Skiing and Wing Skating

I only did a half dozen ski runs in the morning at Blue Mountain and then was keen to return to Whites Bay to see if the ice had firmed up overnight. Yesterday's wing skiing session was fun but I recall being even more excited the few times I've actually had flat enough ice for wing skating.

Wing skating in Collingwood

With my skates in my backpack I walked out from the Whites Bay parking lot to the larger expanse of ice I'd found yesterday. I pumped up the 5m Duotone Slick wing and put on my skates. My first runs were very slow. I could see that the ice was around 10cm thick and I was worried about the higher pressure of my skates breaking through the ice. But it had been really cold overnight so the ice was quite firm.

Decent forecast

10cm of ice?

Cool chunks!

A few obstacles 

Some bumpy areas

As I ventured farther each run and then faster I was feeling pretty comfortable. Enough so that I could wing with one hand while filming with the other. However, the ice had so many little mounds on the surface that the vibrations were intense the faster I went. I did find one nice line of smoother ice either side of some snow that had been packed down by a cross country skier during the last snow then melt cycle.

I have never skated on ice where you could see the bottom clearly. I could see the sand, twigs, logs and boulders. That was very cool. I think I even saw a fish. 

My wing skating video on Vimeo

My top speed was 15 knots or 27 km/h. After a while I got a bit sloppy and wasn't watching where my skates were going as closely. One of my skates got stuck in a crack in the ice and I nearly stumbled. I was having so much fun going faster I overshot my turn at one point and nearly went into a metre wide pile of rocks. And then I nearly stumbled again in a softer white patch of ice. I did one final run ending with a nice by upwind 360 and wondered why I hadn’t tried more tricks like that during my session. But it was time to call it a day. More to try next time!

I got faster later in the session

A good sheltered and shallow bay

So close to the Collingwood terminals and Millennium Park

With the warm weather next week I'm guessing that is it for wing skiing or skating this year. But I'm so grateful to the Sunset Point Foilers group for helping me find this spot!