VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

What a great weekend! Saturday blew around 15 knots and I spent the day trying to figure out my jibes and water starts. After five hours on the water, and watching BWD and the pile of other experienced windsurfers get it right, I headed back to camp to rethink things. I got some great advice from my friend and a few others on the beach and was ready for the next day. Sunday started off with a great single prop air show and at around noon there was enough wind to go out. I decided to focus on water starts. It picked up to around 15 knots and I headed out. After floating down the beach a couple times, the wind picking up to 20 knots, and getting more advice on technique I finally figured it out! ten water starts that afternoon had me hooting and hollering on the water. On one of my runs to the far side I pulled up on the rocky beach for a quick breather. I looked around in the trees and noticed a mother black bear and her two cubs coming down for a look-see. Well - that was my cue to get on my board. Perhaps the quickest beach start I have ever done! All in, it was a perfect weekend. I can't wait to get up there again. As a side note, I am extremely impressed with the friendliness of all the people I met there. Everyone was keen to offer help and advice. Thanks for that.

See you on the water.

Good going Stephen!

Alright Stephen!! I remember well the first consistent waterstarts and how it transformed windsurfing from a survival session with burnt out shaking arms too tired to slog in after a bunch of failed waterstarts/uphaul crashes --- to pure excitement.

I yahoo'd myself a few times this weekend, trying to make up for Bobson's absence - sometimes when I jibed well, sometimes just going fast, sometimes just feeling great and dunking backwards just for the hell of it.

Got to the lake very late Sat, but squeezed in an hour on the big board to get the first fix. Roger cooked a great dinner, then we nattered with Rob and Sandra and friends for an hour, then we joined our neighbour's fire and made new friends - Jeff Goodyear and family, and Philippe and family from Saltspring and their friend Yves. Incredible starry night with no moon till after midnight.

Sunday morning woke up to a seemingly a non-stop parade of fish boats heading past the camp, then had a nice lie-in reading a novel, and a pancake breakfast. Tinkered and wandered the camp wishing I could buy almost every piece of equipment for sale, and watched the airshow, and yacked till the wind came up at about noon. Started off on the big stuff, then Roger noticed a big crack in the Adagio, which put it on the beach to drain. By then the wind had come up enough to sail the new (old) Seatrend Accelerator, 89 litres of fun! Just enough wind to make it go with a 5.8. Made about 1/2 my jibes on the new board, none of them pretty, but didn't fall, which is a big improvement for me! Sailed until there was just enough time to make/eat dinner before dark.

Had a great campfire session with the neighbours, plus a bunch of new people that had filled in the empty spots on the beach. Philippe had been telling us how great it was to sail to the bottom of the lake, with clean wind and waves and no-one to crash into, no one around, you don't even have to look to see its clear before a jibe. He and Yves had a very funny story of going together to sail the bottom end that day - yep, Yves crashed right in front of Philippe, who jumped over him but did some sail shaping with his fin.

Next morning, more early Ditida?ht and sports fishing boats, then Jeff invited us to come down to Hobiton River in their zodiac for a little side trip. A great change of scene, and got back just as the wind picked up at 1. Not enough wind for the Accelerator (though Phillipe was sailing his, but he is a light wind meister) so we borrowed some duct tape and cowboy sealed the cracks in the Adagio and sailed it anyway.

Saw two groups of elk on the drive out.

Could it be that was it for the year? I sure hope that there is a warm spell this fall and we'll get some more Nitinat magic.

Nitinaht Long Weekend ... Highlights ...

A special treat on Sunday there were TWO vintage YAK's for the airshow. That was very, very cool!

Bears everywhere. Saw one coming into the vilage, one in the soccer field, and one going out of the village.

I had such a great time on Sunday and Monday (love that Retro 7.5!!) that I phoned in sick on Tuesday am. It blew 5.5 to 6.5 from about 12:30 until I had to pack up to catch the 7:00 pm ferry (got the 9 instead because it was so busy).

Saw some sailing buddies for the last time this year probably.

The Kingfisher maintaining a vigil on the log watching for dinner.

The sound of the wind in the trees ...

Mike