ONE DAY. ONE NIGHT. ONE MISSION! BOB VAN DE BURGTS 24-HOUR RECORD ATTEMPT!ONE DAY. ONE NIGHT. ONE MISSION!BOB VAN DE BURGTS 24-HOUR RECORD ATTEMPT!Professional windsurfer Bob van de Burgt has built a reputation on pushing beyond the limits of endurance. But this challenge was about far more than a world record. After completing a brutal 400-kilometre crossing to the UK and back in 2024, Bob set himself an even bigger goal: to windsurf non-stop for 24 hours and attempt the world record for distance covered in a single day.Battling darkness, exhaustion, changing wind and physical pain, he would spend an entire day and night on the water in what became a true test of determination, resilience and mental strength. But at the heart of the challenge was a much bigger purpose.Through his campaign Race Against Time, Bob partnered with the Dutch charity Spieren voor Spieren to raise money and awareness for children living with muscle diseases. For these children, every day is a race against time as their muscles gradually lose strength.Over 24 relentless hours, Bob van de Burgt pushed his body to the absolute limit, not just to chase a record, but to give hope to children fighting battles far greater than his own. We caught up with Bob to find out how he broke the record and how tough this endurance mission was mentally and physically!Photos: Brouwersdam and Daan van LieropWINDSURF: So tell us about the challenge you set yourself and the charity you were raining money for?BOB VAN DE BURGT: So, after my double crossing to the UK and back, I was looking for a new challenge. And, you know, I fell in love with this charity fighting muscle diseases for kids.When I initiated my first challenge for themthe crossing to the UK and back, which was around 400 kilometres in 18 hoursI already knew I wanted to push it further next time.This time I wanted to take an extra step and make it even bigger and more extreme than before. Pretty quickly I came across the idea of a 24-hour attempt, which would basically double the kilometres and add a lot more hours on the water.Thats how the new challenge was born. And for me it was always clear that I wanted to do it again for the charity.The weather window this time was very, very shortonly two weeksbecause of all the logistics involved. We had volunteers, a livestream, support boats and whats important to understand is that the record itself was almost secondary. The main goal was to raise money and awareness for children with muscle diseases.So, the whole thing wasnt fully optimised purely for the record. Thats also why I stayed in Holland instead of going somewhere like Gruissan, where the conditions would probably make the record a lot easier with steadier wind and longer reaches.In the end, we only had those two weeks to work with, and we were looking for at least 15 knots throughout the full 24 hours, from a direction that would still allow proper reaches.The reaches were still very short, but at least the conditions were workable.WINDSURF: What were the biggest logistical challenges?BOB VAN DE BURGT: There were a few. First of all: the dark.I discovered that I could actually foil with very little light. What we found was that if I could at least see the nose of my board, I was more or less okay.I didnt need to see every gust or detail on the waterjust enough to know where the board was pointing.We had a line of sailing boats with generators and lights, which helped create enough visibility for me to keep going through the night. The really hard part was not being able to see the gusts.Normally, you spot a gust, keep going another few hundred metres and then jibe right into it. In the dark, you cant do that. You only feel when the power comes in, and then you react.So, the whole game changes completely at night. It becomes much more technical and honestly really difficult. But apart from the lighting setup, there werent too many other logistical issues.WINDSURF: What was the decision day like before you finally pulled the trigger?BOB VAN DE BURGT: The day we decided to go for it was actually pretty chaotic.One of the key guys helping was also the race director of Round Texel, and he had literally just finished that event on the Saturday. We were already looking at Tuesday as our possible weather window, so everything happened very quickly.I think on Monday evening around 6 p.m. we finally gave the go-ahead.Even then, we didnt have a completely fixed start time. Originally, we planned to start around 3 p.m., but it was insanely windy, and I was worried about completely destroying my forearms in the first hour by hanging onto the boom too hard. So we delayed the start until 6 p.m.Once the decision was made, though, I was actually pretty relaxed. I was just chilling at home before heading out. Then suddenly it was showtime.WINDSURF: What gear did you ride?I rode quite a lot of gear during the attempt. I used the FMX 162 Hyperion Pro the whole way through. I had two boards and switched between both of them.For sails, I used the F1SL setup 8m, 6.9m and 5.9m.I started on the 5.9m because I was really powered up early on. Then during the night, when the wind completely dropped, I switched from the 5.9m to the 8m. That felt extremely heavy after already being on the water for so many hours in really shifty, light conditions.I stayed on the 8m for many hours, then eventually moved back to the 6.9m for the last five hours or so.That final setup turned out to be perfect. I think overall the balance with the gear was really good and everything worked great.WINDSURF: What were the biggest lows and highs during the attempt?BOB VAN DE BURGT: The biggest low was probably already in the first hour. My hip started hurting almost immediately and my legs already felt heavy because of all the brutal gusts. I remember thinking: Oh no this is going to be a very, very long 24 hours.But interestingly, the pain stayed more or less the same for hours instead of getting worse. Id spoken to some serious endurance athletes beforehand, and one thing they told me really stuck with me: pain doesnt automatically keep increasing. Sometimes it just stays at a manageable level for a very long time.I held onto that mentally.The night was also really hard. Its scary being out there in total darkness with failing lights, not seeing anything properly, and trying to keep foiling. Then came the moment where the wind completely died. There were only about 4 to 6 knots, and I kept pumping for hours trying to stay going. At one point I finally had to come off the water, and honestly, that was the deepest low point mentally because I thought the record might be gone.My arms were cramping from all the pumping and restarting.Then eventually the wind came back, which became a huge high again.Later, with around five hours left, the team actually took me off the water briefly because I was almost falling asleep while sailing. They gave me pancakes, got some energy back into me, and sent me out again. At that point I was absolutely destroyed.But then with around three or four hours left, Thijs Hanemaaijer came out sailing with me on the perfect setup and suddenly I found a completely new energy tank. The final two hours were probably the hardest I pushed during the entire challenge.And crossing the finish after all those hourswith my family, sponsors, the charity team, support boats and people cheering around methat was definitely the biggest high of all.WINDSURF: What did you eat, and how often did you stop?BOB VAN DE BURGT: I ate roughly one item every houreither an energy bar or a gel with about 30 grams of carbohydrates. On top of that I drank around half a litre of sports drink each hour, which added another 50 grams of carbs. So in total I was taking in around 80 grams of carbohydrates every hour.By the end we calculated that Id consumed over two kilograms of sugar across the whole attempt, which is honestly crazy.Before the dark I also had some pasta pesto, and later during the night when the wind completely disappeared I ate pancakes. I had another quick pancake stop before the final five and a half hours as well. As for stops: one break before the dark for food, one break when there was no wind, and one short break before the final push.WINDSURF: How many times did you crash or have issues?BOB VAN DE BURGT: I only crashed once!That happened during the night when one of the support boats lost its light while I was gybing. I was actually shouting that the light had gone out, and then I fell. It was cold and pretty intense. Whats crazy is that over the full attempt I completed 475 gybes and only crashed once. So honestly, thats a pretty good score.Apart from that, there were no real issues at allno broken gear, no damage, nothing major.WINDSURF: What was the night session like?BOB VAN DE BURGT: The night is always scary. The atmosphere changes completely. Everything feels more gnarly and technical. Like I mentioned before, you cant properly see the gusts, so judging where to jibe becomes much harder. And during the night the wind usually drops as well.But after a few hours you adapt. You stop stressing about the darkness and just work with whatever visibility and light you have. And then there was also lightning all around us. I didnt hear it much, but I could see flashes everywhere, and apparently it was very close. The team later told me they almost pulled me off the water because of it.We ended up just staying on the safe side of the storm, but it was definitely intense.Foiling through the night in those conditions was honestly crazy!WINDSURF: What section of the challange did you cover the most distance?BOB VAN DE BURGT: Definitely during the first four hours when we had proper wind. I think I covered somewhere around 250 to nearly 300 kilometres during that opening phase.The night was slower, especially once the wind dropped. Then first thing in the morning it became very patchy and light, with really short reaches and a lot of stopping because there simply wasnt enough wind.From around 11 a.m. until the finish at 6 p.m., the wind improved again, and thats where I covered almost half the total distance. Whenever there was pressure in the sail, the kilometres came incredibly quickly. Without wind, though, it became brutally hard.WINDSURF: What did you feel like at the finish?BOB VAN DE BURGT: At the very end I actually had no energy bars left, and I think I hit a serious sugar dip. When I arrived back on land I almost passed out. It felt super euphoric and amazing emotionally, but physically I was completely empty.They sat me down, gave me food and sugar, and I just needed some time to recover.It was funny because there were loads of journalists and photographers around me, but theyd all been told not to ask questions yet. So I was sitting there like a monkey in a zoo with cameras everywhere, but nobody speaking to me.Mentally though, I was incredibly happy.We didnt get perfect wind for the full 24 hours, but we extracted absolutely everything possible from every gust. There wasnt one extra kilometre left out there.WINDSURF: Did anyone sail with you?BOB VAN DE BURGT: YesThijs Hanemaaijer sailed with me during the final four hours. He really helped push me during that last stretch. The support boat also communicated through him because after so many hours your decision-making gets slower and less sharp.Sometimes they would tell me when to gybe into a gust, remind me to eat or drink, and honestly there were moments where I completely forgot to do those things. That made a huge difference.After being alone for so long, having somebody out there beside you at that level gives a massive energy boost. So Thijs played a really major role in helping me finish strong.WINDSURF: What was the final result?BOB VAN DE BURGT: I officially covered 761.82 kilometres.Some trackers showed 780 or 782, but the official system removes distance below certain speeds, so 761.82 km is considered the accurate and safe number for the world record. And most importantly, we raised 38,325 for children with muscle diseases.Thats what mattered most!WINDSURF: Who would you like to thank?BOB VAN DE BURGT: You got a minute? Id like to thank, many people. Main sponsor Howden who made it all possible and especially Danni. Moisha who worked tirelessly. Roel and his team, Marco, Thijs, Daan and his team, the Brouwersdam. And everyone who was involved, you know who you are! And obviously the charity Spieren voor Spieren for doing what they do!WINDSURF: Whats next?BOB VAN DE BURGT: In one interview with Dutch media I jokingly mentioned crossing the Atlantic. But honestly, these challenges all started as jokes too so who knows. For now though, I definitely want a break of at least one and a half to two years from these kinds of extreme projects.You can only do so many of them in a career.Even now, a week later, I still picked up a small forearm injury and my energy levels are only slowly coming back. So for the moment, Ive had enough. But overall, its been an absolutely awesome experience!WINDSURF: Congratulations and we hope you recover and can do another challenge some time in the future!The post ONE DAY. ONE NIGHT. ONE MISSION! BOB VAN DE BURGTS 24-HOUR RECORD ATTEMPT! appeared first on Windsurf Magazine Online.