Blue Mountain Pond Skim!

Well it isn’t really a wind sport, but it seems like an adventure worthy of a blog post!

After getting back from our great trip to Bonaire, the ski hill was still open and was promoting their Retro Pond Skim. I’ve never done a pond skim, but decided to give it a try.

I was pretty nervous the night before, debating whether to ski or snowboard across the 100 foot pond. What was certain was that I’d be wearing the crazy unicorn outfit I’d received a few years ago at a work party.

In the morning I headed to registration where I was pleased to hear that NO people get hurt doing this. Jen and Katie came over and cheered me on as I went across.

Leaning back a bit too much…

Made it!

I wore my unicorn outfit to give me wings!

I made it all the way to the green carpet on the far side! But then I started sliding backwards very slowly into the water. Luckily one of the rescue crew gave me a hand and I slowly plodded up the ramp and then down the snow on the other side!

The pond skim video!

Yeah, at 59 years old, another item off my bucket list!

E foiling day!

With the wind dropping off to almost nothing for our last full day in Bonaire, it was time to hang out on the leeward side of the island.

Flying on the little Lift E-foil

We started with a sunrise yoga session with Ladina at Ocean Oasis. 

Morning yoga

Nice beach at Ocean Oasis

Cheesy Dutch post yoga breakfast

Nearby CrossFit at the abandoned hotel site

Then a quick breakfast there and back to our room. Jen and I went snorkeling for a bit - there were definitely a variety of fish but the corals are suffering.

Finding Nemo?

I managed to arrange a 1:30pm eFoil session with Salu WaterSports who have a concession right at Delfins. I was able to register and pay on their website and after a bit of back and forth via email it was confirmed. Jeroen arrived with two foil boards. A small lift3 with an exposed propeller and the large version - a generation 4 lift efoil with a shielded prop.

Learn to fly!

The gear for e-foiling

That exposed propeller scares me….

I’ll admit to being frightened of the exposed propeller and gladly took an impact vest and helmet. Jeroen wanted to test a new controller on the g4, so he sent me out in the smaller unit since I said I’d done it before easily on the bigger version last year. This time it took me quite a while to get the hang of it on the smaller board! The smallest Lift Efoil board under my almost 100kg weight would sink so much that it often lost signal to the controller and would cut out before getting going.

I got better at keeping the board up and getting to my knees and eventually had a few flights. I didn’t come anywhere close to the propeller each time I fell and was very careful with the controller when mounting the board. By then Jeroen was out on the larger board and it was working fine. So we switched boards. 

Jeroen helping me get going…

Not quite getting flying…

I have to mention that the whole time we were using BBTalking headsets similar to the ones Dasher used for my wingfoiling lesson. It makes such a difference being able to talk back and forth with the instructor! Jen even had the headset on for a bit so she and I could chat.

The other fun part was Jeroen enjoyed my limited German so we had a good deal of our conversation auf Deutsch. On the bigger board I got going immediately. The heavier and wider Efoil was so much easier to stand on and get flying. The enclosed propeller doesn’t really have any downsides - it gets going and kept me up on the foil just as well and feeling safer.

I had some great long runs and was quickly at the 45 minute mark of my session. We traded back boards and now I was easily able to get up on the smaller one. The board did cut out on me around 4 times mid flight- I think it was when I got my right hand close to the controller in my left hand, the signal would cut out. 

Happy with my foiling!

All done!

Doing some S turns on my last run

Some fails on the small board then success on the slower big board
Finally some higher speed on the small board

Garmin foil track with a few weird spikes when
I had my hand underwater! (I didn't run aground.)

Google Earth image of my run (edited with no spikes)

I finished with a nice little run back to the pier with my hands far apart. Jen was kind enough to take video for a lot of the session. After some nice high fives Jeroen said I should be proud of myself for getting that smaller board going. „Du kannst stolz sein! Ja ich werde meine Mutter davon erzählen“. Yes I’m proud and will tell my mom! I loved the experience but I'm not sure yet that for the price that it is a perfect solution for teaching people wingfoiling?

Thanks Jeroen for the lesson!

Thanks Jen for the support!

The BBtalking hat

The efoil boards - exposed prop on the smaller left unit

Jen and I then did a little shopping in town, filled up the rental car with $40 USD of gas and started packing. 

Last photo of the day

A little dinner and a moonlit swim in the pool and it was time to set our alarms for our 8am flight back home. 7/8 days on a windsurfer, windfoil or wingfoil. And 1/8 days snorkeling and E-Foiling. 2 great dinners with friends. Jen’s knee rehab going well. Some wingfoil coaching from Dasher. Great food and memories of past family trips. What a great vacation.

Early flight the next morning!

One more wingfoil session then light wind!

After a lazy morning and cooking breakfast in our hotel room I headed to Frans Paradise again. There was only one other wing foiler out. 79 year old Steve W was on his 6.5 DLab Duotone Unit. He’s helping me set a new goal for what I want to be doing 20 years from now!

My new hero - 79 year old Steve the wingfoiler

My gear this morning

My 6.2m GA wing

The beach scene at Frans Paradise

I got a GA 6.2 wing (their largest) from Frans Paradise and picked a 117 L Tabou board with 1750 foil. I slogged a bit but managed to get up on the foil. I blew a few jibes and then got the sense of the gear.

Suddenly I was smooth and flying. 12 straight minutes and 9 jibes in a row over 3km. I did switch my feet a few times but mostly my success was because I wasn’t switching feet often and just riding toeside.

During a lull I chatted with Steve way out by the mangroves and then got a few more runs. Eventually I blew a foot switch and touched down. That was it - I didn’t get up on the foil again. I made use of my time on my the water practicing slow upwind tacks, wing 360s, slow downwind 360s and low wind toeside tacks. 

The wind slowly dropping in Bonaire

My last day of wing foiling

A bunch of nice jibes and then slogging for the last bit

Thanks for the good gear -
especially the windfoil setup I used earlier in the week!

My gear summary @ Frans Paradise

After 11km I was done and took the gear back and settled my bill at Frans Paradise. The wind is going to be even lighter tomorrow! So that was it for wind and wing foiling for me for the week.

Off to Jibe for my last lunch there. For my afternoon session I decided to do some light wind freestyle. I went out on a starboard 166 Go with a nice Duotone 5.3m Superstar and it was great doing upwind and downwind 360s.

One last delicious lunch at the Hangout Bar

Not many people on the webcam!

Lighter than normal wind at Jibe City

I even got some one-handed upwind 360s, sailing backwinded and some ducktacks. You can see all the 360s on the GPS trail.

My light wind freestyle session

The best part of the session was absolutely seeing a stingray with a couple of fish heading out towards the reef as I was tacking up wind. We must have crossed paths a dozen times. I could see it very clearly. Almost as cool was then seeing a couple other fish including what was around 3 foot long barracuda? Whatever it was it was beautiful. I wish I’d had my GoPro to take photos of all of those fish. So nice to see all that wildlife. Maybe it was because it was such a low wind and empty day with just a handful of beginners learning? There was one wing foiler up on the foil way up wind but generally it was a low wind relaxing time for everyone.

The shop at Jibe City

Duotone fanatics!

I got some photos with Arriane Auks who is sponsored by Duotone and had just finished a windsurfing clinic. I paid off my bill and was grateful not to have to pack up my own gear. Oh and everyone of course remembers Vanessa. Can’t wait until the next time we’re back here.

On the way back I checked into the FX Sports Duotone centre right near the hotel. They have gear for sale and rent and will be a definite place to consider for our next trip.

FX Sports is the local Duotone shop

Dinner was at Delfins with our friends Jennifer and Phil who have been on Bonaire for 7 weeks (up from an initial 4) getting their foiling skills dialed. Looking forward to reconnecting with them in Maui in the fall!

Phil and Jennifer from Maui - and past IWT events

That was quite a crowd for the concert at Delfins

The sounds of a nice concert with a huge sing along crowd while having dessert on the beach was a wonderful way to end the evening.