A little update before heading to the Oregon Coast and Hood river in a just under a week. This summer and spring have only seen a few trips to Nitnat, 1 quick trip to Hood River, which was pretty much a skunk, and a couple Gordon’s Beach sessions, so already a better start then last year. The most exciting thing is the girlfriend has just started to learn!
Here’s to hoping the 40c+ 105f temps in the next week in Hood River bring some wind followed by some wind and waves on the coast.
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.
I’ve been planning to write this update for awhile, but would either get busy looking for jobs, working on projects or the wind would come up and I’d be out windsurfing! I’ve scored about a dozen sessions on Vancouver Island this June, and Mostly on my 4.7 and 5.3. The First Session I grabbed was at Cook Street in Downtown Victoria, a bit underpowered on a 5.8. This was my first session on the water since the fall and my car accident, it wasn’t very long as the wind dropped and my arms were sore.
The best days I had were no doubt at Gordon’s Beach, which has some of the most reliable winds on Vancouver Island other than Nitnat Lake. I’ve scored 9 sessions here, from choppy to some nice wind blown swell, where you can score a few backside hits, and good for launching forward loops. One day I showed up, see a huge stickered up trailer from Ontario… Phil Soltysaik, his Brother Tom and Austrian Max Matissek were up here work on some video and travel projects for magazines. Pretty sweet to windsurf around with them, watch them and share a few drinks around a camp fire at Jordan River in the evening.
I also scored one weekend at Nitnat, conditions were good, typical Nitnat, picking up in the afternoon. I was working on Vulcans and watching Phil, Tom, Alex and Adam busting out Funnels and more latest freestyle moves. My ulcans were far off, I’ve got to work on a bit of the fear factor, I’ve had a few sprained ankles, and split my shin at Nitnat. Oh well it’ll come.
Check out the pics below. Big thanks to my girlfriend, Leah who took a bunch of pics, and Mike Nash from West Coast Captures for a few more.
