Surprise NE session

I rarely get out in a northeast wind, they are just too gusty. But I wanted to try out the new NP 200-260 carbon boom (replacing the one I broke recently) which now has longer 32" harness lines.

I didn't even plane half the time, but did get to go on a quick walk on one of the islands with my lovely wife who came out by boat to visit me during the session.

I'm looking forward to some steadier southwest winds in the coming weeks. I also need to get my legs in better shape if I'm going to do any longer sessions.

Picking my way through the shoals

Got planing 24 times - top speed 49 km/h

Thanks Jen for the photos

And I'm off....

New windsurfing bucket list item - windskating BERLIN!

Ok, I've done a lot of interesting windsurfing things. But I've got a new one to add to my list. Windskating on an abandoned airport tarmac. This article in the economist got me interested - and I've never been to Berlin, yet.  Maybe I'll bring my little used turfdog.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21603043-love-historic-field-and-loathing-mayor-drive-berliners-polls-dont-touch

I'd like to try this someday..

How to twice McGyver a broken boom!

While there wasn't supposed to be any wind this weekend, late on Sunday afternoon a bit of northerly flow kicked in. I loaded up the boat with my low wind gear and headed out for my first session in Canada this year. 4 weeks ago there were still icebergs floating here in Georgian Bay!

On my way out I was looking at my boom which has seen years of service and noticed that the boom end is a bit worn from dragging on the rocks. In thinking about it now, that boom must be at least 14 years old, since Fiberspar got out of the windsurfing business in 2000...

I rigged up the 9.0 and the 122 Ray and started out. I got one run out into the bay and turned around. On the way back I felt something give as I was adjusting the out-haul and in an instant I was in the water. The aluminium front end of my well used carbon Fiberspar boom had fatigued and given out.

As I floated in the water (which was only a wee bit warmer than I expected), I started to worry for a minute. I was around 2 km from my start point and that would be a very long swim. And since it was around 5pm on a Sunday, there wasn't likely to be very much boat traffic to provide assistance.

Luckily I calmed down and remembered some self-rescue ideas from discussions I've had with fellow windsurfers over the years. I started by storing the broken boom arm, fishing it through the far footstraps which I wouldn't be using. I did think about just tossing the broken end, but am glad I was enviro conscious and didn't.

I flipped the working boom arm over and re-attached it so it would be on the right side for my ride home. It worked very well and I was 2/3 of the way back and started planing! I was going so well and I was so close I decided to try hooking in! Well that was a mistake, as the much weaker single boom arm was overpowered broke under my weight right by the harness lines. I was back in the water.

This repair was a bit harder. But since I luckily still had the extra boom arm still with me, I was able to lash it to the newly broken boom using the uphaul rope in the front and the adjustable outhaul lines in the back. But now trying to get the sail up without an uphaul line was too hard, and waterstarting the floppy sail was also impossible for me.

Then I remembered that I always have some extra line attached to the back of my harness. I used that line to make a quick temporary uphaul, and presto I was on my way. Here's a shot of my McGyver'd boom.

The twice repaired boom. First the boom head broke, then the middle of the other arm!

So I'm looking for a new carbon 250cm standard diameter boom with adjustable outhaul lines. Any recommendations?

First time windsurfing in Cabarete

Direct flights can make a difference to a windsurfing vacation. From Toronto, there are a lot of charter companies flying direct to Puerto Plata in the Domincan Republic. After visiting wonderful Bonaire but with long overnight connecting flights it was a pleasure to leave home at 11am and be on the beach in Cabarete at 6pm!

Unlike our experiences in Bonaire though, we didn't luck out with the wind! For the first 3 days of no wind my wife and were just recovering from colds we had back in Toronto. There was one thunderstorm that got me a 43 minute session. Then on the 2nd last day the wind returned but with some above average swells that made getting in and out really difficult.  You can see the concern on the nice french Vela staff member as he helps me out of the water after my first attempt to get through the shore break.

I put together a video that paints a pretty good picture of the session. Working on it now, two months after the fact, I really do want to get back on those waves.  The highlights of the video are the walk of shame at 0:40, the good jump in slow-mo at 2:55, the duck jibe at 3:33 the jibes on the wave faces eg. 3:55 and the wave riding at 4:25.


My failure and success in the waves in Cabarete from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.


After that one hour, I was pretty beat and just watched as a small fraction of the Vela guests dared to venture out through the shorebreak later in the day. The kiters farther down the beach certainly had an easier time launching and getting going.

I want to thank the staff at Vela and all the nice people we met in Cabarete. We'll be back!

Carving 360 Windsurfing Photo Stitch

Going through my photos of the afternoon session in Costa Rica I realised that my wonderful wife caught a nice sequence of me doing a carving 360. I remembered seeing a great photo stitch in the latest Windsport magazine... A few facebook messages later and I've got my first ever photo stitch courtesy of my newest facebook friend Brodie Sutherland.

I'll admit I wouldn't know how to do that trick if it wasn't for ABK windsurfing clinics and the great book "Tricktionary".

You can see more of Brodie's work at Instagram @brodiesutherland - Thanks!

Thanks to my wife for the photos, ABK for the skill and Brodie Sutherland for the photo stitch.

Windsurfing with my girls on Lake Arenal

My wife and me sailing
on Lake Arenal - 2007

In 2007 I managed to visit Lake Arenal in Costa Rica. My wife and I stayed at Hotel Tiwala and walked down to the lake several times to have some great windsurfing sessions.

One of my favourite windsurfing pictures is this one from 2007 of my wife and me both sailing. We had so much fun in Costa Rica on that trip as a couple that we knew we'd have to come back someday with the kids.

When we won a week in a lovely Costa Rica treehouse at a charity auction, our planning for New Year's 2013 began. I wanted to add time again to our trip and stay at Hotel Tiwala so my son could skateboard at their park. But the hotel is changing management (it is no longer Volcano Brewing) so we wound up just planning a day long road trip to Arenal.

My daughter and me sailing on Lake Arenal - 2014

I arranged our rental equipment from Peter at Tico Wind and we drove up from Playa Negra on the morning of Jan 2nd.  The wind was light for Arenal, so I was on a 6.2 and a 120l board. The water and air were comfortable, a shorty wetsuit was perfect. Windsurfing is still more popular than kiting it seems, but with only a dozen of us windsurfing, it was far from crowded. Peter's gear had a pretty good selection of new North Sails and Fanatic boards with a few nice local kids acting as shop help and board caddies.

My daughter was the only one in the family that wanted to sail with me that day. While she didn't sail for long, she did go out and make it back - something she doubted she could do half way through her session! Now I have a great picture of me sailing on Lake Arenal with my other favourite girl.

Costa Rica seemed to be the global hotspot for high wind windsurfing on Lake Arenal in the late 1990's and through the first decade of the millennium. These days the surfing scene on the Pacific coast seems to be what Costa Rica is better known for. Here's the fun family photo after the surfing lessons we took at Witches Rock Surf camp.

The family that surfs together...?

Lingering thoughts about Maui

What a great event the 2013 Aloha Classic was! Many weeks later, I'm left with a few strong memories:

The camaraderie - going out for dinners with guys who sail every day and/or work in the windsurfing industry and/or are living the dream of being professional windsurfers and/or wannabees like me who leave their real lives for a week to be part of the Maui scene. And parties at north shore estate houses. It was all good.

The pros - on my way through security at OGG I saw a familiar face. Josh Angulo was ahead of me walking through the airport. I recalled how nice Josh been on the beach after Brawzinho secured the PWA world title.  Josh told the photographers to stop taking pictures of Brawzinho and him, and instead have them take pictures of Brawzinho's father with his son in a very touching moment. I said hi to Josh and introduced myself. He was very gracious and excited to hear about my first AWT competition and now I've got an invite to Boston (or Cape Verde) some day!

The fences - yes looking through my camera pictures the fences made of old windsurfing boards was another strong memory and likely the best one to use in this blog entry.

The desire to return - I'm thinking there may be another AWT / PWA event in my future. And more visits to Maui for sure!