Skate 108 Session!

John and me coming in together after a great sunset session.

It had been a windier than expected second day for my students. I was excited that I managed to get Adam and Kim standing on the foil board for the first time in their lives. More about that on the LaunchPad blog.

I got in one short run myself when taking the gear out to the point for Adam to try. Using the little 4.2m North Nova wing in the big swells was new experience for me.

Taking the foilboard upwind for Adam and Kim

After our lesson concluded I took the family back down the river.

Later friend John arrived and wanted to get out for a session. I got him trying the foil board but he was much more comfortable winging on the big Viper HD board which gave me time to go out windsurfing. 

A rare shortboard windsurfing session. Started at 8:23 pm!
5 km in 20 minutes and right back to the dock.

7 jibes!

It was 18 gusting to 26 knots. I took the Skate 108 and Idol 5.6 from the dock. Wow, to do 5 km of shortboard windsurfing without falling in felt unusual. Despite the gusty wind and wind shadow, I was able to come right back into the dock! Thus the webcam photo at the top of the blog.

Windiest spot on the Great Lakes!

Even better, I was out windsurfing with my buddy and was able to talk to him the whole time on our BBtalkin headsets. What a great day.

Foiling for the student’s benefit…

Alex and Kim were having their lesson from me at the Launch Pad (see blog). I got to have a quick session showing them how the foil works and chatting on the BBtalkin headsets while I was going.

At the end of the day the wind had built even more and I foiled the North Demo board back down wind with the 4.2m wing!

My students...

Showing off foiling for Adam and Kim

Riding the gear home

Sweet day...

The trees grow sideways here

Dinner on Bigsby

The windfarm at night

It was a great day on the water!

The thermal wind kicked in!

I was heading out to get the Launch Pad ready for our next students. The wind picked up right at 3pm, making our corner of the Bay one of the windiest spots again.

I hopped on the WeCanFoil demo North board and 6m wing. It is a remarkably comfortable setup.

I worked on my toe side tacks, a few 360s and had a great time. I wound up foiling half way down the channel north of the island. First time for that! 

Dana from yesterday’s lesson was driving past in their boat and he sent some photos. Looks like I was having fun!

Thanks Dana for the photos

Then Rob sent some photos too!

Almost foiled the whole way around the island!

16 knots on a 2100cm foil! - 15km in 55 minutes

Nice afternoon thermal wind!

Looks like good wind most of the next 4 days!

Caught the only wind of the day!

I had been teaching Dana a windsurfing lesson and thought there might be a chance of late afternoon thermal. Sure enough we got around 25 minutes of wind and I managed to be on the foil for most of it. 

Then it shifted briefly directly to the east and eventually north so I had to be towed back so that we could have cocktails to celebrate Dana‘s good session. More about that on the Launchpad blog post. 

First time the instructor needed to be towed home by the student. (Yes, I would have made it back my self if we hadn’t still been chatting on the BBtalkin headsets from the earlier lesson. It just would have been a long time and a lot of tacks into the 1-8 knot north wind.)

Crazy wind shifts

Chart showing the brief SW thermal wind before it shifted
back to north

Two wingfoil jibes on a wonderful day

 I was doing my last part of Ron’s windsurfing lesson and the wind came up a bit….

I managed to get two jibes and that was it…

Oh well, that was the wind for the day.

Thanks Jen for the video of the 3rd jibe -

But it doesn’t count!

My two jibes

Sailboat circumnavigation 

Michelle and I got out sailing!

Cool Potholes

Amazing skies

Family and friends

A wonderful day with clear water, amazing scenery, family, food and friends.

35km of Wingfoiling in 135 minutes

It was a perfect bay day and the SW thermal wind built nicely at 1pm. I had started a repeat lesson for Ron and then Cameron joined as well. Cameron struggled in the now 15 knot winds so we decided to take a wind check for next time. 

I had sailed the 6m North wing and 138L North board to the point so Phillip could demo it. Philllip had a great wingfoiling session. Lots of details about the lessons at the Launch Pad Blog.

After saying bye to Cam, I went out on the North gear. It worked very well and I wingfoiled 7km without falling in at all. The wind had built more and now Key Harbour was the windiest spot on the Great Lakes.

I came in and set up the 1080 foil under my Fanatic Sky 125L board. I got going easily but found it wobbly underfoot. Then I got used to it again and just found it super responsive. And jumpable!

Someone got a nice video of me jibing in by the deck at the Launch Pad.

Photo from the video above…

I continued with the 6m wing for a very long time, a bit surprised that my arms weren’t killing me without a harness. It seemed the wind was dropping so I took Ron out on the water with the small Duotone iRig. That was a huge success.

Perfect afternoon thermal

I started getting the the Launch Pad ready for a lesson for Ron. Of course when we got out to the point the wind had started picking up. The afternoon thermal had built to almost 20 knots all of a sudden.

So I put Ron’s lesson on hold and got out on the 6m north wing on the 138 Seek Prime board with 2100 cm foil underneath. I got some great runs back and forth to the point on the WeCANFoil gear. While it was quite inconsistent I managed a couple of runs back to the dock and beyond. I’It's rare that I've been able to go back-and-forth like that. Eventually the wind died and there was a long slow slog back.

A great day today with a dry land nice lesson for Ron and then dinner with all three kids.