Flags up for lesson day

With light SW wind predicted, I set the flags up for my first day of lessons this year at the Launch Pad.

New neighbour Lizzie and 7 year old nephew Joey were kayaking by. Joey said he wanted to try windsurfing and I figured he might just be able to use the small 2.5m sail I’d purchased a few weeks ago.

First though we had a nice visit from Katie and the Coast Guard who gave Joey a whistle and key fob! After that fun we headed to the point to check out windsurfing.

Joey doing well on the simulator

7 year old Joey out giving it a solid try

As I was giving Joey some simplified simulator training, Jana stopped by for a refresher lesson. And niece Vanessa was out getting her feet wet for the first time this year. It was suddenly nice and busy!

Flags up for lesson time

Busy day for the Launch Pad

Joey was good on the board on land and I figured he had a 50/50 chance of getting going on the water. He was game even though the wind had just decided to build to around 10 knots. I took him upwind on the jetski which he really liked. He was able to uphaul twice but couldn’t quite get the correct handwork going. We decided it was a good attempt and floated back down to the point.

Joey heading home!

Next up was Jana who had a great session last year. I put her back on the 3.5 and the Viper 80. She did great and completed several tacks without falling in! I think her next time out will start right from the point without an upwind tow.

Nice tennis save Jana!

After that I then headed out with the 9.0 and the 99 cm foil and got a few planing runs in to cap off a great day.

Heading back after my foil session

The evening ended with a nice community boat parade (windsurfing masts make nice flagpoles) and a few marshmallows at the point.

PS, Jana had a nice follow up post on Instagram!

Good foiling start to the 2nd half of the year!

The gusty north wind was predicted to slowly wane during the day so I headed out to the Launch Pad and got on the water at noon.

I was on the 5.6 Idol and Stingray 140 with the 99 cm foil. It was easy to get out to the wind and I knew that my buddy Scott was up for the first time this year.

I foiled back and forth downwind enjoying the water which has cleared up amazingly with the two days of north wind.

Scott had some friends visiting and we chatted for a few minutes and then I headed back knowing that the gusty wind was easing. I had some long slogs and some nice runs and several smooth jibes where got around wiht just a tiny touch down.

My Garmin GPS Watch ran out of battery and I was pleasantly surprised when it was able to recover most of the session. I'm going to call it 15 km in 1:15.

It is remarkable to me that 5 years ago I wouldn't have gone out as the gusty north wind would make a 7.0 uncontrollable in the gusts and I'd be struggling and sinking a shortboard. Now with the foil and a light sail I even enjoy the times where there isn't much wind, and then have a great time when the gusts come through.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to have my first day of community windsurf lessons!

Got Phillip out windsurfing!

After being in the city, a torrential night of rain, and a bit of frustrating engine repair investigation I got to the Launch Pad and there was more wind than expected.

I took out the 7.0 NP V6 with the old Techno 148 and 48cm fin. I had some good planing runs and Phillip came out on the SeaDoo and I told him to put his harness on and then come out and swap with me. He did and he had a great session heading out to Dokis Island and back a few times.

Phillip enjoying the Techno!

Phillip heading to Dokis Island

My runs before Phillip came to get the board and sail

Max speed 40.3 km/h

Not much success on the Skate 108 as the wind died

I went back and tried the 5.6 and Skate 108 but the wind had shut down. So I went back for the Wing and that didn’t even work with the 99cm foil. So I tried again with the 5.6 on the 99cm foil and finally got some longer runs as the wind built up again.

Not much success with the wing either

And finally success with the 5.6 and 99 cm foil

Just 16 km but still much more than I expected.

Wind chart with a weird 180 degree direction
error on the Tempest
https://tempestwx.com/station/42510/

Coach boat safety course

The next step in getting my windsurf instructor certificate was my Coach Boat Safety test. I headed to Oakville Yacht Squadron for the on water portion.

Nice yacht club with a fleet of RS Quba’s for all the young instructors and an extra RS Feba for the heavy guy (me).

We tacked out onto Lake Ontario in very light winds to do our drills. I was quite impressed with some of the young instructors skill at standing in the sailboats and pumping their sails.

We all had to use little zodiacs with 9.9 HP motors to set marks, do man overboard drills, right a tipped sailboat and tow a sailboat. The water was pretty cold for the dumping drill but it was very pleasant being out on the water for the morning.We all passed!

Comparing Wing foiling to Wind foiling

I headed out after the formal annual meeting for my former work charity. It was blowing SW 9-11 knots so I decided to try the 6m Echo wing on the 140 Stingray with the 99 cm foil. I got going twice but was then slogging.

I realized I’d forgotten my hat and the sun was still overhead at 3:30. So it was the perfect reason to try switching to the sail. I put the 6.5 NP V6 on and it was immediately easier for me to pump the windsurf sail to get going. I thought it might be more efficient than the wing - but no, the wind had just picked up!

I had a lot of good runs and even some decent jibes, but all had a bit of a splashdown. After 45 minutes of that I switched back to the wing which was now working well with more wind too. My tacking with the wing has improved immensely making getting upwind way easier than at the start of the year.

Turns out I like them both, it seemed that the wing went upwind better when on the foil?

GPS trail of my wing and windfoiling session

The wind built during the 3 part session

Ultimately I think my preference will come down to which one I get really good at jibing first!

Interesting to note that yesterday on the PWA a foiler beat all the other boards that were using fins. A first but definitely showing that foiling is the future, whether it is with a wing or a traditional windsurfing sail.

3 Sports - 3 Hours - 42 kms

Yeah, a great weather forecast and I managed to make the most of it. Wind surfing, wind foiling and wing foiling. And luckily I had taken my old Garmin 910 watch out to the Launch Pad and charged it the day before as I’d forgotten my normal Vivoactive watch charging on my nightstand this morning.

I headed out at 11:50 with the Idol 5.6 sail and Freeware 116. I thought about launching from the point but there seemed to be enough SW wind to launch from the dock. The weather was still threatening rain but the radar didn’t show any more storm cells.

Not much upwind ground on the regular windsurfer

.

Indeed I got going several times while very slowly working my way upwind. Only my 5th day this year on a shortboard and I was a bit rusty. Eventually I got a few jibes and even a duck jibe. After an hour and 16 kms and a bit more slogging than I’d expected, I headed back to the point. I left the Freewave in case I’d need it later, and took the 5.6 back to try out the Techno with the 76 cm wing as it felt like the wind was dropping.

Having fun going up and down wind with the wind foil

34.6 km/h max speed on the 76 cm foil

Wow, I hadn’t really used a foil with footstraps for a higher wind day in a long time. I felt surprisingly comfortable in wind that was stronger than I expected. I headed up to the waves at Wedge island and was having a ball! Surfing down waves, even doing a few switchbacks! I started trying foiling jibe 360s without success but didn’t mind how much time I was sp ending in the water. Most of the time I could waterstart the 5.6 with both feet on the board - and only touched the sharp foil once with my foot. I had two stretches where I worked on trying to get a good maximum speed going. After an hour and a bit and 22 km, I headed back for a lunch break.

The weather was clearing and the wind was still from the SW and was predicted to back to NW and then fade. I took out the 6 m Echo wing and the Stingray 140 with the 99 cm foil. It was super comfy compared to finning and windfoiling. I’m getting better at keeping the wing out of the water and am riding with the harness lines most of the time so it is really easy on the arms.

You can see the 90 degree wind shift from SW to NW!

No great speed with the wing but 7 nice long upwind runs

Well it was easy until the wind shifted 90 degrees in 15 minutes. That was as predicted. But what wasn’t predicted was that it would suddenly start gusting to 30 knots! I could barely hold the wing and even the board was having major forces on it heading upwind. But heading downwind was a dream. I could just hold the wing in front of me and cruise straight downwind.

Some big gusts as the wind shifted while I was winging

As I got out of the water I realized that the two machine screws holding the fuselage to the mast were quite loose. The photo is a reminder to myself to retighten everything every few sessions!

Hex key ready to tighten the machine screw!

By the time I got back the wind was back down again, but would build quite ferociously a few more times while making dinner. 

Wing foil around the island

I didn’t quite catch the windy part of the day, but still got a few good wing foil runs in. I’m definitely getting more comfortable on the 140 Stingray board with 99cm slingshot foil and really like the 6.0m Duotone Echo wing. I still haven’t put the footstraps back on it.

Just a GPS trail, no photos today. 6.5 km in just under an hour.

I’m thinking that I need 12 knots to be able to get going. The wind speed chart shows that if there isn’t a 12 knot gust, I can’t get going! And when it drops to 5 knots in the lee of the island, it is basically impossible to go back upwind. I swam the last few metres!