Folks, I thought I would create this regular update from Luderitz in an attempt to let you know how doable it is and to get more Aussies over for the Luderitz Speed Challenge in future years. Plus I am doing research whilst I am here so if anyone does want to come, you can do it at the lowest investment possible. The updates will be random but hopefully helpful and go some way to dispel some myths I certainly had before coming here!I also invite you to ask any questions if you are considering a trip out here. It may take me a while to respond depending on the conditions as we tend to race around to repairing our gear and getting ready for the day. Please ask away, if you have any questions.A little bit about me - I have been a passionate wavesailor and competed in Oz for over 30 years and also dabbled in racing and speed in the UK in the late 80's. My highest peak speed before I came to Luderitz was 39.3knots so pretty average in skill bit would describe myself as low in speed knowledge really. I am currently 105kg but raised my weight up from 89 kgs 9 months ago - more of that later. I live in Sydney so my local spots are Primbee and St George Sailing club. I am very proudly a member of the St George SC Speed Team but have rarely contributed to their points, I typically leave that honour to Tim Sellars and Baz East! To be frank I have always enjoyed very strong winds of 40-60knots and have been one of the few wavesailors to go out in those conditions on a 3.6m2 sail, so I felt that would work in my favour in a strong wind location like Luderitz!I am sponsored by WSS Boards and will unashamedly plug them every now and then to return the favour of their loyalty to me over the last 25 years of competing in the waves.Firstly the WHY! The reasons I came here to Luderitz were threefold:1. Improve my PB - The canal and its consistent v strong winds! I am impatient by nature and had the ****s chasing the big winds and flat water around Sydney and surrounds plus Lake George. It seemed like a lot of hard work for little reward so I thought I would jump in boots 'n' all and go to the best speed spot in the world2. The adventure. I used to live in Zambia as a kid and have travelled here a few times. Africa is one of the last bastions of true adventure and the fun police have not imposed themselves too much.3. To learn. I wanted to hang with the best in the world and take my speed sailing knowledge from average to at least above average.So here begins this random forum

So how did I get here?I flew with Qantas, Sydney to Johannesburg to Cape Town. Then I hired Volkswagen Polo Vivo Hatch for Rand12,000 (AU$1000) for 31 days = $32 a day (with roof rack that I have never used) which fits all my gear and drove the 12hrs North from Cape Town to Luderitz. I stopped overnight in a nice B&B called Annies place in Springbok (6hrs hours north of Cape Town) and nearly hit a wart hog as I drove into town in the dark! Pic of Annies place is belowThe drive is spectacular, especially the last 6 hours driving through the Namibian desert and the every changing scenery.What gear did I take?5.2 Neil Pryde Evo 125.6 Severne Reflex (8 years old!)

JP 45 speed board, 2 masts,2 booms,
3 fins - 18.5cm assy Starboard - Lockwood for use on Canal.
20cm assy starboard - Z fin for use on Canal.
20cm assy port - Z fin (for use on DIaz Point.
I picked up a 40cm AV speed board and fin from a competitor in Luderitz.total weight of gear was 52kg.7kg hand luggage30kgs windsurf gear
15kgs couriered by pack n send and cost me $550 (send 2 weeks in advance if you do this)I ordered 10kg of lead in advance from a shop in Cape Town and picked it up on the way through (shop called lead and solder sales and lead cost me Rand1500 AU$130and I have a full spread sheeted kit list if anyone ever wants itThe View that greets you as you arrive in Luderitz

My room in Annies B&B in Sprinbok!

The real African experience.

Super interesting - thanks for posting, keep it coming
Good luck !!

Myth Busting or NotSome myth busting and interesting facts about the event:

The wind howls non stop! - not the case!We did not have enough wind to sail on the canal for the whole first week and instead we sailed at a very good spot called Point Diaz which is 19km from Luderitz and a port task sweeping beach with prevailing cross off shore winds that saw the likes of Vincent Valkeners and others with a vmax at over 50knots. In fact a lot of the pro's sail at this point instead of the canal if the forecast is less than 30knots. This point tends to get 15 knots more than the canal but the canal is best for 30knots plus. Most of the seasoned Luderitz Speed Challenge sailors say they get on the canal 50% of the days they are here.The Luderitz canal is only for young powerful or big guys - not the caseOne guy who attends every year is 67 years old. He admits to not going on the canal at 45knots plus.I would say 70% of sailors are 85kg or less and 20% are 85 to 100kgs and 10% heavier than that with the powerful tanks like Bjorn Dunkerbeck around 115kg in weight
Everyone wears weight jackets - mostly true but not all.
Most people wear up to 8kg. They randomly and rarely test your buoyancy by getting you to lie in the water full kitted up and see if you float. Little Heidi Ullrich wears up to 3 weight jackets and 16kgs and is still buoyant but she is the extreme case and she is a powerful woman.

Its expensive to Enter - YES it is
the entry fee is EURO1200 (AU$1850) per week and the comp runs for 4 weeks = AU$7400 if you do all weeks like I did. If I had my time again I would just do the last 3 weeks of November as regular LSC attendees say it rarely blows in the first week. It is expensive because they pay 10 Africans to dig the canal out and prepare it for 12 months before the event! You also get a free rash vest for the money! Typically people can register and pay from March each year and the comp usually runs for all of November when the prevailing sea breezes kick in. For me, I was going to replace my aging van but decided to invest in this experience instead and stay with my beloved rust bucket for another year or 2. This said, food and drinks are cheap. A beers is AU$2.50 and its as cheap to eat out every night versus buy in the supermarket.
Aerial shot of Point Diaz by Oisin van Gelderen



And you get a nice rashie included in the price!

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azymuth said..
Super interesting - thanks for posting, keep it coming
Good luck !!

I hope it is interesting. I certainly wished I had known all this stuff when I was planning this trip!

Wow well done , would love to do

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aussieboats said..
Wow well done , would love to do

Seriously, it's so doable. May Nov 2023 for you? Hopefully this forum post will give you the short cuts and keep the budget down as much as possible

Another myth busted.It's super dangerous - not really. It depends how you approach it
Yes we have seen the videos of people flick flacking down the course in a crash but it very rarely happens apparently. Thomas Moldenhauer has said he has never crashed in all the years he comes here and former Boards magazine tester Oisin van Gelderen talks of a "self preservation" approach where you pick your times to go down the course. Not everyone is chasing the 100kmh average speed down the 500m course. Many of the old hands only head down the course for 4 or 5 runs a day when they can see its working at the right speed and direction. There is a live anemometer reading in the lunch area so you can see how the wind is tracking throughout the day.One danger for the common competitor is sailing too close to the windward sandbags and then falling into a lull and then you start backing up wind into the sandbags! The solution is to keep a couple of meters downwind of the sandbags in gusty conditions!

Very interesting, thanks for doing the reports.

Good Luck and great insight, if Point Diaz is 15+ knts windier than the canal why don't they build the a new canal there?

Great write up.
On the subject of injuries do they have any medics etc on hand and can you get insurance?
My prang was interstate in Australia and ended up costing me several thousand with extra accommodation and air fares for my partner to come down to drive me back. He didn't ask for me to cover them but I felt I should.
That was with Medicare covering all hospital costs and physiotherapy.
I had covid health insurance for accommodation etc . It covered sporting injuries.. e.g - golfing accidents but not sailboarding.

Great information Jason, good luck with it all over there!!

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choco said..
Good Luck and great insight, if Point Diaz is 15+ knts windier than the canal why don't they build the a new canal there?

Good point, looking at the beach I think it would be logistically too hard to get the water into a man made canal up there. The tides fill the current canal and then they use pumps to top it up at high tide. I will ask and come back to you

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sboardcrazy said..
Great write up.
On the subject of injuries do they have any medics etc on hand and can you get insurance?
My prang was interstate in Australia and ended up costing me several thousand with extra accommodation and air fares for my partner to come down to drive me back. He didn't ask for me to cover them but I felt I should.
That was with Medicare covering all hospital costs and physiotherapy.
I had covid health insurance for accommodation etc . It covered sporting injuries.. e.g - golfing accidents but not sailboarding.

I managed to get insurance that did not exclude sailboarding. Rather than wake the sleeping dog and mention them, PM me and I will send you the details.there is an emergency team on hand to get people to hospital in case of a bad crash but hospitals are not great here but at least they have one within 20km! I went there for a broken toe yesterday!

They dropped a video update after 2 days of competition

Great job in your information summary Jason and certainly appreciated. Great to see your pb which shows the 50+ must be in your sites in the stonger wind to come. Push hard??

That's awesome Jase! And what a start for you too congrats! Good luck over the next few weeks.

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WoodyMark said..
Great job in your information summary Jason and certainly appreciated. Great to see your pb which shows the 50+ must be in your sites in the stonger wind to come. Push hard

Thanks for the updates Jase. Some things have changed a bit and some things remain the same since a group of us were there in 2013.
Where are you staying? Did they offer you a good deal at the Luderitz Nest Hotel, or have they dropped that?

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sailquik said..
Thanks for the updates Jase. Some things have changed a bit and some things remain the same since a group of us were there in 2013.
Where are you staying? Did they offer you a good deal at the Luderitz Nest Hotel, or have they dropped that?

G'day Sailquik, yeah a lot of the LSC sailors here fondly talk about the Aussies from 2013, you all made your mark. Yes the Luderitz Nest Hotel still provide 30% off their published B&B rates. I am conscious they are event sponsor but to be frank there is a lot cheaper accommodation around. I am staying at a new place called Wild Horses B&B +264814218542 for the month at AU$33 a night. Plus there are other cheap B&B's in town like element-riders.com It's much better to book with them direct versus using booking.com

Good to hear. Yes, there were always other more economical options, but we really enjoyed the Luderitz Nest experience.

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WoodyMark said..
Great job in your information summary Jason and certainly appreciated. Great to see your pb which shows the 50+ must be in your sites in the stonger wind to come. Push hard

A interesting yt video from Nils Bach :

Awesome thread well done, looking forward to more updates. One question, I'm assuming with the v-logs etc that get posted there is some decent internet somewhere? I'd love to do a bit of training and do it one year, to go for a month tho I'd need to be able to work on some off days or evenings...

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cald said..
Awesome thread well done, looking forward to more updates. One question, I'm assuming with the v-logs etc that get posted there is some decent internet somewhere? I'd love to do a bit of training and do it one year, to go for a month tho I'd need to be able to work on some off days or evenings...

G'day Cald,Yes most accommodation has reasonable internet and wi-fi. I have been doing many zoom and teams meetings from my apartment (Wild Horses B&B) with no issues. I just did a www.speedtest.net/ and got 2.79mbps download speed and 1.17mbps upload which is slow but seems to work for what I need. I will ask other LSC sailors what their net speeds are for their different accommodation and let you know the breakdown by apartment.I have been working 35hrs a week whilst I have been here and other LSC sailors have been doing upwards of 40hrs a week and still sailing when it blows.Typically the wind does not blow before 1pm (on Pt DIaz or the canal) and yesterday the event director Raffeallo Gardelli told me in all the years he has run the event he has rarely seen anyone on the canal before 12noon. So that gives a good 3-5 hrs you can work before you head to the canal. I have been doing work zoom meetings at 7-9am (Namibian time) = 4-6pm (AEST). Plus remember during this trip I am getting 50% sailing days so there is heaps of extra time to work if you need to or don't have enough leave racked up.I actually didn't want to work whilst I was here but it has become a necessity.I hope this answers your question CALDcheersJasonPS a pic of my "office" is below (I do have a table in my apartment too!)

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rp6conrad said..
A interesting yt video from Nils Bach :

Yeah Nils creates good content and is very likeable. I had dinner with him last night and he was saying he makes more money from his channel when people watch the ads all the way through! So please help him out by doing so :)HE has a lot more content planned for the remaining 13 days of this event - enjoy

Hi Jason. Good reading. My question is: Do they treat the water to improve rider speed ?

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WoodyMark said..
Great job in your information summary Jason and certainly appreciated. Great to see your pb which shows the 50+ must be in your sites in the stonger wind to come. Push hard??

thanks WoodyMarkTo be frank 50+ knots didn't even enter my mind before the last few days but as much as it concerns me putting it out there publicly, with 40 knots and wind at SSE it could be possible for a heavyweight like me.Plus yesterday Bjorn said that my 47.27knot max was "amazing" on an 8 year old second hand 5.6 Severne R5 overdrive sail and then he went on to say he would organise a Severne Mach 2 sail for me to borrow so the right gear should help my cause too.I have a bit of history of "pushing hard", sometimes too hard and I move into the reckless zone. I have adopted a modicum of self preservation here as I am over time in hospitals and the time it takes to heal at 57 years young!All said, I'm happy to just keep having FUN on the water.

Awesome right up Jas and thanks for sharing Good luck with the rest of the trip.

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jn1 said..
Hi Jason. Good reading. My question is: Do they treat the water to improve rider speed ?

Gday jn1no, they pump it in untreated straight from the ocean. It does seem to be a bit more saline to me though (stinging eyes), I guess the water evaporates to some extent as a closed body of water. That said there is a wind chill factor effect here because the wind is blowing over the ocean and the current sea temperature is 13oC. Hence you will see some people wearing beanies and puffer jackets to keep them warm.I wear a 3/4 steamer and wetsuit vest underneath and am still a bit cold by the end of the day.I digressed a bit there but you get the idea. I hope it helpscheers

Thanks Jase. All the best. I'll be reading