Jurjen van der Noord will attack world record speedsurfing in Africa

Dutch windsurfer Jurjen van der Noord (32) will attack the standing World Record in speedsurfing. From the 9th to the 22nd of November this year, hailing from Friesland, northern Netherlands, the currently leader in the GPS world ranking will go at it with the best of the best in global speedsurfing in Africa. Jurjen has already approached the world record (90 kmh) three times earlier this year, and during the annual speed event in the Namibian coastal town of Lüderitz, he will attempt to break through that barrier.

The current record is held by Frenchman Antoine Albeau. Although Van der Noord combines his sport with a full-time profession, he is seen as one of the very few who is able to go over the 50 knot barrier (almost 93kmh). 2012 he already broke his own records three times: In June he even went over the mystical 50 knots with a small margin, but official GPS regulations demand that this average speed has to be maintained over a length of 500 meters.

To achieve that goal, Jurjen joins the world’s elite in kite- and windsurfing from all over the world in Namibia. The International event has not seen as much participants as it currently will have in years, and Lüderitz will dish up ideal conditions with a constant 8 to 9 beaufort and a 1 kilometer, 8 meter wide canal, under the perfect wind angle, allowing windsurfers to accelerate to an absolute maximum.

Van der Noord’s gear is supplied by Starboard en Severne and both sail and board manufacturers have tuned the gear to an inch of its life to help Jurjen go as fast as he possibly can. Van der Noord has been around for some time in speedsurfing in 2006 he dedicated himself to speedsurfing as much as possible. Thanks to recent developments in GPS technology more and more windsurfers are drawn to the kick of going as fast as humanly possible. The admins at gps-speedsurfing.com currently maintains over 5.000 active member profiles worldwide including an impressive collection of personal speedrecords by every member.

Because of the Dutch’s relationship with elements, and the abundance of wind and water, the Dutch are a force to be reckoned with in the world rankings.

Jurjen’s efforts can be monitored on facebook/jurjenvandernoord

Photo’s are shot by Angelo Pecere for the movie ‘The ghosts of Speed’.