Surf Shops, Tandems and Lily Allen.
Posted on July 12, 2008 in 2008, Netherlands
Last year one of Holland’s biggest surfshops, SurfCenter, opened the doors to its all new and bigger new location at Steendam, in northern Holland. Today, Markus and myself decided to visit Jack and the boys at SurfCenter to check it out and also pick up a few spare parts for myself. Of course, in true dutch style it was pouring with rain when we arrived, but later that afternoon the sun did show itself and we were able to go sailing on the lake with the Starboard Tandem board for a bit of fun …
Let me just quickly say that if you need anything for windsurfing you should head straight down to the SurfCenter immediately. The stock they carry is just incredible; nearly every single board and sail brand not to mention a huge selection of wetsuits, clothing, wakeboards and I did even spy a few bodyboards leaning against a window at one point. Amazing! The staff there are top notch and definitely know their gear …
Ok, back to the Tandem board expedition because this was really cool!
This was both Markus and my first ever sail on a tandem board despite these new wider versions from Starboard having been around a while now. The wind was fairly light (around 6 knots with gusts of 12 knots if we were lucky) however we managed to lift the board (it weighs like +25kg or so!) into the water and with an 8.5m/7.5m Severne combo we headed out into the middle of the lake. Might I just add that we managed to get planing, complete 3-4 gybes and tacks without once falling off or hitting each other in the head with the boom! Nice one.
Apparently, there is a Tandem World Championships happening in France later this year… I think we will be making an appearance :-/
Check out this video below for the full experience caught on film. Even if that film was an 80 euro digital still camera… haha.
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Sean
O'Brien is a 24 year old Professional Windsurfer hailing from Brisbane, Australia
- a purpose driven elite 
7 Comments so far ...
[ #1 ]
Chris
July 14th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
You must be famous….they had a welcome sign out the front with your name on it…. : D
[ #2 ]
Sean OBrien
July 15th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Yeap. I’m big in Europe ;)
[ #3 ]
Mr Surfcenter.nl
July 16th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Tandem GEMINI World Cup
12/13/14 september 2008
La Rochelle, France
The first W.C. for Gemini tandem windsurfers.
More info on: http://www.cnangoulins.com/worldtandem
[ #4 ]
Mr Surfcenter.nl
July 16th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Owh yeah by the way.. What the F^#K does that girl say on your ‘Sean in town video’? I’m the mistress of Markus?? Spank the monkey baby.. Hell yeah!!! Gnarly! :)
[ #5 ]
Sean OBrien
July 16th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Hahaha, yeah, I think she is saying “I’m the mistress of this guy” or something. How random?! She just walked up to us as we were filming the video ~ pretty funny!
Sweet. Will definitely have to check out the Tandem Worlds ;)
[ #6 ]
Chris
July 18th, 2008 at 12:20 am
Tandem worlds are at the same time as the Formula worlds. : (
[ #7 ]
Sean OBrien
July 18th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Yeah, just realised that. Devo’d!!
Oh well, will just have to stick to single-windsurfing for the time being.
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