This is the first time I’ve had my wing gear in Collingwood since learning to wing ski here in early 2021. I’d brought my gear to Northwinds beach last week but wound up not having the hose for my pump!
A quick visit over the weekend to Northline sports for a very nice new Duotone wing pump and I was ready. Today was sunny with 9-15 knot NW winds. I loaded up and headed to Northwinds beach again and this time I was pretty much all set. Well, I realized my wetsuit was only a 3/2 - and the water and air were still chilly. My wind meter said it was averaging around 11 knots so I had to go!
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| Selfie before the session |
I pumped up the 5m Duotone Slick wing and got the Fanatic 2000 foil connected to the 125 litre Fanatic Skywing board. I was a bit nervous about the limestone ledges and rocks with my nice foil gear so I just walked out until I was pretty sure there were no more underwater obstructions. I could feel a trickle of cold water through my gloves and booties and wondered if I’d made a mistake - how cold would it be when I wiped out?
Whooo whooo, there was enough wind. I got going easily and made a bunch of jibes in a row. I didn’t try the footstraps. I did try one tack and a few low speed jibes where I inevitably fell off the plane and sometimes off the board. The water was indeed cold and I decided to head in after only 5km. I felt like it was a bit to short a session, but to be fair, I did hike up the escarpment in the morning. Or maybe it was because I didn’t have a harness?
The 3/2 wasn’t quite enough to keep my torso warm, but glad I had the gloves and good booties. I did a little self rescue practice back to shore. I wanted to see if I could lay on the board and paddle with my feet dragging the wing behind me. Next time I try that I’ll need to get the leashes untangled first.
It was very nice to meet my sister and her friends on the beach. We had an impromptu wing flying lesson! Lots of interest in this new winging sport - good news for my Launch Pad Windsurf Academy.
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| Thanks Debra for the photos! |
Looking at the GPS trail of where I was foiling overlaid on the satellite image, I was well upwind of the big shoal that usually has a flag flying on it in front of Craigleith in the summer. And it stays deep for a long way out. I suspect I’m going to be headed there on a lot of East and NW wind days.
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| Pretty slow 12 knot (22 km/h) max speed |
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| Nice chart from Windy.com |
Oh, and this was my heading to the beach selfie and wind report the week before when I tried going for my session without my pump hose…
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