Wabamun Lake
Kent's Report:
What a couple of days. Yesterday Cam, Jim, and Kent all foiled 5.2 or 5.3 for 2 hours +
Today we had almost a gorge day. Started out foiling 4.5, 4.8, and 4.7.. I could barely hang on to the 4.5 and Cam and Jim were rocking jibes on the bigger sails! It picked up and I foiled 3.8 Cam on 4.2 and Jim finned 4.7…. After a bit of finning Jim moved to 3.7 foiling….
Cam left and Jim and I went out on 5.2’s. quickly moved down to 3.7 for Jim and 4.5 for Kent….
What a day.. still blowing but we had to stop.
Jim's Report
I had the best 3.7 day of my life yesterday. It simply worked great on the foil. I've never not had to worry about how I could get home if it got holey or the wind backed off even just a little with my 3.7. I hated it. Now it's been re-born, it just needed a foil fin. I will now hope for a 3.7 day again soon. Oh ya, sometimes the water start just wasn't happening. So what, the uphaul with a 3.7 is very flattering. It makes me feel very very strong.
Thanks to Kent for the superb gybe clinic. If anyone wants to know how to gybe, just fall in the water, and watch Kent as he soars past port side, then starboard, then portside again, then starboard, then ........................ oh! my neck. I feel so privileged to have this on-the-water clinic when Kent drops by.
Great fun with Cam and Kent, (sailing and looking like Kent with Kents blue and white 4.7 revo) and the Kentster yesterday, and Monday too. Friday isn't looking too bad either?
Have fun out there everyone, and stay safe.
Jim's Update:
I have also mastered "the walk of shame". Yesterday I forgot to mention that while being blown off the water on my 4.7 foiling, I tried the pumpkin and the 4.7. I realized right away that I wasn't coming home on it. Thanks to Kent for the rescue. Kent drove my van to the range road east of me to drag my sorry ass home.
Thanks again Kent.
Alberta Beach
Harold's Report...
Like the Wabamun crowd, Al, Tim, Ross, Mike and I (and in the end, Vadim), had a couple of great days.
Monday Al sailed his 5.5 and his 85 liter board, and I sailed my 5.3 and my 99. Lots of bumping and flying, and some pretty good swells. Ross was the star. Occasionally the swells set up moving to the shore in a series, and I was lucky enough to be in the right place to watch Ross zig zag back and forth on the swells from far out almost to shore. Beautiful.
Tuesday – Ross has given you the lowdown. From a windsurfing (finning?) point of view, I thought it was a blast. Wild gusts, tricky lulls, changing wind directions, chop everywhere and huge swells. It was challenging, but an incredible adrenalin rush, especially on the swells. Tim was on a 5.4, Al was on a 4.8 (and briefly a 4.2), and I was on a 5.3 (until I determined that I couldn’t sail very well with my sail at right angles to my board), then a 4.2 (until I determined that I was too impatient to wait out the lulls) and mostly a 4.7 which was the perfect compromise.
Ross's Report
Today 7m kiting all day, mix of sun and cloud and some decent swell. Finally quit at about 1700, also out of gas and wind still blowing when I left. Probably better kiting than windsurfing at AB.
"finning".......is this some type of foil snobbery.
Reply from Kent....
Yep. We foilers fin only under duress. Sometimes the social pressure to conform and show our fins is just toooooooo much and we have to expose our short side.
Most of the time we just say fuck it and stay above it all.
Sorry ted. No photos at all.
Tim's comment: "Harold won the award for most sails rigged today. I think 4. 4.2-5.2. Up and down, but a great day."
Pigeon Lake
Mike's report:
Decided to keep Blaine company at Pigeon. Sure enjoyed the drive out there versus AB smooth roads versus losing my dental work .😎. Blaine and I arrived within minutes of each other and debated 4.2 or 4.7 for a while deciding on the larger choice ...I took my small board but after a couple of reaches with holes from hell opted for my 95 litre. Variable was definitely the term.
The direction was switching 45 degrees about every five minutes and at times waterstarts were a challenge. I went up to my 5.2 and that was working much better but the wind gauge was reporting gusts at 27 mph. Yet there were still holes you could not water start in.
Blaine was on his foil for a while and was going from slogging to oh shit but kept the kit in the water for the most part. .. Brad showed up after babysitting duty to a decent stronger session on his 85 and 4.7 and we ripped it up for a while but Blaine decided to do a downwinder for some reason and we watched him get smaller to the east then finally made it to shore.
Just before Brad and I got caught out with almost zero ..painful slog home with a couple of really dicey water starts .. Brad decided to go out on his foil for a session but Blaine and I decided to pilot the hottub with a bit of aiming fluid to ease the task watching Brad until he joined us ...whereupon we solved all the worlds problems .... by the time we packed to leave at about 9:00 the lake was getting glassy.
Slave Lake
Gerry's Report:
Blaine seems to be making a habit of the downwind session ending with a walk. I guess if he's doing the whole circuit while keeping ahold of his gear he's learning. :-)
Yesterday, after the wind gusting 50 all night, I decided I would cut my grass. Blaine was complaining it was looking a little shabby. I then headed for Eddies as on straight west winds it is usually my call.
The airport reading said the wind was west 40 to 60km. Decided to rig a 5.3 and take the 105 stubby to start to make sure I could get off the beach. The water is high and it was chest-deep at the willows and the wind is usually lighter by shore. I managed to get going while dodging deadhead sticks etc. and the board kept sliding out. This usually happens when I haven't sailed the Stubby for a while, after having been mostly sailing my Roberts.
I picked my way out through the break, sliding out the back end over every wave then and correcting it. Once through the break I looked down to see I was dragging a ton of weeds, hence the spin out. I dropped in to clear the weeds and from then on probably could go no more than 100ft without picking up weeds. Weeds and weed clumps were everywhere and the Tri Fin really picks them up.
The swell was huge and smooth outside. Proper equipment outside would be 4.8 and 85L, but probably would have wound up in the willows trying to get out. I decided this wasn't going to work, so drove home and rigged up there. West Wind doesn't really fill in till about a half-mile out so I rigged a 5.6 and my Roberts 23. That worked out OK. Powered the first half mile the overpowered after that, but doable. Sailed about an hour till I saw a huge black cloud coming with a wall of rain and called it quits.
Most of the debris appears to have flushed through at my place. Only saw 1 tree and nicked 1 stick. Weeds started out pretty thick at the wind line, then seemed to be mostly gone by the time I quit
Dried Meat Lake (DML)
Ted's Report:
I had three great sessions on my 5.6 Hucker but probably should have been on my 4.8 or 4.2. I started out on my shark but then switched to my Stubby. Unlike Gerry, I found the stubby was pretty good at not picking up the weeds. I didn't have any problem with it, but need a weed fin on my Shark with the longer fin.
The swell was really good for DML, and the wind was right down the lake and very solid - either strong, really strong, or stupid strong. There were a few times when I had trouble doing water starts, and several jibes were just a total blow out (literally). I stopped well before the wind quit. My arms are a few inches longer than this morning, and I don't know if I will be able to walk tomorrow. I had a long session in the hot tub after sailing - but unfortunately, no one to share stories with.
Louise was good enough to take some photos...
