Translator from GOOGLE

Flooding in Spring 2019

Once again we are having issues in the spring with water levels near Montreal ...
The picture in the header of this windsurf blog is a picture I took yesterday of the river near me..

I will find and put the link of the post I wrote during the last spring flooding - 2017 ??
it was not a post, but rather discussions in my 2017 windsurf journals ...month of April
http://joewindsurfer.blogspot.com/p/2017-windsurf-journal.html
here are the current water levels !!!
                                  Clique the pic

Just look at the road closures near Montreal !!
there are bridge and hi-way closures !!


















                                     Clique the pics

                             below is Gatineau - hit again too

























Last Friday I discovered that my colleague was indeed away from work MANY days, but it was because he was flooded when the dike broke near St-Marthe-sur-le-Lac. The water in his basement is one foot below the ceiling. This is where his sons lived :-(

So, while some people are washing the winter debris off their cars, others ...

I had heard that NO boats were allowed on the waterways and one could be fined $5000. Well, here is the proof:



Time has passed and water levels are NOT getting better #$%^&*


This was on quebecwind and looks like Pte-Claire -- water is higher than it was in 2017!!


This is what Pointe-Claire Cartier boat launch looked like in 2017:


Yet the graph says the water level is lower @ Pointe-Claire than it was in 2017 ??

On Monday, May 20th 2019 I had my first windsurf session on water of the year. At this point I am unsure of whether this is later than usual - let me check later.

Since local waters were high, access on water ist verboten AND some people beside the water are trying to figure out what the next step in their real estate is ... So, I went on the lake up north with the BIC SL200 and GA Flow3 3X 7.0 m² sail.

Apparently on the same day there were dudes out windsurfing at that very "beach",  Pointe-Claire. Buddy told me there was "no shoreline"


Update: In the last ten (10) years of logging my sessions in one form or another, I have ALWAYS started windsurfing in the month of April. Over the years there were even months of May where the number of windsurf sessions in that month was ten (that happened 3 times in last 9 years).... and here we are on May 21st, 2019 and I have had ONLY one windsurf session in 2019 so far :-( That session was barely okay on a small lake ...

Georges usually goes straight from down-hill skiing to windsurfing. Well, actually kiting now - he windsurfs up north at the chalet and kites at OKA (and around the world). This year - nothing on the water yet... "Worst year ever". Sounds like that sums it up for everyone !!

When the restriction of water access was removed from Lac de Deux Montagnes and Rivière Milles Isles, they put a speed limit of 5.5 knots - with a possibility of the same penalties !!

Guy Trudeau jr in Windsurfing Now !!

Oui, notre ami gtj aka Guy Trudeau junior est dans une "spread" - Windsurfing Now 05.1 à la page 84/85

bravo gtj !!

Clique sur la photo

"Guy Trudeau gets some air over the snow in
Saint-Isidore, Quebec.
Grégoire Lafortune photo"

NICE !!

et pourquoi pas mettre le video de Georges !!

Montreal Ice Boating

This year winter got off to an early start. November saw ice n snow. Today on Wednesday, December 19th in 2018 I went to the Baie D'Urfé Bay (yes, that is a double bay) to check out the ice boating. Mr. Ed from work told me yesterday about the facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Montreal-Ice-Boating-Association-173065176075528/

and there was a conversation/post on-going that they would meet at the aforementioned bay n day at 10 o' clock - n that's taday fo me.

So, I showed up with my Nikon D200 , two lenses and GoPro with no SIM card 😕
(that last one was obviously NOT on poipuss - and fogot me cleats too).

Vehicles were arriving at about the same time as me ...
Looks easy enough to transport on top o' the car.



Others  were setting up with one wife in the warm car.
(On re-read that last line sounds just terrible LOL)
Her husband was here for his first outing on an Austrian made ice sled ...
(okay - they call 'em boats)

Clique on pics to enlarge

Some had their ice boats already assembled and parked next door at the marina...




The group was VERY friendly and explained that there were stringent rules in the size of the sled, mast, cross plank, runners, etc. Seems to be the most common international DN class is what these folks were all riding. The fiberglass looking boats are made in Poland (42 pounds if i am not mistaken) and all the dudes have their racing numbers starting with KC, as in Kingdom Canada - what the heck ?? Yes, the masts are often made with carbon - as were some parts. The sail one fellow was using on these Polish boats was quoted as being 60 square feet. I think it was André who said just divide by ten and he is pretty close. It is 5.57 square meters, but looks larger than my 6.4 sail !!!




The wind was VERY light and coming out of the East. Some folks walked/slid their boats out and André ran it out and jumped in ... Read on wiki that these boats can go ten times as fast as the wind. The ice on the other hand was quite good - they gave it 9 outta 10 on their facebook ...
They did pick n choose where they went and will be back tomorrow too !!
Mr. Ed asked where is my windsurf sled ? Left it up north $%^&*
Actually wind was too light for me !!!







They were definitely having fun !!!


Now to make sure my GoPro is ready for next visit !! DONE 
No need for me to make a video - there are plenty of good ones on the you/boob tube


https://www.facebook.com/staho470/videos/2622825967758202/
Next time bring cleats and my winter sleds too ??



It is extremely dangerous to go out on the ice !!
People die in Canada every winter when they go through :-(

2018 was a BUST

As you may know, I build sleds to go on ice and snow.
In 2018 I only managed to get out six times when the average is ten times per year ...
Here is a video that shows when the ice is good on local river
The blue is from a GoPro copy I was testing in 2017



I changed jobs in 2017 which meant I had less opportunities to windsurf during the week.
Officially making me a weekend warrior who does not venture too far ...
This reduced the number of outings and ensured many sessions were light wind sessions on light wind gear. AND the learning curve dropped :-(

There was a total of twenty-eight(28) sessions with the majority at OKA/La Crête on the Mistral Equipe 2 XR board and the HotSailsMaui SpeedFreak 8.5 sail (typically with the Curtis 47 cm slalom fin).

Was very fortunate to get a 2007 Gaastra Swift 10 m² sail which I have been using ...
This sail is a freerace sail with 2 cambers, but tight luff and 6 battens,but quite light at only 5.7 kilos . This is SO much lighter and easier to use than a full on race sail like my MauiSails TR-4 10 m² sail ...

This session actually got an eight outta ten... Shows how desperate I was this year ...
NO speed until about the 18 minute mark !! and NO-ONE else there !!



It's supposed to look more like this:



This is a shot on my way out of the beach area from my phone ...