First freestyle day!

Sunday finally had some southwest wind predicted! But I slept through the early morning wind and by the time I was out at the island there wasn't enough wind to foil. So I worked on setting up the new foilboard and doing a bit more cleanup in the shed instead.

Just as it was time to go back for dinner, the wind picked up again and I headed out on the trusty Skate 108 and the Idol 5.6. Even with the sail poorly tuned I still felt comfortable. The boom was squeaking, which was a bit unnerving but I later noticed that my outhaul lines were crossed - a small point but worth fixing for the future.

Smelling wood smoke drifting over the water from a local cottage or sauna made me realize that it was really cold. I saw a chimney smoking downwind from me as well. It was 8c air and 15c water. But I was so excited to be out and and planing feeling super comfortable on a short board that it didn't matter. And my Flashbomb 3/2 wetsuit was nice and warm.

After at least 20 minutes successfully tacking and jibing without falling in at all, I tried a Vulcan. It wasn't so bad falling in, so I tried a downwind and upwind 360 in the straps and fell on both of those too. I kept sailing and then was going to head in. But with the high water I was actually able to plane right to the launch pad and even past it. So I did that twice!

No data from the session as I forgot my GPS watch but I'm likely to remember this perfect first southwest day of the year. I'm guessing it was almost and hour and 20 km since I was planing so much of the time. Luckily my wife caught some photos as I was coming inshore so far.

Planing inshore between islands!

Heading back out - the turbines are facing SW!

Planing again

This is what the weather radar looked like for most of the day. Definitely handy to be out there with gear all rigged in the shed to score the nice hour of wind between systems.

Like the astronauts who left earth yesterday, I felt lucky to be able to escape from so much bad news out there. Not bad, 6 sessions on the water during a difficult May 2020.

Short Saturday foil

The weather systems were passing through all Saturday. I only manged to get out for 35 minutes, this time on the Idol 5.6 with the Techno 148 and the 76cm foil. At one point I'd almost thought there was enough wind to go out on the Skate 108, but sure enough the finicky north wind was tricking me.

I headed out, got going on a few runs and had several overfoils and less success going into jibes than on Friday night. The 5.6 is much lighter though to uphaul and manoeuvre through tacks. I started doing heli-tacks on the slog back upwind. I think I might be doing more of those on the new foilboard once I get that set up as it has a much smaller nose.

Windy had predicted some variable winds, and that was the case. I also used a new site iGetwind which seems to draw your attention more to the various different weather modules that each site bases their predictions off. I need to follow each model a bit more closely to see which one is the most accurate both long and short term.

My session map is below - indeed a quick one.

Another gusty north wind day

30.6 Max speed - a few good runs

Sunday looks promising?

Friday night foil hour

I got some work done in the car on the drive north and then headed out to the island in time for a 5:30 post work windfoil session. I didn't even try and set up the new foil board I just picked up. Just headed out on the BIC Techno 148 with the slingshot 76 foil and the old NP 6.5 V6.

The wind was from due north, and was the typical gusty wind I used to dislike. I would have been using a 9m sail and struggling between the 15 knot gusts and 3 knot lulls.

The gusts make it easy to get up on the foil. I caught some nice kilometre long runs with one run being 1.5 km all up on the foil. I had a few moments where I was sailing hooked in, one handed, both legs straight. I was so relaxed that I had time to look down at the colourful foil with the reflective tape on it beneath me and the tiny thin little wake out behind. On downwind sections everything becomes super quiet. Very cool.

I think I reached a new record top speed on the foil, 33.2 km/h. And that felt pretty comfortable. I also carved into a few jibes after nice long downwind arcs. But the wind was so gusty and my skill is still not there - I wasn't going to complete a jibe. Air was 16c, water a very surprising 18c near shore.

I came back in and enjoyed a hot shower and a having warm room to change in.

Post session smile and rainbow

Nice Goose family on my way out to the island

A very north wind - and warmer than the weather info said

33.2 km/h top speed and 16.8 kms overall

Post session view west

Rainbow over the wind farm

Just a bit of weather nearby

Much warmer than May 18th when the water was 9c!

Earlier in the week I watched a good video by Guy Cribb on footstrap position. I think when I set up the new board I will try having my feet closer together - to stand more upright on the foilboard. And need to centre the foil between the feet.

Guy Cribb windsurf footstrap tutorial

He also had a cool formula for a regular board's fin size: sail m2 size x 5 + 4 = cm fin to use!

Off to sleep now.

Back on the foil again

There wasn't any wind on the first glorious warm Saturday of spring, so I was hoping that Sunday would be good. The site windy.com predicted nice wind all afternoon, but I was suspecting that the pending afternoon rain would be an issue.

I got out to the Launch Pad after a late breakfast and there were a few gusts showing, I figured 5-14 knots. So I took the old 6.5 NP V8 and the Techno 148 with the 76cm foil.

I tacked upwind and had several very nice runs. For my second day of foiling in 2020, it felt quite comfortable. I didn't overfoil at all and only touched down once or twice on each run.

I even tried some very slow jibes, dropping down intentionally and focusing on getting my foot into the front strap right away after switching direction. I've been seeing that as the recommended way to turn on many many video tutorials.

The rain came around 40 minutes into my session and after one more foiling run in the rain it was pretty much over. Once it was clear that the wind wasn't coming back, I spent the last few runs just enjoying the water. My feet were fine without booties. I closed my eyes several times and made it to 60 seconds windsurfing with my eyes closed. Few

I played a bit with upwind 360s in both directions and then headed in. My nice wife got a shot of me heading back to shore. 

Heading back after a nice little Sunday session

Wind was SE most of the time, except for one brief SW moment

Some nice 1 km long runs on the foil
Was the high heart rate because I started slogging with my eyes closed?

It felt great to have a warm shower on the island and then do some more spring clean up.

Later in the evening, the Coast Guard came by aligning the markers on the small craft route off our point. Cool.

Thanks to the Coast Guard for checking the small craft
route markers in our area.

9c water and gusty east wind

I don’t think I’ve ever shortboarded in an ENE wind in Key Harbour before. But desperate times made this Victoria Day Monday a lot different anyway.

I rigged up the 7.0 NP V6 and the Fanatic Ray 122. The air was comfortable at 18c but just before heading out, I checked the water temperature which had dropped to 9c. I put some booties on based on my experience the day before. The wind was super gusty.

Sure enough, my first few small runs were sketchy with the gusty, overpowering wind. And I hadn't made my footstraps bigger to accommodate the booties. So eventually I was catapulted. Even though it wasn’t too bad a fall, the cold water was a shock. And so was the small ding in the nose of the board, a first since I got the Ray 122 in 2013. I've had likely 25 sessions on it?

I took a break to make the foot straps bigger which helped with my next few runs. Then Jen came by in the boat and took a nice little video.

I got several good runs and a few surprisingly good jibes. Top speed was 45.6 km/h. I was a tough slog tacking back upwind. At least my feet were warm during all the tacks I fell in on.

11.5 km in an hour on the water

Pretty gusty wind

First day of 2020

With recreational “sailing” now allowed, I had my first day windsurfing of 2020. After working on fixing season start up plumbing issues for quite a while, it was finally time to rig up some gear.

It was a light northeast wind, with 11c water but 20c air coming off the land. There were decidedly cold puffs too when the air passed over the water for a bit.

I was on the 6.5 NP V6 and the Techno with the 76cm Slingshot foil. The 4 times I had a gust of wind and got on the foil I felt more comfortable than I expected - it has been a long time since I've been on a board!

My toes did get cold, but I never fell in. May use booties next time I'm in 11c or colder water.

Nice clear 11c water

Looking forward to getting some more days on the water - sailing is nice isolation while the world tries to figure out what is next.

Some pretty long hair! And crazy eyebrows.

4.6 km in 42 minutes. The NE wind was much warmer than the 11.1 indicated.

One decent foil run...

Here is the official note from the Ontario Gov't for May 16th showing what is allowed!

And a shot of what the windsurfing trailer was up to last week.

Watching an old windsurfing video during lockdown

My windsurf trailer is locked down for Covid-19 while we hope everyone is staying safe and are grateful for those working on the front lines. And I'm not even feeling too frustrated by the lockdown, as work is going better than expected and we didn't have any windsurf trips planned for this winter anyway.

So going through some old videos in the basement, I found this bit that my father recorded at Canadian Thanksgiving Oct 7, 1994. I still remember that day, as it was super windy, and the water levels were high. 

Here is the quick edit:

Thanksgiving windsurf session - Carl’s fan club from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.

The little bay where my parents built their cottage normally doesn't have enough wind and/or is shallow and full of weeds. I would normally head out to Georgian Bay and rig there to sail in clearer air and open water.

That meant it was a rare thing for my parents to actually see me windsurf. My dad did shoot some 16mm footage of me in 1985. This 1994 video has some nice voice-over from my dad at 4:30, and cameos from my mother, nephew and niece Vanessa.

My fan club, nephew, mom and niece!

Pretty good chop hop from the video!

My dad also took a nice still photo of me that day. I'll upload that shortly. I think I was trying to mimic the Mike Waltz photo that I've had on the wall for years. I had fun connecting on FB about that poster with some old school windsurfers.

Classic windsurfer poster from 1988!

Looking forward to when it is safe to travel again. Be safe.