So I headed out to Sunset Point Beach on a moderate looking NNW wind forecast. I even took a surfboard in case there wasn’t any real wind for foiling.
When I got there one windfoiler (nice guy named Peter) was out and he was on a 5.3 nicely powered. The other winger out (Greg?) was looking good out on a 5ish wing too.
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| Pre session selfie! |
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| Decent wind and waves |
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| The rig ready to go.. |
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| Is Len one of those surfers? |
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| Greg? shredding it up! |
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| A view of the ski hill! |
There were around a dozen surfers out too - so the waves were definitely happening. I was a bit worried about my back which has been hurting for the past few days. But I was committed, having put my wetsuit on back at home since the air was around 3c with a little frosting of snow on the ski hills.
I rigged up the 5m Duotone Slick wing and the 125l Fanatic Sky board with 2000cm foil. I managed to fit my helmet over my 6/5/4 wetsuit by taking out 2/3 of the interior foam padding.
The walk out to the deeper water was ok but it took me quite a while to get my board leash connected in the waves. I’m glad I didn’t get completely washed by a wave and then I was in the deeper water taxiing out. A fisherman on shore had been shouting a bit - but I didn’t think I was that close to shore?
I got going on the foil and headed upwind. Greg? had come in while I was heading out but I now saw one other foiler out there. I was reasonably steady on the board as I started navigating my way through some big rollers.
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| GPS foil track |
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| A bunch of runs followed by a lot of falls |
Wow those waves were big. It wasn’t just a matter of trying to tap the crest of the wave with the bottom of the board as I went over the top, I had to be actively trying to nosedive the board on the back of the wave to avoid overfoiling on the way down.
My first jibe was a success. Yeah! It wasn’t as windy as the last time I’d been out in big waves here so I didn’t necessarily accelerate when jibing. But riding toeside was a bit challenge vs. doing it on flat water. I made most of my outside toeside jibes, but then fell once riding back in through the waves toeside.
My forearms were really sore after just a few minutes. Fortunately my back was ok! I got 6 out of 12 jibes. 0 out of 1 tack attempts. Most of the dozen or so times when I fell in, I got going on my first attempt. So that was progress vs. my first 3? times here. After one particularly fast fall riding a wave the wing went one way downwind as the board came to a complete stop and I was drawn in two directions. I figured that was my signal to call it a good proof of winter concept session.
I foiled back in where the surfers were - carefully avoiding them and getting a thumbs up for that effort. Nephew Len was walking his surfboard out after his surf session. He came over and helped me carry out my gear through the shorebreak, but not before a wave tumbled my foil through my wing. A first for me in 3 years. I’ll get that repaired quickly and hope to get another session or two before year end!
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| Post session view |
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| Post session selfie! |
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A little oops - canopy torn in the surf
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Wind report at the end of the session
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| 3c when I got back home |
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