First Windsurfing session in how many months?

It was a pretty intense southwest wind blowing across Ontario. Plumbing and drywall were being worked on at the Launch Pad and everyone was commenting about how windy it was.

Right after lunch, I rigged up the Skate 108 and Idol 5.6. I walked up to the cairn on the island and launched from there. 

It was a solid hour; 21.5 km! 40 km/h top speed. 

I was very pleased with how quickly I re-adapted to being on the fin. It looks like it has been over a year since my last shortboard session. (With all the construction last year, setting up a wingfoil was just easier than rigging windsurf gear for shortboarding. I did have some lightwind days windsurfing with students.)

Didn’t fall in for 53 minutes! Water 14°C. No bootees just my 5/4 wetsuit. 

Got some of the better short board planing jibes than I’ve had in a while. I stopped twice to adjust the downhaul - too much and the front arm does all the work, too little and the back hand is heavy. Rig it right and it feels sweet.

Around half way through I got a bit worried about my left ribs which was the first time I've felt them in a week or two. All good since that little bruise in Hatteras but I will take a seat harness for my very next windsurf session.

Nice to see my favourite windsurf board and sail out with the lovely windswept trees of Georgian Bay in behind. 

Seemed like around 18 knots out there

View from the deck

Stormy Bay

Sweet sunset 

ESE gusty foiling

I went out on my new Duotone Sky Free 115 with the 1080 foil. 5m Duotone unit. 

Had to paddle upwind to get up the channel. Strangely gusty SE wind.

Got 3 tacks and feeling ready for longer sessions in the future. Water was only 13C.

Quick foil after hauling drywall

Spent the morning in the afternoon carrying 40 sheets of drywall up to the new launch building. Luckily, I had good help from Hayden and Leland. And Jen made a nice lunch for us.

The north wind switched to a lovely southwest thermal around 2 PM. WRF was the wind prediction that predicted the thermal. 

I got out for the last of it just before six.

The 6m unit and 138 Seek prime with the 2100 underneath was just the ticket to stay on foil most of the session.

Had fun with the first students of 2026

I had my first students of the year. It was cold. They were great.

Lucky to be able to get a nice little foil demo session in while teaching.

Full blog post here:

https://www.launchpadwindsurfacademy.ca/post/where-there-s-a-will-there-is-a-way 

First ever post session bath - First session of 2026

The view from the tub!

It was quite exciting to have gotten the plumbing going last November. Even though where there were a few good windy days, we were so busy it wasn’t possible to get out for a session after the plumbing was functional at the new Launch Pad building.

I did some winter winging in February and enjoyed my first ever winter bath!

Today however, was my first day of the 2026 water season at the Launch Pad. A solid south east 20 knot wind had brought some showers. I spent the morning working on new buoys to help with navigating the river. 

I pumped up 6m and 5m Duotone Unit wings. The 138 North Prime WeCANfoil board with the 2100 foil beneath seemed to be the right call to help me keep from falling into the 10c water.

It was 8c so I was glad to have found my 5/4 wetsuit in the old cottage and some good booties.

I was feeling a little bit nervous after my minor rib bruise in Hatteras but was pretty comfortable after one little wobble while working my way upwind. After that it was 39 foiling jibes in 40 minutes.

And then a nice warm bath admiring the windswept trees. Already excited for getting more projects completed and more time on the water.

View of the island and wind from the front deck

A bit more wind for winter wing boarding

The wind was much stronger and the sun came out for a nice change from Friday. 

I headed downwind with the 5m Duotone Slick wing. The Bubba board did well whenever I found some firm snowmobile tracks.

I got a couple of good gusts and hit 17 km/h. A far cry from the 48 km/h on skiis a few years ago. 

The Launch Pad out behind buoy DK9

The Bubba board was really nice to ride switch stance. In that way it felt way more like wing foiling. 

There were a few super slushy spots where stepping off the board resulted in in wet footprints.

I walked back upwind just in time to meet neighbour Bob coming to chat about drywall plans for the Launch Pad.

Checking my watch said I did 2.5 km but also half of my intensity minutes for the week!

I eventually posted a nice long piece on the Launch Pad Blog about my winter adventures.

First winter wing boarding

I have never really tried snowboarding with a wing (except for the pond skim!). I've had some good sessions wing skiing and wing skating in the past. Last May I bought a Bubba snowskate board, but haven't had a chance to use it till today.

It has been nice the last week up here at the Launch Pad, but not very windy. Family day weekend was awesome with friends and family. 

Today the wind was strong from the northeast. The light rain changed to heavy snow in the early afternoon and just as it was getting dark I decided it was finally time to try.

I pumped up the 7m Duotone Slick handheld wing and headed out from the garage. It was the first time I've taken a wing out through one of the new garage doors. Very excited that works so well.

It was easy to board down the shore slope and steer out between the skidoos and the rock. I had good momentum and made it most of the way across until I was in the wind shadow of the windswept trees at Pine Island. I turned around and had an easy ride back.

The Bubba board is pretty intuitive to use. It will definitely work better on snow that isn't so sticky and deep. 

I got one solid windy return run where I made it all the way back up the hill to the garage. It was dark within 15 minutes so I called it a successful first try.

My GPS trail

Tempest weather station details

I'm looking forward to trying it again when we get a nice south or pure north wind!

PS, this is what my track looked like the next morning.

My tracks from yesterday!

Lots of ice in our corner of the Bay the day before.
But the NE wind blows the pack ice SW