This is: Kurt Schelfhout

Date of birth: 12/01/1974

Hobby's: Bonsaï, henna and most of all skydiving

Tell us a little about yourself: Hello everyone, as you can read is my name Kurt Schelfhout, the betterhalf of my lovely wife Katleen. I'm a big reason that we eventually got a Komondor. Because Katleen worked (and sometime still does) long days, I was frequently home alone. That's why I wanted a dog and at that time my favourite was an English Bulldog. Nowadays I don't think that is a good breed for us.

In the spring of 1999 we went with a group of friends on a weekend to the Koningsmolen, where we first encountered the Komondor. Ans as most Komondor owners say: "Once a komondor allways a Komondor"

But this page is about me in perticular so here it goes:

Handball

Until I was 12 years old I played football but I got tired of it and wanted to do something else. I started playing squash and I played in the juniorcompitition for about 3 years. Around the age of 15 I wanted to play in a team again and because football was out of the question I showed interest in an Indoor sport. I suggested to my mother that I wanted to play basketball but that was to agressive she thought. So I suggested handball, a few friends at school played it and that was as far as my knowledge went at the time. Since my mother also didn't know what kind of sport this was, she agreed and I started training. I directly discovered that it was a rough sport but I didn't tell that to my mother. I played at the local team, RDP Lokeren untill the team stopped due to financial problems. After that I got to play in another team, HBC Brabo Denderbelle. I still play with this team but in the "veterans"team due to lack of training time. We play in the lower regions and we play for the love of the game, but we allways still play to win.

Skydiving

The beginning

Meanwhile at the age of 22, I decided test my nerves by going skydiving along with 2 friends, Kurt en Filip. We booked a trainingsession at the dropzone of Zoersel. We had to be there early saturday morning for our lessons. It was ment to bent that at the end of the day we would take the jump but that didn't happen. All three made an AO jump (Automatic Opening) in the next few weeks. This means that you jump (out of a perfectly good airplane) from an altitude of 3300ft. The parachute is opened automatically by the airplane. I have never been frightened like on the moment that the door opened. The landing was a little unusual but I was bitten by the skydiving-virus. In the 2 following years I continued my training and started jumping free but I was/am what may call a sundayjumper, which means that I jump regularly but not in great quantities.

Accident

On november, 1 1999 the club organized a "Jump & Run" compitition, what means that you land as close as you can to a predetermend point, from to moment a bodypart touches the ground, time starts and it ends when you touch the point. The jumper with the least time penalty points, wins. My 6th jump appaerd to be a bad one. Winds were high and I was too fixated on the landingpoint which made me lose altitudeawarness. By the time I snapped out of it it was to late and I hit the ground hard, feet first. Both ACL's and the left medial, colateral ligament were damaged badly. The product was 6 months of hard rehabilitation.

Restarting

Katleen and I made an agreement that I wouldn't jump untill my knees were well healed. The first 2 years that was relativly easy but after that the " Call from the Skies" was louder and louder everytime I looked up or visited a dropzone. And so after 5 years of inactivity, I started jumping again. It was the summer of 2004 and at first I only planned to jump only ones but the manifest at Moorsele told me it was equally expensive to jump ones or restart jumping regularly. That first jump was hell, I worried more about my knees holding then that I enjoyed the jump. But now I jump with my own chute and I'm more carefull then before. I enjoy every single jump. Blue Skies to us all.

Anno 2006

In 2006, me and some fellow skydivers formed a team to compete in the belgian Skydiving Trophy 2006 in the Rookie class. Our team name is/was Bombs Away, which Pretty much sums up what we are. We are the more heavy or faster falles so to speak. Our cameraman & I were on the weekend of the event the only 2 original members. The other 3 jumpers weren't able to attent. Youri and Bert Had to work that weekend & Gregory's wife had to give live to a beautifull baby in the week before. So, 3 replacements were found in the form off (sfltr) Ben, Huyvie and Cisse.

On training in Spa, Belgium

Together with Youri (grey/yellow suit), Jan Black suit/ white helmet) & cameraman Frederik we went on a trainingweekend to Spa, Belgium. This dropzone is located in the Ardennes and is the HomeDZ of the European Champions "Hayabusa". These champions were going to give us a lot to learn. We did 5 jumps on saturday & 1 on sunday. We were sheduled to make at least 5 jumps that day but on that early jump, Youri pulled his reserve and lost his main canopy in the woods around the DZ.

Orphee's birthday jump

On June 24 2006 we drove out to the DZ early in the morning, along with my sisters daughter, Orphee. She had her sweet sixteen last winter & wanted to know what skydiving feels like. "Bak 2" was her ticket to the skies. I went along for the whole ride up and down. And as I watched her, I think she'll be back up their someday.
Congratulations, Orphee.

A different challenge

Dodentocht©

In 2004, a friend of ours, Jimmysuggested to enter in a march of 100km at Bornem, it's name: "the Dodentocht© or the Death march". I was the only one who signed up for it. And later on that year we started the march, only to end it prematurely due to poor preparation but most of all very, very bad weather. We stopped after 36km or a good 6 hour walk in the rain and cold. It was 3am."Dodentocht®"

In 2005 we were determined to enter the march again. We were better prepared for one thing and our wife (Katleen) and girlfriend (Jimmy's Christel) were there as assistance. The march started, as allways, at 9pm and the weather was beautifull After a good 10 hours of walking (around 50km) Jimmy had a dip. At that moment it really didn't look good for him. I went on ahead and Jimmy walked his own tempo.

When I arrived at the checkpoint of Buggenhout (68km), I totally broke down. There was nothing left in me, I was exhausted and cried like a little baby when Katleen came to help me. Katleen and Christel told me that Jimmy was still in the race. And after 30 minutes he caught up with me. When he arrived at our post, he held a greasy hamburger in his hand and had a smile on his face. He surely was on the better hand. I, on the other hand, could have strangled him at that moment but looking back at it, I think it was one of the best moments of the march because it help me to get back on my feet.

So, only 30km to go and both of us allready back from the dead. But with each step we took, the further the end looked. The last 10km were amazing for me personally. It was as if I was walking on clouds. I sang, said kind words to spectators beside the track and I said thanks to everyone that was still there to applaude us. (I think I was going bananas) Thus we made it to the finishline back in Bornem in just over 23 hours and 2 minutes, with only 5 blisters on the bottm of my feet. I think this is one of the most memorable events of my life, in sports that is. Thanks for suggesting it Jimmy.

Now something else

Bonsaï and Henna

Apart from playing sports, I have 2 other odd hobbies, They are Bonsaï and making henna designs.

Bonsaï is a very old and traditional artform from the Far East. It originated in China but the Japanese perfected the techiques.The word Bonsaï means (free translation) Tree in pot. You have to see this as a long term hobbie. I started with it after we got a little tree as a gift at work. That tree was an Ulmus Parvifolia and , unfortunatly, isn't anymore due to my inexpirience. I have about a dozen Bonsaï, 2 dozen pre-bonsaï and a whole bunch of startplants. More information about this hobbie can be found at this site iut is the site of our bonsaïclub: Wase Bonsaï Vereniging (I'm the webmaster, so check it out)

Henna has becoma a kind of a summerhobbie. After Katleen gave me my tattoo for my birthday in Januari, 2000 she told me that she didn't know what she wanted for herself and that's why she didn't got one.But we tried with this new thing, henna. New to us that was.We started very ambitious, you may say. (left picture) and now we put them patterns on regularly. They hold about 2 weeks and than the pattern fades. Sometimes a friend asks if I want to put a pattern on their body and no; those are not all women. In fact, 60% of them are male. Who said men weren't vain.