I was looking for a nice day to try out the new Duotone Echo 6m wing I got for Christmas. The wind was forecast for 15-20 knots from the NW. A perfect sunny day to check out the conditions at Sunset Beach in Collingwood.
We parked and my wife had a nice view out to the shoreline park where I would be wing skiing. Indeed the wind was clocking 17 knots on my handheld wind meter. I put on snowboard padded pants and my ski boots and went out to pump up the wing. It was pretty easy to do in the wind shadow of some trees on the beach.
The session was really good and it wasn't hard to get the "hang" of the wing at all. I realized the way to get going is to hold the kite overhead and develop power. Holding the 6m wing out in front of me like a windsurf sail resulted in the tip getting caught on the snow before getting any speed. I quickly adapted my style. Each run was around 150m and I topped out at 26.9 km/h. The route I had was way too short for any sustained runs, but it was easy to avoid the park benches, trees and other obstacles. Winging is way safer than kiting!
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| Just winging it! |
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| GIF! |
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| GPS trail and 26 km/h speed |
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| NW wind works well at Sunset Beach |
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| Full report from iWindsurf |
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| Geeky smile |
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| View from the car |
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| Even the radio was pointing out that it was windy! |
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| I will be back at Sunset Beach again in the spring! |
I didn't need the padded pants, I was very comfortable on my normal downhill skis and boots and never fell. I actually worked up a sweat with my helmet and warm jacket on. My forearms did get quite tired. I'll need to work on strengthening those arms for next time. Or maybe try with a harness once I've had a few more sessions. This will count as session #1 for 2021.
One big difference winging vs. windsurfing.... I had two nice younger women come up to me and ask me what I was doing - "that looks so cool". I definitely don't get that "cool new sport" attention on the beach as often windsurfing .
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