Translator from GOOGLE

Journale de 2023


These journals go backwards in time - based on me bro's recommendation
 
SUNDAY
31DEC2023
Happy New Beer !!
 
Well, today there was supposed ta be wind, butt had NO wind lol ☹️
I think it was on this day that the ice made a BIG BOOM and the ice shook

************************************************************
 
Saturday
30DEC2023
 
The out-law family wanted to celebrate the New Year with a get-together today... I was at home in Rosemere cuz there just were too many ppl there and staying too long. Do I really need to entertain nephew's roommate's parents from New Zealand = NOPE !

I was at home checking windspeeds and left around 10h00 when the winds were N10-15kph. I rigged the HSM Fire 6.3 on the ice sled. This was the BEST session of 2023 on ice yet and we have a new record --> six times in December ...

Wind was gusty and from the NW - N - NE ... I put on my safety gear and was only a little afraid twice. Got some nice speed going and NO issues ...
 
This was the kit, but the ice was better than in this picture from 2022


I forgot to mention the temp was about -3C and the ice was NOT slick any more cuz we had some more melting and then rain + snow. So, it was kinda hard n crunchy, butt perfect for what I was there ta do !!
*************************************************************
Wednesday
27DEC2023
 
It's my birthday, butt prayers for wind were useless lol
The SW Hucker 6.6 was rigged on the ice-sled and tried occasionally during the day and it was NO GO !?! In the early evening it was about 10-15kph NE and I had to sail with the Hucker open and NOT taking all the wind = flying lol. Had to stop as it was getting too dark. This is what the lake looked like:

*******************************************************
Thursday
21DEC2023
 
I think this video says it all + need new wax :-(
FosterFaster says he uses parrafin and TORO actually has spray parrafin !
With four sessions on the ice in December 2023, this is the MOST # of sessions in December since I started counting sessions years ago !!
 

 
*************************************************************
Tuesday
19DEC2023
 
Well, we had a lotta rain yesterday and Kathy said the lake was all water, which was IMPOSSIBLE !! My theory is the water will all turn to ice quickly, but there was some snow afterwards that could ruin the surface !!
Wind was supposed to be from the NW 15-30kph and temps around -4C.
Wind was from the NW and gusts over 20 kph, bud light lol

I decided to rig the repaired SW Hucker 6.6.
The sail did fine, butt was a PITA to rig --> difficult to get past the bend at the top of the luff and then the mast snuck past the cap $%^&* no real issues

ALWAYS fun just ta git out there man !!
 
Oh yeah ... I forgot to mention that it was warm enough and safe enough that I did NOT wear a helmet, thicker gloves nor knee/elbow pads ...


 
*********************************************************
Fryday
15DEC2023

The ice was soft as temps were going OVER the freezing point ...
Also, the 2-3cm/~1" of snow was wet snow ...
Those two points cause drag :-(

The wind was light from the West at less than 20kph (I am guessing)

On Tuesday I was upset with rigging my old winter sails ...
Broke the strap at the top of the luff on the 2007 SW Retro 8.5
Then when I rigged the HSM SpeedFreak 8.5, mast has issues with the damn cap %^&*(

Long story short, today I brought up the GA GTX freerace 8.5 and NS Duke 6.9
(in hopes the MauiSails 490/75 mast was already there - as I could NOT find it @ home ...)

Rigged the GAastra GTX two cambered 8.5 with the MS 490/75 mast and had a BLAST ...
It was so warm that I had no gloves nor jacket.
As I was NOT going that fast (except on a coupla nice runs) ... only a helmet
(No knee nor elbow pads !!)

It was obviously a MUCH better day than 2 daze ago, BUTT can do better !!! l🤣l🤣l


told Yvente he should be called "Ice Man"

to which he replied that it is Indian Summer - can we say that ? lol
*************************************************************
Wednesday
12/13/2023

There was supposed ta be wind and igetwind even stated 20-40kph West  !!
I tried the SW Retro 8.5 with the SW 490 mast, butt would not fit the tit lol ...
Put a different top on, which fit the mast - this is a PITA to do man
... and then I busted the strap at the top of the luff tabernak $%^&*(
It does NOT look like a metal cap will work in there 
As far as I am concerned  ... that sail is FINIshed 

So, I went n got the HSM SPF 8.5 from the other chalet.
I had issues with the metal cap on that one, butt managed to git it on lol
All that was lacking on this day was wind !!

Am thinking that since I love this winter stuff so much ...
I gotta use real sails in the winter too ...
Am considering bringing the GA GTX 8.5 to the country !!



_____________________________________________________________
Monday 
12/11/2023 
or is it 11/12/2023 ?
Charlie, me bro-in-law sent me a pic - of the lake - after the shit!!


###########################################################
Saturday
December 9th
 
We have had one foot of snow dumped on us on the 4th of December and it has stayed with us. However, temps in general have NOT been that cold before that. Thus, the ice up north froze after the first snowfall and is / was 4-5 inches thick. There was NO wind and the weather coming in may just destroy that lovely surfce --> first rain, then snow followed by cold ... Last year I was on "black ice" on December 15th and posted a pic of the ice.
 

The ice was NOT this good this year, butt nice lol

The stuff that needs to be brought up to the "country" is:
  • the bag of "winter stuff", cleats, pads, etc
  • helmet n googles
  • GoPro n mounts
  • blue boom - is it needed ? have the one from Yvente
  •  seat harness
  • and bring the GA Flow-3 7-oh from Nonni's to the WhiteHouse
________________________________________________________
On June 4th I posted this pic of Helmut's Gecko 156. 


On November 10th he sent me this pic:


We tried to get our boat building friend, Ed to fix it during the summer, but he got too busy. So, Helmut found a boat repair shop at the marina - not sure which one it was, but it is good to know this !! It's the Beaconsfield Yacht Club where it was repaired...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday November 8th

Yesterday, I was proclaiming the end of the water windsurf season. Today we were up north putting away the boats, cutting trees, etc. We were near the lake and there was some wind (1°C and NNW 20-30kph). Beautiful day, but not ideal windsurf conditions. Thank goodness for my MAC1 apéritif lol 😄


I fell in about 3 or 4 times and had to do the "walk of shame" from Steven's bay ... and was NOT cold at all --> did NOT even take a hot shower !!

That was my 2nd outing this year on that board and it has NOT been used for a few years ... It was probably the first time with the sail this year and was a first with the cagoule and gloves. NO EXCUSES = I fell in cuz I suck lolol

Also picked up an HPL carbon 245cm boom with MS clamp from Bert !!
I confirmed that the boom is 98" or 245cm, which ONLY fits my 10-oh
Also, the clips are NOT in perfect shape 
☹️
 
 So... obviously I now need to look at  what to do for the winter ...
 
NS Zeta 3.7 400mast (385+cap) 147 outhaul (in red?) = not Chinook
MS GlobalWaveSail 5.0 400mast 166cm outhaul = not Chinook
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
HSM Fire 6.2 = 460 PX RDM 187cm outhaul = can use the Chinook
SW Hucker 6.6 (ripped n fixed) 460RDM 204cm outhaul = can use the Chinook
SW Retro 8.0  (ripped n fixed) 490SW  225cm outhaul = can use the Chinook
======================================================
sails should all be there - bring SW490 &PX460 masts to the country

practice rigging those sails and take boards out of "chalet" to WhiteHouse
and check if MS Global 5-oh is at home !?!

where is the blue skateboard for the ice ??

***************************************************
Tuesday NOV 7, 2023
The Water Windsurf Season is OVER !!

It was warmer than usual (around 10 degrees C), the sun is supposed to come out and potentially have NW winds of 20-50 kph ... Marie and an admin of Parc Oka said La Crête s/b open. Well, it's NOT !! Maybe admin thought I meant the main beach parking ??

Packed my shit and went. Stared at the water for quite some time from "la plage principale". From there the winds were too off-shore, gusty AND no-one on the water (NO boats either).

So ... rather than ending my 2023 windsurf summer season on a bad note, like a BAD session, which is usually the case lol, this year it ended on a SAD note, like a useless trip to OKA 😄
 

******************************************
Thursday November 2nd

I was planning to go to Oka, even tho the temps were low ... However, my pregnant daughter was NOT doing well and so ... off to Rawdon we went. As I had things to do at the lake, I continued north. It was about 2 degrees C outside and I hadta git in the water to take the boats out (alone).



Since I was already there ... naturally I set up the HSM SPF 8.5 sail. The mast would NOT go into the mast cap that I added after the mast kept popping out. It seemed to be solid just the same, but I put the mast extension to 2.5cm (at the bottom). I tried that and the sail just was NOT set up properly. The battens were way past the mast and then obviously would not flip !! So, I came in and put the extension at 12.5cm (20 is the spec) and downhauled properly with an increase in the outhaul too. Now that was MUCH better ...

However, I did manage to fall in - with no gloves !!


Peter Pumpkin says it was "fucking cold" and apologizes for his inappropriate use of French. Yes, I took two hot showers after - one with the wetsuit and one without !!
____________________________________________
FryDay Oktober 27th

Told my wife when she left to go shopping that I wanted to windsurf from 13h00 - 15h00 and be back in time for my son's to go to Five Nights @ Freddy's (and maybe supper before)


Naturally, as female shopper, she took that to mean that I needed the car ar 13h00 !! Txted her before noon and asked ETA ... "Oh sorry, will finish ASAP and be home in 20 minutes, okay?" Man, it's a good thing I love my wife lol

The wind predictions were VERY fickle and as such I packed my trusty steed, the Fanatic Shark 145 HRS and three sails (GAastra 8.5, NS Duke 6.9 and HSM Fire 6.2). When I arrived I measured 10 knots on shore SW with a grey line of more wind further out, but NO-ONE was "flying" (one windsurfer, 2-3 kiters with twin tips, 2-3 kiters with foils and some windwingers with foils). 

I got on the water with the Shark and 8.5m² at around 13h00 and everyone looked "bummed out". I told them "it's gonna get better" as I schlogged past them 😄

I rode the wind peak at 14h00 and ended up further downwind than planned. As it was later than I wanted, I did the "walk of shame"... 

I did NOT plane, but really enjoyed this session and chatting with the boyz like Jean-Sebastien Cyr - I worked with a Norman Cyr - will hafta check n see if they be brothers lol


Oh yeah ... I charged my Pictek video cam and emptied the SIM, but forgot the SIM at home. Zokay, cuz that session was nothing to write home about !!

Yvente of QuebecWind and I received the ZIP for the Montreal WindSurf sites in html. Yvente thinks they can get it to work there. I can get it to function properly on my WIN10 PC, but NOT on Google My Drive - apparently html cannot be run from there since 2016. And github was not much help either (can only load 100 files at a time and I had about 700 - felt like I was working with shitty UNIX that needed a parm esti) 




Let's hope tomorrow is EVEN BETTER lol

Monday October 16th

The remnants of post-tropical storm Philippe are swirling off the coast of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. It is bringing up N and NE winds. The forecasts are not all in agreement - some say light, others say strong, some say N and others NE. Went to OKA with the same kit as Friday the 13th. The wind was 20-30 kph, but very "stripped". There were strips where I planed (not many), strips with NO wind and then some with waves and a little wind. I did not film and wished I had my longboard for this session. I never say I had a BAD session, but this was NOT a good one = below expectations.
.....BleuH hybrid Mendo BubbaKush may save the day lol

Friday the 13th in October

Originally I planned to go to the 5 à 7 at WindSpirit on the SouthShore of Montreal. ... and then Bert invited me to Lac Muskinongé.  The wind was supposed to start light and then pickup. However, there is the FryDay traffic to contend with and do I put the board on top ?? Also, wind looked better at OKA !! So ... I brought the JP SLW92 on top of the Prius C to OKA lol


Yesterday I was trying far too many new things at the same time. It was time to go back to the  "one change at a time" principal !! 

Typically I loved the GA Swift 10-oh with the JP SLW92 and the Select Ultra Race 66cm fin. So ... today, the only thing different was the sail --> the "new" SailWorks Retro 9.5m². 

I was out from about 11h30 until 12h30/13h00


After I got off, wind looked Northerly and light !!
The graph confirms this

Here is a sample of my time out there:


I give that session a 9.5/10 !! Why not ten ?? I did not even try to get in the front foot strap. Wind was side-shore and I was not ready to fall in and I didn't. Like Helmut says, if you don't fall in, you're not doing anything new. Nope - just testing "new" sail. lol

As you can see in the video ... I am using my seat harness. Yesterday's session with the waist harness stressed my solar plexus and still hurt on this day. Thus, I would tend to agree that sails 8.x and up are more comfortably sailed with seat harnesses and 7.x and down are more fun with a waist harness !!
............I will do updates on that subject !!

===============================
Thursday October 12th

Winds were to be light and okay to test my "new" SW Retro 9.5, but not all sights agreed and iwindsurf suggested potential 8.5 conditions and thus I had to take either the Shark 145 or the AHD  the SL140. As I had never tried the larger sails on the AHD, it won, but the moral of the story is: only change one factor @ a time !! Thus I should have stayed with the Shark, butt was feeling adventurous lol 

So, it was the AHD SL140, the SW Retro 9.5 on the SW 490/75% mast and the G10 Curtis 57cm fin. I was alone on the water - JP was in the parking lot, but did not rig until I did!!

There were waves, low wind sections and some planing. I had issues with tacking and kept moving the mast base up. At the last position, it was NOT ideal for planing, but I was able to easily handle stronger winds. The waist harness presses under my rib cage, but it is all about getting it set up properly. Feels like I have more control and less locked in.. 
..........It does hurt the solar plexus - even the next day....


As I was getting off around 13h30, the  wind was picking up and people like Marie were getting on the water. As I was leaving around 14h15, the wind seemed to be dropping ...

Here are some videos :


________________________________________________________________
Thanksgiving Monday OCT 09

When it looked like we might have SW winds on this day off, I got all excited.
Unfortunately whatever site suggested S winds, looked like they were winning.
When I got to La Crête, there were ppl and the wind was a strong SSW !!
Checked the main beach, but kiters were going straight offshore.
Back to La Crête it was ...
Based on what I saw, was gonna be experiments with the HSM Fire 6.3.
Put a larger fin - the Makani Kohola 37cm fin and off I went.
Had a lot of trouble starting - finally uphauled.
The mast base came off the board 
In the video you can see
How BADly I
rigged that
sail 😄


There were two(2) kiters that I spoke with that said they were beginners, when the fellow from Egypt (or thereabouts- anyway, the guy with the flippers) came in and rigged down from 15m² to 12 square meters. One of the "beginners" wore shorts rigging AND on the water. Temps were about 10 degrees C. Water was warmer than the air ...


Once I realized that the camera was just an impediment ... I headed to shore, but the car was so far away. I thought of hiding the camera on shore ... Stuffed it inside my PFD and tied it off. Then adjusted the sail (fixed the outhaul, boom was now a little higher, mastfoot 2 cm further up) and sailed away. I felt like I was wave sailing, but with too large a board. The thinner and lighter Fanatic BEE 124 might have done better !!
I find it funny that the waist harness pushed up my PFD and my beard 🤙

This graph shows the enormous up n down states of the wind, but I think the wind was about 5 mph more than on this graph ... St Placide is blocked from S and SSW ..


I did some audio experiments
and I like this take more


-------------------------------xxx------------------------------

FryDay October 6th

Could NOT go the other day cuz it was my wedding anniversary (37 years)
Today was busy installing a BOSCH Series 300 dishwasher = what a PITA
... and the wind today was ONLY good between 16h00 and 18h00
........................when it RAINED 😄


next day was similiar = light wind 14h00-16h00
and good wind 16h00-18h00
sundown 18h30

and yes - it was raining
the next day - Thanksgiving Sunday was as follows:




----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday September 25th

QuebecWindReport is my report for Vaudreuils today .. All the weather forecasts are ALWAYS under-rating the actual wind there.

Actually checked OKA first - only VOilOKA at La Crête and about four guys setting up at the far end of the main beach. They all seemed to be rigging ~ 100 liter boards with sails in the 5 to 6m² range. Wind seemed to be ENE and there seemed to be a wind-shadow.

Took the ferry across to Hudson for $13 cash = missed all the traffic. When I got there, the parking lot was packed and I had to park in the street behind. There were already four other cars back there...


At Vaudreuils people also seemed to be rigging 100 liter boards or less with 5.x sails with the occasional 6-oh. Someone said there was a fellow out there with a 7-oh and not planing. So, like an idiot, I rigged my NS Duke 6.9 on the Fanatic BEE LTD 124 with a 40cm free-race fin. and I was OVER, OVER and OUT lol
.............Think I tore my left bicep and cracked a rib lol. 

Everyone there seemed to know me and there were many that I do know --> Dean, Dean the Dancing Machine, Sebastien and Eric (pres. of APVM b4) from West Island, Sebastien/Obelix, JP, benwindy and Georgio. It seems George n Ben were there b4 7h00.

Everyone curses the steps, the lack of parking, the clay bottom, the algae, no paper in the portipotti, etc, etc and yet, everyone had smiles on their faces and helped one another getting sails UP those steep stairs downwind !!

Here's some pics I took before going out :














On that day benwindy started with a Goya One 115 litres and a 5.3 sail. When the wind picked up, he switched out the board for a FreeWave of 94 litres. I probably would NOT have gone out if I was aware of this information. Sebastien from West Island kept encouraging me to go and so, go I did ... 😄 No regrets !!

That Fanatic BEE 124 with 63 cm width should be able to handle that HSM Fire 6.2m² sail with no problem --> therein lay my error. Would I need a smaller board for those conditions? Probably, but my skills just aren't there yet ... 
________________________________________________________________

Saturday September 17th

On Thursday Bert/Martin suggested I go to his chalet on Sunday...
Light winds were to be from the North on Lac Muskinongé.

When I checked igetwind for St-Gabriel de Brandon it looked like only good from noon until two p.m. That morning winds looked really light ... By ten there were whispers of wind and I packed the BIG stuff.

My GPS was funky (still is) - could find my current location, butt WAZE could NOT connect to GPS ? So ... it was a PITA to stop and check if I was on the correct route (zig-zaggy was suggested).

When I got to St-Gabriel there was a lotta activity with MANY bikes/velos escorted by police and ambulance . On the way home I took the easiest route via the 347 to the 158 --> 31 --> 40 --> 640. (The town to remember in all that is Berthierville). 

I thought Bert was near the "plage" and had to confirm he was past the town ...



and he has this view (minus the wires and guardrail)




those pics are from google maps - like an idiot, I did not take any pics ☹️

Later Bert sent me a pic with NO wires (and no wind lol)




So... what were we using  on this lovely day (no full wetsuit required)

2017  SB Formula 177litres 228 x 100cm + NS/Duotone WARP 9.4 
... with a 72cm BOSS B11 S-- fin and NS platinum boom

2012 JP SLW92   165litres 250 x 92cm  + GAastra Swift  10-oh
... with a 66cm Select race fin  and HPL carbon boom

Mounted my sail and board and we carried it down to the water...
Wind was VERY light when I started and Bert started later ...

When I found him, he seemed to have gone way upwind and I worked HARD to join him. The wind kicked and he was flying downwind - ah, that was his trick !!
This guy knows his lake (and his stuff man - jibes that thing like it is nothing) 

The fun part about this lake is:
  1.  it is quite large
  2. there were few boats as it is "end of the season"
  3. the water stays quite flat 
We had quite a few GOOD gusts and met a "pro" Wing Foiler on the water

The waist harness I am trying out (from JF) was pushing on my kidneys and wind was dying. So ... I took a break and ended up at the wrong dock lol
(chatted with a fellow, who was on-shore who says he wished he could still windsurf)

Bert relaxed while I undid my stuff ... and then ... the fucking car would NOT start. The trick with pushing the brake did NOT work. CAA came and boosted the car = WTF
We had chicken vol au vent with cranberries while we waited for CAA lol
and "vol au vent" is supposed to mean "flying in the wind"

Then Bert could NOT find his keys - we searched and searched --> in the ignition lol. I was gonna check his ignition, but did not wanna go in his jeep and he checked his jeep twice !! 😄

btw...  I LUV his license plate = WIND 🤙


This was a day that will be remembered forever 🔥
                       --> even tho winds were only 20-35+ kph NNW
________________________________________________________________

Thursday September 14th

Will put the discussion later = "a picture is worth a thousand words"





All the forecasts were aligning and it looked like a SW 20-40kph with some colder temps. So... I brought ONLY the AHD SL1 140 liters/81 cm board with the GAastra GTX free-race 2 cambered 8.5 sail and the Unifiber Wolfgang Lessacher 42cm weed fin.

When I arrived I chatted with Bert from St-Gabriel (SB Formula 177 liters/100cm and NS Warp 9.4m²) and Phillipe (WindWing 6.4 and medium sized front foil). BenWindy looked like he rigged the Ezzy Lion 8.5 with his Fanatic Ray 145 ?? SkiGuy looked like he rigged a GAastra 8.5 sail as well - probably with his AHD FF 145 ?? Marie has her SlingShot WindFoil with 90 cm mast and was going out with a 5.x sail. Not sure what Francois or Christophe rigged and did not see them on the water ...

The last time I met Philippe was at Cape Hatteras in 2015 when he slept on a couch for 2 days when Helmut and I were there !! We only ever went once sadly ...

It was a little colder than usual and I put my farmer John pants portion of my wetsuit on... I went between11h30 and 14h30; missing the BIG bump/gust @ 15h30 cuz the granddaughter may need a ride to join her Pappa. My kit of the day would have been overloaded anyway 😄 ... AND Bert said that gust was WAY too much !!!

This was, for me, a 10 outta 10 session man = BEST EVER 🔥

Later, Francois passed me a Chinook XL waist harness and I took it for a run ... It was "fucking amazing" (pardon my French). I felt like the foot straps were in the way and I wanted to go really far back AND outboard !!! 👌

Like I wrote on the quebecwind forum," Je me sens brulé (et content)." 🤙

George told us there were CORE WindWing and kite demos down the beach !!
(did ANYONE know this was gonna happen ?!?)

Here are some photos taken by the FQK (NOT FTQ ) on that day (Marie and JP)



btw ... apparently toilets now have a sign stating ONLY handicapped is available
also .. I was NOT expecting a West wind - SW is "safer", but had no issues

08SEPT2023 FryDay
still warm !!

Had to be quick about it as we need to drive the granddaughter back to Mascouche. Brought ONLY the AHD SL140, GA GTX 8.5, HPL carbon race boom and Unifiber Wolfgang Lessacher 42 cm weed fin (which was sanded and fitted to the board before we left). When I got there, it was a little bit light. I jumped on the water from about 13h45 to 14h45.Was West and NOT SW!!

Missed the 15h00 bump :-( 



Other than that it was amazing = means this board ain't bein' sold man !!
with this board need to keep weight at back when tacking
otherwise the nose goes into the water 
which means stall or splash lol

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the "toilet issue". When I arrived, I had to crap, butt was not urgent ... yet. By the time I was rigged and changed, it was getting more urgent. So, I brought the board to the water and marched straight over to the toilets, which were LOCKED !! There was a SEPAQ dude backing up nearby and I hailed him. He told me no-one was here. Yes, we are many on the beach windsurfing and kiting (forgot to mention winging) AND that Marie had made arrangements for bathrooms before and after "camping season". The handicapped bathroom was open = phew. This was discussed with another SEPAQ employee who was chatting with a kiter, Marie and benwindy. One SEPAQ guy told us to all write to headquarters complaining and to ask for a rebate !! Wrote and stated that I shit in the woods and was afraid to wipe my ass with poison ivy lol 🔥






07September 2023 Thursday 
30 degrees C !!

This is what I prepared in terms of predictions:

and this is what I experienced:


As light wind was predicted, I took the occasion to take out the JP SLW92 and brought the GA Swift 10-oh and the GA GTX 8.5. As there are weeds, I only brought one fin : the Unifiber Wolfgang Lessacher 42 cm tuttle weed fin. I made sure it would fit the board before leaving ... As I got on the water at around 11h00, it was with the 10-oh !! Chatted with Marc before heading out . There was a while where the wind felt more West and I was headed to the main beach. I managed to get back in time for the 13h00 spike. After the 14h30 spike, I was done and got off !! The break at 13h30 did not help much in this heat #$%^&*(

As I left, George and some more kite foilers arrived. At the beginning of my session, I was the only windsurfer with some kiters lacking wind and some wingers practicing. Need some "energizers" lol

    Now I am home and REALLY, really tired ... 

Also received my free mast base tendon from Windspirit = Thanks guys. Installed it NP !!

Made the mistake of telling the old guy who is practicing heli-tacks ALL the time that he did a nice one. After that he hadta show me a wave hop and 360 = big fucking deal. That stuff does not impress me lol 😄

03SEPT2023 Labour Sunday

We went up north with Auntie Laura and I windsurfed a little with the MEQ 2 and the HSM SPF 8.5. Wind was light from the S/W and better from the West when we left around 14h00. It was NOT my kinda visit - although I did git ta spend some time with Niko's kids. They all freaked out when I dropped myself into the water backwards and cams straight out with my hair all back and the beard all looking respectable. Uncle Charlie said it was like one person went in and another came out ... lol This all fucked up my day and I napped from 16h30 to 19h30 :-( This is NOT counting as a session - maybe one outta three ...

02SEP2023 Labour Saturday

This is what I prepared in terms of wind predictions for this day :

So, I made arrangements with Helmut to leave around 10h00 before the campers...
He brought his Hawk 135, but left he SW Retro 8.5 cuz he hates it :-(
I hesitated between the Fanatic BEE 124 LTD and the Shark 145 HRS
Since Helmut was at a "disadvantage" with his Hawk, I brought the BEE ... and all the sail/fin combos that should work on the BEE LTD (8.5/47, 6.9/40 & 6.2/37). I also brought two weedfins --> the large Hydrotech G10 40 cm and the small Makani SurfRider 32 cm that Rejean or someone found and gave to me at OKA ...

This is what we experienced:


As you can see, the wind was REALLY up and down !! Georgie, when he arrived later told us that he saw 12 to 29 mph readings for this afternoon !!

Helmut arrived a little late due to construction and traffic = Welcome to Montreal.
When I arrived at around 10h30, "my spot" was taken and I went about 5 car widths further down, where there was grass. By the time Helmut got there about 30 minutes later, those spaces and more were taken !! Yes, there were MANY people !!

When we brought our boards to the water, Sylvain asked us not to block his lines. I told him, hey, we are two and you are only one !! He said two, three, I don't care... Put that stuff in the garbage lol ...

As you can see on the graph it started slow and we took a break after that 14h00 spike. We were considering rigging down to 6.x sails and smaller fins !! There was NO room for Helmut to leave his sail and he brought his back to the car too. I rarely leave my sails there... When we went bac to the water, someone had placed a VoilOka board on top of my BEE. I tossed the kit into the water and threw a Japanese Carp skeleton on the board. A winger saw me and laffed. I said," Don't put your board on top of my board 😄"

Helmut got discouraged with the drop in the wind around 15h00 and left the water. I waited and had some absolutely amazing bursts of speed !!

btw ... there were WAY too many weeds #$%^&*()_+

There were a few people on the beach that I spoke to and they did NOT speak English. They seemed surprised that I jumped into English like it was nothing lol

When we got off the water ... Georgie arrived and informed us that yesterday he was able to kitefoil in 8-9 knots of wind !! He did 3 power loops with a 15m² sail and off he went.

Just when I was about ready to go someone with a giant trailer was trying to get out of our parking area. In French I exclaimed to the Portuguese "water man" what is that trailer doing here? It should NOT even be here. The driver said in a frustrated voice (in English)," I am trying to get out of here. Can you move your car?" When I asked where did he want me to put my car and it was unreasonable,  I told him to wait, I was almost finished packing and off I went !! lol 

For me, that was an AMAZING windsurf day !!
in my bathing suit 

24AUG2023 Thursday

Wife wanted to help the daughter up north and so I hung around until the wind picked up and I tried to windsurf from 13h00 until about 15h00. I had a lot of trouble rigging the HSM SpeedFreak 8.5 (dang - forgot to bring the monofilm repair tape) cuz the metal cap stays in the sail and I need to get the mast aligned in there. And to top it all off, once I was ready to go, I broke the tendon on the Chinook mast base.

I was VERY lucky in my "BAD LUCK" of breaking the tendon. It snapped when I was uphauling to go out ONTO the open water. No self-rescue was required ...

Luckily I had the Mistral base and extension in the basement - just a PITA/pain in the ass to change it all out ... Extension had to be at 17.5cm (hard to pull without the winch) and boom an extra 32.5 cm. Wind seemed to be SSE at about 15 to 30 kph and it was FUN FUN FUN. Wife's friend Lisa says I look like an egg spurt lol ... actually she "only" said that I am really good at it lol There is NO doubt that the weight training and exercise is helping !!

My poison ivy is at various stages on both my feet - all from OKA

------------------------o-------------------------

August 20th SUNNYday

Winds were supposed be light at first reckoning - like 20-30 kph SW and I was looking forward to finally getting the JP SLW92 out... However, both windalert (which is free this weekend) AND the marine weather announced STRONG wind warning with 15-25 knot SW winds = WooHoo. So ... I left the JP and the 10-oh at home and brought my usual Fanatic Shark 145 HRS with the GA GTX 8.5 and NS Duke 6.9... 

Before I even got out of town I almost ran over an asshole bicyclist who doesn't know the rules of the road - including street lights %^&*

Traffic was NOT bad on the way there which surprised me, but the parking lot was quite FULL. By the time I left they were parking in the entrance to the parking lot !!

As wind was light I rigged the GA GTX 8.5 with the 490 MauiSails hardtop SDM mast on the Shark with the 40 cm Hydrotech G10 weed fin. From noon to 13h00 I wondered what I was doing here and there was even a moment when there was ONLY one kitefoiler and I on the water. From 12 to 13h00 the wind picked up and then it kicked. I flew SO FAST towards the boat lunch that it was absolutely amazing. Again, it feels like my exercises are definitely helping me hold onto the sail NO MATTER WHAT !!


I don't know what one calls temptation in terms of sin, but women should NOT be dressing like that at the beach. What happens if I get a woody like in high school ? Hafta walk around with the board in front of my crotch ? lol 

I swear ... One lady was alone, removed her coverings on her scant bathing suit and then bent over with her ass to me. Politely I looked away. She checked to see if I was looking and then bent over again = WTF man. Then she goes in the water watching me. Once I left, she got out of the water. The way I look I do NOT anticipate any women wanting anything to do with me lol Here's a reminder of how I look :-)


Oh yeah - with so many people on the water ... It was treacherous close to shore ...
Met Bert on my way off the water. Says he sent me a message and would have brought me a boom !! and who was that windfoiler - kiter parked beside me said it was a woman - Marie?

--------------------o--------------------

18AUG2023 Another FryDay

Wind predictions were south winds until around noon and by one o' clock, wind was supposed to be "decent" as in 20-30kph and then increasing. Somehow, windalert was free today and wind looked decent and SW by noon !!

So, I left the house at around noon and only got stuck behind one trailer in the camper entrance at OKA Park. Just a two minute delay. When I got to the water there were white caps/moutons and the wind felt strong. Some kite buddies told me they just came in to downsize from 18m² to 12m² kites. Thus the NorthSails Duke 6.9 was paired with the Fanatic Shark 145 HRS. 

When I started out, the wind felt very light and I chugged along. It did NOT take long for the wind to KICK and I was very happy that I have been doing upper body strengthening on the days when I am not windsurfing. What I discovered on this day was ... I also need to do upper thigh exercises (and get in those straps). On one run I had seaweed on my bootie (oh yeah - had on the farmer john portion of my wetsuit) and my foot kept sliding on the deck ^&*( Then I almost went for the front strap, but worried if foot would git in with all that weed lol. 

As I was getting off around 15h00 (when BenWindy said good gusts were over as per predictions ...) there was a kite in the trees :-( Seemed like they got it out fairly safely after a gallant "fool" went in the trees to help !!

From the graph below one can see that perhaps one could have sailed past 18h00 !! Butt still with ups n downs in wind speeds.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wrote to Evan a while ago - our buddy with the StarBoard UltraSonic 147. Well, he wrote back - he is semi-retired and now spends all his time on his sailboat ✌

11Aug2023 FryDay

Left the lake up north to bring young Bee home and load up for OKA LaCrête. Brought the Shark 145 and GA GTX 8.5 + NS Duke 6.9. Ended up with the Duke and 40 cm freerace fin. Wind was WNW up and down with waves in sections. I enjoyed myself and sailed all the way over to Vaudreuil's wind shadow and back - until there was a lapse of wind. Looked like it picked up after. There were too MANY people and show-offs on the water. For one windsurfer  I pretended I didn't know what I was doing and steered close enough to hit his sail. He did NOT come so close to me again :-) and later ... I fucking got poison ivy - cuz I was NOT at my usual spot = came too late :-(

09Aug2023

Not much happening yesterday ... Today winds were good and Victor saw me "makin waves" in the morning and so ... I gave him a lesson in the afternoon ... and he did quite well - was starting to move further back on the board and tacking or falling in to switch the sail to the other side = MEQ2 with the HSM Fire 6.3

07AUG2023

Have been windsurfing the last three(3) days with the MEQ II, HSM SPF/SpeedFreak 8.5. I put the CAP that my wife gave me on the top of the NP flextop mast (with NP CC mast bottom). The first day I had the sail on regular settings i.e. 20 cm downhaul on the mast and 210 cm on the boom. This left lotsa rope at the mastbase and too flat a sail ... I reduced the downhaul and the outhaul - will hafta check what it is .... left the mastbase at 9/14, just slightly behind mid-section. Used the 40 cm Select freeride fin and probably would have preferred the 48 cm ... Did NOT use the centreboard. Pretty much the same setting and ride as in this video ...

Once the sail was set MUCH better and wind was from the East on Monday, the seventh, the session(s) was/were MUCH better - almost wish I had brought the harness !!

August


Dude in St-Lin was selling a NP Medium Glide foil with DeepTuttle attachment for $400. I thought maybe I could try this with my Mistral SLE 303 lol

However, I was really unsure and it is still $400.
Had lotsa bad feelings and did not know how to back out :-(

So, I went to the bank, texted as agreed and went. Just before I got there I got super anxious, dropped my phone, which broke. Hmmm = BAD vibes. No-one answered the door and there were signs about a dog - heard nothing. With phone dysfunctional, there was no way to txt = oh well... 

This was my ticket out and I left :-)

July 30th
Sunday

OKA - Wind was supposed to start @ 11h00 and keep climbing until 14h00 and then be good. So, I got on the water before noon and had a gust and a mini-one to get back to the beach. As I was walking off the water cuz the wind sucked ... another wind system came in at 13h00. In the lull after that I sat on some rocks halfway down and tried to warm up - yes, I was cold !! I used the start of the next bump of wind to git back to shore - Carlos almost hit me training someone with a kite and there were SO many people on the beach that it was difficult to get out. Wind was looking better by 15h15 when I left. Best wind seems to have been 15h15 to 16h45 = 1.5 hours ... Probably best to wait at home until it picks up lol

I had fun experimenting with the BEE in those winds - I can uphaul it, but what I hate most is: climbing on the narrow board with only 124 liters. I tried beach starts as I had never done that with this board and again, I saw that it was not easy to determine the best foot placement - same issue I have with water starting in shallow water - often the board tilts towards me ...

I also learned how to evaluate if there really is enough wind to waterstart ... Did a buncha knee exercises and my left knee hurt afterwards - took some medicine after !!


Oh yeah ... I forgot to mention that Jason of VoilOka finally put wonna those catamarans in the water that were sitting on a trailer in front of my parking spot ... for weeks !! He says it takes a 25m² sail !!

July 28th

FryDay :-)

Forecast was IFFY and Helmut did NOT wanna meet @ OKA = NP. Headed out with the BEE, NP Duke 6.9 and HSM Fire 6.2. Left the house by ten and on the water by 11h00. Asked a fellow about his wingfoil and it was "DeanTheMachine" !! He stopped windsurfing for a while and returned to the water with a wingfoil - started with 135 liters ... As seen on the graph, winds were up n down and a bit light. I could have used my GA GTX 8.5, but wanted to practise with the smaller sail on the BEE for now ...Helmut went to WestIsland somewhere and gave the session a BIG FAT zero lol. I told him I was on the water from 11h00 until 14h00 when the wind dropped and am giving the session a 7.5/10, when it was probably closer to seven :-)

btw I purchased a wetsuit from Dean in 2012 = over ten years ago !!

26JUL2023
Wednesday

Today winds were supposed ta be SW @ 20-30kph then 20-40kph and perhaps some BIGger action after 14h00. The same day my granddaughter is supposed to visit / be babysat. 

So... at 11h30 I packed my stuff, but this time it was with the 2000 Fanatic BEE 124 LTD, which is obviously 124 litres, 63 cm wide, 284 cm long (~9.5') and only weighs about 17 pounds / 7.5 kilos !!! As the wind was supposed to pick up ... I paired the board with my 2008 NS Duke 6.9 and my Naish FreeRace 40cm fin ...

                    





For over an hour I tried getting accustomed to the board and sail combo with minor adjustments. Mast base was moved from 135cm to 140cm from the tail. The boom height was altered from about 185cm (which is also my height) to 191cm. Harness lines on one side were moved back ..

As I was getting comfortable, I hit a rock and mast hit the nose. No fin damage nor nose since I was NOT planing ... yet... When the wind picked up around 14h15, I was flying. I was surprised that I managed to save many situations without falling in AND at times I was really flying man!! At about 14h45 it became too much as I was getting tired and the wind was "solid". As I was heading home, it looked like the wind died around 16h00 and the graph confirms it !!


I was able to uphaul the sail quite easily. Front foot was 
just in front of the mast base. Water starts in shallower water went well too - jumped in harness FAST !! More practice required lol

Based on my notes and journals ... It seems the BEE has NOT been used since November 2014 !! Is that even possible = 9 years ago.

24JUL2023
Munnday

Helmut offered to bring my MEQ II /Mistral Equipe up north to the lake and go SUPping. How can one say NON to that offer ?? Stopped at SUBway and got some sandwiches - Helmut chose a #14 Little Italy that looked AMAZING !! I bought lunch as Helmut was providing me with a service (that cost gas) ... 

After the sandwiches and Helmut had a Leffe beer, we went to the family day camp at the other end of the lake and back .. about a 4 km ride. 


We tried to put a mast base on the SUPs, but only Jenni's board accepts a windsurf mast base. Unfortunately I forgot the SDM mast extension at home ... Next time or even leave one there.

Jule/23/2023
SunDay

It was a beautiful sunny day and Louie up north stated that it was AMAZING to see the sun lol. Wind was from the West and even NW at times + more UP n down than OKA $%^&*

Since it has been a number of times I have been out at the lake and NOT counted it as a session, I do believe it is times to count it as +1 sessions in July 2023 !!

---------- July 22nd ----------

Not sure the wife was too happy that I was heading out to OKA again :( So, I left early and was on the water by around 9h30. That's when I realized that the hook on my harness was GONE #$%^&*( Yes, I was out in waist deep water after beach starting and realizing the hook was GONE... Marched the board n sail into shore and retraced my steps when I brought the board and harness out = notta ... Asked JP and he has some waist / waste harnesses at home to give away... Asked some kiters, but they just have this weird release system. I asked VoilOka and the dude said (not Jason nor Manuel - they passed this morning picking up inflatable SUPs) that I would have to leave something and is it something like this you are looking for ?? Yes, how did that get there ?? Is it yours ?? YES and now I better leave you something lol :) When I showed JP and Force5, Richard said that I forgot the hook cuz I was stoned lol. Told him it's too early for a wake n bake roflmao. JP said the hook should NOT fall off cuz there is a screw to retain it. Well, I had a loose screw, but you all knew that already ha ha ha

Then I headed out with the Shark 145, the GA GTX 8.5 with 2 cambers and the 47 cm slalom fin. Did a long run or two, but found the gusts strong and getting stronger !! Typical OKA with stripes of HIGH wind, no wind and sometimes crazy waves from the BIG motor boats. Oh yeah, wind was from the West, butt felt like WNW !!

When I went to rig down, Bert's buddy Daniel and his wife were there with their Toyota RV. He actually rigged up a NS 7.5 with an AHD FreeDiamond 65/115 liter board from year 2000. He managed to get out, butt ripped his sail with the nose of his board when aligning his equipment. Found a dollar and considered myself lucky cuz I owed Georgie for yesterday's bet lol

When I  went out with the NS Duke 6.9 on the Shark 145 with 40 cm freeride fin, I had serious issues coming back to shore - harness was pulling hard on my front hand. As I had aleady fallen in ... I did not attempt to adjust the lines "au large". Once I adjusted them forward and closer together, there was NO issue. I REALLY enjoyed being comfortable in those varying conditions !!! Just need more SW to practice stuff ...

Sylvain was checking his sail that was just repaired - he had an issue out on the water. It was just a line mix-up (no surprise with kites man). George arrived and I gave him my airtight key/phone holder. He wanted to pay and gave me his instead.

Once I had the car packed and txted the wife, the 2017 Toyota Prius C would NOT start. Message about pre-collision system malfunction - go see Toyota dealer. Okay, butt car did not start. Tried stuff and checked sensors = notta. Called the wife and she looked online and while we were discussing, I pressed the brake while starting and it started !!! Did NOT stop for gas - went straight home --> imagine towing the car WITH all my shit in it (and then having to get home myself).

------ July 21st FryDay ------

Today they were announcing S/SE winds ... even at OKA.
NOT much happening today and so ... I decided to see if these winds get to the main beach in OKA Parc. There WAS wind and it seemed to be more from the West !! So, I headed on over to La Crête ... When I got there, George was there, but he was unsure of the weather. After he showed me his kitefoil setup (BOSS 70 cm mast, fuselage ??, W633 and S433 if I remember correctly, we went and checked the water. A storm front passed on the right, which is to the north ...

George started getting setup and asked me if I saw straight on the other side. By now he was getting pissed off cuz I had convinced him to setup and he thought the storm was coming this way. Then I told him this front was going to pass by to the right also. Now he got really pissed and told me he would bet $100 that it was gonna pass in 5 minutes. Told him I did not HAF one hundred dollars. Asked if we could do a gentleman's bet ? NON! One dollar !! And I laffed out loud. Five minutes later George was talkin with some kiters. I winked at a kiter and then told George he owed me a dollar cuz the front was not here yet lol

One kiter dude tried to go out with a 12 meter kite and another windsurfer with an 8.5. Christophe went out and came back ... told me he liked windfoiling, butt was too much in the water lol = sold it all !!
After the storm front, kiter tried again and gave up. Other dude, who lives in Oka, went out with 13 meter kite and foil --> seemed to be returning to shore when I left around 14h00...

The storm front came in with a 30mph gust and went, leaving NO wind.

and .. who could have anticipated that the wind would kick again at 16h00 ?

------ July 17 Monday ------

As I checked the week for wind, I suddenly realized there was wind TODAY !!  Everyone kept telling me the wind was going to be "UP n down". JF was going out with his AHD FF 160 and an 8.5 sail (with a weed fin). He wants to give me his waist harness !! Why are people so nice to me ?!? Benwindy had his Fanatic Ray145 and Ezzy Lion 7.5 and was starting later = waitin for the wind.
I went out at around ten with the Fanatic Shark 145 and Gaastra GTX 8.5 (with a weed fin as suggested by JF). By noon I was WAY OVER. The gust pulled me into the water while I was IN the harness !! I should have known cuz Sylvain went out with a 10 meter kite !!
Went back out with the NorthSails Duke 6.9 with a freeride 40 cm fin - weeds were only on the North side of the bay ... There still were BIG gusts and water starts in shallow water were water starts and had to get into the harness within ten seconds ...
Saw Benwindy practically racing a kiter and Ben won = love it man !!
As I went back to get my board I met Obelix from QuebecWind :-) 
Dude arriving when I left rigged a brand new DuoTone 6.6 to go on his BIG 118 liter board lol. Thought is was a very "interesting session" !!


------ July 15 Saturday ------

It was the day before Auntie Laura's 80th birthday party where 25 people were to go up north for coffee and cake and to wish her well.. Lost Uncle Gilles about two years ago.
Once my bit was done, I tried to windsurf, but this session cannot count either - in and out a coupla times, butt not excited lol ... South winds under 20kph 

------ July 12th Wednesday ------

Went up north cuz the wife feels obligated to help with chalet prep - for the out-laws of the out-laws :-( I did NOT even wanna go and was pissed when the wife said everyone was working hard - I went windsurfing, emptied and cleaned the boats, loaded the car at LaMaison and unloaded at the White House = NO thanks required #$%&^*( Wind was WNW and light. I probably would NOT have gone if we were not there ...

------ July 11th Tuesday ------

By noon the wind was supposed to go to 20kph SW and later in the day increase until the storm arrives. So ... I left the house around 11h00 and was on the water by noon with the Shark, 50 cm fin, mastbase @ 145cm and the GA Swift 10-oh sail. (Manuel of VoilOka is VERY impressed with that sail - how is it that he has been working with VoilOka and is NOT on their website as staff?) For over two(2) hours I schlogged back and forth and winds were more WSW than pure SW. Took a break and since there were now actually people on the water, I took a chance and went out again. I was not to meet PJ until 5 or 6 anyway. AND that ... was the BEST part of the session !! Got to plane a few times, butt even better than that, there were one foot "waves" and sometimes ... I had the wind AND the waves pushing me at the same time - it was SO COOL man !?! I was "windsurfing" and not "board-sailing"/PAV. Met the "wife" of Jason Meunier (owner of VoilOka) and Manuel informed me that she is now another ex-wife. The previous ex-wife used to "run" Parc Oka and helped VoilOka with their presence there. Now they are NOT allowed to rent out SUPs cuz the Parc does so also !!

-------- July 9th Sunday --------

Went out again  = WooHoo. This was the wurst of the three, butt still lotsa fun. Have NO choice but to enjoy the light winds any way I can. Also, it's something to do when we are up north. I will NOT be doing cross-word puzzles or jigsaw puzzles $%^&*()_

------ July 8th Saturday ------

Today was much of the same as Thursday the 6th, except the wind was even a little lighter, butt didn't mind. Practiced the downwinders and gybes. Went downwind super fast precariously and then crashed full blast at the destination = FUN FUN FUN. Was out a coupla hours !!

------ July 6th Thursday -------

The wife wanted to go up north and they were announcing light winds - as in lighter than I really like. Brought my stuff anyway. The south wind was better than anticipated. It was a south wind which I guessed as 15-25kph. A couple of times it felt like it swung to SW. The weather network marked it as around 12kph, butt was more than that !! As usual I was on the trusty steed, BIC SL200, with the BIC "fish fin" which is 24cm deep and 30cm if you measure the angle. The sail as usual was the trusty GAastra Flow-3 seven m² sail on the NP constant curve/CC mast lol. It was so good that I wished I had brought my harness. Practiced going downwind and jibes. I stepped on the front foot strap and if I was sure of it fitting, I would have gone in !! That was a first on that board !!




and for the French version:

------ June 28 Wednesday ------

Wind predictions were IFFY... most agreed that there would be 20 kph winds at noon and West, South-West or North-West. Since some of them predicted the wind to start at 10h00, I was there at 9h30. Told the kid from VoilOka, who remembered my name and I forgot his and he is not listed as VoilOka staff = WTF... that the wind was straight on-shore and about 20-25kph. Benwindy showed up and confirmed 9 knots SW. So, my selection of the GAastra Swift 10m² sail was correct!! I did NOT bring the BIG JP SLW92 because I like it less with the 8.5 sail. Practiced my water and beach starts in shallow water and planing as fast as I could. When everything was set just right, all aligned and I was flying, it was such an amazing feeling !! I sailed from 10h00 until noon and then the wind seemed to drop and people seemed to be getting OFF the water ... Looks like 14h00 and 16h00 had similiar "puffs".


As I was getting off the water I saw what I thought was a "Black Hawk". Looking at images on the web, I thought perhaps it was a Great Black Hawk or a Common Black Hawk. However, when the bird was on the beach, it looked like a BIG chicken or weird crow, but when it took off, it looked like a hawk. I went through some pictures of predatory birds found in our area and the Black Vulture looked the most appropriate !! Don't think it was a turkey vulture - wish I had got a closer view or a pic !!


BenWindy was out on his Fanatic Ray 145 (which he says is on its last waves) and an Ezzy Lion 8.5 square meters. JF who gave me the sail I used today was out with an AHD FF 165 and an 8.5 sail. The VoilOka "kid" was out on an RRD Firestorm and a 7.5 meter sail. Says he planed a few times, but hadta pump hard ta git there !!

Kiter told me he was out with a 21 square meter sail, which once again confirms that the GA Swift 10-oh was the correct choice! Kiter also confirmed there were times when the wind was over-powering and other times lacking ...

Sylvain was out there foiling and jumping like these were the BEST wind conditions ever. One kiter came off saying the wind was shit cuz it was so up n down. lol Georgie was heading out with a foil and an 11 meter kite --> says "it ain't easy !!" Sylvain just makes it look that way ...

------ June 15 Thursday ------

It was supposed to be WSW 20-40kph by noon. So, I showed up before that and practised my tacks and jibes on the Shark 145 with the NS Duke 6.9 sail and 40 cm fin. Wind was almost non-existent when I started and when it picked up a bit, I rushed and got the GA GTX 8.5 with the 47 Curtis slalom fin. By the time I got to the water, the wind was GONE !! Once there was a little wind (and I mean a little), I tried to sail and ended up way downwind when it really died. This was the calm before the storm and I put my stuff away as thunder roared all around me. Within five minutes from OKA Parc, it was a crazy downpour - Helmut says it was like a carwash - he was coming back from a bike ride at Hudson...

----------- June 4th Sunday -----------

Went up north and tried the wind - marked this as a session, as it has been about three times out without a count on the spreadsheet. Helmut was out at Vaudreuils with his Fanatic Gecko 156 and SailWorks Retro 7-oh. Says he planed and it was too much for that setup later in the afternoon ...

and unfortunately that board needs another "nose job" 😢
professionally this time !!

------------- June 3rd Saturday ------------

Wind predictions varied between 20-40kph, 30-50kph and 40-60kph. The ONLY thing they could all agree on was: NE direction. This means Vaudreuils or OKA La Grande Plage.

I knew I was in trouble when NO-ONE was at La Crête and there was a strong wind outside that arena. So, I went to La Grande Plage at the far end and that's where everyone was.

Sails were from 4.7 to 5.2 for the most part - max 5.8m²
Boards were 105 litres to about 115 litres

Sylvain left with an 8m² kite and when he waterstarted, he was foiling IMMEDIATELY; as in UP IN THE AIR & I have NEVER seen that before !?!?

He also left the water sooner than usual

So, as I knew this was gonna be too much for me ...
After chatting and taking some pics ... 

I published my pictures on QuebecWind : https://quebecwind.qc.ca

I went back to La Crête and practiced my waterstarts and just trying to handle such a wind !!  Some others were there doing the same thing !!

Lady was trying to go against the wind and waves with an inflatable SUP = WTF

This was NOT a great session for me, but I feel I did the right thing man !!

After I got off the water a "young fellow" (probably in his thirties lol) was putting together an RRD freeride 6.0 sail that "folds in half" ?!? https://rrd.com

We had trouble with the downhaul as the dude never rigged it before. He started with zero downhaul and the 370+60/430 mast. The whole mast extension would not go in and so he put 4 cm downhaul. Even that did NOT look like enough and so, he put 6 cm. His downhaul tool sucked, and the sail tension is TIGHT !! Like a Sail Works sail. Too bad it's Euro pin or he could have used my winch !! Lent him my handy downhaul tool :-)

In the end with six cm downhaul, the luff looked right based on the looseness indicators.

And guess what ? that's what the recommended downhaul is in the discussion 436cm luff !?!?! 370+60+6 = 436cm lol I also had to remind him to tighten his vent screw !!

I found these "seed pods" at OKA Parc and took them home to identify them. My son talks about some app that is good for scanning plants and identifying and states "muh bueno" which makes me wanna eat em !!


So, I do a search on the web for hollow green seed pod and this is what I find #$%^&*()

http://askanaturalist.com Fucking wasp eggs in a "gall" = WTF %^&*()

Benwindy was at Vaudreuils early as I knew he would. He started with a 4.7 and went down to a 4.2 !! "Too gusty to have any real fun"

-------------------- May 28th SUNday -----------------------

Called Helmut and he said he could be ready and at Oka Parc in an hour !! He beat me there and was leaving when I arrived. "Too man mosquitoes!!" He was wearing some kinda wrist band that is supposed ta help. NOT !! 
I asked him what he had for breakfast cuz he was covered in bugs and I had one ... So ... he left and I continued after he told me there was NO WIND and no-one on the water = merde. 
Met Benwindy at the beach and we chatted - he was covered from head to toe and it seemed NO bugs were bugging him (pun intended). 
Wind is supposed to pick up in the p.m. and slated more for my 10-oh in the morning ... As Ben kept talking about rigging his 7-oh and this was my first outing on the water here this season, I opted for the GAastra GTX 8.2 + Shark 145 using a 47cm slalom fin. 
I got out at about eleven and the wind actually felt like it kept going down and I got off the water around 13h00. Seems wind picked up around 14h00 again. Sylvain musta bin happy!



-------------------May 27th Saturday ----------------

Went up North to the chalet(s). When I arrived around 10h00 the water was like a mirror and I did NOT even bother setting up !! Chatted with the outlaws until it looked like perhaps there was some action on the water ...  I had brought the GA GTX 8.5 with MS 490 and Chinook aluminum boom. Which I put on the BIC SL200. As was expected (after observing earlier), it was VERY difficult to determine where the wind was coming from (and how strong it was). Wind came from South, North, NW, West and SW. There were 30 kph gusts and at times NO WIND. This CANNOT count as a session. Lost the nut from the BIC mast base (seems to be 3/8 inches). Put in a 1/4 inch nut and bolt for now ... Also, the top camber popped off its batten while I was de-rigging. NOT a good day :-( Good thing the weather was SO nice - sat in my wetsuit in a chair - in the water :-) LOVELY !! and I had my medicine roflmao

-----------------------------May 25th Thursday --------------------------


Obviously up north with the BIC SL200 and GA Flow-3 seven-oh on a beautiful sunny May day. Wind was light from the north and really gusty - with wind shifts. Fell on the sail once or twice, butt never in the water LoL. In terms of windsurfing, it was NOT a great session. AND there were lotsa black flies when I got off. Water was not cold in the shallows - even with the cold nights they have been having. This was NOT good enough to count as a session and Saturday may be the next retry lol 
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May 20th Saturday
Went to OKA and renewed my passes - $57+$53.76= $110.76
At the entrance the lady had issues with the card reader and I was there for a while lol. When I arrived at the main beach, I laughed cuz this is what I saw 😀


There were lifeguards setting up and also people in dry suits installing the demarcation. There was NO reason for La Crête to not be accessible !! Wrote about it on the WindsurfQuebec forum:
QuebecWindForum --> with more pics 😀
Went to TheGreenRoom and LeS'Pot after, butt didn't get anything lol
Bouncer at The Green Room did not seem happy with us, butt in the end lol
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May 19th FryDay Went up north and played with the Mistral SLE 303
----------------->  QuebecWindReport  <-----------
this session counts as an outing !! and I have this in a google doc

When I started with the Mistral 42 cm fin on the SLE, I had issues getting long enough screws. The first session was comfortable and the 2nd was a blast. I planed in the harness, but the wind was very abrupt. I fell on the sail as I could not get out of the harness when the wind stopped !! They truly were fun sessions !!

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May 14th Mother's Day    We were up north with soma da fam damily and so, I went on the water after lunch. Wind was from the NNW and was VERY finicky. Shifted direction and speed constantly which obviously meant I fell in once and dropped the sail MANY times. It was NOT very enjoyable and on top o' all that, it took me three tries to mount the sail. As such, this will NOT be counted as a session ...
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May 10th Wednesday    I was repeating the same scenario as on Monday and Sunday. Work on roof and windsurf whenever I can. Pretty much about an hour a day. Now normally i would NOT call these sessions, but that's three hours in the last 3 days ... As such, I will count that as a session :-)   Was out yesterday too ...
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May 8th Monday Up north playin on a chalet roof and did a quick session at lunch. As it was less than 1/2 an hour and wife would not let me go later ... This will NOT count as a session. I used the NP/NielPryde CC/ConstantCurve 490 mast and old boom. I actually think this mast goes better with this sail !! The look and cambers flip is sooo much better. Wind was North and NW (my least favourite directions on the lake) and 20-40 kph :-)   
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May 7th Sunday What was all that StarWars crap this year with "May the fourth be with you" on the 4th of May $%^&*(

Wind was West and NW at 20-45kph and VERY gusty. I was on the BIC SL200 with the GA Flow-3 (MS 490 mast and the Chinook boom, which I brought). Bro-in-law suggested wetsuit and glad he did cuz I went in !! NOT a great session and a decent workout, but a session none the less ...
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April 30th Sunday    They were announcing heavy rains and cold temps all weekend. My eldest son went up north yesterday and so, I asked him about the state of the ice ... 
"Not frozen any more, mostly water."
After I had packed my car with the Shark 145 and GA GTX 8.5 ...
"If you're serious, idk, it might be too much ice / resistance" $%^&*()
FUCK IT --> I went anyway and this is what I saw:

There were "ice patches" only in the Italian bay where the wind had blown them
The wind was not bad, but < 35 kph --> SHARK + GTX 8.5 with the 50cm fin

In the afternoon the wind shifted and got lighter as in < 30 kph NE now
So, I went out with the BIC SL200 + GA Flow 7-oh
With that direction of wind.. the ice went in the "French bay" lol

It was 8 degrees C (<50F) and in the p.m. I wore NO gloves
and yes, I fell in once in the morning !! Lotsa people freaked
but QuebecWind folks loved it :-) QuebecWind Entry

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April 28th Fryday    Was watching the wind forecasts this week and hoping to go out today as the rest of the weekend is rain with potential of stronger winds ... Wind was shown as 12-23kph SE for most of the afternoon and the hi-way turned red with traffic. Took a nap instead !!
Some people are lucky and are in Hatteras !!
By 16h00 it was 18 degrees C with 11-17kph SE winds = SAD
Sounds like the "dome effect" to me ...

April 22nd (Saturday) I have been SO busy that I did NOT even consider the possibility of windsurfing today. Picked up Propolis at Intermiel, stopped in at the Kanesatake Green Room and stopped by @ OKA Parc... 

The regular entrance to the camping and LaCrête was blocked due to water inundation ... So, I drove to the far end of "The Beach" and took a look around... Water was HIGH and NOT from the Green Room lol

There was no-one on the water nor along the shoreline.  



Wait a second .. I see something through the trees = 2 WindWingers, but they did NOT stay on the water long !! Wind measured at 8 to 9 knots ,,,

Clique the pic to see the Wingers

when I got to the beach ...

The kite in the foreground belongs to the Indian fellow, who is often there ... Yesterday he spent an hour swimming in with flippers that he carries on his back. He told me he had an equipment failure and the kite lost its air. Today he did NOT launch right away with the side wind and drifted over 200 yards towards La Crête !! Once he got going, he went WAY upwind. Another kiter explained that large wide boards can carve further upwind ...

I watched one fellow inflate his inflatable Wingfoil board to ONLY 21 PSI and his Wing to 9 PSI. Another Wingers' only needed 8 PSI = WoW !! 
                    Why do people bring battery operated pumps then ??

Everyone kept speaking about the "dome effect".

At this time of year the water is cold and the air can get hot. This pushes the wind up (or keeps it there - depending on your perspective). This has no effect on the kiters. People lower to the water with their sail devices - like windsurfers and wingers - lose out...

When I left ... the wind seemed to have picked up and there were four WindWingers on the water (including the two from the morning), 2 kiters with 12 meter kites and 2 windsurfers (poppa and son). Poppa had a large iSonic with a large GA sail - probably around 8 meters. The kid had a smaller board - probably under 100 liters and a NP race sail with at least 3 cambers. Kid said the water was "fraite" and poppa took off very impatiently not even checking on the kid. The kid had issues and even tried to uphaul at one point - just when I was thinking ... water start skills will be tested today !!

Sylvain was there, butt had not gone on the water yet ... and was heading out with a 12 meter also (would have gone with a 15 if he had brought it). 

Based on forecast ... I wonder what I would have brought and what rigged ??

As I saw the lack of wind in the morning and a Winger told me,"Ya gotta have patience.", I guess I would have started with my 8.5 sail and the FanaticShark 145. As it started to "pick up", I woulda hadto switch down to the NS Duke 6.9. With a sideshore up n down SE wind and the possibility of 40-60 kph winds... at some point I would have had to get off !!

NOT so sure this woulda bin a good windsurf day for me !!

Now at 15h30 I am hearing BIG gusts out there and this is what windalert is showing for OKA:

We are takin bout 15 to 30 mph winds (rounded up)

Fuck man, I hope no-one gets hurt - wind dropped and then gusted like shit man !!



The next day I sanded seven of my 13 fins to be ready for the water ... Did not see the need to apply epoxy MarineTEX as it would only require a fine layer = not coarse ...

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April 13th (Thursday) NO MORE dancin' on the ice !!
                                    Eight inches of water on the solid ice ...

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April 7th (Good FryDay) There really was NO need ta wax those skis yesterday cuz it got cold in the morning (below freezing) and a solid crust developed on the snow... It was like "pure ice" and wind was howling in the chimneys (30-40kph WNW). However, as you may know, on a lake and this lake in particular, there are "wind shadows" and the wind may even drop to zero.
In the morning I decided it was too dangerous without my safety equipment that was back home !! We went back and got it and were back by 13h30. I jumped on the ice model with the MS GLobal 5.0 m² sail - still strong winds, butt crusty now rather than solid ice.
The sled stayed on top, butt sank if I stood on it.
It was "fucking incredible" !! I even rode sitting on my harness and even tried it with a crazy carpet, butt did not work 😂

Somehow I managed to NOT fall and it was quite the "wilde ride".

Instead of fixing the blue in the pic from yesterday, took one with my DSLR Nikon D200 using the zoom:



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TurdsDay April 6th:
Yesterday we had a freezing rain storm and lost power at about 16h30. As the power was NOT back the next morning, all schools were closed AND there was power up north at the chalet(s), that's where we headed... Most of my stuff was now back home (like the PX 460 RDM mast, the Chinook boom and my harness) and thus, only the MauiSails Global 5-oh was available. 

The snow was "wet" and winds were less than 30 kph. It was fun, but also HARD WORK. Tomorrow morning it is supposed to be -3º C with winds from the West 30-40 kph = WooHoo. 


The second pic shows the tracks in the snow. Will need to try and remove the blue on that one.  I forgot my damn power supply for the PC ,my HDMI adapter. $%^&*

Again the ice sled "worked" better than the snow model !! I was upset that I could not find my ski wax - to at least try that option. On the other hand ... I was glad that the wax was not found until later in my "tool bag" becuz I was considering putting on the sticky wax (for warm temps) !! In the evening I waxed the ice sled and the snowboard model that I forgot to test yesterday !!
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April 2nd a Sunny Sunday: It was a cold night up north and even colder in the morning = -13 degrees Celsius. Winds were predicted to be from the NW 20-40kph. By the time I got there it was more like -5 degrees and winds NNW 30+ kph. At first I was planning to use the Global 5-oh in the "ice sled" but wind predictions were slumping. I tried and tried to rig that SW Hucker 6.6 without swearing. Everything was telling me to either NOT rig this sail inside or rig it outside on the ice. First started with wrong mast - I had left the 400 Chinook mast for the Global... Then I just could not get the downhaul on. First I had put it too high and then the string just felt too short. Even as I was taking the sail outside I kept saying to myself," It's gonna rip = watch out." Well, when I was out on the ice I saw that the sail was torn in the main panel. I kept sailing as it did not seem to hinder performance nor want to tear more ... Once I was back, I decided no more videoing and switched to the HotSailsMaui Fire 6.3 m² sail. That used to be my fave winter sail - especially on ice.

I had a riot !! The faster I went, the faster I wanted to go ... Oh yeah, I did not leave the harbour until I had my helmet and harness on at the very least ...

I repaired the torn SW Hucker 6.6 and brought some stuff back home. I was surprised the GA Flow-3 and the SW Retro 8-oh were still at home - those are also my larger winter sails !! AND I forgot to bring even smaller sails for windski $%^&*()

This video shows that the boom PointOfView is NOT the best with an all white background: https://youtu.be/qOSW_rTVNao  Next year I will try the video cam on a tripod as I sail bye ...
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March 30th    Encore le WindSki ? OUI !!
Dans le nord, il fait encore froid. C’est -6 Celsius ce matin avec des vents de 0 à 40 km/h d' Ouest / Nord-Ouest. Il y avait environ un cm de neige croûte sur la neige dure. J’ai utilisé ma luge de glace avec ma voile MauiSails Global 5.0 m². Je suis tombé fort une fois mais j’ai été chanceux et mis plus de stock pour la protection ensuite !!
Cookie showed me the “squirrel hang” on the boom for getting in the foot straps and it helps in strong winds too lol.

la video est juste pour montré un peu la place
... 


March 25th    Last Sunday I thought "that was it" as in NO MORE sailing
                       on the ice n snow ... Well, guess again brothers n sisters !!

Me bro-in-law was enjoying my Nikon D200 with the 70-210mm zoom ... and he caught these amazing pics - love them for the contrast !!

Clique the pic

The winds were from the ENE, becoming Easterly and finally SE --> from very light to about 40kph were predicted and felt like less than 40. The setup was the same as last Sunday i.e. my ice sled with the SailWorkers Hucker 6.6 sail. Think I love that sail, you can pump it pretty easily - gives instant power !! It was about -4 Celsius and I was sweating !! Wore safety gear, but omitted the knee and elbow pads - did not feel that dangerous ...

Because the snow gave such a nice wash-out in the pictures, it also means that videos will look like one is just floating over some clouds. 


Here is one me bro-in-law took from his phone :-) slammed against the window so that it would not shake = genius !!

BGood on the QuebecWind forum saw my post and videos and gave me some great SW Hucker advice: MORE downhaul and much less outhaul !! Check his pic !!

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March 22nd    I have officially declared my winter sailing over, butt can always 
                     dream. lol. Now I keep looking at Levitator 160s with Slingshot I84 foils, but even on sale they are still about $2100 + taxes. The wife just got some estimates on hearing aids and now no-one will hear any more about that foil setup = sad pun indeed ...😢

Now I need to determine what my summer kit will be at the out-law's chalet!! As the MEQ II was NOT utilized at all last year, I was contemplating somehow getting it there as well. Obviously it will NOT fit into my Toyota Prius C without a major portion sticking out $%^&*(

AND then there is the issue of the sail(s) up north ... The HotSailsMaui SpeedFreak has seen better days and now the mast pops out the top of the sleeve (need a coffee thermos cap to block?). The Gaastra Flow-3 7-oh was the last sail used there with the BIC SL200. It was okay with the NP 490 ConstantCurve mast. For the MEQ II the SW Retro 8.0 would also work, but if it dies, there will be NO more BIG winter sail ... Does the boom I purchased in September 2017 function with the SW Retro ?? It should be okay cuz that's the one I used with the SPF ... SPF outhaul is 230 cm and the Retro is 225.
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March 19th    So... I did go to Vaudreuils after a colder night. The ice was
                          hard and the snow was crusty. However, as one can see in the photo from yesterday, it was rough and was NOT better further out !! from the previous traffic. Kept debating with myself whether to try it or not ... Since I was there, I set up my snow sled version with my MauiSails Global 5-oh. I tried to stay close to shore to keep in a wind shadow, but the wind changed to a NW and powder snow fell to the point that I could barely see the shore = NOT fun. So ... after a shower and warming up @ home, I headed north lol ...

Wind was from the West and NW from light wind to blowing wind (15-40kph?). I started with the snow sled, but the ice sled was MUCH better and I had a riot !! I was flying and pushing for MORE - with the SailWorks Hucker 6.6 m² sail. This may have been the first time I used this sail !! It needs some tape on the Hucker window !!! There is a decent dent.

oh yeah ... I was out on this day with NO safety equipment at all - NO helmet, NO knee or elbow pads and even my gloves were summer work gloves 😎 There was NO danger cuz if I fell, I would simply go through the snow lol ...

... and me bro-in-law Chas took some pics 😍


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March 18th  Not even a week later and the river is finished ... 😢
                    The wind was decent and from the West about 20-40kph...

Am considering going to Vaudreuils to check it out there - even if offshore ... 
Would be going tomorrow - colder night and morning mean "better ice".

Went to Vaudreuils - water in my tracks, saw car drive in 6 to 8 inches of water. Which means it is safe, BUT ... Need the night ta bee cold !!
                                                                        Let's see what happens !!!

Rigged the MS Global 5.0 in the garage with 14 cm downhaul instead of 16 and 166cm outhaul instead of 171.. and has to be rigged fully down and outhauled ...

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March 12th Went to the local river and there is about 1-2cm softer crunchy snow before you sink any more, which means "it is doable" !! There was "water under the bridge" and fairly fresh snowmobile tracks = okay to go ...

                                                                         Just lacking wind taday. 

As usual in the next few days there will be rain and snow ... Plus when the wind does show up on Tuesday with all that crap, wind is from the NE, which means I would need to go to the local park, which is not where I tested today, am less familiar with the ice conditions there and there is NO parking except for maybe one or two spots !!! shit .. shIT .. SHIT $%^&*() Don't know what happened Tuesday, but know I did NOT go 😢

March 11th Am up north and temps are under the freezing point. However, the snow has been keeping the top layer over the ice as water 😢


tried some photo editting



The next day that water was frozen enough that I could stand on it and shovel it out further - with water on top still ... It seemed to support me more than yesterday - did NOT go down 12 inches ... just two

again tried some photo editing
Spoke to Christiane who has been going to the lake since she was ten and she is not much younger than I. So, for the sake of argument, let's say in the last fifty years ... she has NOT seen a winter like this !! Where they were ONLY able to skate on the lake ONCE in the whole winter !! She described going on the lake with snowshoes just recently where she went from going through three feet of powder to going through one foot of snow to water to staying on top of the crusty where someone had passed previously = NO constancy, which is a perfect reflection of the weather around the world = GLOBAL WARNING !!
Deep snow in California and drought in Europe ... me bro, who is also a Canadian Trumpster and Free Dumb fighter, feels there is NO global warming - calls it "just more government manipulation of the people" 😡 to get us to do what "they" want 
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March 8th When is the Ides of March anyway ??  Tonight we have a Waning 
                 Gibbous - whatever the hell that means lol ...

I went down to the local river for a CSA/CurrentSituationAnalysis. There was one other car in the parking with someone in it when I arrived and when I left. Snow on the way out was fairly crusty and the ice under the bridge was SOLID. 

Further out I could see tracks and what looked like ice at the bottom of them ... My foot went through the snow and the first layer under that was water - before the ice. My "snowsled" could probably "float" over this snow/water/ice, but for sure there would be times it might be "uncomfortable". 😡 Better HOLD OFF for now ...
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01MAR2023    Well, it feels like not much of a winter so far - not enough ice
                          and when it snowed, man, did it snow !! Have only been out five times and the average winter outage is nine.

                                                    Let's hope March and April make up for it..

I was looking over last year's summer journal... It looks like the Mistral EQ II was NOT used nor was the Fanatic Bee 124 LTD. The Equipe is gonna hafta git up north and the Bee is gonna hafta git on the water.

Started looking at getting in the footstrap videos again and I think I am gonna hafta perfect the hang down like a T-Rex squirrel technique !!

21FEB2023    It was a cold night and there were winds from the NE. Went down to the local river and it looked doable. It was a bit rough, was quite cold and the wind was fairly strong. I was actually shivering when I went in the car and I cancelled it. If I really wanted to go, Vaudreuils would be the call, but there were family obligations today :-( and wind dropped later too - not going with a BIG sail on that ice ...

20FEB2021    I cannot believe that I was considering goin on the local river today. Temps up north were six degrees C and it was raining. There was wind from the WSW under 20 kph. Thought it was going to go to thirty. Everywhere you went it was slushy with the high temperature. The ice is gonna be shit and the wind ain't great either. Fuck that man !! Took a nap at 15h00 instead - when making dinner at 17h00 it was 2 degrees and winds 10-15 SW. A little colder and it might have been do-able - what's in the forecast ?? Cold tonight with a NE tomorrow. Do I swallow my pride and go to Ste-Rose ?? Wednesday back to Westerlies with some snow. Thursday - blizzard :-(

18FEB2023    Yesterday we got another 10 cm of snow. With the wind yesterday and today I was hoping the river would NOT have that much snow. We had the sons drop bye with the two granddaughters and so, I did not get ta check it out until about 15h00. There was NO more water - just slush under the snow near shore. Further out there were ice patches and snow from 2 to about 6 cm. Wind was decent from the West - steady 15-25 kph. If I rode it as is; it would be with the snow sled and the SailWorks Retro 8-oh. Ideally I would like to have shovelled a runway of ice and done some speed runs with the ice sled. It is now 4 p.m. and by the time I get the car loaded, equipment rigged and on the snow, it will be 17h00 !! Winds are supposed to stay that way until late - do I venture out ?? Sunset is 17h30 = oh well. Don't feel like going in the "dark" - will be partly cloudy & yes, there is always the danger of snow mobiles in the evenings !! By 18h00 it was too dark to really see - I would have been windsurfing blindly and not too much fun taking things apart in the dark ..

16FEB2023    My knee was feeling better, but we had some rain, which could change conditions considerably. There was wind and so, I went down to the local river to see the conditions ...

clique the pics

 There was water under the bridge, but it WAS frozen just two days ago - this is a warning, but does not mean danger to me ... yet ...

clique the pics

 One can see that there are puddles of water on the ice - it did NOT all harden ... yet

clique the pics

Here we can also see that there are snow patches on the ice. Under them it was like slush. Thus we had verying conditions with a potential of a bumpy ride in winds over 20 kph with gusts near thirty ...

As my right knee was not completely healed yet ... I put this one on PASS ... and decided to go check OKA Parc...

This is what I saw from the second floor ...

As you can see ... there is NO-ONE on the ice... Do I venture out or not ?? Well, if you know me even a little bit ... here is a little video to summarize it up...
 

 

On this day I feel like I saw more cops between my house, the local river and Oka Parc than I have EVER seen !! There were at least six. The one that scared me was in Oka just after the school with the 50 kph zone --> I started accelerating when I saw the 80 kph sign while in the 50 zone, butt was well past school area with no-one there...

In Rosemere I chatted with some "InfoPolice" who asked me if the ice was safe. I asked if InfoPolice survey the river ... "No, we are here on coffee break" LoL
                        What do InfoPolice do anyway ??
The Laval Police website states that is a line used "to provide confidential (I assume anonymous too) information about an investigation or file (open case I presume)". Sounds almost like detectives in uniform 😈 I have NOTHING against the concept of Police, butt has encountered some BAD apples - sadly ...

Well, I am happy to say that I was able to handle my aches and pains in the last few days with legal/over the counter medicine. Ironically, a drug that was once only considered recreational by the youth in North America  in the 60's and 70's, only NOW is being accepted internationally as medicine.
                            This applies to yours truly as well.

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14FEB2023    Happy Valentine's Day 💖
                      
    On the weakened I went up Norf wiff da famillee

 As you can see, I tried to go out on the snow and ice.

There is a set of footprints going out and another pair coming in. At the end of that runway, I went down about two feet through snow, ice and water. As I was unsure of what was gonna happen next, I lay down and rolled onshore about six feet before even attempting to stand up!

Yesterday I went up there again and brought all my winter windsurf stuff back home. In my February 8th entry you can see that the local river was found to be solid !! with ice and snow patches. The ice was over 2 inches thick = good enuff fo me !!

my sleds

Today I brought both my ice and snow sleds with the SW Retro 8-oh and SW Hucker 6.6 sails to the local river. Winds were from the West and under 20kph. Thus I rigged the 8-oh. When I was preparing myself to go with cleats, harness and helmet, there was NO helmet. Oh well, it is light winds. The ice sled seemed to have issues with the snow patches and so ... I tried my snow sled. This was much better ... and actually faster. Winds started picking up a bit and my right forearm was sore. It was warm and so, I took the gloves off first. When it was found the gloves were needed, I started working on getting the harness and lines set up.

Then I made a grave error --> I tried making adjustments while moving; like I do on the water = NOT recommended on ice !! I fell towards my right knee, which had no protection, but instead just folded the right leg completely and kinda bounced off the ice under the knee. 

I was able to get up right away and bend the knee.
    But for me, the session was over !!

The knee seemed to have a section underneath that was swelling and since there is ice and snow everywhere, I kept putting ice on it. Managed to put away my stuff with no issue. Am able to go up and down stairs no problem.

How many daze do I need ta wait b4 I can venture out again ??    L😄L
Ironically my left knee and neck hurt more than the right leg !!

In terms of weather,we are supposed to get even warmer temps than the +3 degrees C today with rain and snow in the forecast. Thursday and FryDay look like candidates for more experimentation - in terms of Westerlies !!

08FEB2023    Today I was in for another disappointment !!
                        When I went to the local river, there was only about 1.5 inches of crusty snow on pretty decent ice !! AND there was wind from the West $%^&*( Even wurst, temps are to go UP and we're ta git RAIN and SNOW #$%^&*() That sounds good, right ? Well, ALL my winter stock is now UP NORTH $%^&*()

04FEB2023    I was VERY disappointed after we had -40 degrees
                        where it can be Celsius or Fahrenheit.
At that temperature it does not matter which scale one is on !!
And this is what I saw !! :-( Two inches of WATER under the snow !!


22JAN2023     It is supposed to stay below zero up north with potential
                         10-20kph winds from the SW before noon.
Monsieur Desjardins as of the last notice had plowed "The Path" and even the East-West lane !! When I got there, I finished patching up my "new" 2013 MauiSails Global 5.0 m² wave sail from 2-rad with Chinook tape. Bruno had labelled it as in A+ condition and I give it no more than a B+ rating ... Rigged it up in the basement with the Chinook 400/40% cm RDM and the old boom I was using with the HSM SpeedFreak - that is dead now ... Luff is 416 and boom is 171 cm.  This is what it all looked like:

                          It looks like I could put 2.5 cm less downhaul ..

                        And it looks like the sail could use about 5 cm less outhaul ...


            All in all, I feel the sail does NOT look that bad with this setup

The wind NEVER made it to SW while I was there and the forecast flipped to all South. So, I went over to the East-West lane and did a couple of runs with my ice sled and the SW Retro 8-oh. It was okay in terms of angle to the wind and width of the track. All that was missing was the wind ... Was supposed to pick up around 13h00 and by 12h30 I had given up. Checking back later and the wind was SW and under 10kph $%^&*()

15JAN2023    Checked the local Milles Isles River - still has a waze ta go ...
                         Before it is ice-covered and is perhaps safe lol

13JAN2023     Fuck Me --Another dump of snow - about one foot
                          Was fish-tailing on the 15 south ramp to the 640 !!
                           and that was in my car - not windsurf sleds lol

09JAN2023    We are having a strange winter so far. No snow, then snowstorms followed by rain and then back to snow ... It was a Sunday with SW winds promised up to 30 kph. Like that was ever gonna happen !! I shovelled some snow on my "runway" and Monsieur Desjardins came out with his chainsaw to check the ice ... It was at least four inches then water, then ice, then water, then ... SAFE... He plowed a path around the entire lake and I took out my sleds and the GA Flow-3 seven-oh. I practised using the blue skateboard sled. At the end I discovered that I could perhaps go on top of the snow, but had NO wax. I did the last run with my ice sled and it actually seemed "better" on that ice than the skateboard sled !! Surprise, surprise. 

Chas got some pics of that last run ... Chas?!? Ah, here it is ...

03JAN2023    Yvente was kind enuff to pass me an old BOOM for my
                        NorthSails Zeta 3.7 m² winter sail ... Picked it up from Laval ...

That was the pic I sent him to show that I had picked it up sucessfully :-) It came with an uphaul line and some harness lines !! I drilled out the holes on the boom to make sure all was cliqued in and solid ... Also loosened and moved the harness lines to allow easier attachment of the downhaul line AND I NEVER would use lines that wide and short. I measured 58 inches with another 1/2 inch taken up by the mast leaves 57.5 inches of outhaul. Multiply by 2.5 and we get 143.75 cm -> the boom max as per specifications is 143 cm. Man, we are in business !!     Cannot wait to try it out !!
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02JAN2023 As noted at the start of this post ... The year had a very strange start. First we were inundated with two major snowstorms and then things just started to melt. In Toronto they hit 10 degrees C. We had a cold night on the first and I headed up north to check out the ice ...  Me bro-in-law had sent me some pics on JAN one of the situation and I had high hopes ... 

    No, I was not high lol

Clique the pic

The good news is the only water in that pic is at the bottom right and it was ice covered by the next day i.e. today. One can see the snow drifts where snow had been pushed about and the rest looked like it could ALL turn into ice !! 

However, the ice varied in thickness from a mere inch to 2.5 inches to probably more than four. My runway and Monsieur Desjardin's path were both solid. I swept the runway hoping for those promised SW winds. The wind did swing from S to SW, butt never amounted to more than about 6 kph, which is imperceptible. By 16h00 I gave up and went back home :-( 

Let's hope the next few days does NOT dump snow on the picture = more rain and freezing please ...  oh yeah - and some Westerly winds :-) actually E or NE could work also !!
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Oui, c'est déjà 2023 !! Et ça a commencé mal pour mon sport de ice windsurfing
Bonne Année / Happy New Beer !! may the wind always be at your back !!

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