Keeping the IWT stoke locally

What a great 39th day on the water! My season has been pretty good, sharing the fun of windsurfing with several beginners and also getting a lot of great sessions myself. The weather forecast for Saturday was looking good, nice south 10 knot 22c winds.

I put a notice out to the local community FB page for free windsurf lessons at the Launch Pad. To make my windsurf "school" look even more official, I added flags to the chairs at the point. I've missed seeing the IWT flag flying at events. The International Windsurfing Tour's theme is "Inspiring the Future of our Sport" so I'm proud to display the IWT flag while getting more people on the water. It's also been a while since I've seen the Jibe City flag flying during ABK windsurfing lessons.

With a selection of boards and sails and my simulator out at the point, I was ready when the first "student" arrived. Jana was excited to try windsurfing, having seen me zip across the harbour for many years. With the water back up to 21c wetsuits weren't even needed.

The Launch Pad ready for lessons

Jana was a natural, despite not having done many watersports. Dance and crossfit are helpful skills though, plus she listened to the whole lecture about uphauling, neutral, steering, and things like the "tennis" save. Her balance on the simulator was great. Soon enough she was on the water. I towed her upwind to start on the Viper 80 and 4.2 Ice sail. She sailed back and forth with several successful tacks and even a jibe attempt at the end. All smiles for her first time on a windsurf board.

Jana on the simulator

Nice form, straight front arm and leg

Upwind start via seadoo

Heading off nicely

Sailing home Jana? - I can see your cottage in the distance!

Heading back to the point

Success!

Until next time...

Next, my buddy Rob arrived with friend Karrie who was interested in trying windsurfing for the first time as well. I started her with the simulator lesson. 

Nice focus on the horizon!

Suddenly Rob was in his shorts wanting to head back onto a windsurfer for the first time in 25 years. I put him on the Viper 80 (190 l) board, with the 5.4 Duke sail. He was a superstar. A bit wobbly, but kept getting going in both directions and doing a few tacks and jibes too. Nadia on shore was cheering and I was super impressed with how much muscle memory he had to keep sailing nicely upwind. He did find the new wide style board strange, so I gave him the YPSI Wayler to try. Much more similar to his 35? year old board, but the slippery deck isn't as comfortable!

Pretty steady for the first time in 25 years!

Rob looking great!

Rob back from sailing the 40 year old YPSI!

Once Rob was back, I focused on Karrie again, who I towed upwind on the Viper 80 with the 3.5 Chinook sail in the now slightly stronger 11-14 knot winds. She did really well, showing nice balance and patience with the board as she got used to all the different stages of getting going. The smile on her face when she got going in both directions was awesome. She got back to the point and had definitely conquered something new.

Perfect "tennis save"!

And she's off! Awesome.

Then it was my turn. I took the 140 Stingray board with the 76 cm Slingshot foil and the 7.0. I was able to consistently pump onto a plane and went back and forth past everyone on the point. I was having fun heading up and downwind, and promptly did several nice "tail assisted" foil jibes. First time for that on my 7.0 - having people watching sure helps improve my focus on completing the jibes. Not sure I can do a sail first jibe with that sail though.

Heading upwind to see the gang...

Having fun foiling off the point
Thanks Nadia for the photos!

Saying goodbye to Karrie and the crew! Thanks Rob for the photo

It was awesome on my second session seeing Jen out on the water with me for the first time. I also saw a flotilla of 6 sailboats heading out, I've never seen that before.

Wife!

Third session was good too, and the wind didn't drop off as much as I expected. Overall I did 37 km in around 2 hours on the water.

The "show off to the people at the point" foil session

Longer session with Jen on the water and 6 cruising sailboats

Longest session out to Bigsby seeing Ayrlea on the laser

What a great day. Warm, sunny, breezy. 2 beginners, 1 friend getting back into it, my wife on the water too and lots of sailboats out on the water.

(Tech notes. I'd sent Jana out on the wide Viper 80, which I'd sailed up to the point earlier. I was surprised how much better it was at going upwind than the sharp railed and narrow Bic Veloce 328. Check out the two charts. Rob found the Viper 80 (190 l) board strange, I think because it is so short compared to his old board.)

Upwind on the Viper 80 

Upwind on the BIC Veloce 328
- not so good despite sharper rails