2022-06-16 Foiling Frenzy

We are starting to get into our normal routine.  Brad and Blaine went to Dog River for Coffee, and then we all met at Bette's for breakfast. Sherry came out to say hi and welcome us back!

Blaine and Brad then hit Sailworks so Blaine could pick up his new board!  I went to ProMotion to pick up my new wetsuit and drop off my old one so they can do some repairs to it.

The call for the day was the event site.  Who would have believed a few years ago, that the Event Site would be our preferred sailing site.... and who would have believed that there would be almost no one windsurfing at the site.  Almost everyone is on foils, either Windsurf Foiling, Kite Foiling, or Wing Foiling.

I put my Windsurf Foil Board on the grass with a "For Sale" sign on it.  A few people stopped to look, but I didn't get any bites....

For Sale

Kent was rigging when I got there.  I got out my wing board and started to inflate my 5.0 wing.  I got it partially inflated, and I could tell something wasn't right as the left side of the leading edge wasn't inflating properly.  I stopped pumping it up and went over to look.  There was a soft spot in the leading edge.  I tried to massage it to get it to fill in, but I later learned that this was a mistake.  BOOM!  The bladder blew and all the air leaked out.  Damn!

I packed it up again and went looking for a repair shop.  Big Winds, directed me to Air Time which is on Oak Street just before the Subway.  The fellow there told me if he could patch the bladder he may have it by tomorrow, but if the bladder needs to be replaced it wouldn't be ready until mid next week.  Damn! Damn!

I got back to the Event site at about 1:00.  Blaine, Brad, and Kent were all out on their 5.2 Flyers and looking like they were having fun!  Big Jim was in the process of putting together his foil and rigging.  Blaine was loving his new 115l board and Kent was tuning his foil trying 1 degree and 1/2 degree shims to see which jibes best.  He really has his jibes nailed, and with his new foil is also going much faster than any of the rest of us!

I rigged my lawn chair, and ate my lunch.  I then got out my 6.0 wing and gave it a try. The wind was quite gusty and from a lot of different directions.  My 6 was a handful.  I did all right on the tacks, but didn't get one jibe.  At least I didn't have to pump to getup foiling!  I am getting quite good and climbing onto the board and standing up because I have to do it on every reach!

Big Jim went out on his 7.0 Flyer, and then came right back and rigged his 6. 

I think we all had a really good day.  I came in to rest and had every intention of going out again, but the wind started to drop off.

Brad and Jim had a great day!

It took a while for everyone to de-rig, and a few beers were consumed during the process.  

I don't think I have mentioned that the river temperature is quite cool, at 52f.  It is certainly colder than any of the Alberta Lakes that we sail in.  They also have an E-Coli alert, but that doesn't seem to be slowing anyone down too much, other than a few of the locals. 

Bruce Peterson arrived and went out on his 8m Flyer and rocketed up the river passing everyone like they were standing still.  When he came back in, he came over to chat and talk about his session.  For those that sail I thought I would add that Bruce sailed from the event site to swell city in 3 tacks.   Quite something to see how fast he can go up wind.

Eventually we were all packed up, so we went back to the condos and took our bikes down to 6th Street for supper.  Chris was there and welcomed us back!  He said the COVID years were very "interesting" for his business, but they had learned a lot and had survived.  The old 100 year plus Japanese Maple that had been a centerpiece of his property was gone.  Apparently it had almost blown over, so they had it removed.  When they were taking it down, they found that it was rotten through it's trunk, and it was a miracle it hadn't fallen down years ago.  He seemed very happy to see us.  Our meal was excellent as usual!  

We rode back to the condo and pretty well went straight to bed.  Between a late night last night, and the sailing (and shopping) today, everyone was very tired.

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