Surf Shops, Tandems and Lily Allen.

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.