Vanessa's sail repair - Merry Christmas!

My niece Vanessa has a favourite sail - a Neil Pryde 5.7 Firefly. She used it daily when living in Bonaire and working at Jibe City. She brought it home to Canada in 2013. But the hot sun down south had taken its toll on the window and when I rolled it up this fall for Vanessa after her last session, it was completely cracking and falling apart.

I was happy to find a nice guy named Konstantin who does sail repairs in Toronto. He did a great job fixing it. And he managed to get the sail repaired just before heading off on his holidays - which by chance was down to - yes, Jibe City in Bonaire!

Thanks Konstantine for the sail repair

I got a custom matching logo created!

I got the sticker shop in Northern Ontario that normally does SkiDoo letters to do a fantastic job of recreating the Firefly script with a new Vanessa's Firefly which I put on the newly replaced window.

Merry Christmas Vanessa! Hope this gift lasts long enough for the little one to go windsurfing with you. Here are shots of the sail before the repair:

A few minor holes

The window was beyond being fixed with tape!

And the mast sleeve needed work too!
Thanks Konstantin!

Carl's Windsurfing 2019 Highlights

What a great year:

• 72 sessions on the water:
• 31.5 days of short boarding (1/2 in Bonaire, 1/4 in Baja, 1/8 in Hatteras and 1/8 at home)
• 30.5 days of foil / long boarding (Mostly foiling up on Georgian Bay)
• 6 kona races (enough for 3rd in Toronto Silver fleet)
• 4 days of kiting

Here are the Top 10 highlights (+1) in chronological order!

#1 Best photo. Definitely Bonaire windsurfing with Jen and the photo that wound up in Windsurfing Now.

#2 Best dad windsurf moment: Watching Katie and Phillip windsurfing up at the cottage

Go Katie!

Katie Waterstarting 

Phillip flying

Phillip jumping

#3 Teaching beginners: It was fun re-reading my blog to see how many beginners I taught in 2019. 11 in total!

• Chris
• Adam and then later on his new board
• Rich
• Sebastian and Konstantine
• Fabienne (I taught her son 4 years ago and he is now a windsurf instructor in France)
• Hailey
• Maxx
• Bil and Sherif
• 60 year old John turned out to be the best of the year! (or I've gotten better as a teacher?)

Jen showing how the simulator seems to be the key to getting beginners out successfully!

#4 The new logo: The wonderful logo for the Launch Pad that Len created has helped solidify the name for the island.

The new launch pad logo

My gear rigged and ready

Thanks Len!

#5 Loyal to the foil: I got a surprise round of applause from my friends while foiling!

Foiling has completely changed my view of light wind days. I'm out whenever there is 6-10 knots hoping for a gust so I can get up on the foil. From 10-15 knots I'm up on the foil laughing about how 3 years ago I would have been on shore cursing the not quite enough for planing wind. One Friday night when a few friends were watching and I glided by above the water barely making a sound, they started applauding. Something that has never happened (or at least that I've heard) in the past!

Foiling vastly increased my days on the water.

#6 Vanessa and Len windsurfing: My niece Vanessa and her partner Len are wonderful together and I'm so excited for these two windsurfers as they expect their first child!

5+ months pregnant and that wasn't even the last time Vanessa windsurfed in 2019

#7 My wave of the day and one of the best so far! I got the wave of the day at the Pritchard Windsurf camp in Baja While the whole week was great, I'll remember this 1 minute, 6 turn 500m run for a long time.

#8 A new long distance record? I had a 113 km day in Hatteras which was part of a great week in North Carolina!

99 kms before lunch, another 14 after!

#9 Wednesday night race results! I came in 3rd in the TWC Kona Silver Class. The Toronto Windsurfing Club annual dinner included awards. The Kona fleet is pretty small, I only did six races and one night on the committee boat, but with a lot of nice people.

81 Year old Chris came in 2nd - I was happy with 3rd!

#10 Full page spread: I was featured in Wealth Professional an investment industry magazine which profiled my windsurfing in their "Other Life" column.

#11 Bonus moment - Decisions for 2021

No link for that yet - but there is a plan...

My Other Life - Wealth Advisor

Click to enlarge

I usually keep my windsurfing life and work life separate. But I was featured recently in an industry magazine called Wealth Professional. They have a column called “Other life” and were interested in what I do outside of my day job.

Here is a link to my work website and the article...
www.spiessmcglade.ca/carls-other-life-windsurfing/

Toronto Windsurfing Club dinner and awards

I have never managed to attend the Toronto Windsurfing Club annual dinner until this year. It was a bigger event than I expected! I shouldn't have been surprised that 3 of the 6 of us from the recent Hatteras trip wound up being there.

The club is in good financial shape and taught hundreds of beginner lessons this summer. What a committed bunch, the next day a few members headed to Lake Erie to sail! I wound up getting a medal for 3rd in the Kona Silver fleet. Part of winning at life is just showing up apparently!

A lot of happy windsurfers in Toronto.
And worth noting that there were many youth and women!

Speeches were short and sweet!

Andree winning the president's cup

With my hero Chris - at 81 he came 2nd - beating me in the Kona Silvers

I came in 3rd among the few silver (haired?) Kona racers 

Last day - Hatteras & 2019

There wasn't much wind predicted Saturday so I did a bit of work on the trailer. I watched Steve foiling with the wind wing which was cool.

Steve out on the wing foil

I thought I might try the ocean instead and headed to the lighthouse but wasn't comfortable going out alone. I collected the last trailer fuses and headed back to the house. It was only 13c but with the sun and light wind it wasn't too cold.

I took the Skate 108 and 5.6 Idol and got planing 3x. I did get some lightwind upwind 360s, two duck tacks and a bit of backwind and switch stance. I was glad to be out on the water even if I missed the slightly better wind from the morning.

Light wind freestyle on the Skate 108 and 3 bits of planing

Not much planing and no complaining....

Short windsurf then longer foil session

Steve then let me try his foil which was the perfect way to end my 2019 windsurfing season. I quickly got the hang of the Naish Hover 120 with the huge 99cm wide 2000 square cm wing. I was using the shorter 55 cm mast to avoid hitting the muddy bottom in the sound. It took a moment to get used to the smaller board, but I went for over 30 minutes without being catapulted. Even without a nose on the board it stays above the water when you overfoil and drop down. I did quite a bit of up and downwind riding which was fun.

Steve's Naish Hover foil saved my afternoon!

Even without footstraps the foil was pretty steady

Foil GPS - with some upwind and downwind!

Way more time at speed on the foil.

So that counts as my 72nd and most likely last session of the year!

After that we started packing up and enjoyed the sunset. A last seafood dinner at Pop's with oysters, hush puppies, crab cakes and more left us all ready for an early start the next morning for the 14 hour drive home.

Hatteras day 4&5 - 0 to 35 knots

Thursday was completely wind free, filled with work emails, getting fuses to repair the lights for the trailer and making dinner including banana boats for dessert. The energy in the house was definitely good - everyone getting ready for a big day.

23c and sunny - during the snow in Toronto

The glassy water on Thursday was about to become quite active on Friday!

Well the north wind that had been throwing snow in Toronto the day before was certainly strong on Friday - as predicted. 35 knots or so!

We all woke up and waited to see who would go out first. Several windsurfers from the houses next door went out, but only did a few runs. Clearly it was those on the smaller sails that were doing ok.

I put on my santa neoprene cap and 3/2 wetsuit because suddenly it was only 10c. I took the 4.7 for a few runs, and then came in to rig the 4.2. That was a bit better. I was glad to have rented a smaller board, an 84l Exocet from Ocean Air Sports. I managed to do a good number of runs and started getting high speed normal and duck jibes right in front of the house.

Glad to have rented a small board for the big wind

I did a shorter and a bit exhausting morning session, then turned my sail and board over to Chuck. He proceeded to do some forward loops and even a vulcan attempt. Later I would hear the neighbours complimenting "the guy in the santa hat" but I think that credit goes to Chuck!

The morning session - getting used to the 35 knot winds

Chuck looking good on my gear

Chuck on the way to throwing some forwards!

After lunch I started feeling more comfortable on the board. By the end of the session the wind had backed down a bit more, and I was having great fun surfing the swells. Chuck was on his kiteboard again and I were shredding together. I hit 47.6 km/h and was planing 71% of the time.

Heading out for my afternoon session - with the Santa hat

Getting to the wind line

And I'm off! With kite buddies to share the wind with.

Shorter morning session and longer faster afternoon session!

Some great swell riding in the middle of the runs

Speed chart from the 2nd session

Windspeed chart for the day! Pretty consistent and strong.

After a great rib dinner we dropped into the party next door where Rich was staying. I got to meet freestyle legend Mike Burns! Many of the gang knew the Toronto Windsurfing Club regulars who often rent the house next door during the OBX windsurfing race. Some of the gang knew Vanessa from Bonaire. We left in envy of their house - complete with a home theatre. Maybe next year.

A good party two doors down

Back at the house we watched a few windsurfing videos and reviewed photos of the day. Everyone had a good tired on and we headed to bed hoping for maybe one more day on the water.