I announce that I’m no longer riding for Best Kiteboarding. After four great years of riding for Best it’s time for me to move on. I want to thank Best for their support and the great time that I had.

I’ve been in Cape Town for two month’s already! It has been great so far. I had some amazing freestyle and strapless wave sessions. The freestyle is going really well and I learned some really nice new tricks. Also my doubles are going really well. I am getting better and better in strapless wave riding. I’ve got already quite some footage. There will probably be three movies about Cape Town. The first movie should be online at the end of February. I’ll keep you guys posted about this.

Last week VTM (biggest national television) Telefacts made a report about the dangers of kitesurfing.
Everyone who wants to kitesurf should take lessons. www.kitesurflessen.be

I’m leaving next week for 3 months Cape Town!
I already packed my bags 120 kg! 6 kites, 2 twintips, 2 waveboards, windsurf gear,… Crazy
I got my Go Pro and HD camera so I should be able to make a nice movie about the trip.

We finally got some good and strong wind on the Belgian Championship! Onshore wind with some waves. I was able to get into the final against Christophe Tack. It was really difficult to time your tricks because the wind was pretty gusty. We did quite similar tricks, Christophe was able to do a switch lowmobe at the end which made the small difference to win the heat. Second place for me in the singles. Sunday the wind was a bit lighter. My first heat was against Thomas Dehaene for second place. I was able to win this and I could battle against Christophe for first place again. I won the first heat so I had to go again, to get first place I needed to win 2 times.Second heat against Christophe was going pretty well but I was already a bit tired from the previous heats.At the end I was able to pass a front mobe pass unfortunately my kite went to much down so I wasn’t able to land it clean.The judges decided that Christophe had won. So I am 2nd of Belgium this year. Not so bad! Congrats Christophe!The last 5 years I have been top 2 of Belgium. Two times 1st place and 3 times 2nd place.

Every year I go to Noordwijk for the KBO. I left Belgium on Friday afternoon together with Christophe Tack to register for the event: 3 days of competition. Unfortunately the wind forecast was very bad. We had sunshine but no wind. The first day we completed 2 rounds of the single elimination. I won the 2 rounds. The 2nd day there was no wind at all. In the morning of the 3rd day, wind was coming, so they decided to start really early! My first heat was at 5 AM! Everybody woke up early but the wind didn’t came. Finally we shared the 1ste place with 8 riders.

My first competition of the year :”Kites on fire!”. This competition is organized in Ostend, Belgium on May first and second. The first day unfortunately there was no wind but the second day in the evening the wind finally picked up! We competed with an expression session. Everybody went on the water at the same time. We all showed our best tricks. I felt really good and my tricks where going pretty well. The jury appreciated my riding the most. I got the first place! Sick! The next competition to attend, will be the KBO in The Netherlands.

Time for a special trip!!
I do not have a schedule. I left Belgium the first week of February and drive south. My goal is to escape freezing Belgium. No easy tropical trip, but I am looking for extreme conditions : big waves, 10 degrees and then try do push the freestyle, waveriding and surfing.I want to learn more about the waves and use them in my advantage. I almost drowned a couple of times this week, but that’s part of the game. I try to hold my breath a little longer Last week I went to: Hossegor, Biarritz, Zarautz, Laredo, Berria,Oyombre, El mongol, Tapia de Casariego and many more. Maybe I will be heading to Portugal, never been there before or maybe not. I am not sure yet… This trip has already changed a lot of things for me and I learned so many new tricks and new approaches
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My kiteschools new website is online, check it out : www.kitesurflessen.be (only Dutch…) New for 2010 : private freestyle lessons. How to push yourself to the next level. Do you want to attend some competitions, learn new tricks or maybe your trick is not working? Together we will make it work!
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Alright I am heading to the beach now.
Adios!