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.