2016 AWT Pistol River Wave Bash

I just finished 10 days on the amazing Oregon Coast, although I only scored 4 of them while I was there. Great people and the 2016 Pistol River Wave Bash, a great contest made the trip! You can check my b\buddies’ and PWA pro, Phil Soltysiak’s write up on the event.

I didn’t finish as well as I hoped, but am I already looking forward to next year. The highlight of the trip was a great day at the Gold Beach South Jetty. Time to train and work on wave selection and timing on the wave for next year.

More Details on the 2016 Beach Bash on the AWT site

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.

 

Wind Dude Rough Cuts – Gordon’s Loop Attempt

A forward loop attempt at Gordon’s Beach, BC on June 6th, 2013. It had been awhile since being on the water, and even longer since looping due to an ankle injury at the start of a three month trip in Brazil. It was fun and gave me a bit of a confidence boost again, to throw a loop in the cold and slightly overpowered conditions.

Winds were blowing from 25 – 30 knots, with some small to med wind blown swell coming in, this was only my second session at the spot since moving to BC.

The mount I used for my GoPro is a $5 mast mount made out of some PVC piping, cheap and has worked great so far.  I’ll share more on that soon.