Hey Brad, do you think you have learnt from Luderitz and Improved, if so explain?

Good question Hardz. I quess there were just alot of lessons on reflection. I was very prepared physically but managed to strain my back secound day i was there. Think my spine locked up a bit after the long flight & i probably didn't warm up enough before exercising. 

Take all your equipment - cause of the excess baggage charges i decided to only take my custom 42. I had convinced myself that i was only going for the purpose of doing 50knts. Even when its not that windy & they open the course the competitor inside still wants to do well & not having a bigger board was a hinderance. Most competitors had 44 or 45 speed boards with them as well.

adjustments super thin carbon asy fin is also a necessity.

 Most of the sailing lessons were fairly specific to the canal. Being able to jump start get into harness & straps quickly is essential for a good run. Antoine was clearly the best at this and that showed with consistently good runs. Also having his girl friend driving him to the top of the course again in his van so he didn't have to wait on trailer was an advantage effectively jumping the que and doing more runs.

Having confidence to be able to do the laydown & round up to stop with out crashing & blocking out fear of running down a narrow canal are essential. While i never got the opportunity to do any fully powered runs i'm confident i had the skills needed.

Would i go again? I think everyone there was in agreeance that the canal wasn't in the condition it should have been. The organisers would need to be prepared to listen to the competitors & make adjustments if required to give everyone the best chance at breaking records.