Plankenkoorts: ‘Rather catch some waves than good grades’

If this would have been a competition for the best association name, Plankenkoorts – which means ‘stage fright’ in Dutch but if you take it more literally it’s ‘board fever’ – would be in the running for the title. ‘Planken’, or boards, playfully refers to the surfboards, and ‘koorts’, or fever, to the irrepressible urge to surf about which Chair Bart ten Bergen and Thijmen Star, the Zeta Commissioner (uitklapkader: The Zeta Commissioner handles Plankenkoorts’ building and surfing equipment at the Valkenburgse Lake.) talk about with great enthusiasm during the interview.

Wild hair
We are sitting in the sun on the deck at the Homespot, their clubhouse at Leeghwaterstraat. They talk about the personal surfing goals of the Board members. Thijmen and another Board member have made a bet about which of them will do the most surfing sessions this year. If Thijmen loses, he will cut off his hair. If she loses, her hair will be cut very short.

When he took the bet, Bart was able to avoid having his head shaved. The tradition is that the during the Board year, the Chair does a forward loop on a windsurf. If he/she fails, the shaver awaits them. It is a trick for advanced surfers which the last four chairs had not managed to do. But Bart, with all his surfing experience, did the jump successfully and kept his hair.

Two types of members
But today is not about the name as Delta is holding the Board Photo Contest. In Plankenkoorts’ entry, Bart, Thijmen and the other Board members stand at the Atlantikwall bunker in Scheveningen, a fiery flare in hand. They are not dressed in fancy board suits, but in board cardigans over jeans.

‘We don’t do formalities like board suits, they are taboo here’

“We don’t do formalities like board suits, they are taboo here,” says Bart. Plankenkoorts has no obligations, even though with 650 members it is one of the biggest student associations at TU Delft. It must be said though that one third of its members study in Leiden. The members can be divided into fanatic surfers and ‘lifestylers’, who are mostly drawn by the atmosphere at the association.

The members meet up every week for their PK drinks in the Kurk. The next surfing trip is often dreamt up there. This is how, earlier this year, Thijmen, Bart and some other members spontaneously headed to Denmark in two buses at 07:00 on the morning after the drinks. In contrast to the Netherlands, there was enough wind to surf there.

Trippin’
The association has about four buses which the members can use for surfing trips. The buses have names – a sign of appreciation – and are maintained by the ‘busklus’ (bus jobs) committee. They are used for day trips to the beach or to the Valkenburg Lake, as well as for longer trips to Morocco or Portugal.

“Last year in Portugal, of the two weeks there were only five days with good wind. So unfortunately we drank more sangria than we went surfing,” says Thijmen.

Battle of the Generations
When the waves and wind are exceptionally good outside of working times, Plankenkoorts holds the Battle of the Generations, a competition between the current and old members who still surf. They compete on high jumps, the most extreme tricks, and the best wave riding. The last competition was six years ago.

Surfing is not a practical sport as you depend on good wind. Are lectures ever skipped to go surfing?

Thijmen: “A popular WhatsApp sticker in the association says: ‘Ik surf liever op dikke bakken dan het halen van vakken’‘ (rather get some waves than good grades).”

Bart: “We are definitely both guilty of this.”

Also read the other parts of this series about Dodeka student athletics association, the rowing association Proteus-Eretes, board sports association Drop, freerunning assocation Kong, sustainability organisation Students4Sustainability, and study associations ETV and S.V. Life.