VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

i just checked over my personal statistics for 07 summary. overall it was a pretty lame year sailing wise for me, my days dropped from 30 down to 20. i had 11 sessions on my wave board and 10 on the big 97l. my most used sail was the 6.2 with 7 sessions. my most sailed spot was columbia with 5 sessions.

07 was the year i got skunked on my oregon coast trip, then there were all those rainy summer weekends. windy days on the north island never cooperated with my summer work trips either. Hilights of the year were sailing a sweltering 4.7 summer morning at pipers and a couple beautiful JR sessions. also exploring new launches at mactush park and woss lake. lowlights were attending kids birthday parties on glorious windy days.

for 08 i am going to focus on staying healthy and strong so i can be ready when the opportunities to sail arise. so far i am off to a good start. Hope you all have a great year!

Well, buddy, you weren't alone. Yes I got more sailing days than you but a lot of those were very lame. 85 vs. ~130 the year prior. Tons of big board stuff but a few great days too.

Apart from that I had lotsa personal health issues, family issues, personal health issues and more than a few personal health issues Then I got a new job (against my will and bending to family pressure....from both family sides, do you believe it!) and spent my entire summer in shitty Ditchmond redundancy "training" for it. Got coast skunked on my expensive, lonely trip to the Oregon lands but sailed lotsa Gorge so not entirely a skunk. I cancelled trips to Maui, Cabarete, California and Baja in rapid succession over the fall. Spent no time at all at the lake all summer or fall, my rec properties at Cow Lake cost me tons and were NEVER used once.

On the bright side I'm still alive, my 3 kids are getting self sufficient, I got another decent very few kiting sessions to progress along and got into some great KA gear trading which ensures I have nice sails to use My new job is self-directed mostly and very flexible and I am grateful for the MM5 and the webcams/latest reports so I can juggle my work schedule around sailing most days

For 08 I hope to see lots of smiling faces in the sun at various beaches. After yet another year of almost destroying my body trying to learn forward loops and in the meantime forgetting how to rotate backies, I'll be glad to remember how to waterstart they way I'm regressing. On the up side I was trying monkeys in huge swells at Island View without much fear today my mini claim of success and.... you get stupider with age, not wiser.

Surprised I got as many sessions in, given I was working a lot. Ended up sailing Ross Bay and Cook half as much again as Nitinat; even Willows as much. Only 10 days instead of previous years 17 at the Nat. Big gear got me out lots of evenings where I would have been skunked otherwise.

Not progressing as fast as I should be skills-wise for 76 sessions, but I'm having tons of fun anyway, so I don't really care! Someone told me once that skills that required something like 200 repetitions to learn 'muscle memory' at 15 need 5,000 when you are 60 so maybe my progress is OK.

I'm committed to at least learning planing duck gybes this year!

Interesting year ... Single with 2 live in teenagers ... Oh well , I didn't have much hair left anyway !!! New years resolution (a first for me): Get my passport in order & start in with the warm climate vacations. 2007 kite stats: Island view 28 days kiting . Gordos 28 days kiting & 1 day windsurfing ... I didn't log my 1 day @ Nitinat . (oops) ... Island view was a disappointment last year, but this year I've been out every day !!! Thanks Russian Dewd for this log & Dave for the site. The JL report lives on ... Best wishes to all ... Play safe but play ...

Hi all,

Basically 2005, 2006 and 2007 = no sailing for me due to work and MBA issues. But 31 ski days in 2007 and 10 ski days so far this season are keeping me sane....just finished 6 powder days in a row at Manning Park.

For 2008.....I am coming up to my first summer off as a university instructor.....April - Sept. = no job. And my 2 boys are old enough to come to the Nat alone with me, so I should get back into this year.

I also just bought a Kona on eBay for mellow Hornby cruising.....and a 4.2 SuperFreak for some high wind stuff.

So 2008 should be a good year?

KC