Desperate Sessions – Wind Dude Claims 30 foot face

Lawrence ‘Wind Dude’ Stewart rode and claimed a massive 30 foot face on December 20th, 2013 near Victoria, BC. Possibly the first person to ever ride this break at this size.

It had been a long few weeks with little wind on Vancouver Island, finally the forecast was looking good for December 20th, strong Westerly winds in the Afternoon and building swell. Unfortunately conditions didn’t materialize as expected, but when a door closes a window opens. That window for Lawrence was a rare opportunity to ride this elusive break, check out the resulting video.

The above is clearly satire. But do to a lack of conditions and being unable to get the the beach in the morning I grabbed some old gear and made this little video. Enjoy!

Windsurfing Into the Unknown – Vancouver Island

Check out this clip as a couple PWA freestylers hit up Vancouver Island.

Max Matissek joined Philip Soltysiak on a Windsurfing Into the Unknown adventure on Vancouver Island, Canada. Joined by Phil’s younger brother Tom, they camped and searched for windsurfing spots few have ever heard of in the summer of 2013.

The two professional windsurfers and seasoned travelers have been to some of the best windsurfing destinations around the world, and it was now a chance for Canada’s West Coast to prove it’s worthiness as a destination for adventure windsurfers. The trip took the riders from Jordan River and Gordon’s Beach, across to Port Renfrew, into Lake Cowichan and Nitinat Lake, to Port Alberni and finishing off on the Pacific coast in Tofino. All the while the team camped in the island’s Pacific Temperate Rain Forest, cooking and keeping warm with a campfire, and trying to keep wildlife away from their food.

A Look a Surf Toursim

Travel and tourism greatly impact developing countries. I’ve seen quite a bit with relatively little travel. Hotels in Mexico left abandoned half way through development to towns built around windsurfing and kiteboarding in Brazil. Problems included packed with tourist on and off the water, and garbage littering the beach, surprisingly a lot of garbage was from local tourists. I’ve also experienced bad sewage run off and pollution in first World locations.

This video “Surfing for Change: Travel Guide To Nicaragua” by Kyle Thiermann takes a look at sustainable surf tourism in Nicaragua, and a brief look at some of the issues that plagued other spots. What I found really interesting with the theory of the evolution of a tourism spot. From the trailblazers, to backpackers, followed mainstream travel and then followed at some point by a decline.

You can find out more at http://www.surfingforchange.com

I’m in no way associated with Surfing for Change but definitely support sustainable tourism.

September Update – A new Surfagon

Not much action through September, I’ve been busy working and winds haven’t been spectacular, scored one awesome day at Columbia Beach, North of Nanaimo.

The conditions were great in Columbia Beach, and I scored my first real waves on the Island. They weren’t big but had lots of power and moved quickly. It was a fun day as winds reached close to 40 knots.

In other big news, a new surf vehicle the 1984 VW Vanagon pictured above. It’s a work in progress and still yet to run, but should be great for trips to Nitnat and down the coast next summer, and hopefully Baja.

Hope for some more ridding in the coming months as winter storms bring strong winds.

Pool Windsurfing

This is a bit of a throwback from a few years ago.

A little windsurfing in a beach front pool in Hatteras North Carolina, during the 2011 Windsurfing Magazine Board tests. Good memories!

You can check out the full video here.

Waiting for wind.

Waiting for Wind in Victoria.  Almost a week with no wind :(.

Backloop Carnage Video

As promised in my July end update, here is my back loop carnage video from July 9th.

It was a good day at Gordon’s Beach on Vancouver Island. June 9th, 2013 served up some small but steep rams and fully to over powered winds on my KA Kult 4.7, and 88L Mental Custom. A fun day for working on backloops, I’ve still got a ways to go, some are beetter then other, but it was tons of fun! Here’s a compilation of many of my attempts from that day.

July Update – Another Solid Month on Vancouver Island

July is at an end, and on Vancouver Island all in all it’s been a pretty solid month.  It started off with a bang on Canada Day, and a few solid hours of sailing.  The rest of the week continued to blow unfortunately I came down with a cold and missed a few solid days that week, but what can you do.  I’ve scored about 11 sessions since my last update including a weekend trip to Nitnat.

With not much happening right around Victoria after recovering from a bit of sickness the forecast was looking favorable for a spot called Pipers Lagoon located just North of Nanamo.  I headed out, but arrived a bit late, and the few windsurfers on the water were on the way in.  I got to check out a new spot, and hope to sail here again on a windy day.  It is an excellent place for beginners taking their first steps with a sandy beach and a lagoon at high tide.

One day really stood out, June 9th at Gordons, fully lit on a 4.7 with some very nice ramps.  So nice in fact I made several backloop attempts.  Luckily I had my GoPro mounted on my mast so there is some nice video of a bunch of backloops into crashes, I’ll post the footage shortly.  The conditions that day also provided some waves that you could squeeze one or two turns in on, quite fun.  Unfortunately majority of the other days didn’t provide much for ramps or windsurfing.

Also in July I made another weekend trip to Nitnat.  On the agenda was attempting to work on Vulcans while over powered, and I managed a few attempts each day.  I think my fear of sprained ankles on this particular move is still there, having already sprained it 3 times.  So I spent a lot of time working on carving 360s and was getting closer by the end of the weekend, this should be excellent practice for my bottom turns in waves.

The second last week of June saw two more great days at Gordons beach working on forwards and and some backloop attemps.

Coming soon I’ve got some backloop carnage video from my GoPro and a few more videos, so check back soon.

 

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KA in the beginning

An early look at KA Sails, from a TV piece from the early ’90s’.