Boat visitors - windfoiling photographer

For many years before I retired we had a professional photographer take our annual team photo. When I saw Tom’s name on a Georgian Bay boat forum question, I reached out. We finally connected and he came to visit with his wife, sister, and brother-in-law. We explored the Launch Pad and had a wonderful chat out at the point. First, here is my favourite photo of the day…

When a pro takes your photo!

Here’s how the day went… I was happy I got some drone shots as they were anchoring. We then met at the dock and I quickly got a perfectly arranged group shot!

Anchoring!

Can you see how close the wind farm fire came 3 years ago?

Drone shot of the visitors

Fox snake visiting the Launch Pad locker earlier in the day
I saw it swimming away later in the day

We of course had to have some dark and stormies to celebrate the successful anchoring. Nice discussion and a Key Harbour history lesson followed.

Group shot at the point

As they left I headed out on the 6.5 NP with the 99 cm foil. There was just enough wind to get going in each direction. With an audience, I nailed 3 jibes in a row - likely a first for me. Here are some more photos as they headed back to their boat.

I had some much longer runs when I got farther upwind later in the session. And managed to see a small snake swimming just upwind of the Brown cottage. 2 snakes in one day.

My GPS foil track

Decent speeds and some long runs
16 kms total in an hour

Jen headed out on the windfoil after my session was over but sadly the wind had dropped off by then. Next time I’ll want to get her out on a day where the 5.6 Idol sail will get her going.

A bit of windfoiling and then boat foiling!

John and Jane were up and we were enjoying the Launch Pad. Sailing, swimming and lounging. 

Nice ladies out sailing!

I had a brief session on the 9.0 with 99cm foil. I got going 4 times, always on starboard tack. Curious why I’m better pumping up onto the foil on goofy when I’m actually regular stance?

Only got going when on my goofy (wrong) side..

Four very short foil runs

John and I had a nice sail that I recorded the track on. Then Jane and Jen went out.

John and my sailboat ride

On the way back for dinner I foiled behind the boat. I’m getting better and was actually able to carve small turns. I could almost stay up riding on the wave too, using just two fingers to hold onto the tow rope.

Here is my Vimeo video of the boat foiling which Jane took. (Thanks Jane!)

Speed chart while foiling behind the boat.
20 km/h was comfortable

So here‘s a nice photo of John and Jane on ”The Ride Home”.

The ride home.

Watching Naish longest wave with Timo

It was great fun sitting with little Timo and watching the Longest Wave documentary about Robby Naish.

"The Longest Wave" documentary resonated with Timo!

What is legend Robby Naish teaching our youth?

Timo really got into it which makes sense since mom and dad met at Jibe City and are passionate windsurfers and surfers.

I got a really cute video of Timo‘s reaction to Robby Naish’s documentary. He‘s ready!

I hope to someday get to the long waves in Peru and Chile... In the meantime I can remember these two amazing wave rides:

From a 2019 Matt Pritchard Clinic - 1 minute wave ride  

From the 2016 IWT Baja Wavesailing Competition

Let's see what is next for the International Windsurfing Tour and where I might find some long waves. For now, foiling the waves on Georgian Bay and looking forward to teaching Timo to windsurf is a pretty good replacement.

Another beginner is ready & good session before lunch

The MBA group was up for another Watersports session so we headed out to the Launch Pad right after breakfast. The highlight was getting Sasha on the simulator. She’s a natural and was able to position the 2.5m sail in both directions. She also nailed the dry land tacks. In lower wind on their next visit she will be a superstar on the water as well I’m sure.

Sasha in control on the simulator!

As the best wind of the day was forecast for noon, I pumped up the 6.0 Echo wing and headed out on the 99 cm foil.

I’m getting better at tacking upwind with the wing and got one great run out and then headed back. Sadly the leak I suspected in the wing bladder meant that my session was shorter than I wanted. For sure it needs to be stiff to be able to get going.

My wing foil path - a fair bit of tacking to get upwind!

One nice Kilometer long run on the wing before it deflated!

I took out the 6.5 sail and had some more good runs. 

8.7 km of windfoiling

One good jibe in there…

Then Peter was ready for another try. I took the board upwind for him and he headed out. He got going again where the foil was providing lift and speed, but he just couldn’t get the board to break the water surface tension and pop up. Next time.

Pete tries the foil

We had the gang out at the Launch Pad but there wasn’t much wind. I took Michelle and Kerra and then Sasha out for nice easy tours around the island on the Invitation.

Sailboat fun

My tour with Michelle and Kerra

After lunch the wind did build, and I headed out on the 6.5 and the 99 cm foil. I got going a bunch of times and logged 10 km in front of the gang sitting out at the point. Kerra had her camera and got some nice shots.

Foiling at the point

A few good jibes in there

The good jibes show up in the speed chart too!

Then it was Pete’s turn to try. I put him on the 5.4 on the Techno with the 76 cm foil and 24 inch foil mast. He headed out but the wind was now dropping. I slogged upwind and traded him the 6.5 and 99 cm foil. He did get going - feeling the foil providing lift and increasing his speed. He got up on the foil twice, and it quickly shot out in front of him as the resistance drops off so quickly. 

Sadly no photos of Pete but I’m sure we’ll get a shot of him foiling next time…

Perfect Bay day - 85 km in 4:45 hours

Wow, I’ve been waiting all season for a day like today. 85 km - likely a record day for me on Georgian Bay?

19-20c air, 20+ water, just a 3/2 wetsuit. SW wind starting 12-14 knots and building through the afternoon. 

I initially decided to go winging. But noticed that the tape job I’d done on the Stingray 140 deck was bubbling water out when I put it in the sun - so it was time to fix that board a bit better than I had done. So since winging wasn’t an option I decided to try the 9.0 on the Fanatic Ray 122 - a combo I haven’t used in a long time. I did get going on it but it is such a beast to tack. And it barely goes upwind even when I got going in a gust. I did 4 kms and called it a windsurf session.

Trying to get the 9.0 working on the 122 Ray

Definitely a southwest wind!

A little bit of windsurfing on the big gear

So back to the Launch Pad and I put the 76 cm foil under the old Techno 148. With the 27 year old Neil Pryde V6 and 20+ year old mast and boom.

What a nice windfoil combo! After the long foil races in Kingston, I was able to get upwind and realized I do have stamina to be on the water for several hours. Especially since the 6.5 is so much lighter and easier to use than the 9.0 Kona sail. 

I started heading upwind and said hi to Scott and OJ.

Quite the 81 km windfoil up and down the small craft route

Lots of time on the foil, one 15 km section from kms 22 to 37
 without really falling in or even a major slowdown

Then I headed out to the small craft route and got almost all the way to Bekanon island and Free drinks passage. I had managed to windfoil for almost 2 hours without falling in as I was doing so much tacking! 

At that point I figured that an equipment breakdown would be an immensely long slog or swim. So I headed back north on the small craft route to Bigsby. It was a long smooth downwinder and I was standing on the board with my feet almost next to each other and feathering the sail without the harness. Eventually I hit a few wind shadows. From there it was time for several very satisfying wave rides down past Wedge Island. Then back upwind. Then back downwind riding the waves.

Some very satisfying wave rides out by Wedge Island

I saw Scott out on the Dart catamaran sailboat and sailed back upwind to chase him. That was fun and I was able to just barely pass him but it was even more fun to sail next to each other and actually be able to have a brief chat as the foil is so quiet. That was also a good spot to set a new foil speed record, 33.6 km/h, up .2 km/h from my last record. After they headed in I went back downwind for more wave rides.

With the nice sun and polarized glasses I was able to sail into new areas pretty comfortably. When I did spot a shoal I was able to quickly adjust course as in this screen shot.

Lookout for that (currently submerged) shoal!

My jibes finally started getting better, even with the narrow old board. Max’s tip to over sheet the sail really helps and my footwork is getting smoother all the time. I was tempted to stay out a bit longer and log the 100 km day that I’ve set as an goal for the year. But my legs were getting wobbly and eventually I did start falling in. 81 km of foiling and 4 hours 15 minutes on the foil is definitely a new record.

What a great wind - I was out at 2pm for
the first session, from 3-7 for the second

4 hours and 45 minutes total time on the water is a day record for me over the last 20 months. Only my 100 km 4 hour day from Hatteras is close. Here’s hoping for several more “Bay” days like this in August and September.

Another short foil before the rain

While I knew the rain was coming yesterday, today I went out without checking the radar. So while I did get two little foil runs in before it started raining, the weather coming from the north was a bit of a surprise. I made it back safely while the thunder was overhead, but there were no real lightning strikes.

My quick tour around the islands.

4 quick bits of foiling - 2 during the rain!

Should be some solid SW wind tomorrow!