PSC Wave Camp with Matt Pritchard!

Retro Air Canada to San Diego

Day 1
Here’s the very detailed diary of my recent trip to Baja.  The goal was to get some training on how to ride ocean waves from pro windsurfer Matt Pritchard. And it was a great reason to visit Solosports in Punta San Carlos again.

My friend Paul and I met at the airport in Toronto and had a nicely uneventful flight to San Diego on a neatly branded Trans Canada Air (Air Canada) Airbus 319. After we landed we bumped into Paul’s brother and sister in law who were driving their van down to Baja to windsurf the same week as us. We explored the city and then all had a great dinner at a cosy restaurant in little Italy.

I love the cars in San Diego!

Day 2
We met the Solosports van and the other guests at the Days Inn. After regrouping at Brown Airfield we headed down to San Carlos by air, as did 11 of the 13 Saturday arrival guests. The flight was spectacular and we flew right along the shore.

Paul's brother's cool van

Meeting our coaches at Brown Field

I'm the co-pilot?

Flying low on the Baja coast

PSC action from the air!

Our tents and camp

Great waves and wind on our first days

We were greeted by a very busy camp, with many of the outbound guests enjoying their last few rides. After a quick lunch I was out on a 6.1 and an RRD 108 litre Freestyle Wave board that suited me very well. I felt totally in control and didn't have any issues getting back in. I have different memories of my last visit here in 2007 when I found it quite frustrating.

Day 3

That's me tearing up a tiny wave

This was the first formal day of our clinic. After introducing ourselves and getting some general clinic info, we headed out to the water. Kevin McGillivray (Kmac) is one of the coaches and is a pleasure to watch on the waves. A highlight of the day for me was sharing a wave with our head coach Matt Prichard. Matt and I were doing alternating bottom turns and I thought he was saying "you rock", but of course he was saying "ROCK!" as I tried to squeeze in one more turn. Oh well, after 5 waterstart attempts among the shorebreak and boulders I got going again.

It was a bit harder getting back in but I managed to catch a last wave and ride it left almost to the beach. I rode a 5.3 then 5.7 again on the 108 all day.

And sharing the bigger ones

Dinner was great - pork ribs and corn and beans. Actually all the meals have been great; huevos rancheros being my favorite.

Day 4
Today started with no wind at all so most of the clinic participants went stand up paddleboarding before breakfast. I went out but have to admit it is hard. I did catch one wave, and will have to practice more, as I fell down around 20 times.

After video analysis of yesterday's riding and a delicious pozole soup we headed out again.

Camp life

I took a 5.0 sail and a small SUP to play in the waves and 12 knot winds. It was incredibly fun as I was able to catch almost every wave I wanted, and also worked on my heli and duck tacks.

My buddy Paul ran onto the rocks that afternoon and sadly put a small hole in his sail and his hand.

The clinic crowd are a diverse bunch. 6 Canadians, 2 Swedes, 2 Dominicans (one of whom competed in the 1984 Olympics the first time that windsurfing was a sport) and a number of Americans from a broad variety of states and origins. There is definitely a good amount of experience in the group though. And it was great to see repeat PSC guest Dave S. who I last saw at the camp in PSC in 2006.

SUPing is hard

Six of us went for a pre-dinner bike ride in the last bit of daylight. The mountain bikes and terrain here are first rate. It would be hard to get bored here.

Day 5
I realized today that both of the women in the clinic are Canadian! There were more women visiting at San Carlos than in my previous trips, including a grandmother who regularly gets 4 seconds of hang time on her kite.

I'm getting it....

I had another great afternoon of SUP windsurfing in light winds for almost 3 hours. Sadly I do get the San Carlos “Rock Star” award for breaking one of the thruster fins off the stand up paddleboad.

The wildlife is remarkable. The first day I saw a whale 20 metres from me, every few days we see dolphins or porpoises and there are always seals to be seen.

Oh yeah!

Having dinner sitting next to pro windsurfer Matt was great, I really enjoyed hearing his stories of life on the pro tour. Later that night I saw shooting stars and a distinct milky way under the clear Baja night sky.

Day 6
After reviewing video from the first few days we headed out to the water. There wasn't much wind so I tried stand up paddleboarding again and finally had some six good rides and a dozen falls. SUPing with just a paddle in your hand is hard and at 210lbs I need the biggest board they have to have any chance of being able to balance in the waves.

All smiles

Day 7
A bit more wind this morning so after our jumping and looping lecture we all headed out. This was a bit more how I remembered San Carlos, as I found it really hard to get upwind on the 5.7 and 104l wave board but I did get a few rides.

SUP Windsurfing - slow but fun

In the afternoon I had another very enjoyable 3 hour SUP sailing session. I caught a ton of waves and found being out on the water to be easy and addictive. Now that I'm consistently remembering to keep my head up and move my hand back, my heli-tacks are consistent for the first time in my windsurfing career.

Smiling on the stand up paddleboard

Today the seals were actually curious about us all on the water and one was following my board and was swimming right behind and underneath my skeg.

At dinner coach Kmac and some of the other guests were suggesting that I should consider entering the AWT Maui Classic as an amateur. The waves here are a lot smaller than Ho'okipa but I'll admit to being excited by the idea.

One of the few good rides on day 8

Day 8
What a frustrating day. Both in the morning and afternoon sessions I went out on boards that were too small for me. At least in the morning there was enough wind to keep the 104 and 5.7 going, and Matt apparently got video of the two of us sharing another wave which I'll post later.

Video of Matt following me coming soon...

In the afternoon I tried a Quatro 110 quad fin board and really didn't like it. I couldn't catch waves, stay upwind or even get planing. It was pretty humbling. I finally came back in and got a nice big RRD 120 single fin and had a last few good rides.  Gear selection continues to be a key factor in this sport.

Day 9

The truck leaving the camp with our luggage

As the truck departed in the morning with the majority of the luggage, we reviewed some more video with Matt and Kevin and had our final lecture. We got to go out SUPing one last time in the light winds and sunny skies.  I managed to get 6 solid wave rides and only fell in 6 times, so my wave to wipeout ratio improved significantly.

John and Christina's campsite

We said our goodbyes to the campers who were staying on and welcomed the new crew of kiters who were arriving.

We also said goodbye to Paul's brother and sister in law who are staying in PSC until they get some huge waves or run out of supplies.

After a last delicious lunch we then boarded the small planes to head back to San Diego and home.

In all, the trip was a success. More wind or bigger waves would have been awesome but we made the most of the conditions. The group really bonded and learned an awful lot from our terrific coaches. I suspect most of us will keep the Solosports client return rate at 90%. Thanks again to Kevin Trejo, Clark Merritt (who gets credit for most of the photos) and the rest of the Solosports crew for an excellent adventure.

The full crew!

Paul, Kevin, Carl & Matt
Thumbs up!

The return trip

Vanessa comes home from Jibe City!

Teaching my niece Vanessa in 1996!

If you've been to Jibe City in Bonaire for an ABK camp in the last 5 years you've likely met my always smiling niece Vanessa.

We all went down to Bonaire for a family windsurfing trip in 2008 and she wound up staying there for 5 years. Vanessa worked in the shop at Jibe City, taught windsurfing and met a great guy!

Well she's back in Toronto now, and she and I finally caught a windsurfing session together back up on Georgian Bay. This is where I taught Vanessa to windsurf many years ago (see photo).

This weekend there wasn't supposed to be much wind, so when the southwest flow started building on Saturday around 4pm, I packed up a few boards and sails and headed out to the Bay.

 

Not a great wind, but enough!

I rigged first and sailed alone on my new Ray 122 and my 7.0 for 45 minutes. Then Vanessa came out and joined me on the Skate 108 and Duke 6.2. That is my favorite combo to use but it wouldn't have been enough for me.  But in the 15-19 knot winds, Vanessa had some great runs.  She then tried out the Techno 148 and rocked that board too!

It was a huge thrill for me to be out sailing with someone that I taught and windsurfing became such a big part of her life. It was also just great to have someone to sail with. You can tell by the pictures that we had a lot of fun! And yes, the photos were taken by Len, the great guy she met in Bonaire, who is up here now with her.

I'm looking forward to some more sessions back home here with Vanessa!

The last image here is of my GPS trails. I wound up hitting 51.9 km/h, which is the fastest speed I think I've hit ever?  And that was just my second day on the new board. The Garmin website says the weather at that point was 15c and 19 km/h wind - I think it was more like 19 knots. I sailed a total of 46 km in the 2 hours and was pleasantly sore the next day. 

My GPS trail and 51.9 km/h top speed.

First session on the Ray 122

47.3 km/h in the last gust!

After a bit of a wind drought, I finally managed to get up to the cottage and score a gusty north wind session.

My first time on the Fanatic Ray 122 was pretty good! I used the 9.0 NP V8 and the wind was ranging from 7 to 15 knots. (It had been much windier earlier in the day, but by the time work emails were done, and with travel time, rigging etc I was just getting the last gasps of the day

.)

The board gets on a plane pretty quickly, but with the 44cm fin I had a very hard time staying upwind. To be fair, I was spending over 1/2 my time slogging, so I'll have to wait to see if the upwind difficulty was due to the board, me, or the lack of wind.

The very short nose on the Ray 122 makes it much easier to ride at speed than the Bic Techno 148 I've been sailing as my big board for the last 5 years. The tail and mid section width is virtually the same, but the lack of nose on the Ray makes the board almost impossible to tack with a 9.0. I'll be working on my heli tacks more on this board!

There is way more foot steering feel when planing and I can tell that once I get used to it I'll definitely be getting some faster top speeds.  I caught a gust on my way back to my launch site and hit 47.3 km/h.  That is in 15 knot (28 km/h) wind or over 165% of the wind speed - or maybe it was a bit more of a gust?  In any case I was pretty excited to get that last bit of planing after 10 minutes of slogging.

Friday the 13th - At least I caught the last bit

I was getting worried that I might not get a chance to use my new board at all this year. The weather was around 14 degrees and sunny, but went down to 2 degrees overnight with frost warnings. While there might technically be one last week of summer, on Friday the 13th, it already felt like fall here. 

Was it worth it?

Just before our departure from the cottage, it looked like the wind was filling in a bit from the southwest.  I loaded up the boat and took out the Techno and my 7&9m sails.

The wind was reading 11-15 knots, and I got planing a few times.15 knots is 28 km/h, and I topped out at 37 km/h or 132% of the max wind speed.  I think that will become a new goal, trying to get to a higher ratio of max board speed vs. max windspeed.

I only sailed for a half hour, did 9.1 km and then headed in. From the moment I stopped sailing, it takes me just under 20 minutes to de-rig and get back to my family.  So 20 minutes set up, plane for just 15 of 30 minutes, then 20 minutes to return. After a week back in the city now, I think it was worth it.

I think it was worth it even if I only planed half the time.

A perfect Georgian Bay day

I rigged up the 7.0 for a change and it was the perfect sail for the 15-20 knot winds. This was the typical prevailing south west wind that makes the pine trees in Georgian bay look like the iconic "Group of Seven" paintings.

Stormy Weather - Varley - McMichael

I was lucky enough to be joined by another windsurfer (yeah Brad you are getting really good - look out Hatteras!) and we got to play cat and mouse chasing each other. I also got to drop by and visit with another cottager whose place I sail by regularly, but since he is American he is not there very often.

I think I'm ready for a faster board. I'm guessing my Techno is now 5 years old and deck is feeling a bit spongy. It is a great all round board but I'm wondering what a newer slalom board would be like. I have my eye on a Fanatic Ray 122 that would nicely fit into the board bag I have as it is the same width as the Techno.

The wind slowly dropped a bit before I could do a full 50 km and certainly my up and down wind ability was lacking later in the session as the wind died. In the first part of my track where I'm way south on the long reaches I could pretty much go wherever I wanted - I covered more territory than I ever have in a single session.  Max speed was 48 km/h with the stock Techno 48cm fin.

I was thinking about some blog comments I've read recently (Fish). First, I'm 48 years old so 2 hours is about all I can sail these days. During one waterstart my leg cramped up real bad but was fine a minute later. I do remember sailing for six hours once when I was much younger!

My second thought was now that my kids are older I don't feel bad leaving for a session - they are fine back at the cottage if they don't want to come out to the bay. Later in the weekend when we were planning our departure one of my sons even said "Dad, let's leave later in the day tomorrow so if it is windy you can go for a sail!"

48.5 km and 48 km/h top speed

Video from the 50 km/h session...

Scott and OJ sent me this video they took of my on that great Aug 4th north wind day...



Carl - North winds - August 4 2013 - 50 km/h from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.

50 km/h + 50km

I generally don't like north winds. Here in Canada they are generally cold and gusty.  In the summer they aren't really cold, just not as warm as southwest winds.  But I've almost given up sailing when the wind is from the north because you can't really sail a short board when the wind sputters.  But Aug 4th was a fantastic north wind day for me.

That's 31 mph or 27 knots

I headed out not expecting much, but I managed to hit a personal best speed on the GPS. 50.3 km/h was the top speed.  I played with the unit the day before and realised there was a max speed screen option. Suddenly I kept looking at it to see if I could go faster in the gusts.  I don't think I've gone over 50 km/h in a long time.  But the north wind means there aren't big waves. And this was with the 148 Techno, the stock fin and my 9.0.

There was one gust that backwinded me at speed, and one that catupulted me after I spun out.  But I also had a lot of fun blasting around. Polarized lenses make a big difference for my confidence among the shoals of the 30,000 islands.  You can see on the track that I actually steered through some narrow gaps in the islands.

Then I went downwind to visit friends and convinced their visiting son to get out on his windsurfer for the first time in 2 years.  I'm not the only north wind snob apparently!  Once back upwind I realized that I wanted to sail at least 50 km to put in a good 2 hour effort.  Man was I sore the next morning - advil to the rescue.

Max speed on the GPS was 50.3 km/h 

My 50km track. A true north wind.
I underestimated my downwind / upwind angles and ability!