A little foil between chores

Today was the day to get a lot of chores done both at the cottage and Island. I headed out shortly afternoon as the wind was building. By the time I got on the water. It was looking like it was marginal at bast. 

Topped up the 7m Echo with the north demo board and figured that would be enough.

Thanks Jen for the photo!

One good session with 4 jibes

Just enough for me to get going…

Trying out the sun shelter tent at the point

I slugged up wind and finally caught a gust got a couple of runs and 4 jibes and then the wind was already backing off. It never came back, but I was happy to get things done on the island and back at the cottage doing more chores.

I write this, not much predicted for tomorrow so it looks like later in the week will be my next session.

Teaching the Peat Researcher

A great day started with a Parry Sound 33 fire presentation by Prof. Mike Waddington. Then a lesson for him with more details at the Launch Pad Blog.

I had some time on the water during the brief bit of lunch time wind.

Lessons for the Big Dawgs

The full post of my great day with John and Simon Watson is on the Launch Pad Blog:

I managed to do over 20km in a couple of sessions!

One foiling jibe!

After a quick trip to Collingwood and Toronto we were back and I had a nice sailboat sail with Anthony - his first ever sailboat excursion! After burgers and taking them back to the marina and picking up my in-laws, I zoomed back out to the Launch Pad.

It had been 15 knots from 3-6pm. But naturally at 6:22 as I got out on my 7m wing and Jen's 142l board and 2000cm foil the wind had been dropping. I pumped up onto the foil after a long slog and got going. I jibed and made it back through the old rail cribs. But that was it. I did try the North 6m with the WeCANFoil North foilboard but that didn't get me going either.

Anthony on the sailboat!

Sailboat circumnavigation

Nicole and Anthony had a great visit... Nicole got her boat license and drove 4 boats in one day.

When I got back I got one foiling jibe in the harbour

Heart rate hits 150 when pumping to get going!

Nice and windy in our corner of the bay!

But I wound up missing the windiest part of the day...

Better than nothing, tomorrow looks good for the Watson fest.

Sailing away

Lots of time on the water. Jen went out sailing. Then I took Nicole out for a sail. Later it looked like the wind was building. I tried foiling but only got up once. Ended with a nice 7km long sail over to Wedge Island with Katie. 

My session with Katie!


Our GPS trail - 7km!

First around the island with Nicole

Thought the wind was building...

My attempt at foiling

Up on the foil once!

Cute island visitor

Great sunset!

Sunday evening foil

After picking up Nicole and Anthony from the marina we headed out to the Launch Pad for some afternoon cocktails. The sailable but gusty north wind from the morning had switched to a SW thermal as predicted. Key Harbour tied Parry Sound as the windiest place on the Bay…

I topped up the 7m Slick and took out the WeCANFoil North demo board. I was able to get going on my first tack out and had a good quick session. There was enough west in the wind that I was even able to foil into and out of the small bay by the patio where everyone was sitting.

Foiling back to the dock

Just 19 minutes and 5.4 km but so worth it!

The thermals kicked on on the NE shore of Georgian Bay

It felt so good to get out on the water after missing yesterday’s good winds!

Quick foil after ice cream

It was a busy day preparing for family arriving at the cottage. I didn’t really even hope for wind as I didn’t think I’d get out. But as the afternoon progressed, we had a chance to take little Timo to the lodge for ice cream.

Then to the Launch Pad for a swim. Barely 10 knots but with the big 142L Fanatic Sky WS board and the 7m Slick wing I was off.

2.5 km and got a lot of tacks. 3 years ago tacking was impossible. Now I make most of them. Someday I’ll just be able to tack out of our channel without even doubting myself. 

I came back downwind and went back and forth in the channel a few times. I haven’t done that much so did find a shoal I knew was somewhere over there toward Pine Island. Oh well….

Jibing by the dock

Love those smooth GPS jibe trails

The windy spot!

Grateful to have my gear all rigged and ready for a quick before dinner session. We went back for a big family dinner singing “we like it here” to my mom on the phone. Then back to the island to sleep (with a few mosquitoes).

Heelside foiling tacks in the fog!

After a great event in Kingston it was nice to get my gear back out to the island. (I also now have a lot of WeCanFoil demo demo gear!)

Mike, Danielle, George and Charlie were at the island and enjoyed some on land lessons. More details at my school blog to be updated here.XXX

Danielle gets going!

Windy spot!

Kids love iRig s

I was out foiling right at 3pm!

When it got too windy I paused our lessons and went out on the Duotone 6m Echo with the 2000cm2 foil under Jen’s Fanatic Sky WS 142l board.

I was able to foil right on my first run! I was having fun and the wind kept building. But it was doing that while also getting foggy! Super strange seeing a metre or two of moving fog rolling atop the water.

I worked on my foiling tacks and got surprisingly consistent on my heelside tacks. I also did several 360s. Mike was on the point watching foiling - his first time seeing this new sport.

Some fun foiling tracks

After the wind dropped I left the wing at the point and continued the family windsurf lessons. I got both Mike and Danielle out on the big Viper HD board. They were great!

There was just enough wind to get on the foil once on my way back. And an amazing sunset back at the cottage.

Foil Kingston Day 2

Well, that was a great second day of racing!

A typical race start… young IQ foilers (and Anna
on the New North Sail) all crossing the line in formation…
then the older (heavier) non-IQ wind foilers like me CAN810
trying to get up and going!

I wasn’t sure that the wind forecast would amount to much but even when we got to the beach, it looked like a thermal was developing. 

After we all got rigged up and ready the
top 3 got their shirts showing results after day 1

After waiting for the wind to build, the kiters headed out

Everyone was quickly rigged knowing that there was a firm 3PM stop to racing and we had 5 races to do. As soon as it looked like foiling was possible we got out to the committee boats which were setting up even farther upwind. Surprisingly they didn’t actually even have the upwind marks for course set. 

Once the course was set, all 9 of us IQ foilers and wind foilers went out for race number one despite part of it was not possible for many of us to be on the foils. The wind built again and there was generally enough wind for me to get foiling after the start. A typical start sequence had all the 4 younger IQ foilers racing across the line when the horn blew, and then 5 of us older non-IQ wind foilers cross and start trying to get on our foils. Sometimes it was impossible for the heavier riders to even get up on the foil. Shout out to everyone who completed any of those races!

Video of an exciting race start!

Anna foiling back in style to cross the finish line!

We ran all five races and I did a total 30 km of sailing. For me the most fun was yet another very close finish again with Dennis. Yesterday I was slogging as the finish and he made it past me by a second or two. Today he was slogging around 200m from the finish line. He didn’t notice that I was coming from 600m away silently up on my foil roaring to the finish line. I caught up to him right at the line but it was impossible for us on the water to tell who came 5th in that race. We laughed about it while resting between races.

30 km in 3.5 hours!

It is really clear how hard my heart is working 
when going fast on the foil in each of the 5 races!
Top speed 16 knots with my Duotone S-Pace 8.8 on my 
Fanatic Stingray 140 with Fanatic windfoil foil underneath

We all foiled back to the beach and started de-rigging. I gave another impromptu iRig lesson to kids on the beach whose father Kevin used to work at Wind Promotions with Dave Nunn! Small world. Wow kids love that iRig - but I’ve decided the handles need numbers on them to help kids first uphaul and then go to the boom. More about that to be updated on my Launch Pad Blog.

Kids just love that iRig!

Kevin from the former Wind Promotions store and some happy kids

Back at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour we saw the results at the wonderful award ceremony. I had passed Dennis in that super close 2nd race so overall, I came in 5th out of 9 - just one point ahead of Denis. That was a great result, I was the top finisher who wasn’t on dedicated IQ foil Olympic class equipment. 4th position was clear: Felipe was a solid 4th in almost every race on his IQ foil setup so it was obvious he would be just behind the top 3.

The final finishing order! 

The top 3 contenders of Anna, Paul and Anton chased each other around the course in a tight formation all afternoon and had a variety of finishes that 2nd day. They didn’t even know their finishing order until the ware called up onto the podium at the awards ceremony. They were each separated by one point!

Denis and my battle for 5th and 6th

Awards ceremony 

Speeches while Anna and the boys wait for the results!

1st Anna, 2nd Paul, 3rd Anton

Ian and me!

Amazing kiters!

Great shirts!

After the ceremony I  picked up the rest of the WeCanFoil demo gear that is being loaned to the Launch Pad. Burger King drive-through and a visit with my son in Toronto made for a long day. I wound up having dreams about assembling wing foil equipment overnight and woke up pretty darn sore and tired the next morning!