WELCOME TO THE GAASTRA E-STORE BLOG

GAASTRA Rad FYTS 4.11 Men, avail­able from feb­ru­ary 2012

By this announce­ment we were very delighted – since in the upcom­ing year you wear Gaas­tra both on skin and on asphalt: Founder of idworx Bikes and quality-enthusiast Ger­rit Gaas­tra brings out in feb­ru­ary 2012 the new bike brand Gaas­tra with the kick-off of a new gen­er­a­tion of the iconic FYTS bicyles. For the first time in fam­ily his­tory under one’s own name. With found­ing father and bicyle-pioneer Andries Gaas­tra in 1904, the first progress of the FYTS bike began in Frisian Heeren­veen – under the brand name ‘Batavus’ (still pro­duc­ing in Heeren­veen), the wheeled suc­cess story took its course. The for­ma­tion of bike brand ‘Koga Miy­ata’ by his son fol­lowed and then idworx Bikes by great-granson Ger­rit Gaas­tra – recently voted as the best ‘Trekking­bike brand 2011′ in the ger­man bike mag­a­zine RADtouren.

Now, the new bike brand GAASTRA in 2012! The two start­ing mod­els GAASTRA FYTS 4.14 & FYTS 4.11 per­suade as high-value steel city– and trekking­bikes with pre­ci­sion and fine details like the lite exzen­ter bot­tom bracket: Due to its bal­anced geom­e­try and wide tires, the baloonbike-concept makes sure a com­fort­able ride in every sit­u­a­tion – whether in day-to-day life or dur­ing longer bike trips, sit­ting posi­tion and arms are relaxed and in addi­tion nerves as well: Owing to pre­mium mate­ri­als and work­man­ship, you go into gear the low-maintenance way on the new GAASTRA bikes for women and men. Whether Gaas­tra Sports­wear or high-class bicy­cles: Qual­ity has an obvi­ous syn­onym: Gaas­tra!

Magie des Segelns, Franco Pace Best of, Delius Klas­ing pub­lisher — Gaas­tra blog recommendation

On 200 pages, the recent most excit­ing pub­li­ca­tion in the genre of high-class sail­ing pho­tog­ra­phy anchor­ings in the Franco Pace Best of Cof­fee Table Book ‘Magic of Sail­ing’ with a col­lec­tion of his 100 best sail­ing pho­tog­ra­phy: Since now more than thirty years, the in Tri­este born renowned yacht pho­tog­ra­pher Pace cap­tures in his pho­tog­ra­phy in an excep­tional way the magic of sail­ing at inter­na­tional regat­tas like the America’s Cup, the Copa del Rey and the Maxi Rolex Yacht Cup.

The lux­u­ri­ously dec­o­rated illus­trated book, reflects Paces’ pho­to­graphic life­work in a very per­sonal way. In addi­tion dec­o­rated with in-depth descrip­tions (only in Ger­man), the reader dips in the par­tic­u­lar his­tory and sit­u­a­tion of the pho­tog­ra­phy and expe­ri­ences the magic of sail­ing the pho­to­graphic and nar­ra­tive way at the same time. Rang­ing from clas­si­cal yachts as the staged ALTAIR, MARIETTE und AGNETA at the Sar­din­ian Vet­eran Boat Ral­lye in sep­tem­ber 1982, the rac­ing yacht clas­sic MARIQUITA at Mahón in august 2006 dur­ing the IV Copa del Rey de Bar­cos de Época, the 12-metres-R-yacht VELSHEDA at a world cham­pi­onship of the Yacht Club Costa Smer­alda at Porto Cervo in june 1984, the Philippe Starck designed VIRTUELLE at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in sep­tem­ber 2002, the CAMBRIA with the 47,8 metres high mas­sive mast at Cannes in sep­tem­ber 2007 at the regates royales, to the POLYTROPON, the white boat –pho­tographed at Greece Cape Sounion in front of dark rocks, shin­ing with the pil­lars of the god of winds posei­don tem­ple on the height.

Let your­self blow away as well by Franco Pace’s sail­ing illus­trated pho­tog­ra­phy book ‘Magic of Sail­ing’ and grab your chance: We raf­fle 1 exclu­sive sam­ple for our Gaas­tra blog read­ers worth 49,90 €! Sim­ply leave a com­ment in this blog entry until the 10^th novem­ber 2011 includ­ing. The win­ner will be informed per­son­ally via e-mail and will be announced in the com­men­tary box of this entry. Best of luck! „Magie des Segelns“, Best of Franco Pace has been pub­lished at the renowned Delius Klas­ing house, which cel­e­brates its 100^th jubilee this year. As a spe­cial­ist pub­lisher includ­ing water sports lit­er­a­ture and pub­lisher of the pop­u­lar Ger­man mag­a­zines ‘Boote’ and ‘Yacht’, the new Delius Klas­ing pro­gramme enfolds more than 1000 titles. Gaas­tra con­grat­u­lates and per­haps you next week!

Folk­boat at a sail­ing regatta at Laboe, wiki­me­dia, author Voll­w­ert­BIT, Cre­ative Com­mons License

Swe­den, late sum­mer 1941: The Royal Swedish Sail­ing Asso­ci­a­tion (Skan­di­navisk Sei­jler­for­bund) pub­lishes the final draw­ings and build­ing reg­u­la­tions for the Nordic Folk­boat. In total, 59 design drafts have been sub­mit­ted – a num­ber non-expected to attend – the jury made their choice on. The basic idea for a ‘scan­di­na­vian unity-class’ moved into gear already 1939 through C.G. Fast, mem­ber of the Gothen­burg Sail­ing Asso­ci­a­tion on the Scan­di­na­vian sailors day. Chal­lenges which have been made on the Nordic Folk­boat, were a rel­a­tively advan­ta­geously priced pro­duc­tion, made of local lum­bers, and afford­ing a bed­room and liv­ing space for three to four people.

Today the all­rounder Folk­boat has an inter­na­tional fan­base from Europe to the USA with more than 4000 by now built boats. The Ger­man Folk­boat Asso­ci­a­tion is firmly estab­lished in the Nordic Folk­boat cul­ture and counts a proud num­ber of about 800 mem­bers. For all, who would like to respire this his­toric airstream, we rec­om­mend you the oncom­ing hanse­boot boat­show 2011 at Ham­burg. With a spe­cial exhi­bi­tion area on 200 square metres in fair hall B4 (open­ing 29 octo­ber, 16 pm) with boats of 7 decades and the pre­miere of a spe­cial edi­tion, the 70th Folk­boat birth­day will be cel­e­brated on the 52. boat­show edi­tion of the hanse­boot 2011. Fit­ting, nautical-solid ele­gance for Men and Women on– and off­shore offers you the lat­est Gaas­tra Basic Col­lec­tion with all­rounders per­fect to com­bi­nate like Gaas­tra shirts, blouses polos, pullovers and win­ter­jack­ets. Ahoy and Happy Birthday!

Sail­ing Cal­en­dar 2012, DuMont cal­en­dar pub­lisher, Hein­rich Hecht Photography

Stream­lined yachts, impos­ing tall ships, unique per­spec­tives: Pho­tog­ra­pher Hein­rich Hecht, ded­i­cated sailor him­self and for­merly press spokesman of the Ger­man regatta ‘Kieler Woche’, refreshes the eyes of demand­ing water sport friends with his lat­est sail­ing pho­tog­ra­phy. The pub­lished by DuMont sail­ing cal­en­dar 2012, anchors in its cal­en­dar pro­gramm 2012 – includ­ing more than 250 titles in sea & coast, land­scape, jour­ney and sports amongst oth­ers– in an ele­gant por­trait for­mat (33,8 cm x 68,5 cm). Esti­mated for its qual­ity cal­en­dars made in Ger­many since 55 years, the DuMont cal­en­dar pub­lisher has been rewarded this year anew.

On the Frank­furt Book Fair 2011, eight titles belonged to the award win­ners within the gre­gor inter­na­tional cal­en­dar award 2012: The photo art cal­en­dar ‘Water­colour’ and the ‘Turnowsky Together Chil­dren Cal­en­dar“, each one has been dec­o­rated with one gold medal. Gaas­tra con­grat­u­lates! For our Gaas­tra blog read­ers, we raf­fle 2 Hein­rich Hecht Sail­ing Long Size Cal­en­dars 2012 worth 24,99 € — to par­tic­i­pate, just leave a com­men­tary at the end of this blog entry until 27 octo­ber 2011 mid­night at the lat­est reveal­ing your favourite motiv of the sail­ing cal­en­dar 2012. The win­ners will be informed via email and announced in this blog entry at the end of the Gaas­tra blog sweepstake!

Sail­ing Cal­en­dar 2012, DuMont cal­en­dar pub­lisher, inside view

Sail­ing Cal­en­dar 2012, DuMont Cal­en­dar pub­lisher, inner view 04

Sail­ing Cal­en­dar 2012, Hein­rich Hecht Pho­tog­ra­phy, inner view 08

Sail­ing Cal­en­dar 2012, Hein­rich Hecht Pho­tog­ra­phy, inner view 10

Gaas­tra Super-Fans in the Cala Sal­ada Bay of Ibiza

As far as pas­sion can go for Gaas­tra, prove our Gaas­tra Super-Fans in the dream­like bay of hol­i­day par­adise Cala Sal­ada at Ibiza. Puris­ti­cally held in Gaas­tra design and with Gaas­tra logo, presents the sail­ing boat of our Gaas­tra friends in the by pri­vate boat own­ers esti­mated and beyond the tourist fer­ries sit­u­ated bay of Cala Salada.

Only four kilo­me­tres away of San Anto­nio, sur­rounded by mediter­ranean pine­for­ests and nearby to ‘The Caves at Ses Fontanelles’ – pop­u­lar for their cave paint­ings of the Bronze age and indeed worth a visit – locates the hol­i­day– and vaca­tion par­adise Cala Sal­ada with its golden yel­low sand and clear waters. PS: In case you spot our Gaas­tra Super-Fans, feel free to make them a com­pli­ment Gaas­tra – pure nau­ti­cal pas­sion since 1897!

Gaas­tra Blog rec­om­mends music of Nylon band, www.nylon-music.de

For clos­ing of sum­mer, we take you on a boa­trip through musi­cal fresh water: The Ger­man band Nylon with the esti­mated female jazz-singer Lisa Bas­senge, bassist Paul Kle­ber, key­boarder Hagen Dem­min and Arnold Kasar (in the begin­ning also with Ste­fan Rogall), have formed already in 2004 and pub­lished since then three enchant­ing and cel­e­brated albums. The Ger­man Kul­tur­Spiegel empha­sizes the last pub­lished album ’10 Lieder über Liebe’ (10 songs about love): ‘New Ger­man Wave – the Berlin band Nylon moder-nises the chan­son’ and the mag­a­zine Stern reck­ons ‘The sound unites chan­son, pop song and dance­able club­mu­sic and twangs at the same time very retro and ultramodern’.

That’s exactly the bridge build­ing Nylon expresses in a splen­did and charm­ing way. Sail­ing with a light breeze in the back­ground, debonair and sung in Bessanges’ crys­tal clear pro­nun­ci­a­tion, the song about the pop­u­lar Berlin Wannsee Lake ‘Wannsee Ahoi’ presents in their sec­ond album ‘Eine kleine Sehn­sucht’ (A lit­tle long­ing’). ‘Liebe macht blöd’ (Love makes dumb) slides with a wink and decel­er­at­ing, lounge-jazzy with play­ful Hawaiian-sounds on the other hand the song ‘Unter den Ster­nen’ (under the stars). Amongst Nylons’ seven self-composings, you’ll find as well three mod­ern cov­ers of Friedrich Hol­laen­der and Theo Mackeben (‘Like sea is life / eter­nal ebb and flow’) on their sec­ond album.

Although ‘Eine kleine Sehn­sucht’ (pub­lished at Uni­ver­sal Clas­sics & Jazz) is not a new release of this year, we would like to entrust these time­less pieces to you due to self-experienced delight at the Berlin ‘Deine Stimme gegen Armut’ (Global Call to Action Against Poverty) ben­e­fit con­cert in sep­tem­ber. Nylon audio sam­ples you get here and the chance to win the album here in your Gaas­tra blog: Just tell us your favourite Nylon song until octo­ber 9 mid­night at the lat­est by leav­ing a com­ment in this blog entry and you will par­tic­i­pate. The win­ner will be informed via e-mail and pub­lished at the end of our raffle! 

Search and Win!

As a Gaas­tra Blog reader, you have this month in sep­tem­ber anew the chance to take part in our monthly Search and Win Com­pe­ti­tion: Which prod­uct hides on this detail pic­ture? Find it out by eas­ily brows­ing the cur­rent assort­ment in your Offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop! If you would like to win that spe­cial and fash­ion­able Gaas­tra item we are search­ing for, then sim­ply send an e-mail with the cor­rect name of it to denis@gaastraproshop.com till Wednes­day, the 21^st sep­tem­ber mid­night at the lat­est (incom­ing answers beyond this date can not par­tic­i­pate). The win­ner will be informed per­son­ally and then announced in the com­men­tary box of this blog entry next week. Have fun and Best of luck on your Search & Win course!

Gaas­tra Blog Con­test August 2011, Search & Win!

This month as well, our Gaas­tra Blog Con­test is on deck: Going from 15 to 21 of august 2011, we raf­fle amongst all par­tic­i­pants with the cor­rect answer in this period an elected, high-value item from the Offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop! Cast Off and go on Gaas­tra ‘Search & Win’-Tour and tell us the name of the mapped prod­uct on the detail pic­ture to the left. You’ve dis­cov­ered? Con­grat­u­la­tion! Then sim­ply send an e-mail to denis@gaastraproshop.com with the cor­rect prod­uct name and yet you par­tic­i­pate auto­mat­i­cally in the Gaas­tra raf­fle in august 2011. The win­ner will be informed on the 22^nd of august via e-mail and after­wards announced in the com­ment field of this blog entry. Good Luck on your route in the Offi­cial Gaas­tra E-Store!  

FLENS SURF CUP Wind­surf Cup Sylt West­er­land, © clauskiessling.de

FLENS SURF CUP at Sylt in West­er­land, © clauskiessling.de

Rac­ing, Wave, Slalom and Freestyle: In these dis­ci­plines the well-known Ger­man Wind­surf Cup takes place these days in West­er­land on famous Sylt at the ‘Bran­den­burger Beach’, where the best national wind­surfers will chal­lenge for this years Ger­man Cham­pion Title 2010/11. The Ger­man Wind­surf Cup takes place already for the 19th time and is the most senior national reg­gata series in wind­surf­ing. The cur­rent Cham­pion Bernd Fleiss­ner from Norder­ney, Vin­cent Langer from Kiel and Sebas­t­ian Koerdel from Bodensee have the best chances to win this annual’s DWC-Title in the rac­ing class. Since August 2008, the Ger­man Wind­surf Cup is held as a championship-series, mean­ing that points are earned dur­ing the whole DWC Tour, that runs from August till the end of July of the fol­low­ing year. The nar­row rank­ing by points till now, really promises to be an amaz­ing and adrenalin-flowing surf event on Ger­man island Sylt these days! Gaas­tra Blog and Gaas­tra Sails — offer­ing high-quality sails, rigs, equip­ment and water­wear like spring suits — wishes all par­tic­i­pants and vis­i­tors Good Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed and enter­tain­ing days!