A Year (Windsurfing) en Provence: That's fishy

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

That's fishy

I saw a bear swimming between islands a few years ago while out windsurfing on Georgian Bay and also a snake swimming in the water many years before that.

Today I saw what I first thought was another snake, but in hindsight am pretty sure was a fish. The body was small, cylindrical, and around 6cm in diameter so I thought it was a snake due to a dotted / diamond like pattern on its skin. But it jerked out of my way as the tip of my board went over it and it was shiny, reflected the sun back at me and so it must have been a small northern pike. It certainly surprised me as I zoomed over it at likely 35 km/h, but I'm sure I scared it even more.

Heading out and about to windsurf over a very surprised fish!

I'm pretty sure what I saw shining under surface the was the middle of a small pike..

The rest of my 1st session was fun, 5.4 on the Skate 108 mainly blasting but with a few wave rides, carving 360s and a vulcan attempt. The wind started at 22 knots from the SSW under sunny skies.

Heading into a smooth jibe

I had some German family friends sitting on the island where I launched from. They've never been to North America let alone the 30,000 islands, so they really enjoyed being out in the 22c weather even if it was blustery. The wind eventually died as it clouded over, just as my buddy Scott came out to see me on his SeaDoo. (I still have some video he shot from earlier this year on my edit to do list.)

Thanks Scott for giving our tourists a ride!

We all headed up to Scott and OJ's island, where my German guests were treated to a tour and wonderful hospitality. I rigged up the 6.2 and had a quick second session while they chatted. I attempted 3 vulcans, but had much more success with duck, donkey and jump jibes. Overall a better day than anyone (except the fish) likely expected.