Low Expectations

If there is one thing that I've learned as a channel surfer than it is the value of keeping expectations low. I usually check the beach cams before going for a surf to see whether it's worth the drive. If the conditions look favorable I quickly grab my suit and my board and hurry to my car. However, in my car I am already mentally preparing myself to arrive and find a flat lake. If you arrive and the waves are glassy and the wind is light offshore it makes the pleasure even bigger.

Low Expectations from Sebastian Potthoff on Vimeo.

Dutch Glass

This day was completely off my radar as I thought that it was going to be flat. When I checked the cams in the afternoon some first little bumps started showing up. Since my camera lady was not available and the wind seemed to be favorable I decided to take along my GoPro. Although the waves were pretty small I had a great session and stayed in the water until sunset. For the editing I played around with a templet that came with the new GoPro Studio upgrade. Enjoy!

Dutch Glass from Sebastian Potthoff on Vimeo.

Frantic Days

Here a little clip in black and white, which I think fits Holland pretty well, since the weather is often rainy and the water has a brown/yellowish colour...

Frantic Days from Sebastian Potthoff on Vimeo.

New King on the Block

After Queen's day Matthias and me drove to Noordwijk to clear our heads in a couple of clean little waves. Enjoy!

In the doghouse

As soon as the first warm sunrays hit the lowlands of Holland everybody is out and about enjoying the beaches. I especially enjoy watching all the people with their dogs. Seriously I enjoy the beach very much, but if I see those cute short-legged creatures jumping though the sand their is no comparison. If you don't enjoy the lousy surf action in this clip, I hope you at least enjoy watching the main actors (and the song, which I think fits pretty well) ;D!

Unterkuehlung

Yesterday Matthias and me pulled up on a big tourist parking place close to Noordwijk. The place is a bit hidden behind some dunes and around this time it is pretty deserted. We looked at the empty fish restaurants and Matthias said: "Dude we a we are really lucky to live in place where others usually go on vacation, but the best thing is that we will be gone when they arrive ;-)". True that....

4 degrees

At this time of the year the water temps drop to almost unbearable lows. Of course you are wearing one of these super high-tech wetsuits that give you that jacuzzi feeling for the first 30 min, but after that the comfort drops quickly. Especially when you are diving under a wave and your face is exposed to the almost freezing water, it feels like somebody is giving you a smack in the face. Usually the conditions have to be very good to convince me to go for a sesh, but if you drank a bit too much the night before and you are hang over there is no better cure.

Coffee Addiction

I used to be a real morning person, the type of guy who would sit in the line-up before anybody else. Since I am living together with my girlfriend things have changed a little though. In stead of jumping up as soon as my alarm goes off, I can now barely open my eyes without a proper cup of coffee. Every morning I wake up to the hypnotizing sound of my Senseo machine. It feels as though the sound is massaging my brain into an alert state, before I even get to take the first sip of that sweet black life elixir...I love coffee!

Autumn Waves

You know winter is near when the last leafs have fallen off the trees and the first bigger swells find their way to the dutch beaches. In Holland bigger swells usually come with a lot of wind, but sometimes everything is perfect and you might think you are looking at the Atlantic (except of that the water is coffee brown, rather than blue). This clip was shot on one of these days, where seals join you and you think that they most be as excited as you are. Enjoy!

Wind Chop - Noordwijk

I know, I know it's slowly getting old that I keep on posting clips and pictures of some crappy waves, but unfortunately we haven't been blessed with any substantial swell in Holland lately (OR I just couldn't convince my camera team aka Yasmine to come). Although the surf sucks and the action sucks even harder I hope I can make up for it with some chilled out tunes and keep everybody psyched about my blog till I start posting some more interesting stuff (I am going to Portugal and Sumatra this summer, which should be sickkk!!!). Alright enough excuses....Enjoy!

Jesus Freaks

One cool thing about surfing in Holland is that you can find a webcam at almost every beach in the country. I am not sure how many hours I've spend monitoring the water surface, always in the hope to spot some nice clean lines at one of the nearby spots. What I slowly come to realize is that this little electronic eye can be quiet deceiving at times, and even though it looks like clean 3 ft lines rolling towards the shore, you have to realize that the situation at the beach might be a little bit less encouraging. Usually, it is the moment that I drive down the promenade of Katwijk spotting some figures with long paddles and even longer boards, floating around like Jesus Christ, that I realize that I have been fooled once again...

Easter waves - Katwijk aan Zee

This is a little clip from my session on easter sunday. The previous day it was quiet windy so I was hoping for some cleaned out waist-high waves. Unfortunately, as so often most of the energy already faded out and the waves were only knee high and without any power. Still it was a fun session and living in the Netherlands I learned that you can't be too picky. Enjoy!