Doing what I do best…rigging, rigging, rigging!
Paul with his wolf ‘block heater’ hat that he wore sailing all day!
Strat warming up his feet in Paul’s ‘hot water’ cooler!
Waiting for the wind at the Dryden Yacht Club.
Woody (9.2m Neil Pryde RS Slalom/Formula board) bundled up to the max!
Woodette (8.5m North sail/Formula Board) before the wind started to crank up.
Strat (9.8m Nitro2/Formula board) winding it up.
Josh (7.5m Neil Pryde V8/JP 160 board) hammin’ it up for the camera!
Paul (10.8m/ML5 Formula board) rippin’ in the flat water!
With today being Remembrance Day, we thought what not a better way to show tribute to our fallen soldiers than to ‘rough it’ a bit windsurfing in the ice-cold-water of Wabigoon Lake. Paul, Strat, Woodette, Josh and myself toughed it out for over 2hrs today. The day was looking like the wind wasn’t going to materialize, but when the clouds cleared, and the vibe started to turn on high, Mother Nature rewarded our patience with some awesome planing conditions for a day to remember with windsurfing in November! We kept the Blue Moose running with the heater on for a toasty warm place of refuge post session, and Paul also filled up a cooler full of hot water for anyone that needed to warm their feet/hands up mid session. What a great idea!!
All in all, an awesome November day on the water with family and friends!!
Stay Cool…
- Air Temperature: 4C
- Water Temperature: 3C
- Wind Speed: 15-22 knots
- Windsurfing: Priceless!!
Woodette and I decided today to go windsurfing from the Dryden Yacht Club today. We still had all of our gear in The Blue Moose from a Thursday session at Thunder Lake, so the decision to drive to the DYC was easy, and besides the water is nice and flat (good for not falling in when it’s so cold out!). Woodette sailed for about a half hour before her feet started to freeze up, so she come in and grabbed the camera to take some pics and videos, one of which you see above. I sailed for close to 2hrs as I had neoprene socks under my booties and my Bare baggy drysuit on which kept me toasty warm. I came in after a half hour to warm up my hands on the heater from the Blue Moose, then sailed for the next hour and a bit without feeling cold at all. Every session on the water at this time of year, especially this part of the world, is a bonus for us.
Stay Cool…
So many times throughout the year windsurfing, we are full-on crashing through the waves, racing overpowered so you can be ‘just a bit faster’ than your competitor, or not going out because it’s not windy enough….
Here we are in the middle of October, and as the windsurfing season winds down, it’s nice to enjoy the crisp air, sunshine, while gliding through flat-waveless-water on a longboard. Longboarding is in essence, the soul of windsurfing. Lets face it, everyone has pretty much longboarded at one time or another and most people have learned to windsurf on a longboard. As a matter a fact, the ‘longboard’ was the first board developed for the sport of windsurfing. Well yesterday, Woodette and I decided to go out for a sail when there was “not enough wind”. I hopped on my Mistral Superlite, Woodette on her Prodigy, and with the slightest breeze I was gliding effortlessly along only hearing the sound of the water splashing gently on the board. This is quite hypnotic in a sense. We had the whole lake to ourselves. No boats, no other people, no noise, just the two of us gliding along and listening to our voices echo across the waveless water. We had a great, memorable, and perhaps last sail (although I doubt that!) of a windsurfing season on our longboard’s.
Stay Cool…
