click on header above to get back HOME on this blog and SCROLL DOWN 4 more...................................
MASTHEAD is where i experiment with my fotos - thanx for being tolerant with them........................................
For my videos search youtube for joe windsurfer
and ..YES, blog may use cookies and analytics !!
Completely by accident - I came across this image on the internet and found it absolutely hilarious and thought perhaps that should be my profile pic ROFLMAO
G.I. Joe Windsurfer board lol
Did James Bond ever have one o' those ?? :-)
However, he is worse than me - he put his feet in the wrong footstraps = OOOPS ...
The dish is for listening I hope
Otherwise it is a mobile satellite dish ho ho ho
NOT RF for the missiles lol
This report is about sessions "on the water" in 2019 -- I also windsurf on ice n snow :-)
This was my WORST year EVER :-(
It began with with flooding in the Montreal area ...
So, as you can see, we had NO access to the water in the area ...
Thus, my very first session on the water this year was "up north" at the in-law chalet -- May 20th, which I presume is Queen Victoria's birthday or Fête Dollard as we like to call it here in Québec ...
On top of no water access, one weekend, July 5th, all OKA Parc beaches were rendered inaccessible due to high levels of fecal coliform in the water ... sewage = yuck
I have been windsurfing since about 1995, that's twenty-four(24) years and I have been recording my sessions since 2011. In 2013, which was my best recorded year, I had 68 sessions on the water. In 2019 I had a grande total of sixteen sessions ONLY.
For some people that's more sessions than they do regularly and some people just don't windsurf. 😊
Winds in those 16 sessions were mostly light (20-40kph from the West) with an average session rating of 7.5 outta 10.
I love windsurfing and the only way I can get better is more TOW / time on the water ...
Everyone knows about my foot strap issue/phobia :-(
This year I managed to get my toes in, but i gotta do better !!
Other bad news is - my windmobile died :-(
That pic was from the maiden and only voyage of the REIX D2 in 2018
However, you can also see the MEQ2 which I only got to use once this year, 2019
This was actually good, as it forced me to use the Shark 145 in 50% of my outings ...
The other half of the outings were all "up north" on the BIC SL200 and GA Flow 3X 7.0 cambered sail. In many years I do not even count sessions at the chalet as they are so inconsequential i.e. I rarely go there to windsurf - just do it cuz we are there ...
Oh yeah, I am lookin' svelte cuz I lost forty(40) pounds since October 2018 :-)
Next time when you cannot sleep, just listen to the water sounds in the above video lol
Some mo' analysis ...
My biggest sail used in 2019 on the water was the GA Swift, a 2 cambered 10 m² freerace sail and the smallest was the GA Flow 3x, a 3 cambered 7.0 m² race sail. For the winter I was looking to replace the WindWing 4.6. To either get the one full batten for the WW or even get a real windsurf sail ~ 5.4 m². However, since 5.x is two(2) sizes down from the smallest sail used in 2019
THERE IS NO RUSH
Even for the Black Project weed speed fin that I am discussing with Dgee of St-Sauveur
THERE IS NO RUSH
If the operation to correct my inguinal hernias did anything, it taught me patience ...
End of 2019 Dgee says someone wanted that fin "urgently". We are having our first real snow storm of the year and I am unsure on which board I will concentrate this year i.e. where to put the money. At first I was pushing the delivery/exchange, but now I can honestly still say that I spent less than $300 on windsurfing last year and the year before ... and it is 31DEC2019 taday :-)
Same thing for my mother this year - after removing her ovaries and receiving chemo, she has learned patience. That and recovering from falling off a ladder #$%^&*()
Now I know from whence I got me crazies lol
was lookin @ this one too - open head and long boom
In October 2019 I was supposed to be operated for my hernias - yes, two of 'em ...
So, took a few days off before and went windsurfing on Tuesday October 15th at OKA Parc at La Crête beach. It was supposed to be 20 kph winds SW and cloudy with about 12 degrees C.
Since it was super light wind and my windmobile was dead n gone ... I brought the Fanatic Shark 145 HRS, Gaastra Swift 10 m² sail, 50 cm Shark fin and Makani Hahalua 43 cm weedie. Dude suggested weed fin since water is low, but I prefer a freeride fin.
I tried the freeride, but kept coming in too close with the SW wind and scratching the fin
Thus I came in and put the weedie, which looked a little cracked ...
Took a chance and lost ...
That fin was actually purchased in 2010 to replace a Select 47 cm weed fin that was lost in the local Milles Isles River !!!
It is also about the 3rd fin that I have lost at OKA. I guess I have NOT learned my lesson.
These lessons are getting more n more expensive too ...
Makani did not seem to have the 43 cm weedie available any more :-(
Jean-Robert of Makani informed me:
"We stopped producing the larger weed fins as they are too expensive to ship back and forth" and then offered me a carbon 40 cm version for $300 USD !!
Fins seem to ALL be over $200 and since auventfou is closed, 2-rad carries mostly really high end stuff. Windspirit has some options, but not many specifications on sail range covered ...
I guess since people are going to foiling some larger sail and larger fin options will disappear ??
I feel like the windsurf industry needed a kick-start and they see wind-foiling as the route to go !!
On iwindsurf coachg gave me some ideas on light wind windsurfing and the subject does go to hydrofoiling ...
small update: my hernia operation was cancelled yet a third time
this time I am supposed to be a "priority patient"
yet my next scheduled date is November 21st - only 5 weeks away
and YES I will come in any time there is opening #$%^&*()_
Even worse news !!
There is NO wind this weekend S.T.
It is now @ the end of November and after my cataract and hernia operations I am at home and can search the web for weed fins, foils, etc :-)
Used fins now go for $140+ and cannot seem to find many long weed fins
Found a Black Project Weed Speed 42cm from DGEE not far from here and Andie of wind-nc.com has a G-10 version of the fin I lost ... have lotsa time before next use is required ...
Somehow I have the misfortune of having acquired an OLD WindWing sail.
Interestingly enough Dr. Windsurf called it "new" as in not used and i can see why ...
I will let you judge for yourselves...
First let you show you what my wife saw when i rigged it for the first time:
She says it was all just wrong :-)
and now for my perspective...
It is fairly evident that the main issue is the battens are NOT full battens and as such do NOT give a solid pocket of air and for me just looks wrong. When i pick it up and jank on the sail to see pull, it is not too bad and should be okay for my trainees. What i was hoping for was a fully battened sail about 5-oh. This sail has NO specs written on it !! Must be really old !!!
I unrolled the sail again and looked at the paper from the sail bag...
There is a "paper" saying convert which is short for convertible. Another similiar paper was on the sail stating 4.6. Based on the additional information , it is 5'1" for the boom which is 152.5 cm ie short for me since i use large sails and booms and a luff of 14'3" which translates into 427 cm, which seems long for a small sail to me ...
I will investigate how WindWing is doing now...
They are obviously an American company and proud of it!
Did a quick investigation and windwing.com seems out of date and the name Hansen and Hansen Sails comes up all over the place. Apparently they both were at Hood River, Oregon for a while and perhaps back to Berkeley , California later. Their ways may have parted and i am unsure of what they are doing now... Both brands are lesser known sails to me - butt what do i know ?? Seems they, Hansen and Sistek formed Windwing somewhere around 1982 and were at one time the largest producers of windsurf sails in North America. Somewhere around 2009 and 2010 i see no more activity on neither the windwing nor the http://www.hansensails.com/Products.htm websites. However, there is discussion on the hansen forum about 2013 sails ...http://www.hansensails.com/Forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=274
In 2015 I decided to see and record how it looks with the PX RDM 460 mast. The mast extension is set to zero and batten #3 was changed with the FULL batten. Now wish I also had the FULL batten for #4. The boom I have is a bit long, but will do ...
It looks good, but worry about the window. If it is PVC, it is the same situation as the HSM SPF. Will ask on the iwindsurf forum ...
In JAN2016 I used it on the ice
In 2019 I decided to look for more winter sail options and was asking about it on quebecwind. Want something smaller than my HSM Fire 6.3 with full battens ... Yvente asked if I was missing a latte/batten.. I checked and this is what I found ...
This is batten no.4 when counting from the top.. It is a half batten, but a full batten could go !! I do NOT have any spare battens long enough and auventfou is now closed :-(
Looks like I could use an old batten of about 57 inches which is 142.5 cm ..
Will post this on quebecwind ... ask 2-rad - windsurfingdirect , etc , etc
BGOOD commented on quebecwind that this is the way the sail is designed ...
I thanked him and stated that was how I used it in JAN 2013 ...
I must be getting old, slow or both ...
This board seems to have been around a while now
yet I seem to be just hearing about it now ...
As the name suggests, one is supposed to do these four things on the one board
SUP, Windsurf, Windfoil and SUP foil ... hmmm
The board is longer than I anticipated and maybe a bit lacking in litres (for SUPping)
131 liters is the one I was looking at ...8'0" x 31.5" - why back to imperial and stay in liters for the volume ?? size is imperial which translates into 243.8 cm x 80 cm and is what we are used to
I am guessing NOTHING beats a REAL windsurf foil board at this time !!
Force5 de QuebecWind m'a envoyé une cadeau que j'aimerais partager avec tout le monde !!
Le monde ont parlé de plus que 30 noeuds et des planches moin que 90 litres ...
Et 86 planchistes ??
Wow , wow et WOW
mais regardes les fotos !!! et double clique svp !!
ah oui - la date ?? samedi le 14 septembre 2019
après "Friday the 13th" :-)
