincent Bakker


Rider: René Brask

And I ended up paying with a sprained thumb :(

Hope u all enjoy this unusual winter. Europe has been locked inside a freezer. The great oceans gets one big swell after another. And the southern hemisphere gets grilled.

Cheers

A rare righthander

Until now the danish autumn has been rather strange. The prevailing wind direction has been from a easterly direction and it has been unusually cold. Normally the wind is westerly to north westerly during autumn and winter and more diverse with the incoming lows giving more surf.

The good thing about all this easterly wind is that the Baltic sea spots has been firing more frequent than normally.



This early Thursday morning me and a few buddies skipped work in the morning to catch a nice east swell.





Look close, the two small dots aren't ducks

Around Denmark it's often hard to come by a good solid righthander like this one. Most spots are lefthanders and as being a goofy footer it not that big an issue :) But still it nice to do some backside surfing at times.




Rider: Vincent Bakker

Another day of clean headhigh surf with no crowd. We where only 4 buddies in the water :)



Cheers

11.22m

The Baltic sea has awakened after a long period without any noticeable waves. A low pressure has stabilized to the east of the Baltic sea producing strong N-NE winds over large parts of the Baltic sea. During Wednesday night a offshore bouye measured 11.22m waves in the south of the Baltic sea. That's big!!! and for a small sea as the Baltic sea, it's HUGE.



Thursday morning there where some big sets rolling in at one of our favorite spots for this wind and swell direction. It was some of the biggest I have seen on this spot and it was on the edge of maxing out.



The water level and a strong rip made it challenging surf. Due to the high water level the waves was kind of flat and lacked some hollowness. For the longboarders it was paradise. Big flat waves that could be surfed all the way in from the outside reef.



Of cause there where exceptions, like this nice double overhead wave



During the day the size was dropping a bit and both the water level and current was falling a bit.



There where some nice steep takeoffs in between.



And some Dutch action


Rider: Roelf Hans


Rider: Roelf Hans

Hadn't it been for the high water level and strong current it would have been an epic day. There was a good size ground swell with a long period and the wind was offshore. Even though it was well worth a day off work and we ended up surfing for a good 5 hours.

I heard from a friend that conditions became better later on the evening just before dark. As usual "just before dark", such a shame, we really need to setup some light out there.

We never saw any 11.22m waves :(

Weekend with Danny

As hungry dogs we always end up with the leftovers. This time it was the once tropical storm Danny that gave us a windy weekend. At Friday the 4. of August it started with a nasty hauling southerly wind with gusts of up to 25-28 m/s.

NASA tracking of Danny

DMI - Rain, Wind and Flooding



Vilshärrad was going nuts, people was windsurfing overpowered with 3.5 while the wind was extremely gusty. None of us had that small sails and the wind was more westerly than expected making it side onshore.

We went searching for alternatives





And ended up in a mixed session further south, I was windsurfing while the others were paddlesurfing. It was a new discovery, a pointbreak that delivered clean shoulder to headhigh waves. The wind was 90 degree offshore thus a bit difficult to windsurf but the spot seems to have a lot of potential. Didn't get any photos as is was getting dark :( Gotta be next time.

Saturday also delivered strong westerly winds, I didn't get out but heard that people was windsurfing havstokken with 4.2. Should have been good.

Sunday the wind had turned into W-NW and the scene was set for a decent paddle session.



My buddies abandoned me to checkout a new spot which didn't work (tsktsk). I ended up surfing sealpoint all by myself in headhigh conditions.



I didn't try to count the number of waves that I got, but it was properly more than I can count to :)



Cheers

Hornbæk Classic

It has been ages since my last windsurf post. That will changed now, this summer I have been windsurfing on most of the good days. And now that we have moved up near Helsingør it only a 5-10 min. drive to the north shore.

Tuesday the 18. of August was a classic Hornbæk day. The wind was 11-13 m/s from W-NW, there was headhigh waves and the sun was shining. Hard to ask for more.

Here is a few pics


Rider: Lars C. Pedersen


Rider: Fjælle


Rider: Jesper Jensen


Rider: Jesper Jensen

After 2 hours on the water my harness broke and sure enough it happened as I was way out in the back. When I got in my arms was nearly 10 cm longer and aching. So if the pics seems a bit shaken that's why.

Hoping for a nice autumn :)

Summer swell

It has been three weeks without waves at the northsea due to a prevailing high pressure above Denmark. Now things are back to normal with continuous incoming front systems from the west and we got a reminder of how good the northsea can get.



This was one of the bigger waves, not too bad huh?


Rider: Unidentified

The sandbar both delivered good lefts and rights


Rider: Unidentified

The rights was really good, fast and super hollow. Some of the guys got some tube time :)


Rider: Unidentified



All photos are shot before we went in and I think it's mostly Germans in the lineup.