Sweet sunset freestyle session

48 hours after my long slalom windsurfing session, there was another Mistral wind forecast. After dropping the kids home from school, I headed to the nearest beach and rigged up in the 35c late afternoon sun.

There were around 30 people out at Le Jai, generally on 6m sails and slalom gear. I rigged the 6.2 with my Skate 108 freestyle board and small fin. I had the right sail, and despite too much downhaul initially, I got going fine.

But I was feeling very rusty, unable to really get upwind, and definitely not feeling like I was able to do any tricks. I was starting to wonder if my windsurfing ability has plateaued. Maybe I'm just in maintenance mode now?

I kept sailing, and at around the 1 hour mark, I started to feel comfortable. There were fish jumping and it was feeling a bit like being in the Gorge with the warm wind blowing on my forearms.

So I decided to really make an effort on my Vulcans - no more just trying one or two a session. So indeed, around my 10th one (#125), I landed sliding backwards, and had my hands on the other side of the boom a few times. While I still fell over backwards, I almost waterstarted switch foot and might even have been able to claim one. I tried another 10 (total 135 attempts now) and got somewhat close again one other time, but maybe, just maybe this will be in my future. I'll keep trying - I've heard it can take 1,000 tries.

Windsurfing until the sun set!

I sailed a full 2 hours, and was one of the last people packing up as the sun set. There are new palm trees on the beach, and I'm looking forward to a few more freestyle visits here before we leave Provence in a few weeks.


4 Windsurfing Vulcan attempts from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.