Looking back 2019-2023

I've been looking forward to doing a deep dive into the data my Garmin watches collect about my windsurf (and other) sessions. I do try and record almost every watersports activity, hiking, running and walking too.

I'm not surprised about the first graph. In 2019 and 2020 I did over 1,100 km of windsurfing/windfoiling. I started wingfoiling in 2021 and started specifically recording which of the 3 sports I was doing. (I didn't separate windsurfing and windfoiling sessions back in 2019 and 2020.) I was pretty sure that wingfoiling was quickly becoming my main watersport from 2021 - 2023 and the graph confirms that trend. 

5 years of cumulative distance on the water
Averaging 1,000 km / year

I was a bit surprised that in my 3 years of retirement (2021-2023), my cumulative distance travelled on the water has declined annually. 

I initially thought that with wingfoiling being around 1/2 the speed of windsurfing - my time on the water would have at least been the same. But this summer I noticed that my foiling sessions get around the same total kilometers travelled per hour, since I am up on the foil through most jibes - whereas I slow down in most of my windsurfing jibes and slog a lot more waiting for wind. Looking at the data by hours, shows the least time on the water in 2022 at 64 hours and max 2019 with 92 hours.

Teaching more windsurfing lessons might be a small part of the decline. But looking at these charts makes me determined to get out on the water more often and even longer each session.

Hours on the water each year

Breaking the data into months, something else becomes clear: travel was a big deal. My biggest month for kilometers sailed in the last 5 years was in April 2022 - over 300 km which was due to a 2 week Hatteras trip.

April 2022 (Hatteras 2 weeks) was my biggest month!

While windsurfing is by far the most kilometers of all my sports, walking, other, cycling, hiking and running add up to a similar amount. Interestingly hiking has been steadily increasing, running is declining. Maybe not too surprising as I aged from 53 to 58 in this period - which means I'm basically 10% older than I was at the beginning!

I'm hoping Garmin or developers come up with some apps that let me track my sessions a bit better - I still have to manually categorize the sessions at the end of the year.

Overall the number of blog entries each year is interesting to see. It really correlates best with number of days on the water. My pre-retirement year 2020 had a lot of sessions due to covid lockdowns. 2021 had the most entries - retirement freedom plus covid lockdowns. 2022 was surprisingly low, but I'm realizing we travelled a fair bit non-windsurf related that year and sold our house! The one big windsurfing trip to Hatteras in April 2022 counts for almost 1/4 of the blog entries in 2022! 

Blog entries by year....

With two wind sport trips on the horizon already this spring I'm hoping to have a record 2024 on the water!

3 Jibes to end the Year!

It has been a while since I was on the water. 6 weeks ago I had a session that I thought might be one of the last for the season. So instead I've been skiing and snowboarding or hiking Blue Mountain 17 times already... but with the rain and warm weather the hills are closed again.

My one GoPro on the water shot of the session

A gentle shift in the 4c wind to NW got me interested in getting on the water. I loaded the car and headed to Northwinds beach, not quite sure if I was really going to go out. When I arrived there was indeed a winger out doing well in the side onshore wind.

The one foiler out before me - James

Decent wind from my iWindsurf handheld meter

My gear transporter

Ski / snowboard / hike season to date

The 5.0 ready to go…

Pre-session selfie

I checked the wind and it was 10-13 knots. I got the board set up and was putting on my wetsuit when the other winger came in. He was on a 5.5 and had been nicely powered. We chatted a bit and I thought I'd be fine on my 5. I pumped up the Duotone Slick 5.0 and headed out. Oops, not enough for me to pump up onto the foil. I slogged back and pumped up the Duotone Slick 7.0. That was the ticket.

With the bigger wing it was easy to get going and I headed out. The waves were bigger than I thought and sure enough I blew my first jibe. And my second, and third. I finally got 3 jibes in a row and then a dry but not foiling tack.

A few more runs and more and more time in the water and my forearms were getting tired. I foiled back into shore closer to the breakwater and BAM, hit the bottom with the foil and landed hard on the board. I can feel the bruise as I write this. Nice though, that the limestone rocks are softer than the granite up in Key Harbour, so there wasn't any huge scratch on the foil.

My little session with 3 jibes!

I spent quite a bit of time walking, slogging and in the water…

Post-session smile

Warming up in the car before the 10 minute drive home

It turned out to be a shorter session than I wanted, not because I got cold but just because I was quickly fatigued. Despite my recent physical examination which said I'm in great shape (cardio of a 20-29 year old apparently), I will be working on exercises for my forearms. And I need more time foiling on the waves for sure!

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!