WeCanFoil in Halifax - Sail GP

Wow, I was excited to sign up for the wing foil coaching certificate course offered by Sail Canada. It was part of the WeCANFoil weekend in advance of the Sail GP Halifax races. Jen decided to come with me and we made a nice long weekend around visiting Halifax.

As we got closer to the event. I was actually asked to help run demo wing foil demos in the Halifax Harbour for the general public. WeCanFoil had some gear that we could rig and then use for the demos all weekend long.

I was paired with an amazing coach Jeff Brock, who drove the RIB. I got the opportunity several times to sail gear out into the harbour where a week later the SailGP race boats would be. I got a bunch of nice runs in and even got featured on the social media of Sail GP Canada. I have lots of photos in this Launch Pad blog post.

Monday and Tuesday were spent learning and teaching foiling and getting my Sail Canada foiling instructor credentials. There are many more details about that on this the Launch Pad Windsurf Academy blog.

A personal highlight was talking on my cellphone to my mom while teaching in Halifax Harbour. That is where she landed at Pier 21 when she and my father immigrated to Canada in 1951. She couldn’t have imagined having a son wing foiling in those same waters 73 years later!

Teaching wingfoiling after taking a call from my mom.
I’m pointing at Pier 21
where my mom and dad landed in Canada in 1951

Wow it is windy!

I woke up to wind. And finished a bunch of work on the shed in the wind. And then rearranged the furniture on the freshly shampooed carpet at the Launch Pad. Luckily Jen wanted to do an extra hour of gardening so I got to head out for a quick foil session. 

4m Unit wing, 1080 foil under Sky 125l board. Straight out - slogged a bit in the wind shadow by the helipad, didn’t fall. Short but sweet.

Picking my way around the pier and shoals
The app missed a bunch of jibes…

Some great foil runs right off the dock
Then spent most of the 10km session on the foil!

Windiest spot on the Great Lakes. Wow.

Got a bunch more chores done - shed walls up, carpets shampooed, and boat light secured.

Shed getting farther along…

Looking wayyyy better

Ready for guests!

Extra lumens for night time!

Now off to Halifax for the WeCanFoil events before the Sail GP Canada event!

A great Bay Day

Three sessions by myself today. And another session with Jen! 

Later in the day sailing Jen’s gear

It was a windy day on Georgian Bay for sure. My first outing was a long one on the 4m Unit wing and 1080 foil under the 125l Sky board. I found it challenging getting upwind and out of our channel. A bit of flashback to 3 years ago. 

Lots of time floundering in the channel to start

And then a long time on the foil!

Eventually I got out and was exploring the bay and linking jibes. And working on tacks and even got a heelside tack. I was using the green bouys as turning markers. I need better harness lines on that Unit.  

Then I sailed Jens gear upwind. 

Sailing Jen’s gear upwind

Sailed Jen’s gear upwind then followed her in the boat

Jen out giving it another try!

Jen had a good go at foiling with the 5m Slick and the 2000cm foil under her new 142l Sky WS foil board.  More about her sessions on the Launch Pad Blog.

I went back out and found it interesting that the 5m Slick was just as quiet and stable as the Unit. 

Spent a moment looking underwater
for that shoal in our channel
(Thus the weird north/south GPS trail
when my watch was under water)

Nice long time completely up on the foi!

This carpet needs some more cleaning!

Finally, after doing some carpet shampooing I headed out as the wind jumped to 20knots. I rigged up the 5.6m Idol sail and unpacked the Skate 108 from the trip to Hatteras. So it was my first time this year windsurfing in Canada.

Windsurfing for the first time in Key Harbour this year
Got 2 jibes counted…

A few good runs on the windsurfer

Great afternoon wind
and then a nice kick that I caught at 6pm

Only got 2 jibes counted on the Windsports app - but they weren’t full carving jibes. The duck one was the better of the two. The south wind was plenty warm. I was in my 4/3 wetsuit and then didn’t even wear booties for my windsurfing session!

Leaving tomorrow and packing for the WeCanFoil event in Halifax. Let’s see if I get a session in.

Jumping on the new 1080 foil

What a surprise session! There wasn’t that much wind predicted. I was actually thinking I might be doing beginner windsurfing lessons but sure enough Key Harbour and the Launch Pad is the windiest spot in all of Ontario and the Great Lakes. That got me jumping for joy!

Caught a jump on the dock cam!

After a nice breakfast with Jen I pumped up the 6m Duotone Unit wing. For the first time on Georgian Bay I assembled my new 1080 foil under the Sky 125L foil board. I’d tried that new foil in Hatteras a few weeks ago and found it to be small, fast and good for jumping.

I headed out from the dock and realized that getting going on the little 1080 takes a bit more speed and thus distance than on the larger foils that I’ve normally used to tack up our channel. So I slowly slogged my way up wind out of the channel. And then with a good gust and a longer fetch I was flying.

I went out into the Bay and worked my way all the way upwind (south) past Scott & OJ’s former Island. Then I did what I think were the most jibes I’ve ever done in a row?

The GPS trail shows 40 jibes in a row! The new Windsports app is cool how it counts them and the vibrates while underway. (It did miss counting just a few in the middle.) I’m going to call it 100 jibes total for the 1:50 minute session. Likely a new record but I never had a counter running on my GPS…

GPS trail counting my jibes (and a few tacks too!)

I planned to continue doing jibes all the way down to Liz and Cary’s place or until I fell. Once I did fall, I decided rather than continue I would work my way back up wind. I'm guessing that someday I'll be able to do 50 or more in a row?

I started playing in around the islands closer to the Launch Pad and was getting tired and falling a lot more. I was getting better though at my tacks once I realized that with the 1080 you can really lean into it. Then I went in and out of the Harbour where the wind was definitely lighter in there making the tacks a bit more challenging. 

I wound up doing two jumps! One in front of the Kivinen boat - full of people towing another boat so there was a pretty decent wake to jump off. My third jump of the year was in front of the Dock Cam just as I came in.

Dock cam jump sequence after 1:50 of winging!

What a wonderful place here to get such a good surprise session. The air was 18c and the water 15c - perfect for my 4/3 suit with full booties.

Video of the last minute of my 110 minute session.

And 5 of my 100 jibes

I only stopped because my left front finger was cramping up at 90° occasionally. I had also forgotten sunscreen as it was overcast when I started, but was nice and sunny by the time I ended. That sun also helped my ability to pick my way through the shoals. 

I did stop on two shoals to investigate how deep they are. I think I need to be even more cautious than I generally am about the rocks, especially when the water is only moderately clear.

There is a nasty rock right where I walked…
Barely missed it while foiling through the shoals earlier!
Marked with an X in my mind now

Windiest spot on Georgian Bay

And windiest spot on the Great Lakes!

Nice wind from 10am till noon!

New top speed on my wing foil!
18 knots or 34 km/h
And a great 31km session!

Later in the day Jen would head out for a wingfoiling lesson. I sailed her gear upwind to add 5 km to a 36 km total for the day... more information on that session in my LaunchPadWindsurfAcademy blog post.

Enjoyed the sunset from Rob’s place

A little Wingfoil to start the long weekend

After a productive Friday working on the shed, we headed out with the 2 cats to the Launch Pad. I managed to get a quick 5 km session in the nice warm south wind. That adds just a bit to my 500km total windsports so far this year!

The wind was from the south averaging 9 to 12 kn which was great for the 6m Duotone unit wing with the 2000 cm foil under the 125L sky foilboard.

Dock cam!

Dock start

A little dock cam video of me pumping to get going

I got four jibes and then had quite the lull. I never got up on the foil on my run back. I stopped at the point and walked the wing back. 

GPS trail of my session

3 km on the foil

The wind slowly died down during my session…

Carrying the wing back

Carrying the board back!

A wonderful Georgian Bay sunset

Later that night after a glorious sunset walk with Jen I brought the board back. It was an eventful night with the cats let’s see if I have enough energy to go foiling on Saturday.

Pluto

Cat sitting

Angel

Grateful to my Mom!

My mother came to Canada in 1951. In 1953 my parents came camping and fishing up in this north east corner of Georgian Bay. I was really grateful to talk to her today at 98 years old but also grateful to that she introduced me to this area of windswept pine trees, rocks and clear water.

I headed out into the Launch Pad and topped up the 6m Duotone Unit and hopped off the dock onto the 125L Sky foilboard with the 2000 cm foil underneath. I didn’t even need to go very far out past the wind shadow to get going. I foiled through the cribbing in the Harbour did a couple of low speed jibes and then was foiling consistently out into Georgian Bay.

Once I got my rhythm and looked at my watch I noticed I hadn’t properly started the new Windsports app. So I started that and got the rest of the session on my Garmin GPS. I love the way this app counts my jibes. It was addicting having it vibrate every time I completed a jibe!

The new Windsports app counts your jibes!

A nice long part of the session completely on the foil

Dock cam selfie after the session

Tempest weatherflow data station

Nice wind building all afternoon

I had a great time going back-and-forth. I got basically all of my jibes and most of my tacks as well. I stopped in at a neighbours and at that point hadn’t even fallen in. After what felt like around an hour I did have one fall and that was enough to get me cold in the 13c water. I decided to head in and enjoyed a nice warm shower.

It was also obvious that it was time to come in because the wind farm turbines had stopped, which they tend to do every day at 4 PM. The had wind built throughout the afternoon as it typically does when the day starts out sunny and the rocks heat up in the convection gets extra strong in our corner of Georgian and Bay.

Weather station needs a repair….

Need to replace the primer bulb

Another boat needing repair

There was definitely some boat maintenance needed this weekend…. But otherwise…

A great Mother’s Day, maybe next year I’ll be out foiling with my wife!