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Perfect Week

Syamil — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:57:19 +0000

I had the honour to meet our friends from the South, Shas and Rosman during CNY. Mr. Shas and his family went all the way from Singapore to Balok to get his taste of the wind here with the photography and diving master, Mr Rosman from JB. Also present was Mr Chong who managed to steal some time off before his CNY celebration – still going strong!

The wind was just perfect. In fact, the whole week during CNY seems like blowing indefinitely! 15-20 knots all the way baby! The weather was somehow a bit too hot since it was the beginning of the drought season but it didn’t stop us nonetheless. Balok treated us with the nicest condition it can offer, so who needs to complaint?

During the night, we had our dinner at one of the best restaurant in Kuantan, the Sara Thai Kitchen. The guys returned home the next morning. It was a short trip for them but I’m sure they’ll return home with plenty of good memories to remember, and hopefully will find their way back the coming year.

Towards the weekend, I also had the honour to meet a veteran windsurfer from Singapore, Mr Richard. The first time I saw him was on the beach during last year’s Christmas. He looked so much younger on the beach LOL. Mr Richard was on his way back from Kelantan after visiting his family for CNY. We had dinner in Tg Lumpur’s famous Ikan Bakar. It was nice to know that Mr Richard and his wife are very fond of Malay foods. It seems to me they know Malay foods and the best restaurants to eat them better than I do.

Big thanks to all whom I met during the week. I must say, despite having less than 10 people whom I windsurf with, with perfect wind and perfect people, it was just the perfect week ever.

Some pictures [credits to Rosman]

Small chat on the beach – (left) Shas, Chong, Syamil

Mr Chong blasting forward. This guy can beat anyone half his age on the water!

Rosman posing for a shot.

I must admit I’ve never seen myself getting so close to camera while windsurfing before. I was as excited as a child when I saw this this one.

Rosman (left), Syamil and Shas.

Last but not least.

See the complete album HERE.

Kitesurfing Self Launching

Syamil — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:55:24 +0000

Here’s a quick step-by-step on how to self launch posted by Andy in our facebook page. Remember to have someone there to look after you should something went wrong until you’re good enough at it.

Also keep in mind that these steps are only guidelines and not necessarily the ultimate “how-to” on self launching. Last but least, like all things – practice, practice, practice! Good luck!

Self Launching, by Andy.

Self Launching-Step 1: Walk to your kite

Self Launching-Step 2 : Make sure ur kite’s leading edge is facing the wind.Now pull your bar and walk towards the wind direction SLOWLY. Your kite will now move by itself to the wind window.

Self Lauching-Step 3 : As your kite is moving into the wind window, pull the back line on your right handle bar SLOWLY.Now your kite will get into a C shape.

Self Lauching-Step 4 : Continue to pull the back line on your right handle bar untill the kite forms a C shape and move into the wind window.At this point, you might wanna walk towards the wind direction to aid your kite into position.

Self Launching-Step 5 : Once your kite take off…move towards the wind direction to keep it from falling down…steer the kite up and continue to move towards the wind direction….believe me it’s easy and just needs some practice…anyone can do it…if anyone tell you otherwise…by all means tell them to FUCK OFF!!!There r indeed alot of sore losers out there who will try to prevent you from progressing

Whatever happened to Bluefinz?

Syamil — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:11:57 +0000

I went to check out the forum the other day to read updates on the Singapore Windsurfing Open 2010, but Bluefinz was no longer there!

It appears that the domain name has expired. Hopefully it’s just a minor glitch and will be fixed soon.

In the meantime, feel free to use our Forum.

The Outer Quadrant

Syamil — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:47:45 +0000

Good news for all Malaysian & Singaporean alike, a new kitesurfing shop called the Outer Quadrant has just been launched a few days ago. Outer Quadrant is the official distributor for Liquid Force brand and is based in Singapore. Parallel to its launching, Azhar, founder of Outer Quadrant paid a visit to Balok Beach to promote and launch the new line of products.

Currently Outer Quadrant is also doing a big promotion as stated on its website;

For every new fan of Outer Quadrant on Facebook that you introduce, you will be entitled to 1% discount of the actual price. If you managed to get 5 friends to be new fans of Outer Quadrant, you will get 5% discount and so on and so forth up to a maximum of 30 new fans for 30% discount.

So what are you waiting for? Check out their website outerquadrant.com!

Ian’s Bladder Patch

Syamil — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:33:51 +0000

Alright. Let’s face the fact. That thin dacron sleeve on your kite isn’t the best protection from any holes for the more fragile plastic tubes on the inside, called the bladder. Some day or later, you’ll be finding yourself looking through the catalogue or searching around for the best way to patch that imminent hole punched through the bladder. Added to the task is actually finding a nearby resource that provides inexpensive solution and located close enough to avoid unnecessary costly postage fee.

Our friend from Singapore, Ian, may have just the solution for you.

The patch is still in development stage, but as Ian mentioned in our forum, he already ran some successful tests on his kites and already in the second phase of its development. It was indicated by Ian that the product will be finished and released early next year.

Provided with his success, he may be able to offer bladder patches that are adequately effective for small repairs which would come relatively inexpensive from your current options and most importantly for Malaysian kiteboarders, close enough to be posted without much hassles and costs.

Main features:

Self-adhesive (no more gluing )
Tough material
Relatively inexpensive

If you would like to follow the progress of this patch feel free to join the discussion on our forum. Click here.
You can also contact Ian directly at massufianyahoo.com

Some pictures:

High Performance Kiteboarding Race

Syamil — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:26:51 +0000

Check out the boards. Totally different flavor than your ordinary freestyle board. Among other things, the board has super long fins, flat bottom and square tail profile for maximum performance especially in the upwind course. And since the boards are directional, don’t even dream of using them if you can’t tack/jibe! As far as we know, Malaysia is still not catching up with this one yet, but hopefully we’ll see more people adapting the board designs and riding skills into their kiteboarding arsenal in the near future.

Blown Away in Pantai Sepat

Syamil — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:41:11 +0000

So today it blows rather stronger than usual in Pantai Sepat. To not exaggerate, I can simply say it was easily 25 knots in the gust out there, if not more! I went out with my usual medium rig – 8.4m & 155l board, unaware of today’s forecast. The setup proved to be a hell of a ride, but at the same time it was a totally different feeling than riding a skinny slalom board with 7m sail. Downhauled the sail an extra inch then i was out again fully blasted yet very well controlled.

Driving to the beach from Kuantan town will take you barely 10 minutes. And since I’m residing halfway between the journey , a single ride to Balok would simply cost me one week worth of fuel, time & hassle to Pantai Sepat. This is the second time I am exclusively writing about this particular beach, and I realized I haven’t wrote enough to justify how amazing it is!

Now the beauty of the beach is, even with all of that strong winds and swells, launching is not even half as tricky as it would be in Balok under the same condition and wind direction. Its shallow seabed strethed out far to the sea, waist high, resulting with minimum dumpers to scare you off. On a normal day with 10-12 knots of winds, launching & jibing is super easy as the water is almost dead flat – a complete opposite of my usual spot in Balok. Suffice to say, if you can’t learn to jibe here, then you’re completely hopeless!

On a lighter note, Pantai Sepat holds a lot of natural beauty that needs to be experienced to believe. The whole stretch of its wide beach is seemingly untouched, and the whole place itself has the most scenic & authentic village settings I have ever seen so far in Kuantan. Well sorry, no 5 stars hotels and fancy restaurants to visit here, but hey, you can always go back to the town for less than 10 minutes from the beach!

If you’re coming to Kuantan for windsurfing or kitesurfing and tired of visiting the same old spot, then I would strongly recommend you to visit this beautiful beach. One thing for sure, looking at other beaches being salvaged and slowly dying a painful death around here in Kuantan, this place may not stay as it is for too long. But until then, let me enjoy the beach all by myself while it lasts!

p/s: Jellyfish season has started, so wear proper clothing & proceed with care.

Some pictures ;

Scenic view of the road to Pantai Sepat

Posing with the old faithful gear

Check out the wind dude!

A Sesh With KL Windsurfers

Syamil — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:48:21 +0000

I was in Kuala Lumpur last weekend with my friends and after a last-minute arrangement with Joe from windsurfingkl.com we managed to visit our KL windsurfers in Pantai Remis. We met Joe in Damansara and from there he guided us all the way to Pantai Remis. The journey took about 40-45 minutes, which for someone like me whom blessed with the beach barely 5 minutes from the house, is quite heck of a ride for a windsurfing trip. All hail to pure magnifique passion for windsurfing!

When we arrived, the wind is slowly picking up and we had a little chat before all of them went out to harness the wind. As expected for this part of Malaysia, most of the guys are using 8++ sails and wide boards. A few moments later, I quickly spotted more windsurfers arriving to the beach, marked by their blue-and-yellow rashies with Malaysian flag batch and all (almost all KL windsurfers have them!).

As it turns out, the wind lasted only over half an hour blowing around 12 knots then abruptly went to dead zero – just as I get to sail out! We ended the session then headed for some drinks and more chat afterwards. For people who only get to sail once or twice every week and not guaranteed with wind, it was quite amazing seeing that none of them are complaining too much about the condition. These are a bunch of truly amazing & dedicated windsurfers whose attitude completely potraying the true meaning of the infamous phrase “There is no such thing as a bad day at the beach”. Inspiring!

As for me, the trip was well worth it just on the basis of meeting new people and visiting new spot alone!

Some pictures :

Top 10 Tips to Better Windsurfing

Syamil — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:05:16 +0000

For a sport that heavily depends on one’s personal capability & preference to doing things, it’s very difficult to be specific on the guidelines. However there are certain profound techniques that can be adapted to improve your sailing. The tips laid down below are a few of the many essentials skills and tricks that have been long practiced by the professionals then passed down to others from time to time.

Enjoy the ride –

1. Whatever you do, keep the board flat.

Beach starting, getting planing, accelerating, keeping top speed, jibing.. A flat board is a stable board, and a flat board is a fast board. Here are a few examples when a flat board will help ;

Accelerating – Before you get into plane, it’s important to not move your back foot too close to the rails. Unless it’s really blowing, this action will upset all the efforts by the fin to push the board out of the water. Next time you’re on the water, put it right in the center and feel the difference.

Jibing – Sheet in hard when entering the jibe. A sail that is fully powered through the turn will result with the sailor having to counterbalance by putting more weight on the back of the tail causing it to sink i.e the board is not flat. This reduces the speed and consequently gets you off the plane. Oversheeting will cure this so that you can stand more forward of the board to keep the nose down without feeling like you’re about to get thrown forward.

Planing – In rough chops, keeping the board flat requires a bit of skill. Do this by pointing your toes up, as if you’re locking the footstraps to your feet. Otherwise the board will fly off uncontrollably and you will lose your speed.

2. Look where you’re going

You shoulder and body respond subconsciously to the movement of your head. This can’t be more simpler than when you’re driving a car – look out of the turn instead of watching what your hands are doing, and when you’re just going forward, well, look forward. Looking where you’re going is also a good practice to build up your confidence so that you can do all the tackings and jibings even without looking at it.

3. Stretch that arms and go ape!

There are more reasons to admire the physics of a monkey than you think there is. In light wind sailing, if you can’t hang off the boom, you won’t get to plane as fast as your other ape-looking mates. And in high wind jibe, going out of the turn without a simple hang on the boom will most likely send you off a catapult, or at least force you to sheet out and get off the plane. What a waste of a nice carve. Follow these simple rules below :

Hands – If at all possible, use overhand grip ( fingers over the boom ).
Ass – Get your ass as low as possible, lowering the center of your gravity.
Legs – Keep your front leg fairly straight, while you bend that back leg to get you as far away from the sail.

4. More downhaul please

The jury is still out on this one. But the idea is, in any condition when you can’t downhaul enough, you are better off with a bigger sail with more downhaul. Obviously this is easier said than done, at least for the majority of us the poor windsurfers!

On the base of the argument, more downhaul equals greater stability and this will help enormously to absorb any sudden gust of the wind. Also, modern sails requires more downhaul to give out its maximum potential i.e for smoother sail flip, correct center of effort, sail dynamics etc. If you need more power, release the outhaul for more ‘bag’ profile instead. If the wind picks up, give more downhaul & outhaul. And if the wind’s too light that you need to release too much downhaul, get a bigger sail.

5. Harness line – It’s nothing personal

Proper harness lines adjustment is vital to optimize your sailing. There are various non-scientific approach on positioning the harness lines, but none of them are accurate nor consistent enough to suit everyone’s need. We often heard that harness lines position is personal, yet we rarely see the professionals having their harness lines set too different from each other. If you’re looking at where to start, here’s how to do it;

1 - Put the harness lines somewhere where you feel comfortable

2 - Sail for a few rounds, then adjust so that you can comfortably sail no-hand, or so that you can feel equal pressure on your hands while sailing. Look at your sail, is it fully sheeted in? Probably not.

3 - When you finally find that spot, adjust the harness lines so that your front hand will feel slightly more pressure than your back hand. Again, look at your sail, now you can easily sheet in more just by leaning out i.e using your bodyweight instead of your hands.

Further explanation : It is hard to find an all-condition setup where you can comfortably sail without too much pressure on your hands, the back one especially. By putting the lines slightly back of the boom, you are ensuring that you will be using your body-weight to do all the hard work of sheeting in instead of your hands. You will also find that this setup to be the most comfortable too.

6. Steps to better jibing – less steps

There is no right or wrong in this. A carve jibe is still a carve jibe no matter how many steps do you take during the transition. But a fast and precise foot position will ensure that your jibe will more likely exit with full speed instead of slogging half the way. Look at the steps below and try it yourself.

Ready to enter jibe at full speed
Curving the board, oversheeting to reduce pull
Front foot transition. Moving close to new position. Be quick!
Sail flip and a hang on the boom (number 7)
Front foot in the strap, back foot used to flatten the board.
Sail away full speed.

As you noticed, the crucial part of the steps above are number 2, 3, 4. These are the parts where so many people squeeze too many footworks in, resulting with unstable board. So practice, practice & practice.

7. Sail flip – Put your hand where your head is

If this is as easy to remember as to say it, then more people would have their jibes all well done.

Before you flip that sail, slide your front hand towards the boom head.

Flip the sail then catch the opposite side of the boom with your back hand.

Easy? Well yes. Try it.

8. The art of number 7

This is how Antoine Albeau looks when he broke the world’s speed sailing record at the speed of 49.09 knots. And that, my friend, is an art. Look at how the legs, body and hands can be pictured as a reverse no. 7 hanging at the tip of the boom. Getting this number 7 right is as important as every cent you have spent on your gear, so learn to do it properly:

1- Fairly straight legs – Put the boom higher for a more straight stance.

2- Hands are stretched far away from the boom – Get longer harness lines.

Experiment with your equipments to get this number 7 stance and you shall be rewarded.

9. Watch more videos

Sometimes the best method of learning is by watching. Watch how professionals do it, give attention to the movement of their hands and legs, zoom in whenever possible. Any PWA Slalom Race will be a good startiing point.

10. Best tip ever :

At the end of the day, it’s the TOW (Time on Water) that really matters the most.

Thank you for reading and happy sailing!

Kitesurfing in Malaysia

Syamil — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:56 +0000

Kitesurfing or kiteboarding landed in Malaysia when it reaches its global popularity in the early 2000, and since then gave birth to many avid kitesurfers around Malaysia map. There are several places in Malaysia where kitesurfing is possible and Balok Beach in Kuantan, Pahang is ultimately the best of the best. Other places include Cherating, Tg Balau & Kota Kinabalu.

Now if you’re coming to Malaysia or specifically Balok Beach for kitesurfing here are all the little details that you need to know about.

Location : The map can be found here

Public transportation : Main form of public transportations are buses and cabs. From Kuala Lumpur, just take the bus from Pudu Raya or Titiwangsa (both can be reached on LRT) to Kuantan, then take the cab to Pantai Balok (Balok Beach). Same method for anywhere else around Malaysia (bus+cab), just make sure that you buy the bus ticket for Kuantan.

Total driving hours from KL-Kuantan is about 3 hours plus 20 minutes from Kuantan city to Balok beach.

Airplane : Take flight to Kuantan airport, then take the cab to Balok

++ tips : There are local buses which operates between the city and Balok should you want to save a few dollars from the cab. If you need more info on this, just ask around.

Windrange/direction : Nov-March 15-25 knots NE, June – September 12-18 SW

Water condition : Flat water & shore breaks , swells up to 3m.

Launching/Landing : Very wide beach even during high tide

Accommodation : De Rhu Beach Resort 3* , Duta Sands 2* , Duta Village 2* , Swiss Garden Hotel 5*

++ There is also a well looked after camping site nearby provided by the local authority. Facilities include tent rentals, toilets with showers enough for over 50 people at any given time, mini grocery shops, fluorescent lighting system, bbq parlors etc. The site itself is a stretch of over 500msq of land covered with beautiful grassy landscape and located right next to our usual place.

Kite buddies : Most of the kitesurfers would frequent the beach every weekend, s0-called the weekend warriors and a great number of them are based in Kuala Lumpur. There are also local kitesurfers who can help you to launch the kite and to share the drinks with should you choose to stay during weekdays. Of course, you are more than invited to jump in. Just inform us either through the contact form or in the forum.

Rentals/Lessons : At your own riskkiteboardingmalaysia.com

Safety tips :

- Practice good safety habits. Be prepared to use safety helmets, life jackets, safety knives and whistles as the condition can be monstrous very quickly at times.
- Choose a place that is not too near to other beach goers. Most of them are not aware of the danger, so it will be your responsibility for any mishap.
- Please do not attempt to go out alone, bring your kite buddy with you or someone who knows where to get help.
- There is a beach guard tower operating close to the spot. As long you don’t stray away too far from them then you are more likely to be noticed should anything happened.
- Learn about the landscape and wind condition before launching. Some launching areas have whirly winds and they may be dangerous to beginners.

Conclusion: Balok beach is rated amongst the top ten of the world’s best kitesurfing playground. How true is that statement? It is for you to find out!