I drove all the way north to Meaford but the predicted SE wind didn’t appear. It was a nice sunny day and I was feeling good about checking out the model railway club auction in the morning and then cutting the lawn and getting some other house stuff done.
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| Nice clear water off Northwinds beach |
I decided to drive back towards home and was excited to find that there was now wind at Northwinds beach! It looked gusty 8-18 knots from the SE. Basically side shore. I rigged up the new 6m Dutone unit wing and put that on the 125 L Sky board with the 1500 foil underneath.
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| My home beach! |
I headed out and got going on my first run. Then I slogged a little bit for a while. I wondered whether I missed the wind, but then it came back and was actually quite strong although gusty for the next hour. The air temperature varied quite a bit - I could feel warm air where it had obviously been heated up over land - and then a cold blast where the air had spent some time over Notawasaga Bay.
Halfway through my session, I was joined by another wingfoiler, who I later learned was Kevin. We were having a great time enjoying the very clear 12°C cold water.
I had my polarized sunglasses on so I could see the rocks underneath me. Every once in a while I got worried by the limestone rocks below. I would jump off just to find out if I was in danger of hitting. Of the 10 times I thought the water was shallow, only one time could I actually touch the rock underneath with my feet. I would have easily cleared even that one with a non-planing foil. I certainly wouldn’t have hit any being up on the foil.
Vanessa dropped by the beach with a sleeping baby and took some photos and video from shore! I only did two runs where I went out past the little island - I was a bit worried about having a breakdown especially if the wind shifted from side to offshore.
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| Thanks Vanessa for the photos! |
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| A long way out there! |
Thanks Vanessa for the jibe video
My tacks were pretty solid and my jibes were feeling very good. I had one stretch where I went 5km without even touching down. My top speed was 16 knots / 30 km/h. I think that is my fastest speed ever foiling.
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| Full session GPS trail |
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| Lots of jibes |
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| Getting a close view of the island! |
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A nice long stretch in the middle
15 minutes - 6cm without a touchdown! |
I was having a ball and even tried knee foiling! I had said my wife I would be back on shore by 5 o’clock. The time had flown by and I realized it was now 4:58!
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| Back on shore at 5:05pm |
I headed back and took some pictures of Kevin as he was coming in. We chatted on the beach for a while and realized we had a fair bit in common. His brother lives right near me. Looking forward to more days at Northwinds beach although Kevin said today was actually a fairly rare warm foil day in Collingwood. Summers here are unreliable for wind.
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| Photos of Kevin heading back in! |
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| Pretty good zoom on my iPhone 15+ |
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| Kevin coming into shore |
Turns out Kevin lives just across the street. As I was driving out of the parking lot he was crossing highway 26 carrying his board and backpack with his deflated wing home. Cool.
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