Why Balok? I really love Balok, I love her like a baby, none of the these issues really matters to me. I get used & live with it. But let's look at a few issues ...
Erik Loots on SpeedsurfingBLOG.com has posted about 100 Windsurfing blogs, after 3 months of searching. It’s an interesting list, and the names include some famous windsurfers like Sean O’Brien, Kevin Pritchard, Chris pressler, Robby Swift & more.
You can view the post here.
3 to 5 April 2009
Jomtien Beach, Pattaya, Thailand
Class: Formula, Slalom, RSX, IMCO, Raceboard and Bic techno (youth)
Pattaya has received contestants from many countries for the race namely Austria, England, Canada, France, German, Hongkong, China, Singapore, South Korean, Japan, Denmark, Poland, Italy, Spain etc.
The Event was supposed to be held in December 2008, then postponed to January, and after some further arrangement changed its date to 3rd of April. Read more about it here update : Sorry for the wrong information, here’s Ong from Singapore correcting it for me,
http://balokwindjunkies.blogspot.com/2009/04/pattaya-cup-2009.html
Reference to your page above, pls note that the Pattaya conducted two events -
Jan – RSX Youth World 2008 (SG sent two RSX windsurfers) [see video clip in my facebook]
Apr – Thailand Windsurfing Championship 2009 [photos will be uploaded shortly]Wishing you a plane surfing.
Ong PH
Thanks Ong!
Our friends from the Singaporean’s Youth Olympic Game YOG sent a whole bunch of their squadron to Pattaya for this event. My best wishes to all of them.
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Update: Chris Ting written a post about the event here.
Summaries of the event; Wind was not really that great, so no FW race, only raceboards & RS-X.
Why Balok? I really love Balok, I love her like a baby, none of the these issues really matters to me. I get used & live with it. But let’s look at a few issues about Balok that some people may have not noticed or just plain ignore it.
Geography – During NE monsoon season, the bay is protected by the long headland (named Tanjong Gelang). As result the wind is gusty, inconsistent and not blowing at its full potential. For wave lovers out there the waves too are smaller than it should have been. This is the same reason that why, when you sailed far enough from the beach, you’d feel sudden hike in wind strength & density, not to mention bigger swells.
Hygienic – We all know and sometimes try to ignore that the water is seriously muddy at times, so called the ‘teh-tarek’. Close to the beach is the river which is the culprit that, well let’s be honest, not really that clean. Balok dumps its domestic waste into this river, directly from kitchens & toilets ( pardon the truth! ). If you watch closely at the map of Balok, you can see there’s a long small waterline connecting the main river to nearby well-packed & highly developed area. Who knows what goes in the water. continue reading...
Need I say more?
I will be holding FREE Windsurfing Lesson 101 course on each weekend starting this week. Anyone particularly interested please kindly contact me here.
The objective is to introduce windsurfing to any young blood wishing to experience windsurfing first hand. The course will include all the basic things you need to know about windsurfing namely rigging, foot positioning, balancing, up-hauling, maneuvering & some other safety issues.
Please contact me in advance to arrange time & date.
And did I mention it’s FREE? Yup. So just bring your sunblock lotion and drinks!
See you on the water!
You guessed that right. NE wind is still blowing, and it’s blowing real hard. Something around 12-15 knots is an understatement when you’re past the island (Pulau Batu Balok), it was a storm out there! Somehow I felt guilty if I did scare some people off the beach from my previous post. But that’s really how things work around here, sometimes you get lucky.
Well anyway, i remember hearing a veteran said during the opening of monsoon season, that “..it’s going to last for some time since it came a bit late this year..” Take that with a pinch of salt. (end of post)
Despite not being a local, George Warren needs not to be introduced among the Malaysian windsurfers. Nicknamed K-21, George has ventured almost every coast and every channel in the Malaysia map starting from the 80’s up until now where he commonly resides at a little place called Duta Village, Kuantan. He was also one of the organizers for the Malaysian leg of the well-pronounced Asian Windsurfing Tour (AWT), The Monsoon Madness in Kuantan for 10 years.
Although currently living in the UK, K-21 would return at least twice a year to Malaysia, particularly during NE Monsoon Season and SW season. With over 25 years of experience and still going strong, he sure is living up to his name as being one of Malaysia’s legendary windsurfers.
George will be leaving for UK the next day, so I decided to have a little chat with him. Read on. continue reading...
South-West (SW) or rather more accurately, South-East wind has arrived. As suspected, the wind strength is not something to be proud of. Time to rig up the big sails and big boards. On a kite, you’d be looking at something in the range of 16m2 minimum for C-kites and probably 14m2 for bow kites. Bigger kiteboards is also recommended.
The wind range is probably between 6 to 12 knots max. You can still anticipate for sudden wind hike due to storms, that could sometimes gusting up to 30 knots if you’re lucky ( no pun intended ). This type of storm is quite common as far as SW wind is concern.
All in all, don’t write off the wind in Balok. It was not named as the WINDIEST place in Malaysia for nothing, and obviously not just because of it’s Monsoon season.
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