Windsurf Woody » Life

Inspiration

Woody — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:40:52 +0000

Inspiration: [in-spuh-rey-shuhn]
a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul….

A few days ago our good friend Ulf The Swede made a heart-felt post on his blog that made me realize just how precious ‘time’ is. Time with your friends, and time with your family. Yesterday, I was inspired again by a comment from a great friend who use to windsurf with us alot. ‘Link’ taught me the finer art of railing a longboard upwind, and the longboard skills that I still use today racing. I’m inspired by Link everytime I hit the water. I’m also inspired by my wife Woodette for her unconditional love of our family, and the wonderful day we had together yesterday. Some days with your partner stand out more than others, and yesterday was one of those days for me. Today, I’m inspired by the rain. Just the sound of rain tapping on the roof sends a certain peacefulness through the house. Some of my most memorable days have been rainy days. Rainy days allow you to find more ‘things’ to do inside, and for me today, I’m inspired to write this post.
Inspiration comes in many different ways. Let yourself be inspired today…
Stay Cool

What! An update? Is it real?

Woody — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:04:28 +0000

Well it’s been sometime since my last update….going on 2 months now! Our life has been so busy with travel to Germany, family from England visiting, then just recently good friends from Germany spending some time with us, I’ve rarely had the opportunity to just sit & type for an extended period of time. I was actually contemplating at one time of not doing a ‘blog’ anymore and concentrate my online efforts with our growing windsurfing club NOW, which also needs a regular update of stories and pics. I’ll be doing this more in the months ahead.
Our summer hasn’t been one to remember that’s for sure. Cold and lack of wind for the most part. Just this past week we’ve enjoyed hot weather with windy days which has seemed to spark a fire under me to make a post. As matter a fact, we windsurfed for 6 hrs yesterday then went for a starlite sail for a couple of more hours. Very fullfilling day.
So here are some highlights from the past 2 months in no particular order:
- bought a new Phantom Race 380 raceboard. This board rips! The best raceboard I’ve ever been on period. I look forward to get it into a regatta environment to see how it makes out against the other longboards.
- gained 5lbs when I was in Germany. Slowly losing it now with the extra time on the water! haha
- my Woody board got smashed up and is need of repair. I’m thinking of sending it to the Board Lady. I’m currently without a good short board. I still haven’t found my JP Slalom III that I lost when returining from Worthington, so windy days just aren’t quite the same right now.
- our youngest son Jeremy is windsurfing in the straps now and wants me to get him a harness!
- I miss competing at regattas. No, I miss the comaraderie and community more than the actual racing. The last event I attended was our very own Moose Regatta (my last post!) in July. We have three regattas this month so it should be FUN!
- we now have our 21′ tandem board finished and on the water. Riding on this board will put a smile on your face guaranteed!
- we’ve finished up our deck at home (looking outside right now) and have spent many nights in our new screened gazeebo with candle light and conversation.
- Josh is working full time now at The Lodge. He’s going to work for a year before continuing his academic studies which we hope will be in Toronto so he can be close to my sister Guin.
- Stephanie is the social butterfly of the family, and we’re happy to see her home again after spending what seemed like the entire summer on a “sleep over”.
- our good friend Ulf the Swede who was living in Des Moines, Iowa, is moving back to his home country of Sweden this month. We will miss Ulf and his energy, but look forward to still many fun times ahead. Hey Ulf, you too need an update on your blog!!
So I’m off to the Waconia Wind & Wave regatta Sept 6,7 in Minneapolis, followed by the Windpower Championship Sept.13,14 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, then The Crossing on lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota where 40 kiters will battle it our against 50 or more windsurfers – Go Pole Boarder’s!!. This all means, the 5lbs of pure German cuisine I gained ove the course of this summer will be history by the end of the month! haha
Stay Cool…

Crazy Weather…

Woody — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:45:24 +0000

Master Chef Woody grillin’ up some meat!

We woke up to this on Saturday morning!

Look at my awesome shovelling form!

Just two days ago, we were in the middle of redoing the deck to compliment our new BBQ which we’ve been enjoying for a week on our snow free deck. Heck, we had the yard all cleaned after a long winter, put away our snowkiting gear and was looking forward to the ice melting so we can get on the water windsurfing. Well, Mother Nature around these parts has been playful it seems the past year, so why not give us another 40-50cm’s of snow to deal with! Crap! Just when we thought we were in the clear, whamo!
Our first regatta of the season will be the ‘Dam Jam’ in Des Moines, Iowa May 17-18 and I’ll bet that will be the first time we’ll be on the water this year too. The Dam Jam promises to be a hoot this year with live band, free beer, limo rides to and from the event site, massages after each day of racing, big comfy chair to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs, meals brought to your chair side, tucked in at night…ohhh baby…wait a minute, I got off track there a bit, that’s home I’m talking about! haha Really though, the Dam Jam will be a riot! Can’t wait!!
Stay Cool…

Annual Hockey Game

admin — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:14:25 +0000

Our cheerleading section!

Both teams post game photo

For the past 5yrs now we’ve been gathering at our good friends Barb and Rick’s place challenging the kids to a hockey game on Link’s rink on the lake. The annual ‘Parents vs Kids’ game has become a real highlight of our winter activities. The Parent Team was coming into this year with a perfect 4-0 record, but we quickly found our hands full with a kids squad of 12 and all 6 of us parents trying to defend our title! The kids jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead before we started to claw our way back. In regulation time (first team to score 10), there seemed to be a bit of controversy on how the parents managed to get 10 goals first while the kids had only 8. So with kids dreams almost shattered, we decided on a good ol’ shootout. Well the kids displayed their true ability in whooping our butts 4-0 in the shootout. So a big congrats to Team Kids for finally de-throning “The Champs” after all these years.
We will have our parental revenge! Hmmm, house chores anyone?
Stay Cool…

A little update

admin — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:26:32 +0000

After shoveling 4′ snow drifts around the FJ.

Driving back to Dryden in a snow storm. Not fun!

It’s that time of year when we just can’t seem to do much in the area of ‘windsports’. Our lakes have frozen over now, but with the loads of snow we’ve been having the past week(s), it’s making for some uncertain ice conditions. I hope we can get our ice shack out on the lake soon as ‘The Shack’ is a great place to warm up when we go out snowkiting.
Hope you’re all getting ready for Christmas!
Stay Cool…

Happy Birthday Woodette!

admin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:28:18 +0000

Ha ha, it took her three tries to blow out 4 candles! So, how may boyfriends do you have!??

The horns above her head say it all

Today is Schwaby’s birthday! You’d never guess her age by looking at her vibrant expression! I’m not going reveal it either becuase at this stage of life, age is just a number, it doesn’t reflect how young we feel. So, Happy 29th Margot! I wish you many more happy days and fun times ahead in our years together!
____________________________________________
Here’s a few shots of Strat, his sister Susan, Margot and I sailing at the Dryden Yacht Club this past Sunday. The club’s annual S.O.B.I.R. (Sail our boats in regatta) race was the first race of the day where I think we did pretty good. Maybe even won it!? But we won’t know until the scores are tallied. Second race was a “chicks at the helm” race where Woodette steered the boat, while the rest of us pulled ropes and hoisted sails. I was a little loud at times barking out which way to “pull” or “push” the tiller handle to make the boat go where we needed to. I really need to work on chillin’ a bit when it comes to racing though. All in all, another great weekend!
Strat’s sister Susan and I checkin’ out the sails

Hmmm, looks like this pole thingy needs to go on this rope thingy and…

There we go!

Stay Cool…

The week (and a bit) in review

admin — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:50:15 +0000

Future surfer dude!

A well attended “Sunday at Sandy Beach” NOW last club outing of the season

NOW club member Bruce Houston giving some instruction

Strat paddling out to rescue Jeremy in the zodiac after he stopped the motor too far from shore

Josh ripping past Jeremy in the zodiac

“Little Surfer” Shayna showing us her new skills on a 3.0 in 20 knot gusts (offshore flat water)

We’ve been having alot of fun over the past week! Camping and windsurfing with our friends at Aaron Provincal Park on Thunder Lake, where we celebrated our good friend Barb’s birthday (29th I think??)! Wrapping up a terrific windsurfing season of “Sunday’s at Sandy Beach” with our friends and Northwest Ontario Windsurfing (NOW) club members. Sailing in our new sailboat boat (which still needs a name!) at various times throughout the week, and generally just hanging around enjoying the last warm days of the year.
Hope you’re all having fun too…

Our new Sailboat!

admin — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:39:51 +0000

This is our new sailboat! She’s a Tanzer 22 that has been in the Dryden Yacht Club for a number of years now and is happy to be back on the water with crew aboard. This boat has a rich history of successes, and we hope to continue that tradition within our family for years to come. Both Margot and I were thinking of getting a ’social’ boat for next year, but when we looked at this sailboat, we both knew after speaking with the previous owner that this boat belonged to us. We have sailed her a few times already (once in 20 knot gusts), and Woodette now has a whole new respect for getting in ‘the sheets’!!!
Have fun in life

Toronto Rocks!

Woody — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 03:58:50 +0000

The CN tower at night is amazing with the led lights now

Guin, Steph, Cary and Josh ready to go on the Drop Zone. I almost died on that ride!!!!

Jeremy mid back flip on a bungy trampoline. He was laughing his head off!

Kids cuddled in the back early morning on the way down to Toronto.

We were in Toronto this past week visiting with Josh at Guin and Al’s place and had just an amazing time! Toronto is a much different city than the last time I visited. Newer, cleaner, busier, and BIGGER! Holy crap, I’ve almost worn out my Birkenstock sandals walking. I’ve dubbed it the “walking capital of Canada”.
It was really nice to see Josh and everyone again! Spending time at the TWC was really great and getting my butt kicked on the Wednesday night race by Josh was even sweeter! Josh’s skills as a sailor have improved a great deal, and we’re stoked he’s having a terrific summer so far. Many thanks to all who make that happen.
I will post some more after my brain cells catch up with me from the ‘Drop Zone’ ride at Wonderland and driving a total 4,600km in the past 10 days.
Stay Cool

Merry Christmas!!

Woody — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 05:56:55 +0000

We’ve had a wonderful evening….
It all started with a very tastey supper served by the hands of our ‘Master Chef’ Schwaby. We then moved to the living room for our traditional opening of presents from the Deutchies, followed by our Christmas light tour of the city. We returned home to a phone call for a suprise invite to our great friends Jeff & Tina. So off we drove for a short laugh filled visit. We finally finished our day off with a family hot tub under the stars. What a way to bring in Christmas day!
The Woody’s wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a fun-filled, happy, healthy year ahead in 2007!