Windsurfing during a Pandemic

OK, let's put later info first ...

It is now the end of November 2020 with snow on the ground here ...

We have a warm spell coming up, but will the winds align ??

I personally stayed away from the beaches and people until I was sure people followed some distancing suggestions !!

So, from May until September I sailed on a small country lake with a BIC SL200 and HSM SPF8.5

HSM SPF 8.5 = Hot|SailsMaui SpeedFreak 8.5 m² dacron sail

From September until November I tried to go to OKA Parc as often as possible

That's less than ten sessions - with an average rating of 7.5 outta 10

Typically with my Shark HSM 145 and the HSM SPF 8.5 or the NorthSails Duke 6.9

NorthSails is now called DuoTone 

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in May 2020 :

Today I went on my first COVID-19 pan damn it excursion alone ...

There was chatter that SEPAQ parks like OKA were allowing personal watercraft out...

So, I drove out to the parc today after work - Thursday 28MAY2020, which was another blistering hot day. The last two(2) have been scorchers -- 100° F / 38°C and feels like HELL on fire !!! 

Before I left, I double-checked to make sure that I had everything including my Park Pass

I do, but it expired in like October 2019. What year is it again ??

Oh well, I usually know the gate keepers and they let me get away with stuff ...

Damn, are the drivers worse than before the pan damn it ?? Farque me man ...

Remember Joe, the ONLY entrance is from the 640 ...

Okay, go around the circle and roll at 50 kph for a loooong time ...

Come past the gate up to the STOP sign and ...

Damn, It's some "older kid" sitting in a chair with a flashy safety vest

"Do you have your pass?"

"Yes" and I show it to him ...

"2019 to 2019... it's expired"

So, I explain I just want to do a quick tour and not even get out the car ...

"Je m'excuse, je ne peux pas faire ca. Vous n'avez pas une telephone pour acheter une passe journalier en ligne.?"

Non, non ... I just wanna tour the park ...NON !!

OK, OK.. is la Crête open then ?? Non and camping and other things will start soon ...

Yesterday and today the Park is packed ... WHAT ?? 

Oui, Oui .. They all want to go to the beach...

What about all this social distancing?? Yes, they are supposed to ... 

And WHO is policing this ?? (pardon the pun) 

The agent then explained that there is some governmental group that passes through and does spot checks. Farque, I hope they don't give out thousand dollar tickets #$%^&*

So, I continued ma journée with the intention of visiting Pointe aux Anglais.

Which meant I was going to drive through the town of OKA, right beside where the Kahnasatake Mohawks live that blocked access to the parc just last week ...

There was a sign just before town with a stop sign and three(3) kids with safety vests.

The sign said "Emergency Measures - Local Residents ONLY"

I have long hair and a beard and grew up near an "Indian" Reserve

The Five Nations people used to drink and do whatever the heck they wanted...

So, at the sign, I stopped, left my window up, nodded to the kid and continued ...

He sat back down on his chair ...

When I reached the bottom of the hill just below the reservation area there was another sign. It too said Local Residents ONLY..

Somehow, even tho there was NO kids and still, that sign was MUCH more foreboding.

You are a local who lives here, you know who lives up that hill.

Do you remember the OKA crisis, back in 1990 ??

Maybe this pic will bring you some flashbacks !!

The lesson learned there and maybe in some other parts of the white man's history book ..

DON'T farque with the Indians... and so, I turned around and headed home ..

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Obviously if you are in a warmer section of the world than I, when we here are currently on April 1st, 2020 with a foot of snow (that is NO April Fool's joke) and socially distancing ourselves from our fellow man and woman by two(2) meters ... then perhaps you have access to a warm body of water where you can go alone or maintain a "social distance" (ironic terminology) from others ... One site is suggesting staying away from old people ...lol

Yeah - what kinda FUCKIN day is this anyway ??

Hats off to SailWorks who are making an effort in supplying face covers - can they make them such that we don't even need sunglasses any more ... or  .... perhaps keep them so dark that we can become a faceless society ? Pink Floyd like ..

Stay Home !!

It is now end of April 2020 and I am reading on windsurf forums and seeing videos of people windsurfing / windfoiling ...

At first I was quite upset. 

Well frankly, because I have NO access to water lol.  (and it is still cold)

Then I was concerned what about this virus moisture laden drool coming off these active windsurfers and dropping into the drinking water ?? My retiring colleague, Ed, informed me that CORONA is lipid based and does not last long in water (yes, he IS retiring during the COVID-19 pandamnit AND he reads more than I do :-) 

btw If you do retire during a "house lockdown" order, you still hafta stay home.

You just don't hafta work 😍

Okay, it is now Saturday, May 2nd, 2020 and the Quebec premier, some dude called Let'sGo is saying perhaps it is time to send the primary school kids back to school = WTF. So, now everyone thinks the restrictions have been relaxed and it's time to go back to "normal" ?? It is very warm today - like 20 degrees C and this is at the local boat ramp and park on Rivière Milles Isles !!!

Farque: It feels like the States are windsurfing like there IS no pan damn it !!
      https://www.peconicpuffin.com/the_peconic_puffin/2020/05/that-was-a-weekend.html

AND just check out what Florida beaches looked like weekend of May 9th = WTF !!

pic stolen from CNN or some other syndicate

Global News says:
Federal officials says some trails, day use areas, green spaces and recreational boating will be available starting June 1 at national parks, historic sites and waterways and national marine conservation areas.

Apparently OKA Parc was open in mid-May, but the Kanesatake Mohawks were blocking both entrances. They even closed their weed shops like the medicine box.

so... what do people do during the "pan damn it" then ??
how about using your DIY skills and building a man toy ??

wind n weather without all those damn ads

 It seems it terms of sites - people are saying this is the ONLY one !!

https://darksky.net/forecast/45.481,-74.0562/us12/en

I may as well set up a widgets page with local sites then - damn it

or maybe it is time to go for iwindsurf or windalert membership 

BUTT they have ads too $%^&*()_ AND barely fit on my screen ...

here's one from windy.app widgets - try sliding the bar :-) or clique the link !!

Made it to OKA Labour Day Weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and i found this one too - quite long and old, but lotsa good info !!

Since September 2020 I made it out to OKA Parc's La Crête about eight(8) times.

COVID-19 and  loss of my van reduced and changed my windsurfing for 2020 entirely !!

SailWorks Hucker 6.6

Well, I saw it advertised at a price under $100 and so; I just had to try it ... :-)

Michel came from Lac St-Jean on his way to Australia and dropped it off ...
Hmm, that was like two (2) weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic announcement ...

I did not have any pics yet and so posted one with the SailWorks stamp of approval  ...

Mine is NOT quite so colourful and must be an older version since it does not have the arrow. It is the more of a star shaped design

Seems mine is a 2007 based on dimensions - except mast sleeve looks open - specs say closed

475 cm median on the downhaul and I was using a PX RDM 460/90% mast

and 204 cm outhaul on the Chinook aluminum boom

I tried downhauling it with the winch, but forgot how much force Sailworks sails need

Once I thought I was done, I pulled and poked n looked and put at least another 5 cm downhaul. I was looking at the sail and thinking either the mast is wrong or this sail loves downhaul. Well I read that many have used PowerEx masts with the Huckers successfully... So I just gotta put MORE downhaul - more than I ever do !!

GREAT Hucker Review here: 

https://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Review/Sailworks-Hucker-Review?page=1

and where I got the pic too :-)

My wife asked what are my plans for this sail. There are many. I hope to use it on the MEQ2 longboard (especially with newbies or bigger winds) , in higher winds on smaller gear and maybe even in the winter - like in the next post :-)

and of course I hafta put that infamous video from the Sailworks crew !!

Somewhere in-between, I set the RDM extension to 10 cm. It is now end of April 2020 and we are still in the "middle" of the pandemic i.e. still in "lock down". ("They think" the COVID is at it's mid-point, but no-one knows ANYTHING for sure. Just the concept of "THEM thinking" is preposterous :-) 

I tried rigging the sail in the backyard, just to see ... butt ...

The downhaul setting of 460+10= 470 cm is FAR from ideal in theory and reality. The sail is flagged as 473-477 luff. Even though I have now set the extension to 14 cm, we have barely reached the minimum.

When people say these sails take a LOT of downhaul, they are NOT kidding. I use a crank/winch now and had to use it twice during one downhaul session and to a less than minimum setting !! 

The outhaul is 197-200 boom , but what I tried today is irrelevant since the downhaul was not even close to ideal. (Believe I put 180+17.5=197.5 which is at minimum and I had to PULL to get there...)

Checking the sail from the SW cog, it showed we were still missing lotsa downhaul !!!

                                                          Which we knew already (sorry about the royale oui).

I made some dorkie videos that I will share for now in the hopes I can offer something better in the pan damn it future - like on the water !!



Dorkie Video No. 2



Summary of my trial riggings:

1. It took me three(3) trial riggings b4 I felt we were approaching the proper setup.
2. Sailworks' sails and this one in particular require a lot of force when downhauling.
3. I am NOT sure the Powerex 460/100 RDM is the ideal mast for this sail.
4. Also read somewhere that Sailworks suggests SDM for this sail - Dale Cook sail !!
5. Need to inspect used sails better - were 2 monofilm issues I missed @ purchase.
6. Power can be controlled with the outhaul

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I have a SW Retro 8-oh sail - rigged with a hardtop MS 490/75 mast and a soft top NP 490/90 mast.

Ironically the soft top NP 490/90 won !!
and I consider the PowereX mast a soft top - I use it with an HSM Fire 6.4

In March 2023 I sailed the 2007 SailWorks Hucker 6.6 sail up north on the chalet lake:

I posted these pics on the QuebecWind forum and BGood suggested MORE downhaul and less outhaul --> like in this pic:

24FEB2024 ... I set the SW Hucker up to go out on the ice n snow :-)

 

BeGooD told me I did not have enough downhaul and too much outhaul ... This time I went with 12 cm extension on the PowerEx 460cm/90%  RDM mast and there are 4 cm at the top of the mast to the cap which equals 176 cm and the specs call for 175 !! The battens popped to the other side when I downhauled and that's how I like it !! 

The outhaul was at 180+20 cm and was still 4 cm of outhaul extra. I put it to 180+17.5 and there still was some slack. As the sail calls for 200-204, I AM giving the sail less outhaul than specified ... In any case, I enjoyed the ride man !!!

Here's my fave clip of the 2024 winter session so far !!