Sching, Schang, Schong, part 1

During my last trip to Morocco, I had my new GoPro Hero 2 with me and ended up filming the whole clip with it. I must say the thing is really great and it finally allows me to capture some of the best moments of surfing. So far, I have only been able to fix the camera on the board, which gets boring after a while, but hopefully I'll get some better perspectives during the next trip. Make sure to go watch the clip on youtube to get the full resolution. Btw, sorry for the awkward face in the video preview ;)

Sugar Rush

The winters in Holland often feel numbing with half cold, half rainy days. The blood is pumped through the veins at a slower pace. Everything seems to slow down and come to a rest. To me the Christmas holidays are the peak of that period. Everybody comes together to embrace the the laziness to it's full extend. Then people go and celebrate the new year. Big parties and big resolutions. Personally, I like to skip the new years chaos. In my opinion there is no better way of getting the blood pumping through the veins again, than with some very strong Moroccan mint tea (lots of sugar of course). Hope the waves will be as good as two years ago.

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!

Indo Part 2

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I always liked to explore places off the beaten track, but I never was the kind of traveler who would jump into complete uncertainty. Before my last trip to Indonesia and especially the Mentawai Islands, I would make an effort to get away from the crowds, but the way I did that was in a huge four wheel drive Suzuki Jeep. This trip really made me appreciate traveling by more unconventional means. I am talking about riding little fisher boats, constantly busy scooping out the water with a little bucket, or driving through mainland Sumatra with a Soviet time bus. These are the kind of moments that you look back to and start smiling...

Indo Part 1

Finally, I managed to put together a little clip from my trip to Indo this summer. The first part was shot on Simeulue Island and features some footage from Dylan's right. Part 2 of my trip will follow shortly. Enjoy!

Simeulue

Simeulue

As promised some first glimpses from my trip with Ben to Sumatra this summer. The first stop of our journey was the sleepy island of Simeulue, where people spend their days chilling around rather than doing actual work. Apparently, there are vast resources of gold which is why people don't bother making their money any other way. During our time on Simeulue, we stayed at the surf camp of a friendly local women called Nanik. Her camp offered everything a surfer could ask for, including scooters, delicious food, and a very non-threatening watch dog called Bulley. The best feature of her place was that it was only a 5 minute bike ride from a spot called Dylan's right, which is a classic Indonesian wave, with plenty of barrels if the swell hits it right. Besides Dylan's there was a spot called Teabags, which you could reach by fisher boat for 5$ a ride. This is a very fast rolling right hander, which curls over razor sharp reef on a remote island. We surfed it the first day and we scored some nice head-high barrels. Other than those two spots there are only some mediocre spots, not really what I expected from Indonesia.