SUPping on an old windsurfer

Years ago I was given a very old windsurfing board by my father in law. I have often used it to teach beginners but the deck is a bit slippery.

The Le Board looks to be the same rotomolded polyethylene construction as the original windsurfer and my old YPSI Wayler. It has very straight sides and a flat bottom. As such, it tracks well and since it is huge, it is actually a pretty good Stand Up Paddle-board (SUP). Putting the centreboard down makes it pretty stable despite not being as wide as brand new thousand dollar paddle-boards!

As the wind has been very light recently, not even 5 knots today, it was the perfect vehicle for an evening SUP.

My wife looking elegant out on the old Le Board.

Here is a close up of the Le Board.

The classic old Le Board. Works great as a SUP

Foiling with a 9.0m sail

Well the wind has been pretty light. We're talking 5-8 knots. 2 Beaufort. Not a white cap to be seen.

So after my work emails were done I decided to rig the 9.0m NP V8 sail I haven't used in the last 2 years since I started foiling. Wow is that sail heavy. I'd forgotten how heavy it is even with a carbon mast and boom.

I headed out turned around and pumped and got up on the foil briefly! I went back in to get my harness which is more important with a 9.0 in low wind than the 6.5 in medium wind. The wind was even lighter on my 2nd run so I called it a day.

Pretty glassy conditions recently. Le windsurf, c'est relaxe

My foil track. Pretty easy to make good upwind ground when slogging.

Got up on the foil once though!

 The next day I went out again, and managed to get planing one more time.

The weather data in the Garmin app is way off. Wind direction was SW.
And since the air is coming over the water, it is more like 23c.

And once more the next day.

Man, I'm looking forward to some 10 knot winds to try the 9.0 again. And then hopefully a day of shortboarding sometime this summer?

Foiling fun and even more fun watching my son!

I had a great session in 12-15 knot SW winds which built nicely in the late afternoon. A perfect Bay Day.

I rigged the 7.0 for the first time this year, but by the time I was ready the old 6.5 was still the right call. I headed out and for the first time in my 20 or so foiling sessions, I was heading up and downwind with confidence. I sometimes just had one hand on the sail and was standing with both legs straight and felt super comfortable on 1 km long reaches.

The new Slingshot 76cm hoverglide foil is definitely working for me. Even when I overfoil (get too high and the foil breeches the water's surface) it seems to gently let me keep going. Before I get to any more details of my session, let's focus on my son's session, as he only sails a few times a year. Amazing to think the HiHo was 7 years ago.

Here is some video of Phillip blasting with the wind farm in the background.

Phillip windsurfing through the harbour from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.

And some great photos...

Needless to say he was having fun and impressed his mom with his waterstarting skills with a 7.0!

Here is a photo of the foil I had removed so Phillip could use the BIC Techno 148.

The new 76cm Hoverglide foil setup.

My session was good, but my GPS ran out of strength well before my legs did. I was able to head up and downwind more comfortably than ever before. I explored the area and generally felt more at ease while the wind was in the 12 knot range. It did build to 15 knots and I was doing very careful waterstarts after having fallen a number of times. I've seen a few too many posts from friends with cuts from kicking their foils.

Once I was tired, and the wind was even a bit stronger, I was still trying some jibes. But they were pretty sketchy. I would just hold onto the sail and try to keep the foil low to the water for the inevitable touchdown.

Foil session in the west wind (map facing east).
Upwind ability on the foil is pretty amazing.
A few decent jibe attempts before my GPS ran out of battery.

The highlight of my session (and maybe why Phillip headed out right after me) was coming in on a nice reach still up on the foil all the way in the wind shadow to the dock. Crazy fun.

What a great Sunday!

Foil jibing may be possible!

I was out at the Launch Pad getting the docks relocated with the record high water levels. A nice southwest wind built to 12 knots and I was quickly out on the foil.

This was the first session where I had enough wind to really enjoy the new 76 cm Slingshot front foil. I got a bunch of nice long runs. Either I got a lot better over the winter, or the new foil is much more stable!

The new Slingshot 76cm hoverglide foil

My heart rate and board speed.

Later in the session I even started trying some jibes. I found that I could actually foil downwind without getting completely unstable. Last year I didn't think I'd ever do a foil jibe. Now I think it might be possible this year!

GPS trail with some nice jibe attempts.

Just over an hour and 14 kms. Fastest speed was 30.8 km/h. Definitely my first good day up north this year.

GPS Statistics

Later in the evening we had our community boat parade. Last year it was windy enough to windsurf. This year it was quiet enough to SUP. Here is a photo of me in the parade!

Canada day boat parade!

Fathers day foil

I did get up on the foil briefly on Father's day. There was a bit of wind between several season opening chores at the Launch Pad.

It was a lot of work pumping to get on a plane 4 times. My heart rate when pumping the sail definitely correlates to my board speed!

Heart rate and foil speed correlation

But there really wasn't enough wind. 7-9 knots with the odd 10 knot gust. I need just a bit more than that to get the 6.5 going - even with the new front wing on the foil.

Oh well, here's hoping Canada Day weekend is better.

My windsurfing GPS trail on a satellite image from winter!

Very little foiling on a very big foil

We headed north and the weather for the weekend looked ideal, with sun and 10-15 knot winds predicted. Just perfect as I had decided to upgrade the front wing on my Slingshot foil to the fancy sounding 76 cm hoverglide infinity wing.

Late Friday afternoon I headed out for the first time on the new wing. Sadly there was maybe 6-7 knots of wind. So I just tacked upwind and enjoyed the nice sun and warm weather. Saturday was similarly calm and sunny.

On Sunday I headed out again. My first session ended without me getting on the foil and the wind pretty much died completely. A few hours later I tried again. Pumping the sail got me going on the foil for a moment. And got my heart rate up to 141!  I did a lap around the island and then the wind picked up and I got planing a few more times.

The few runs I had seemed like the foil was easier than I remember the old one. Sadly I hit shoals twice while slogging, so my brand new front foil wing has some dings in it. Grr.

I got the shed cleaned up a bit and some more gear rigged for some hopefully good sessions this summer. Of course Monday morning was windy but I was off to work. Maybe I'll score some wind on Father's day next Sunday?

Two more Wednesday night races in May

After the first very cold May 8th race, I managed to get out for two more Wednesday night races in May.

May 22nd was cold and surprisingly windy. The RSX sailors were planing upwind and I had a blast planing back and forth in between heats. I hit 35.3 km/h zipping back and forth between heats on the Kona in the northeast wind.

Windy races with some nice planing back and forth between heats

I even had a few races where I did two laps - normally the checkered flag goes up just as I round the downwind mark for the first time.

My 3rd race of the season on May 29th was a very light wind race, with only a dozen of us out. There were actually only two Kona windsurfers. So on one race I wound up coming in dead last. I think the results will look better for me later in the season.

3 light wind races near shore

My calendar for June won't allow for many races, but fun to have 3 in the books so far. It is always nice to get out into Lake Ontario and admire our wonderful city from the water. I look forward to future races, I'm going to try using a waist harness for a few.