Since the temperature here in The Netherlands dropped below zero the ice surfing fever turned up again. Together with my friend Leendert we decided to make a new concept for an ice surfer. Because last year (winter 2008-2009) we finally had enough ice to actually stand on since 12 years, we needed to create something new. During this winter we already bought equipment to develop this new skate concept but when the gear arrived the ice was gone already... But right now it looks to be getting good again so we are working hard to have it ready when the ice is ready.

We watched many different ice surf boards from other people and we liked the skate versions the most since they are able to give you some sort of a windsurf feeling. I already made a triangle ice board during last winter and this was working pretty OK, but I missed the feeling to be able to actually steer and go where ever you wanted to go. It's also let dangerous because you are able to steer away from normal ice skaters who's didn't see you in time to avoid a crash. I think the ice skate board will be a bit slower then a triangle board but for me that's no big deal. Anyway, we bought 2 mountain board trucks which has to be in a 15 - 35 degree underneath the board to be able to steer. So if you want to steer very sharp you have to make it in a 45 degree angle for slalom/freestyle effect, and if you want to go for speed/course race you put it into a 15 degree angle or even less. The trucks have 2 springs with rubber joints inside to make the steering more stiff and with 2 bolts its possible to put it even more stiffer. Because the trucks are about 40cm wide, we needed to make these wider by using some metal tubes and blades. Thanks to my buddy Harald who's a professional welder he made me some perfect wider trucks, and with slightly curved stainless steel skate blades it made the trucks complete. Now I only had to make a board deck from wood, but I got a new idea when I saw an old wake board in our garage. Because these boards are not super stiff, it will bend when I go stand in the middle of the board so I can steer more since the trucks will be more in sharper angle. If I don't want to steer I will be standing more in the back so the degree is less. Unfortunately we haven't been able to test this yet, so there's no warranty that it will work, but as soon as the ice is OK we'll go for it!! And we still need to do more work like adding footstraps and the place for the base plate, etc...

Check out some first sneak preview shots:

News results per-page: 5 | 10 | 20 | 50 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | next Published: Thursday, 24 December ´09 Keeping busy during the winter Since the temperature here in The Netherlands dropped below zero the ice surfing fever turned up again. Together with my friend Leendert we decided to make a new concept for an ice surfer Published: Friday, 27 November ´09 Fortaleza day three - report Report about day three, with 3 more races finished Published: Thursday, 26 November ´09 Fortaleza day two - report Short summary about day 2 Published: Wednesday, 25 November ´09 Fortaleza day one - report Summary about day one here in Fortaleza, Brasil. Published: Wednesday, 25 November ´09 Fortaleza day zero Short summary about my trip to fortaleza at the first competition day | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | next