Got Wind?

No shortage of wind over the past 48 hours, the only sail Glenn rigged was a 3.7 Gaastra Manic. Sandbanks early Sunday was a blowout with gusting over 60+mph, it was liquid smoke on the water and Glenn lasted about 45 mins. It was certainly to much of a good thing in terms of wind since it made wave riding nearly impossible as a bottom turn with a 50 knot gust in your sail isn't exactly comfortable.

After thawing out and driving home, Glenn did a classic bump and jump session, on a 3.7 again. Actually, not a lot of bumping and jumping since control on the water was pretty hard to come by in the 50 knot gusts.
















Thanks to Mark van Dam for the great shots! (check out his site at www.imagesbyvandam.com)

Bring it!

Classic fall winds set to visit us starting tomorrow morning, and looks like they may stick around for a couple of days?

Want to know how the 2007 F2 Geurilla 69 or 84 sail? How about the 2007 Fanatic NewWave 74 Team Edition vs. 2007 the Fanatic All Wave 74? Those are going to be first out of the van to test tomorrow, so check back for a full update and report!

Working Hard

For us, Christmas always comes a few months earlier as next seasons models arrive and need to be tested. Mike and Glenn got out for an evening session to try the 07 Fanatics. Mike was loving the new Hawk 108 for its speed, quickness to plane, speed, smooth ride in chop, speed, feather light weight, and did I mentioned speed? Mike rips through a jibe at Everitt park, on the left of the picture. Glenn really has been liking the Fanatic All Wave series in the 75L and 85L version for turning the "so-so" backside riding days into ripping front side days. The All Wave series planes so early but is so loose that lighter wind 5.4 and 5.8 wave days are now a blast, and we can make three times the amount of turns on the same wave!

Lip Smacking Good

A great shot from Craig Butler taken of Glenn sailing Mac's Point last Sunday. Solid 25-30 knots with 70 degree air and sunny skies made it seem like summer,not fall. With side-off winds the riding was all front side with as many hits on a wave as you wanted, and the Fanatic New Wave 75 was right at home smacking off any lip it could find! A great crew with Bill Reid getting the longest drive award (5 hours) and Andrew White with the shortest (10 minutes).

Now he's hooked....

New windsurfer Jonathan Gardam sent us this shot of his first day out on the Bic Nova and Gaastra Pilot. A great combination for Jonathan to learn on, but also a huge amount of room for progression past the entry level stage. Judging by his form, progression is already happening and we will no doubt be seeing pictures of him blasting along in the straps and harness in no time!

Cruising

Porfirio Verde and his family are new to the sport, but are learning quick and ripping it up on their new Gaastra Freetime and Bic Nova. Learning for them was simple and fun, and are already learning to use the footstraps and plane!

Think the summer of 2006 is almost over and you need to wait until next year to learn? The best winds happen in the fall meaning that there are still weeks, if not months left to learn how to windsurf just in time for the fall season!

No Blog Updates = Too much time sailing!

Anytime that there is a big gap between blog posts, it is because we are all sailing....a lot. We have been getting lots of TOW (time on the water) and are more stoked than ever.

Mike and Glenn scored a great afternoon on Sunday with Glenn getting to christen his new Fanatic NewWave 75, nicely powered by his 5.4 Gaastra Poison. A wave board isn't christened until it has been looped several times, and the New Wave is offically christened.

Mike put his NewWave 81 through a solid work out - spending more time in the air than on the water! Mike seemingly never needs to sail anything other than his 5.6 Sailworks Hucker so far this year. The wind range of that sail is like nothing we have sailed before - planing and jumping in light winds on his Fanatic Hawk 110 up to massive jumps in solid winds on the FreeWave 98 or NewWave 81. We would never call it a wave sail, but it's an awesome bump & jump sail!

All were too busy sailing to take pics, but our sailing pal and photographer Craig Butler snapped this one of Glenn last week - mid lay down into carving 360. Check out all Craig's work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wavespire ....his scenery and ice shots are great!

Windsurfing Patterson Park

Windsurfing at Patterson Park Kingston Oct. 2005 a little wave riding.

Glenn's Cool Turns

Long Weekend Winds

Lots of great sailing over the long weekend here with a strong SW system coming through. 6.0's were the call on Saturday, and anywhere from 5.5 to 6.0's on Sunday. Evan snapped this picture of Dan Michaluk whipping a vulcan on his Gaastra Echo on Saturday.

Family Day

Both Neil (left) and Andrew Devries got out on the water Sunday for a little light air sailing. Andrew (right) tested out is new Gaastra Matrix 6.5 and Bic Techno II 160 that he picked up the day before....and found it much to his liking! Neil (left) took advantage of George Gaudets free land lesson and free water coaching by Glenn and Evan to give windsurfing a try. Neil did a great job, showing people three times his age how it is done!

Not too Shabby

Here is picture of our pal, the irrepresible Barney Huycke showing anyone who wants to learn, a text book forward loop on Lake Huron.

Just not the same without a cute German girl to jump over though, is it Barney? Don't think she has recovered from that one or returned to Barbados yet!

Stoked for 8 knots?

With the past weekends promising forecast fizzling out in a hurry, Glenn grabbed his 6.2 and 180L entry level board and headed out in ultra light wind for a little freestyle action. What was going to be a 45 minute session to get cooled off turned into a 2 hour session of dusting off the lightwind freestyle. Conca tacks, duck tacks, push tacks, rail rides, sail/body spinning, and Glenn's light wind vulcan-ish trick had him stoked and tired after a couple of hours on the water.

Getting out on the big stuff in light winds is a blast.....and sure beats moaning about the lack of wind while sitting on the beach!

Beauties Everywhere

Barbados season 2006 is a wrap, with Mike coming back a few days ago. This is a shot of the Windsurfing Direct Barbados gear....well used this winter for sure!




If you get sick of watching the great wave sailing in front of Silver Sands, there is never a shortage of sites to see!

Secret spot that's not so secret

Glenn and Evan took a little road trip to sail Long Point last fall on a rare NE day. It is a little off the beaten path, with the location a little bit a scene out of Deliverance. However shortly after starting to sail, a few others showed up. The conditions were nice, with 4-5 foot swell and lots of backside riding and some nice jumping.

Where do we sail?

Have you played with Google Earth? It is a great way to check out your local sailing spots.

Here is a file with some of the places we windsurf.

Google Earth File Lake Ontario Windsurf Spots

Tabou Windstyler Longboard

Length: 325cm, Width: 72cm, Volume: 220ltr














Erin (Mrs. Matt Pritchard) chillin' on the Windstyler!













We are starting to receive pictures of the new Windstyler from Tabou. After over a year of development by famed shaper Fabien Vollenweider (as he perfected many prototypes) Tabou has just released the optimal longboard shape .

Mike and Glenn sailed a prototype last fall in Cocoa Beach, and it is a blast. Feels like a classic longboard (including freestyle) in light winds, but planes and totally rips in next to no wind. We are dying to sail it in local light wind waves and will report as soon as we have! (note: Wahines in bikinis not included!)

Lakeshore Crew

The Lakeshore Crew of Vlad, Gord, Jim, John, Rob, Dave et al. sent this pic from the deck of the Hatteras house. Nice to see lots of Gaastra sails, and heard that good wind and good times was had by all.

However.....

Do I even want to ask about the Nyquil, Girls gone Wild stickers, and "Support Strippers", or does "what happens in Hatteras, stay in Hatteras"?

Sobering

A picture that will never be duplicated........

Evan took a couple of pictures of Glenn to show the conditions they had at the Outlet Beach on Sunday. Good waveriding and jumping. Strong winds when they were up. But the wind would back off for 20 minutes at a time after the clowds went through.