More Windsurfing Schools

Before leaving Gruisson, we visited the windusrfing school located nearby on an inland bay.  A great shallow place for people to learn, and it was pretty busy.  The family wanted to keep moving, so I'll have to return to practice Vulcans in this flat shallow bay some other time.

#1 First Day on the Med

After a few family visits, it was time to drive off to Gruissan, and my first views of the French Mediterranean coast. Driving from Toulous, home of the Airbus A380, the landscape has become much more arid, feeling a bit like the Oregon interior. The strong, hot, dry wind that was tailing us helped with that Columbia River Gorge reference as well. 

Luckily, there is a windsurfing rental shop where the dry wind hits the Mediterranean, in Gruisson. There were dozens of cars and trailers and RVs, and about one hundred windsurfers out, with some really good freestylers laying down some great tricks. I quickly rented some gear (a nicely rigged 5.5m sail and a tiny 85l board) for 22e for an hour, and headed out into the offshore gusty winds. Smiling, I returned an hour later. Gruisson is where the annual 1,000 person Defi-wind windsurfing race is held, so we also did some research about where to stay, preparing for our hopeful return in June next year.  
http://www.defiwind.com/


A good first session.  I didn't get blown offshore into the middle of the Med, I managed to do a few duck jibes, a carving 360, an upwind 360, and basically got used to sailing a short board again for the first time since April.  It wasn't a long enough session, but the family really didn't like being sandblasted on the beach by the Tramontane wind.

French Beach Culture

Nice Beach, No Wind

We are spending several days visiting family and a lot of days have us heading to the beach.  Unfortunately, there hasn't been any wind.  Like really, not a breath.  We tried going out on a hobie cat but even that was slow and sometimes difficult to get going.  Amazingly, there were 3 sailing schools on this beach in St. Nazaire, and each one had a good selection of windsurfing boards for rent.  They were also doing a lot of windsurfing lessons, despite the lack of wind.  I generally like to teach beginners when there is at least a ripple on the water indicating the wind direction, and there aren't huge swells.  But at least they had good floaty beginner boards and small sails.

French Big Box Sporting Retail

The beach culture is pretty amazing.  Everyone has boogie boards, and beach umbrellas.  The French have a huge department store chain called Decathalon, and it is full of sporting equipment.  The one we visited in Bordeaux even has a section dedicated to windsurfing and kiting equipment.

Watching the Windsurfers At the D-Day Landing Beachers

We took the kids for a great tour of the D-Day landing beaches.
http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-543568


The only downside of the whole day was that it was the first day we’ve had that had sun, and it was spectacularly windy. As we stood looking at the first beach house in France liberated by the Canadians, it was a beautiful side shore wind, and I was envying all the windsurfers rigging up and sailing out on the waves. Oh well, a completely insignificant frustration in relationship to the importance of the tour and history of Normandy. But it is interesting to see how much people are again enjoying their freedom in the exact same place.

No Wind on The English Channel Today

Lots of water (and big tides) in the English Channel, and evidence of windsurfing (see below), but nothing happening while we are here...

For more of our family trip details see:
http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-543534

Arrival In Europe

Ok, so we've arrived in Europe and I've picked up my windsurfing gear at Zurich Air Cargo. The next few weeks will be spent visiting relatives and friends around Germany, Amsterdam, the English Channel, all three coasts of France, and ending at our new home for a year in Aix-en-Provence.  We actually have a family blog at:
http://www.mytripjournal.com/spiessfamilyfrance with details of the trip.  The windsurfing gear will be in storage for August, and my real sailing will start in September, and in this blog I'll be reporting on my windsurfing adventures.

Flying with Windsurfing Gear

Well we are finally ready to depart for our year long Kids French Immersion / Dad Windsurfing adventure.  Since I am hoping to do a lot of windsurfing, I've decided to pack my newish Fanatic Skate 108 and 6.2, 5.4 and 4.7 North Duke sails.  Now the bad news, a week before leaving, I check the Air Canada website, and they DON'T ACCEPT WINDSURFERS as baggage.  A late night trip to Air Canada cargo will get the gear shipped, and actually help make the passage through the airport easier for the 5 of us.  Here's a shot of me packing up in the house with the windsurfing bags in the background...

http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/baggage/sports_equip.html#-surf