Solosports Baja 2014 Pritchard Wave Camp

Highlight jump photo!

Here's my diary from my 2014 trip to Baja:

Day 1 - Saturday Sept 20th

Great flight down to San Carlos from Brown Field. I may even have had the chance to take the controls for a few minutes of the Piper Cherokee 6. 

1.5 hours of perfectly set up sailing. 5.3 and 108 RRD free style wave. Running 34 inch harness lines, the longest I've ever had. 

Guessing 25 km of sailing. ‎Sang Howard Jones "Life in one day" the whole time and everyone was commenting on the permanent smile on my face.

Our flight down to Solosports

Two baja fogs and a great lasagna dinner. I'm so excited by my semi competent wave sailing today I'm thinking I'll sign up for the AWT next year. 

Day 2 - Sunday

Intro to the camp. Great mix of people. 5 women aged 33 to 56. Lots of repeat customers, plenty of engineers. The men range from age 29 to 64. Norway, UK, Australia, Canada are all represented. Shame that Matt Pritchard wrecked his shoulder. But Kmac is out ripping up the waves.  

The Baja coastline

Seal of approval. I saw so many seals in my two 2 hour sessions. 68 km total in 4 hours. A dozen pretty high jumps; two were painful. Got 3 out of 10 carve 360 attempts. Zero upwind 360s. 

Same board and sail and feeling completely comfortable. 

Great salmon dinner and got to know more guests. Laura of course knows Steve from Toronto who I played poker with on Tuesday. ‎Not really a small world anymore. 

Coming into camp

Thinking I should bring fewer clothes, more sunglasses and a Spot satellite system next time. ‎(No wifi). 

Day 3 - Monday

‎Woke to the sound of fellow campers cheering on the hearty souls who were already out on the water SUPing. 

After video review of our day one efforts, I headed out for an hour of what tuned into light wind freestyle with a few wave rides thrown in. 8.5 ‎km. 

Mmm chili dogs for lunch. 

I think I should bend my legs a bit more!

In the afternoon I didn't plane for the first 1/2 hour but then the wind and waves kicked in. I sailed down towards the point and caught a few waves. Later I caught my first off the lip aerial - a full six inches up off the white water. 

Day 4 - Tuesday 

A quick SUP session before breakfast with a total of one successful wave ride. The 29 inch 10 4 board was way to tippy for this 210 lb wanna be surfer.  

‎After video review and lunch I headed out for a session on a Goya Freewave 104. It worked nicely as well with the 5.3 Ezzy elite that has been my goto sail so far. 

My first off the lip aerial?

Tried my first Vulcans of 2014 with predictably poor results. But it was fun to try. I did get one of my six carving 360 attempts. ‎35 km in 2.5 hours as there was a lot of slow sailing waiting for waves. My two good wave rides were very fun but were 2 hours apart!

Really missing my wife and kids though. While it is nice not getting work emails it would be fun to connect with my family and hope to be here someday with a few of them!  

Day 5 - Wed

Morning light wind freestyle session inspired by Brian. 7.5 km in an hour. ‎Got some duck tacks and even a few wave rides on the RRD 120 and 5.0. Not really any planing but fun anyway. Especially since I almost got my dream of getting going riding back winded on a wave. Pretty neat to be just wearing neoprene shirts and a rash guard since the water is so warm this year. 

It gets windy in San Carlos

I stubbed my toe on the rocks walking onto shore. Oww!

I did manage to connect with home via webmail on the shared ‎solo sports computer which cured my brief homesickness. 

The afternoon session was the first bad one. With ‎my bad toe and a quad fin board it was my shortest session. 35 minutes and 6 km. Time to save my energy for the waves that should come tomorrow ‎night!  

Nice backlit photo

Oh well, couldn't sit still. Went for a quick 1/2 hour 3.5 km bike ride. Saw one of the San Carlos hares crossing the runway. 

After a great steak dinner Jet entertained us by the campfire. The wind shifted though so we'll see what tomorrow brings weather wise. 

Day 6 Thursday 

Nice huevos rancheros for breakfast. Then some AWT video review. 

Everyone was waiting for the swell to come in. I finally cracked the book I've been meaning to read. 

Around 4pm the first NW swells arrived just as predicted. Even the wind filled in. ‎I headed out on the Quatro 104 single fun and my trusty 5.3. Not enough to plane but good enough to get me lined up for the waves. 

Right away I caught 2 good waves, then had a bunch of miss timed sets and then one more good one. I spent a fair bit of time in the white water trying to water start and then getting slammed. I had the clew view on so it will be interesting to see how that looks. Total 10km in 1 3/4 hours including the walk home - not really a walk of shame, just too tired to bother slogging upwind. 

A Baja fog and fresh clams for our appetizers.  Then off to the showers and a good chicken stew dinner. Lots of people wearing shorts and t-shirts tonight it is so warm. 

Brad received 5 stitches in his head from Dr Rodney after being hit by his own fin while tacking - sadly not in the waves so there is no epic story. During the after dinner conversations I may have convinced Camilla from Norway to enter the AWT in Maui...

Soft and easy waves in San Carlos

Day 7 - Friday

It was pretty quiet in camp as we finished our breakfast egg muffins. ‎I read my book but by the time we finished our delicious chicken burrito lunch, the wind was building. 

I headed out on the RRD freewave 108 and a 5.7 and had a great time. I put the GoPro in a few positions and caught some waves. ‎Of course the battery was dead by the time the wind picked up in the 3rd hour of my 3 hour session. I did around 35km but the best parts were the wave rides. I did contemplate a loop but that ended badly as did the one jump I tried. Oh well, I was nailing my tacks and getting back out through the shore break very well though. 

Towards the end of my session I rode past two dolphins that were playing in the outside swells. I rode upwind and in to the beach feeling very good about my week. Baja fog time! 

JET singing the goodbye San Carlos Blues

Dinner was great as usual and then we were treated to Joey's wrap up video. Jet entertained us again on the guitar. He graciously played a solid set of blues riffs for me and nicely finished off my impromptu  attempt at singing the San Carlos blues. 

The truck is taking our bags at 3:30 AM and hopefully we all get one more session in the morning. 

Day 8 - Saturday 

A hearty scrambled egg breakfast and extensive video ‎review had us ready to get on the water for one last session as the wind built up. 

I went ‎for one last session on the 108 and a 5.3. I was fully powered and felt like my arms were 2 inches longer after one hour and 20 km. I got a few nice duck jibes and a jump, but the tide was too high for wave riding. 

The planes started landing with the liquid force kite team as we munched on burgers. We got our last picture files transferred to USB keys, made our last shop purchases and ‎packed up. Goodbyes were said and as quickly as it started, we were airborne. 

My GPS trail from a typical session

I windsurfed  around 200 km in 8 straight days of sailing and spent around 12 hours on the water. My wave selection and riding have definitely improved. Other than a stubbed toenail I came out pretty well. Not even a blister on my hands. ‎2014 American Windsurfing Tour in San Carlos August 2015? 

Sending this write up while waiting for the group in little Italy for Saturday night dinner in San Diego. What a great trip. (But I didn't get around to editing the video and uploading to my blog till May 2015!)

Here's my video:

Baja 2014 Solosports Pritchard Wave Camp from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.

I also made it into Joey's terrific camp week wrap up video a few times eg. at 0:56:

My second high wind session this summer

With just one week left in this summer, I finally had another "high wind" session. I timed it just right and caught 20 knot winds: more than was forecast. Somehow our corner of Georgian Bay sometimes exceeds expectations!

My wife took some video and pictures of my session from the boat. I managed to nail a few downwind carving 360s, perfect shortboard tacks and for the video, a nice jump and jibe. In the deep water where the waves roll in from the SW I did some wave ride/turns. I seem to have as much fun slaloming through the rocks though as I do completing tricks.

Quick video of my 2nd Skate session of 2014 from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.

The Skate 108 and North Duke 6.2 are definitely a nice combination. After an hour and a half and as the wind dropped back down to the forecast 15 knots I called it a day - and maybe the end of my season in Canada?

Hi dear!

I love Georgian Bay windsurfing...

There was more wind where I was than in the centre of Georgian Bay

My session log - cold, but I still did 37 km in 1.5 hours

Downwind 360s make interesting tracks

Slalom through the shoals and waverides in the deep

Atlantic: World premiere of a great windsurfing film at TIFF

This year at the Toronto International Film Festival there was a great movie; that just happened to to feature some fantastic wave riding, jumping and stunning scenes of open ocean windsurfing. It stars 32 year old Fettah Lamara who is a terrific windsurfer and really nice guy. In real life he loves to windsurf and run a restaurant in Essouaria, Morocco. His character in the movie wants to leave and windsurf to find...

Atlantic is really the story of Jan-Willem Van Ewijk, a Dutch guy who grew up in LA, studied engineering and then worked in Montreal as an aerospace engineer. He then became an investment banker. But really, he loved windsurfing in Essaouira Morocco. He wrote a screenplay there about a young man's search - and then became a filmmaker. 

This is his second film and it was great!  The ocean and wavesailing footage was breath taking. And the Moroccan actors were terrific. It even had a nice segment with PWA pro Boujmaa.

http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/discovery/atlantic 

I went with Vanessa and Len from Bonaire, my sister and my wife. We had fun sitting in the same row with the actor and director. We laughed pretty hard at some of the windsurfing inside jokes (who hasn't needed to pee in a wetsuit?) And I heard that some windsurfers actually got him up to Lake Simcoe for a session later in the week!

The director gives his intro to the film

Photo with the star...

My ticket before voting..

Goodbye...

Windsurfing with my 88 year old mother: Vanessa's grandmother

Well ok, my mother didn't go windsurfing, but she was out on the water watching me for what may have been the first time in my 34 years of windsurfing.

It started out as a mellow day, with 15 knot winds predicted to build as the skies cleared. I'd been windsurfing for around an hour on my Ray 122 and then changed boards to try the Techno 148 that I haven't used since getting the Ray last year. Of course after that the wind dropped to 10 knots and I slogged for around half an hour. (See speed graph at bottom of post.)

The wind started building again just as my mother, daughter, sister, niece and some family friends came back from a long boat trip. They stopped the boat in the main channel and watched as I zipped back and forth. I think they really enjoyed seeing me come so close to the boat and they took tons of pictures. I was very comfortable on my 9.0 and then chased them back to the harbour. Here are a some of those photos!

My 88 year old mother heading out for a boat ride -
 and to see me windsurfing (up close for the first time?)

Look mom - one hand...

That was close...

Incoming...

Fly by

Cruising

Starting my body drag...

Break time

The boat starts to head home

Chasing them down

And goodbye!

My launch site - with my mother's boat

Later, Vanessa (yes that Vanessa from Jibe City in Bonaire) came out and we sailed together. I was on the 9.0 and Ray and she was on my 7.0 and Techno. She said it was the most fun she's had sailing since coming home from Bonaire. The wind kept increasing to over 20 knots and after 3 hours on the water I got catapulted twice and it was time to call it a (fantastic) day.

Vanessa heading out

It's colder here than Bonaire!

Planing nicely

The gear after getting Vanessa set up with the GoPro

I'm crushed that I corrupted the great half hour clewview gopro video of Vanessa's session. It had footage of her sailing so nicely. I was previewing it and then GRRR ctrl-x.

I did 65 km in 3 1/4 hours. The wind shifted from SSW to SSE and back.
I was wonderfully sore and very happy the next day.

Here's a panorama of our launch site:

Panorama after Vanessa and my epic session from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.

Packed up

Heading home

Sunset and smiles

When I got back home later that evening my mother said "I think I finally understand why you love windsurfing so much - it is really cool!"


Ray 122 vs Techno 148: Technical notes - they both planed in around the same 11-15 knot wind, with the Ray either slogging or quickly jumping on a plane, but the Techno builds much more slowly and linearly. Top speed on the Ray is definitely faster, but it is a harder board to sail - very responsive but also twitchier than the Techno and difficult to tack. The Techno also is much more forgiving in the jibes. No wonder it was the HiHo board and also recently got a great review as an affordable classic in Windsport's 2014 board guide.

The Techno wasn't as fast, but the wind also died during that hour...

16 to 4 knots in the time it takes to rig a 9.0

Oh well.

I rigged up, there were some nice WSW gusts blowing through. I was thinking I might even need the 7.0 but the wind completely died even before I finished rigging the 9,0 and got on the water. I slogged for 15 minutes and headed home for dinner.

1.5 km of slogging