When the west wind dies

Before foiling is was super frustrating when the wind died. I’d be out with a huge sail and a small board and had to struggle to get back. With foiling it turns out to be easy to get home, even when the wind drops off.

My track looking from the west. One nice 4.5 km run in there.

I had a quick 17 km, 1 hour session after work and before heading to the marina to pick up guests. I took the 140 Stingray board with the 76 cm foil and 7.0 NP V8. The wind was due west 11 knots with the max for the day at 15 knots. I was able to consistently pump onto a plane, and made a few upwind tacks. I saw my buddy out on his sailboat south of me and headed down to the Henvey Inlet again. I had a 4.5 km run with just a moment off the foil due to a small lull. But at the end of the 4.5 km run, the wind had gotten pretty light and after pumping like crazy to get going on two reaches the wind was down to likely 5-8 knots.

Speed chart with a nice bit over 30 km/h

I did set another top speed foil record for myself. 34.6 km/h! I do like that feature of the APProSail garmin app as it gives me top speed during the session.

I sailed back slowly, enjoying the nice warm air and water. I should have taken the 9.0 sail, instead of a shorty wetsuit! I still made it back in time and am looking forward to the long weekend. 

Quick foil with the 9.0

My first try a few days ago with the 9.0 didn't work as there wasn't enough wind. But today there was 8-11 knots from the SW so I went out for a quick foil before dinner. I was curious how the NP V8 9.0 would feel vs. the 4.8, 5.6, 6.5 and 7.0 that I've used so much.

View from the SW.
I made it over the old coal dock cribs,
but ran aground at the most southerly part of my track.

It worked. I was able to pump onto a plane and had some enjoyable runs. The large 9.0 cambered sail really reacts to pumping and builds power with around 5-10 nice pumps. I had a lot of dry tacks and one bad wet jibe. I briefly scraped over a shoal that I knew was there, could see with my polarized sunglasses, but thought was a 5 feet not 4 feet deep. Nice to get on the water though.

Did get my heart pumping while pumping the 9.0

Looks like north winds for the next few days, let's see...

Longest foil session - 40 km!

Well after checking my blog posts over the last few years, there is no other session where I did 40 km all on the foil. Out for two hours and averaged 20 km/h. Definitely my longest and one of the most fun, as I was able to go way upwind and then surfed downwind on the waves for what felt like infinitely long runs. The foil puts the surfing into windsurfing.

I was happy for the clear skies, as I was able to foil and pick my way upwind through many islands and shoals. As I was starting, nice friend Nadia snapped this photo of me leaving the Harbour. I was on the Stingray 140 with the Slingshot 76cm foil and 7.0 NP V8.

Thanks Nadia for the photo!

I sailed almost all the way down to Henvey Inlet, the farthest south I think I've ever been on a windsurfer, let alone my foil. I did finally stop as I didn't have a phone or my SPOT device with me. And then back upwind around Bigsby Island but it was harder to see the shoals heading west into the sun. It reminded me of a memorable day I had exploring 7 years ago. The wind was a perfect 11-15 knots and 22c. I'd pump onto the foil, and had several 3 km long runs.

View from the SW of my 40 km session

I have finally figured out that the key to not overfoiling is to bend my legs when I get close to breaching the surface. That makes me press with my toes and just builds some more speed. My top speed was 33.4 km/h another record. 

During my first 3 seasons of foiling I had my legs bent all the time from fear. This season, I'm able to go on much longer as my legs are pretty much straight all the time.

Speed chart with lots of 25-30 km/h runs
then slower riding waves back downwind

This 11-15 knot wind is also perfect for the small sailboat (in the distance) that is now part of the Launch Pad flotilla.

Tiny sailboat in the distance

11-15 knots from the SW - perfect

Now that I'm more comfortable exploring on the foil board, I'm looking forward to a sail out to the Bustards or around Dead Island...

Foiling duck jibes!

Well the highlight of the day was getting two planing / foiling duck jibes. Here's how it happened.

I headed out for a lunch hour session and the wind was super solid. 17 knots, gusting to 21. I was tempted to go shortboarding but instead I took the Stingray 140 board with 76cm Slingshot foil and the 4.8 Idol and sliced right upwind to Mann Island in just 4 tacks from the Launch Pad. I played in the waves by Wedge Island and then headed over to my buddy Scott's place where I practised jibes while he took this photo. (And some video to follow).

My two best jibes were duck jibes. I stayed on the foil the whole way round and continued going with barely a touchdown. Likely not too elegant but fun. My three carve 360 attempts were all failures. Still lots to perfect. Overall 22 km in an hour and 20 minutes with a 29.7 km/h top speed. Beyond the foiling duck jibes, the highlight was the wave riding up near Dokis Island.

Foiling into Scott's place with the wind farm in the background.
(Some of the blades are already being replaced after 10 months of operation)

The full foil session - fun up and downwind bits and lots of jibes

Jibe practise at Scott's

Decent wind and 21c

(Addendum) Then it was Vanessa's turn, she headed out on the Skate 108 and her 5.7 Firefly, but didn't have the epic session I was hoping she would have. Next time...

Vanessa heading out for her session

After catching up on a few afternoon emails and a nice dinner with visiting buddy Geoff, I headed out for another session. This time 15.7 km in an hour on the Stingray 140 with the bigger 5.6 in slightly lower winds. I stayed dry for around 45 minutes, feeling quite comfortable. The wind was intermittent, so my pumping got better, but I didn't have as many wave rides. Top speed was 31.7 km/h but looks like a bit of a data spike, most speeds were in the 25 km/h range. Highlight of the session was sailing into the nice sunset - zen like really.

I'm finding the trick to not overfoil is bending my knees when I'm close to breaching, which puts pressure on my toes and keeps the nose of the board down.

After dinner session

Tomorrow might have another nice SW lunchtime flow...

Boat sailing not board foiling

I finally had chance to set up my sister's Pennant sailboat. It is shaped like an Optimist, but a bit bigger. And a lot heavier so it doesn't get lifted down to the water or used very often. In fact it hadn't been sailed since 2015. We figured out the rigging with the help of a quick Google. Then a 4 km back and forth sail for an hour in the shifty northeast wind. We made it back easily and with nice smiles.

Nice jibe city hat Voki

The next day I headed out to the Launch Pad and saw winds of 8 knots, with and all day max high of 11 knots. I tried the 7.0 and couldn't get on the foil. I rigged the 9.0 for the first time this year, hoping to have the success I had last July. Alas, there wasn't any getting up on the foil in the 8 knot winds with no gusts.

Also, no GPS trail to be had since the Garmin website has been hacked and has now been down for several days. Will likely be using my older Canmore G-Porter GPS in the next while....

(Update, Garmin paid the ransomware and I now have a chart of our 4 km sail.)

A nice little sail in Georgian Bay's SSW wind.

Standing waves

I woke up to the sound of the wind farm humming 1.75 km away. Always a good if somewhat annoying sign. Then, after a torrential and much needed rainstorm, I received a nice gift and card from the 4 awesome beginners from yesterday.

The beginners from yesterday sent a nice note
too bad I let it get wet before taking a photo

And a nice gift to prevent sunburn
with picture on the front of the card

The wind was building in the afternoon so I headed out to the Launch Pad. There were standing waves in the harbour as all the rain draining out of the river emptied into Georgian Bay. I've never really seen standing waves in Key Harbour before.

The wind was 13 knots average with the max showing 17 knots. I decided to try the 140 Slingshot foil with the 5.6 Idol. It looked even windier than my wind meter was indicating which seems to be the case in SW winds.

I had few good foil runs but have to admit that I was overpowered for the foil and not as comfortable as yesterday afternoon. I did get a few "almost completely on the foil" jibes, and a few falls. I was able to surf virtually straight downwind as I headed back and switched to the Skate 108 - keeping the 5.6 Idol.

It was slow progress getting upwind on the Skate 108. But I kept at it and eventually got up to Wedge Island. This was the first time I really just tried to stay up where the waves are smooth and the wind is consistent. There are some nice swells that roll in and are fun to ride. I consciously decided not to spend much time in the area where a SW wind builds south and west cross chop.

GPS from Google earth, looking from SW.

Speed chart

Same GPS chart, just a screen grab from my phone

I was smiling and feeling like I'd nailed an perfect session as I caught one last gust and planed all the way back downwind to the point of the Launch Pad. Overall 45 km in 2.5 hours. I had a nice tired on as I headed back for a Baja fog and fish tacos for dinner.

4 beginners and a repeat

One of our neighbour's daughters was visiting and wanted to learn to windsurf. I had said I offer lessons (and don't charge for them!) and so we arranged for an 11am beginner session at the Launch Pad. I got boards and sails out to the point and had the simulator ready. The south water and south wind were nice and warm at 23c.

The beginner crew post session

After a full discussion of where the wind comes from, how to uphaul, steer and turn plus tennis and hip saves, it was time for the group of 4 friends to try. Ashley was first, and got the hang of it on land quickly. Camille also got the hang of the simulator and I got the two of them out on the water. I followed them with the seadoo and each got a quick tow back upwind. As they sailed back to shore I got Natasha and then Justine on the simulator and then out on the water.

Nice form Ashely

Camille doing well

Angie trying the simulator

Natasha heading out for a long run past the snorkelers!

Busy island

Fun times for this instructor

Each of them did great. Ashley gets the award for initiative and being first. Camille gets the award for being way better than she thought she would be. Natasha stayed dry the longest and is awarded the longest first run. Justine gets the award for longest session and for the most back and forth runs. With a second day on the water, each of them would easily be keeping upwind and be able to explore the Bay.

That was 4 hours in the sun, and the wind had decreased, then increased as return guest Chris headed out to see what he remembered from last year. He did great, staying upwind completely despite the increasing wind.

Chris remembers what he learned last year

Fly - be free Chris!

After a quick lunch I headed out for a foil session on the 140 Stingray and Idol 5.6. I managed to get 45 minutes of good SE wind just as it started dying in advance of some huge thunderstorms.

Upwind / downwind track on the foil. Wind from the SE

I managed to get a few "tail assisted" jibes on the foil

My jibes keep getting better, with a few tail assisted ones where I kept my speed. Definitely getting the front foot in the strap right away helps. Stepping in front of the strap like on a normal shortboard jibe stalls the foil. My duck jibe and carve 360 attempts were fails, but still fun. Still lots to learn but feeling very comfortable with zero overfoils in the whole session. So nice to get a good session in after all the beginner lessons.

1st day of vacation 2020

The southwest wind was predicted to build and I was excited for my first afternoon of vacation. I set my out of office and headed out to the Launch Pad.

I thought I might be able to get going on the big old Techno 148 and my 7.0 NP V6 that I'd just repaired the cams by extending the broken battens. I did barely get going, but the wind at 12 gusting 16 knots definitely wasn't strong enough.

So I went back and switched for the 140 Stingray foil with the 5.6 Idol. I was able to pump up onto a plane many times, and got some solid runs. I headed upwind to play in the bigger swells near Dokis Island.

In the past, I've seen $100,000 powerboats heading north on the small craft route and miss the turn left to Killarney. Today I saw ten $10,000 seadoos make the same mistake, heading north to the green buoy along Dokis island. Then they slow down, circle for a while, eventually check their charts, then turn west. Kind of funny to see it happen so often.

At one point I saw another windsurfer in the harbour and sailed back downwind. It was Adam, my student from last year who I helped get set up with a nice Fanatic board and Hot sail. He was out for the first time this year and was doing great staying upwind. His friends might be looking for a lesson this weekend.

I tried one carve 360, and did several more tail assisted jibes. The trick on the jibe seems to be keeping constant foot pressure, not trying to be super light on my feet like in a regular short board jibe. I had fun doing duck tacks whenever I was trying to get upwind.

After a while of not planing I decided to try out the 7.0 on the foil. Wow. It was amazing. Much easier to pump on a plane than the 6.5 or 5.6. And then super steady even if it is way heavier. It might be my new "go to" foil sail. Certainly when the wind is in the 12 knot range. I might even rig the 9.0 to try that out in even lighter winds.

Overall 40 km in 3 hours on the water (and a few minutes of changing rigs).

Smiling after 3.5 hours

Fun GPS trail

11 knots gusting to 16 - 22c water and air

Definitely had better runs with the 7.0m sail in the 2nd half of the
session. And didn't have to pump so much - nice steady heartrate.

The weather forecast was good

Beginner lessons tomorrow at 11. I repaired my old YPSI Wayler so I have an extra beginner board. Should be good.

40 year old YPSI Wayler repair

First (tail assisted) foil jibe!

I'm getting to like north wind days. The gusts are enough for some good foiling sessions. The lulls give me a nice occasional break and a lack of wind fetch means that there aren't really any waves so practising jibing is smooth.

We were starting to clean out the old work room at the Launch Pad when the rain ended and the north wind picked up. It wasn't really predicted to be that windy, but it was averaging 10 knots, with gusts to 18 and lulls to 4.

I headed out on the Stingray 140 board and Slingshot foil with the 76 cm wing. I took the 5.6 Idol which is my favourite sail by far since it is so light and flat.

After slowly heading downwind I caught my first rides with some serious pumping. Later rides were easier as the gusts kept coming down from the north shore.

The most exciting part was that I got a complete jibe on the foil! To be fair, the last part once I was fully turned 180 degrees had the tail of the board touch down and skim the water for a few seconds, as I pumped but kept pressure on the foil. But I definitely was on the foil the whole time around and then rose right back up as I switched and sheeted in the sail. So I'm gonna call it my first* foil jibe! The key seems to be jibing in a gust, which makes sense as that also helps planing shortboard jibes. My other half dozen or so jibe attempts were all dry too. But on all those I touched down, the board lost speed and the foil wasn't lifting - I then had to wait for a gust to get going again. So that is a pretty exciting development after 4 years.

So nice being in shorts - warm wind - warm water!

I tried the APProSail app again and figured out the little green icon. So I actually have data from the session!

Unusually warm wind was from the north

Several 1 km long runs

I hit a very comfortable 29.6 km/h and did 12.9 km in the hour I was out. Just a perfect little session, then back to work putting in a free stove from a neighbour and putting more rubbish on the barge as we clean up the island.

Shortest foil session

It was super hot and sticky all day. I was working with a fan blowing on me to stay cool. 

After having the dock relocated and a late afternoon beer, and with the thunderstorms missing us I didn’t think I would get a session in. But suddenly at 6pm there were some south easterly gusts. I headed out to the Launch Pad and got on the foil with the 5.6 Idol.

I managed to get one small planing run on the foil. After several sessions on the 6.5 NP V6 cambered sail, it was so nice to be on a flat freestyle sail. Surfing upwind and downwind is so comfy.

But that was it. I had tried the APProSail app again, and didn’t get the data. (Colourblind people can’t see the difference between a red and green “record” icon.) I recorded this though from the boat which was roughly that one foil run. I will count this as a session.

My one (recreated) foil track from the short 20 minute session

I had a good conversation yesterday with Ned Crossley of WIPA. I’m going to try and see if I can get a windsurf instruction certification later this year.

Lunch time 3k foil run

I headed out to the Launch Pad for a quick session over lunch, between calls and emails. The air and water were 27c, and the wind was touching 12 knots from the south.

Right off the dock I caught a few shorter runs in the Harbour and headed out toward Dead Island. There the wind was steadier. But without gusts to get going, I had a hard time getting up on the foil. My pumping technique still needs work. And once I'm going, when a lull comes I can't decide if trying to pump the board like I see in so many videos will ever work as well for me as pumping the sail.

My last run back from the Bay was a pretty epic full 3 km, all on the foil. I felt nicely balanced with both feet in the straps and hooked into the harness. Just twisting my hips seemed to be enough to control the overall setup. I think that might be my longest foil run yet?

3km foil run from Dokis Island to Key Harbour

The APProSail app on my Garmin Vivoactive 3 watch failed once again to record this session. I know I was out for around an hour, reached 16.6 knots (30 km/h) and likely covered 10 km. Might be the last time I use that app though. 

Nice weather!

I'm going to rig and try the 7.0 sail next time if it is just 12 knots.

Wednesday night foiling (not racing)

Last year I was doing a lot of Wednesday night racing with Toronto Windsurfing Club. The races are all cancelled this year. So after doing some calls and work in the car on the way up north, we arrived to find just a bit of wind at 4pm as we came down the river.

It didn’t look that windy though when we arrived at the launch pad, but the wind meter said 9 knots with a max gust of 12 knots. I took the Stingray 140 foil and 6.5 NP V6 and headed out.

I did get up on the foil a few times. Each time was during a gust and after some significant pumping. My heart rate increase shows pretty well on the attached chart.

Heart rate and board speed - it is some exercise to get going!

A quick tour of the islands

I think next time the wind is in the 9-12 knot range I will try the 7.0 or even 9.0 sail. It would be fun to get even farther upwind and have some longer runs now that I’m comfortably using both straps on the board.