Those waves were big!

So I headed out to Sunset Point Beach on a moderate looking NNW wind forecast. I even took a surfboard in case there wasn’t any real wind for foiling.

When I got there one windfoiler (nice guy named Peter) was out and he was on a 5.3 nicely powered. The other winger out (Greg?) was looking good out on a 5ish wing too.

Pre session selfie!

Decent wind and waves

The rig ready to go..

Is Len one of those surfers?

Greg? shredding it up!

A view of the ski hill!

There were around a dozen surfers out too - so the waves were definitely happening. I was a bit worried about my back which has been hurting for the past few days. But I was committed, having put my wetsuit on back at home since the air was around 3c with a little frosting of snow on the ski hills.

I rigged up the 5m Duotone Slick wing and the 125l Fanatic Sky board with 2000cm foil. I managed to fit my helmet over my 6/5/4 wetsuit by taking out 2/3 of the interior foam padding.

The walk out to the deeper water was ok but it took me quite a while to get my board leash connected in the waves. I’m glad I didn’t get completely washed by a wave and then I was in the deeper water taxiing out. A fisherman on shore had been shouting a bit - but I didn’t think I was that close to shore?

I got going on the foil and headed upwind. Greg? had come in while I was heading out but I now saw one other foiler out there. I was reasonably steady on the board as I started navigating my way through some big rollers.

GPS foil track

A bunch of runs followed by a lot of falls

Wow those waves were big. It wasn’t just a matter of trying to tap the crest of the wave with the bottom of the board as I went over the top, I had to be actively trying to nosedive the board on the back of the wave to avoid overfoiling on the way down. 

My first jibe was a success. Yeah! It wasn’t as windy as the last time I’d been out in big waves here so I didn’t necessarily accelerate when jibing. But riding toeside was a bit challenge vs. doing it on flat water. I made most of my outside toeside jibes, but then fell once riding back in through the waves toeside.  

My forearms were really sore after just a few minutes. Fortunately my back was ok! I got 6 out of 12 jibes. 0 out of 1 tack attempts. Most of the dozen or so times when I fell in, I got going on my first attempt. So that was progress vs. my first 3? times here. After one particularly fast fall riding a wave the wing went one way downwind as the board came to a complete stop and I was drawn in two directions. I figured that was my signal to call it a good proof of winter concept session.

I foiled back in where the surfers were - carefully avoiding them and getting a thumbs up for that effort. Nephew Len was walking his surfboard out after his surf session. He came over and helped me carry out my gear through the shorebreak, but not before a wave tumbled my foil through my wing. A first for me in 3 years. I’ll get that repaired quickly and hope to get another session or two before year end!

Post session view

Post session selfie!

A little oops - canopy torn in the surf

Wind report at the end of the session

3c when I got back home

Last windsurf of the year?

The long awaited Thursday Nov 2nd SW blow started the evening before and was going to be best around 1pm. We headed out to the Launch Pad only to find that a pipe in the ceiling had frozen and ruptured in the sub zero cold at the end of October. I was grateful I’d thought to turn the pump switch off just in case a pipe did freeze - water running for 3 days straight would have been a real mess!

With the wind being over 20 knots, I figured it was time to windsurf “on the fin” again. I jumped off the dock onto my Skate 108 with the 5.2 Idol sail. A bit of a slog out, then very slowly made my way upwind. It took almost and hour to get up to the waves at Wedge Island, but it was worth it and they were fun. I did my first jump in a long time - so easy when the wave lines up perfectly for you!

Ready! GoPro selfie...

Stormy!

The sail locker!

Departure conditions - 23knots SW and 6c

GoPro while sailing - those are the harness lines under
my wetsuit clad arm

Only GoPro shot of the board...

Having fun!

Great swells out by Wedge Island

A few videos:

Selfie video out in the swells

Coming into the harbour! Thanks Jen for the video!

This thermometer says 8c

Tempest says 6.7c

Water temperature at the dock

I did a few jibes that were ok. Then one attempt at a Vulcan and one downwind 360 - both of which were fails. I actually spent quite a bit of time in the water but it didn’t feel as cold as the 7c reading got. Maybe since the Georgian Bay Buoy is still reading 10c it was a bit warmer out into the bay? The 5/4 wetsuit with my hood, 3mil gloves and 2 mil booties are a pretty good combination. 28 km in 80 minutes.

My GPS trail - had a hard time getting upwind at first

Typical speeds and then some higher ones going back downwind

After my session I really missed having plumbing working for a hot shower. Oh well, a bit of tidying up and then back to work on the new shed in the Harbour which is taking forever to complete. 

Postscript, I wound up being sick the next two days which were both very windy. Frustrated to have missed those and the gear and windsurf shed are all packed up now. I have my wingfoiling gear and a wave board with a 5.4 in Collingwood. Let's see if there is a late November session in my future?

Most of the sails rolled up now in the old windsurf shed

A week later - a winter wonderland

First downwind foil 360!

Wow, I didn’t expect the session today - certainly not that it would be this awesome! The wind was predicted to be NW until noon, so I headed out and put on my 2nd warmest wetsuit, the 5/4 with thin booties and thick gloves.

The temperature was a lot colder, but there were sunny breaks. Once I was out past the windline I had two wobbly runs. I had to fall in twice till I got over the fear of falling in - and then suddenly my foiling improved. So much so that I then wingfoiled for over 35 minutes without touching down!

GPS trail in the NW wind - with the odd NNW gust!

35 minutes without touching down!

I headed upwind and had some great rides in the remaining rollers from yesterday’s SW wind. I wound up falling in the messy waves out in the opening to Georgian Bay and sent a SPOT message. I figured getting used to riding and falling and getting going in swells will be good practice for being in the big waves down in Collingwood later in the month? There was one long lull and I thought things were over. But it picked up again and I played around near the Launch Pad point. 

Downwind 360s

I tried a DOWNwind 360 for the first time and almost made it. My second try was surprising, I stayed on the foil all the way around. It was only later that I realized it was different from my session where I linked 5 UPwind 360s. So it is a completely new trick for me. Sadly I couldn’t see the 360 on the Launch Pad cam - but got two other videos.

Long video with two jibes

Short video of me pumping back in on my last run

Wind was good for most of the 90 minutes!

Warm inside after my session

Tempest weather stats

12c water is still double digits!

Walking back from the point

Beautiful day!

Overall 23.7 km in 90 minutes. A nice warm shower in the Launch Pad and then off for more shed building. Didn’t even bug me that the wind turned W and jumped to 25 knots as a thermal kicked in for an hour later in the afternoon!

On the foil 6x - 2+ jibes

After 10 days away, we arrived to a very wet Key River with some of the biggest waterfalls I’ve ever seen flowing down both shores in several spots. And then some wind gusts…

I got out to the Launch Pad but it wasn’t really blowing. I puttered a bit and then topped up the 7m Slick and went out on the Sky 125 with 2000cm foil.

It was 6-9 knots and I managed to get going twice - pumping on my non dominant goofy side seems to work better. Just as I was giving up the wind picked up and I got several runs and even a few foil jibes. I eventually floated downwind sitting on my board. The sun came out for a moment just after my session.

Post session selfie

Spectacular sky

Cam caught me cleaning up the dock

Session GPS track

My 6 foil runs with 2 jibes

I was warm in my 4/3 wetsuit in the 13c air and 13c water. Likely the warmest day I’ll see for the rest of the year - which is now only 9 days till we close up.

Happy that the Launch Pad Cam caught a good jibe video!

Scene from the video above

Excited that someone is already bidding on my Launch Pad auction item benefitting the Georgian Bay Land Trust…

Foils have progressed!

It has been a while since I used my 4 year old Slingshot 76cm foil. It was always ok under the BIC Techno 148 but I don’t think I’ve tried it under the Fanatic Stingray 140.

The wind was from the north - not much in the Launch Pad wind shadow but I could see that it would be 20 knots+ in the channel out past Germain Island.

I took the 5.2 Idol and headed out in the 8c air and 12c water in my 4/3 wetsuit and thick booties and gloves. I knew I’d be comfortable even if I fell in a lot.

Tacking upwind into the north wind!

Lots of little runs - 14 knot top speed

Pre session photo caught on the webcam

Comparison of the Fanatic 2000 foil on the left - 82 cm mast
Slingshot 76 on the right - 90 cm mast!

Weather station details

I slogged out and then got up on the foil and started working my way upwind. This old foil takes a lot of power to get up and then stay up. Very little glide at all.

All 3 “I’m ok” SPOT messages to my wife went through. I was tacking a lot and got up to Cary and Liz’s and then started my way back downwind. I thought somehow that this smaller foil would be faster than my Slingshot 99 or Fanatic 2000cm foil. Nope, same 12-15 knot top speed. It was however still really hard to jibe.

Turns out I only fell in once - during a jibe. I didn’t overfoil at all which pleasantly surprised me. Maybe it was the lack of footstraps that made the board seem hard to control? But when I think about how easy to use the Starboard Fly 75 board and foil were to use at the AWSI event in the Gorge, maybe we’ve just seen a ton of progress in the last 4 years.

12 km in an hour. Nice to be out if just for a short while. And then shed building time for the rest of the day as the sun started coming out more. Guessing 3 more sessions this season?

Shed building time…