........joe windsurfer BLOG........: Made it to OKA Labour Day Weekend

All summer I have been avoiding public places due to this covid thingie

Bin goin to the chalet and longboarding it on a small lake up north - actually NE

Wind was supposed to be 20-40 kph from the WSW, but was from the NW and felt stronger - side shore

Started off with my HotSailsMaui SpeedFreak 8.5 sail on the Fanatic Shark 145 HRS using the Hydrotech G10 40 cm weed fin that I purchased this summer. The fin was fine and I was planing NO problem. The issue was the wind was NOT onshore as hoped and the waves were over one foot "au large", but I planed and jumped some waves. When the wind kicked, it was too much for me... I tried to stay closer inshore, but that did not work. Felt like I flew faster than I ever have before - forget footstraps man lol

If I felt more comfortable I think I could have handled the bigger winds with the NorthSails Duke 6.9 in my Toyota Prius C. At least I can say that I planed a lot on this day :-)

When I arrived I was the first one to park in the 2nd section and when I left, the place was packed. It seemed like there were more kiters than windsurfers .... This pic is from Georgie taken later in the day with a menacing cloud.

Oh yeah .. it was $8.90 for an adult to go to the parc and needed to be purchased online before. Once there it was another $9.94 for parking - wait, that's supposed to be for the beach parking and from the camping area that is blocked off. Means it was almost $20 just to get in the place.

Last week a 60 year old kite surfer died on the water at les Isles de Madeleines - due to a heart attack. Buddy Marc was there the next day on the same beach and said that was all everyone was talkin about.

So ... I thought that if I could jibe or water start in deep water more readily, perhaps I would have stayed on the water longer on that day ... By chance I saw Peter Hart's 10 Steps to Gybing which he sells as a DVD - asked about an electronic copy which apparently exists for £17 which is ~ $30 CDN. Sounded like too much money as compared to Dasher's 12 steps on youtube ...

BUT THEN I found this trick on this video which just sounds amazing - fall in the water on the other side ready and in waterstart position - now THAT i gotta try :-)