Setting up the new Wing

I was excited to get a wing for Christmas! 

I got the Duotone Echo 6.0. It has a metal "boom" so I think it will feel nice and familiar to holding a windsurf sail. 6 weeks later I finally found time to unbox it and figured out the rigging. 

Setting up in the warmth

A few tips... The boom part goes to the outside. I did it wrong the first time! 

Wrong boom placement!

Correct boom placement

Also, the loop line goes around the boom extension - it wasn't in the instructions but I found some youtube videos which helped. Lastly, the pumping is pretty hard on my back, so I need to use better posture or may someday switch the bi-directional pump to just using the downstroke.

The bladder release really wasn't set properly, I'm going to inflate/deflate it a few times until it seats properly. 

The bladder relief seated better after a few inflations

I hope to get it out in the snow in the next week. Here is a shot of the first setup. 

Test setup complete!

Launching the Launch Pad Windsurf Academy

Well I've officially registered my website www.launchpadwindsurfacademy.ca 

I got some great feedback from friends and family and am lucky to have a good selection of photos from past teaching sessions to give a sense of how much fun I have teaching windsurfing and foiling.

Since we are so remote, I'm not sure yet I want it listed in windsurf school directories, so I haven't submitted it into google yet. My biggest questions right now are whether to move this blog over to the Wix based blog tool, or keep this blog here.

I'm happy for any other feedback, but mainly it is a fun project to work on in the coming years while I continue to enjoy giving lessons. Eventually we will look to develop a business plan and rebuild the windsurf sail locker.

2020 Hindsight - 1,227 km!

Well 2020 was quite a year. Covid. Lockdowns. No travel. Social injustice. A brief market meltdown. Working remotely. A lot of windsurfing and windfoiling. And then retirement from my 30 year finance career.

I downloaded my Garmin connects activities and calculated that I windsurfed/foiled 1,227 km last year in my 75 sessions. That totalled 87 hours with the average session just over an hour each. The longest sessions by distance and time were 56 km of windsurfing and 3 hours of foiling. That was a record number of sessions, but still under 100 hours on the water. (I know I had a few sessions that weren’t recorded on the Garmin - some during their data issues in the summer, but I think that is a pretty good baseline.)

So I'm guessing in my 40 years of windsurfing at maybe 50 hours per average year for 2,000 total hours on the water? I'm well below the 10,000 hours that Malcolm Gladwell says we need to master something. If I add in the number of hours spent watching windsurfing videos, practising on the beach and dreaming of moves in my mind, maybe I am close to 10,000 hours?

In 2020 I taught 14 first timers, had 2 repeat students, launched one student on a board for the first time in 30 years and got two experienced windsurfers foiling in 30 minutes. Happy to be getting so many people into the sport!

Goals for 2021? 

• Set up my windsurfing school website
• Windwing on skis
• Get my windsurf teaching certificate(s)
• Learn to Wingfoil
• Have a 100 km windsurf day
• Have 100 sessions/days on the water. (And maybe total 200 hours on the water?)
• Windsurf to the Bustard islands and back
• Some more foiling 360s
• Maybe another Vulcan?
• Teach 20 new windsurfers

I realize that there was one photo I didn't post from last year. Here is a shot of some cold water windsurf gear I didn't use in the fall. Hope I don’t need that in May.

Oh, and one more thing I’d like to do someday. Ice board sailing. But that is likely in 2022 before doing the International Windsurfing Tour? That is if the global Covid situation improves...