My first foiling tacks!

What a day! The SW wind was forecasted to increase late in the afternoon and shift to west. So after some chores in the morning and my charity call, Jen and I headed out to the Launch Pad.

Pretty happy after doing my first foiling tacks!

The wind was already showing 14 knots so I topped up the 4m Duotone Unit to 8.5 psi and checked the bolts on the Fanatic Sky 125l with the 2000 cm2 foil. It was super easy to get out today as the wind was from the SW. I actually foiled down out through the old railway cribs and then started working my way upwind.

My jibes were going nicely and then after one while heading between some shoals I went down nose first into the water! I hit weeds - something that doesn’t happen windsurfing and hasn’t happened yet in the relatively clear waters of Georgian Bay. Mental note made of that location!

I continued heading upwind and for the first time on my new wingfoil made it to the swells by Wedge Island. I had fun in the waves and was learning more about riding them back downwind. I managed around 15 minutes without falling and then had a few minor wipeouts.

Back downwind I started working on toeside tacking. My first was a fail, my second though worked! I foiled downwind to pick up speed, then carved HARD into the wind and switched hands overhead. Suddenly I was foiling in the opposite direction without touching down! I did another and it worked too. My 4th attempt I fell off the foil but saved it and got going again. It sure helped that the wind had increased to over 20 knots. I’m super excited to have added tacking to my skills. Let’s see what the crowd at Fanatic Wingfoil Academy say about my foil tracks.

Heading up to play in the waves at Wedge Island  (Upper left)

Some nice long times up on the foil

Description of my first toeside foiling tacks!

After 16 km in an hour I headed back in. Jen got some photos as I was able to foil all the way north past the Launch Pad and jibe over by the lighthouse. Surprisingly with the 23c water and 20c air, I was cold now in my 2mil wetsuit. I warmed up and put on my 3/2 wetsuit for session two.

Foiling north of the Launch Pad

Thanks Jen for the photos!

Session 2 was my first time using the Skate 108 this year! I chose the 4.8 Idol and headed out. I was a bit wobbly but got my windsurf legs back quickly. I haven’t windsurfed on the fin since two epic sessions last November. I did a few duck jibes, one carving 360 but didn’t try a Vulcan out of respect for my still sensitive knee. 

Enjoying the due west wind on my Skate 108

Higher speeds but more falling in and slogging

I did 18 km in the hour I was out windsurfing. Only a bit more distance than my wingfoiling session. Foiling for me has a much lower top speed. But I’m already staying moving on the foil way longer, and there isn’t as much slogging after slow jibes as there was windsurfing.

Over all a great day, my first toeside foiling tacks ever, and my first shortboard session of the year!

Great day of foiling in Key Harbour

I headed out to the Harbour to set up my foil gear. I was excited that the wind forecast showed 12+ knots so I pumped up the 5m Duotone Slick wing. I struggled to get upwind in the narrow channel since the wind was direct from the south around 12:30 as I got going.

Teaser shot of Jen trying the wing and foilboard later in the afternoon!

I was on my Fanatic 125l Sky Wing board and did make it upwind past the point eventually. Once I got my feet into the straps I stopped falling and did around 30 jibes in a row working my way upwind. I got to Scott and OJ’s island only falling in once! I then had a great run downwind doing multiple jibes and working my way around the shoals. I’m pretty sure I was out for at least 75 minutes and would have already covered 15 km. I even went into the harbour and jibed around the old cribs. I was looking forward to seeing the GPS trail on my watch once I was done. But alas I hadn’t hit go on the new Venu watch and even though it said IQ it wasn’t recording. So here is my estimation of what I did…

My manual drawing of the 15km? course I remember sailing

It was time for Jen to try wingfoiling on an actual foilboard. I set up the Fanatic Stingray with the 99cm Slingshot foil. The wind was still showing 14 knots so to make it even easier for Jen I suggested that I pump up the new 4m Unit wing. I headed out and got up on the foil a few times but it wasn’t quite enough to make good ground upwind.

Pumping up the new Duotone Unit 4m

Trying out the 4m Unit wing in 14 knots…
Almost enough to foil, and easier to tack during my slog upwind!

So back to the dock and the 5m Slick was definitely enough to get upwind on that easy foilboard. Jen came up on the SeaDoo and we traded. She tried standing up immediately and fell in. I suggested trying taxiing on her knees and she got the sense of the wing and board quickly. Soon she was standing up in both directions. Eventually she rode all the way down wind and could feel the foil starting to lift a bit from time to time. A successful session!

Some shots of Jen winging it from where we traded…

Jen really got the hang of it and got back to the Launch Pad

Foiling upwind then following Jen with the Seadoo

Since the wind was still steady, I went out for another ride. I didn’t go upwind as much, but did my longest run out to the Bay so far. I do still want to go all the way around Dead Island this summer….

My farthest run out to the bay yet with the wingfoil?
It is definitely harder to ride in the swells beyond Wedge Island

That is some steady wind!

Note to self - 5m wing is perfect in 14 knots

Overall that was around 33km of foiling. I’m stoked by how my jibes are progressing and I did try one foiling tack… still lots to learn.

Tomorrow it is saying 16+ knots in the afternoon. I’m hoping to try the 4m wing again - and to have a shortboard windsurf session for the first time this year!

Foil Kingston Wrap-up

On Saturday morning I dragged myself out of bed and got some breakfast at McDs on the way to Lake Ontario Park. I was pretty sore from the day before. The morning already started off looking windy so I rigged the old NP V6 7.0 and got myself ready. I was the last one to walk my gear out to the water and then realized I didn't have an uphaul on that boom as I haven’t rigged that gear in a while. Back to shore, carry the gear out of the water, took the uphaul from the 9.0. I thought I was going to be late, but turned out ok. There was plenty of time to get to the start line.

Nice rigging area!

On the first race I was pointing so much higher than the day before that I overshot the top mark on my 3rd tack (lowest right line on the map)! I was slowly getting more time on the foil and touchdowns were getting to be less frequent. Some of my downwind runs were almost straight downwind, that was the one advantage of the slow huge foil I had over the other competitors.

5 races - 46 km

Slightly higher speed than yesterday - 15 knots max

Solid wind in Kingston

We managed to do five races. I was even excited to do the last race. By that last race, I was consistently finishing my one lap just before the really good IQ foilers were finishing their two laps. So basically I was still getting lapped, but only once instead of twice like at the beginning of the racing yesterday!

The 7.0 was so much easier to sail than the 9.0 the day before. Other things to remember for next time - yes the foot straps are way better for going upwind when they are outboard. One of the four mast bolts was loose again - I should take an Allen Key with me next time I’m out for a long foil!

CORK hosted a nice BBQ for all the competitors at the Portsmouth Centre. It is a great facility. Hopefully in 2023 the foil Kingston event will be even bigger with more wind foilers. Even wing foil is being talked about as an option. I also hope that the Sail GP event scheduled for Canada next year will be in Kingston because it has such a great wind and good infrastructure for sailing through Cork.

BBQ fun with Jamie’s friend Sarah

Portsmouth harbour with some of the WASPZ boats
And a coast guard boat

On Sunday there was as predicted no wind. So we had a nice morning on the picnic table at our lunch site chatting with the other competitors. It was decided that there would be no racing. I wound up 5/8, similar to my 5/7 two years ago. I headed home before the award ceremony, but was pleased with how the event went for all of us.

Happy with my 5th place result
but check out Anna’s dominance!

The really good windfoilers

Lastly, anyone who thinks that you need to be strong to be successful at windsurfing needs to take a look at Anna. She consistently beat all of the young male competitors on her IQ foil. She's got real skill - which is more important than strength!

Canadian Olympic (Foil) training Regatta Kingston - CORK

CORK was running this year's Foil Kingston event and I decided to enter like I did 2 years ago. Foil Kingston celebrates all things foiling; Windfoiling, Kite foiling and the cool single hand WASPZ foil sailboats.

I drove out from Toronto and arrived around 11:15am to find 7 other competitors already rigging. The wind hadn't picked up so the noon first start was moved to 2pm. By then there was a steady breeze and the kite foilers were already out.

I put my 2000cm2 Fanatic foil under the Fanatic stingray 140. My foil was over twice the size of the 900cm2 IQfoils. I was definitely going to be slower! I rigged up my (15 year?) old 9m NP V8. That sail is so old I had to replace some of the sail tape that was holding torn mylar together. I wondered how it would go?

We headed out to the start line which was farther away than last time. It was good however to be racing around the same course as the WASPZ foiling sailboats, rather than the kiters like last time. (The kiters are awesome but it didn’t seem fair that they had to wait for our 20 minute races when they can do their course in 12 minutes!)

Getting ready to race

Happy after my races

There was a bit of reach over to the course
I wound up doing over 40km in the 4 races

The 4 races are pretty clear with long rests in between

The wind built nicely for our 4 races

I’m ranked 5/8 which is exactly what I could have hoped for. The kids Paul and Anton who were great 2 years ago are doing well again. New to Canada, Anna who is from the Ukraine is the best IQFOIL sailor we’ve ever seen.

Anna with a clean sweep!

I didn't like my inboard footstraps and will change those for tomorrow. I also can’t find my race watch, and have a nagging memory that I lost it at my last TWC Wednesday night race last year? I also wish I'd brought my seat harness. And one of the four foil mast screws were loose when I got back to the beach. But most of all I was just happy to be out on the water on a nice warm and windy day.

I was so excited by the wind and water that I pumped up my 5m Duotone Slick wing and tried wing foiling. There were actually 4 wingers out trying to get going.  It wasn’t quite windy enough for that…

A little wing foil slogging

We headed out for Indian food dinner together and then I slept very well!

The dinner gang!

Just a little patience…

The wind was supposed to be above 10 knots for a brief period late in the afternoon. That was according to both iWindsurf.com and windy.com. It actually looked like foiling wind had already arrived when we arrived at the Launch Pad around 3pm.

A lovely little sailboat which I used for my 2nd session of the day

I headed out on the the 7m Duotone Slick wing with the Fanatic Sky 125l foilboard. Pumped onto the foil right after leaving the dock and felt like a hero on my first run. And then nothing. Just slogging upwind and realizing 9 knots isn’t enough.

I can slog upwind on the foil!
(Note the wind direction at the Sudbury airport isn’t the afternoon
SouthWest convection wind we get on Georgian Bay)

One foiling run

Out slogging

So I headed back and helped set up Phillip’s lovely 198? invitation sailboat. What a great little boat. I went for a sail through the shoals in the 8 knot winds.

Sailing through the shoals

Nice steady 5 knots in the sailboat

After a bit of charity paperwork on my iPad it was time to see if the wind was really going to build as predicted. I slogged back and forth and pumped onto the foil several times. But no sustained runs. Then, of course just as I was thinking about calling it a day, the wind picked up just a little…

Just a little patience. I started foiling and singing the Guns and Roses song in my head. Over and over. I started wondering if my buddy from San Carlos - Jet from Texas has started foiling. I see his posts about GnR - but not about windsurfing lately. I’ll send him this blog post… hope he’s started foiling and getting more sessions in low wind like I am!

The best part of the day - foiling upwind!

And making jibes during the 2nd part of the session!

After 5 km of foiling with around a dozen smooth foiling jibes I finally fell and had a hard time getting going again. I thought that the wind had built a ton, but it turned out if you don’t fall off the foil, you just don’t need that much wind to change directions and stay on the foil!

I did two fairly decent tack attempts during the session; the best I’ve ever tried. With one tack actually being on the foil until I switched hands. With the water warming up to 17c now, and my nice 4/3 suit on I didn’t even mind falling in. I’ll be trying more foiling tacks in the over the next month or two.

It is handy that iWindsurf uses my station for wind reports!

The wind that was just under 10 knots around 3pm wasn’t enough. And at 5pm it wasn’t quite enough either. But with a little patience, it jumped to 12 knots just before 6pm and I got my nice session!

The water is still amazingly clear. So much north wind in the last two months. Yesterday the smoke from the Quebec fires was intense. That changed today with the SW wind, and the pollen made for an interesting water pattern.

Pollen on the water - not smoke!

We took “The Ride Home” so we could be back south for 2 days - but hoping to do some windsurf lessons on the long weekend.

The Ride Home!

First time foiling in the harbour

Arriving at the cottage to a smoky north wind, I decided to try foiling in “Cleveland Bay” of Key Harbour. Normally I head out to the Bay for more consistent wind at the Launch Pad, but I wanted to see how it might work in front of the cottage before the weeds get too dense.

Post session smile!

I pumped up the 5.0 Duotone Slick with my new long Duotone pump. Wow, what a difference the long shaft pump makes, for a guy with a bad back! Thanks for the suggestion Steve @Boardsports.

The long shaft pump is awesome!

I put the newish foil on the Fanatic Sky 125l board and put on my 2 mil long leg wetsuit. The water was 24c, the air 16c (not 12.8c like it says on the GPS trail).

GPS trail in Cleveland Bay, Key Harbour
I think there are 2 or 3 foiling jibes in there?

I did get on the foil several times - lots of slogging too

Bill and Chris were out on their dock on the north shore and the lulls in the wind meant we could actually communicate with each other a bit. 

The wind was up and down while I was out…

Overall 4.5 km in 47 minutes. I didn’t fall in for the first 30 mins, so I’m definitely getting used to the 125l board - and the float provided by the Slick 5.0’s centre strut sure helps for balancing too. 

Well worth heading out, and nice to have the sauna on when I got back! I’ll try it again next spring when there are even fewer weeds. Might be a good idea for me to mark the two shoals that could be in play too especially if the water level gets lower.