Long Beach (Lake Erie), Ontario

  For the past few days we've been windsurfing at Long Beach Conservation Area on Lake Erie. Its about a 1.5 hour drive for us so its not too often that we go there. Usually, if the wind is blowing South West we head down to Sherkston Shores for the waves, but lately Long Beach has been getting the most wind. Usually when you get to Long Beach you're not alone. We tend to see at least five other windsurfers out, sometimes twice that and a few Kitesurfer. The thing I like about it is that the launch is this little bay thats protected from the waves by a rocky reef. You can get a bit of a wind shadow in there but its not a huge problem. As you get into the bay the water gets pretty flat with some little swells closer to shore making it one of my favourite spots to freestyle. Going out, however, is another story. Chop, chop, and more chop. Hopefully we get some stronger winds in the fall and I can't wait for a nice wave session at Sherkston! Here is a picture of me going for a spock inside the bay.

September 4th, 2011 (Long Beach, Lake Erie)

Spock 540 from Hatteras

Here is a clip of Adam doing a Spock 540 at the Canadian Hole!

All good things come to an end.

 Our trip has been great and we wish it could have lasted longer but all good things must come to an end.  Although the wind wasn't the best it didn't take away from how much fun we had on our vacation. The great thing about Hatteras is that there are a ton of other things to do. We did everything from windsurfing, skim boarding, and surfing to fishing and hiking. Here are a few quick peaks into how our trip looked like. Now we're back in Canada and already we were blessed with some wind. We were greeted with a nice 4.5/4.1 day at Keswick on Lake Simcoe yesterday. Good wind but a little too much chop for freestyle.

Adam coming in from a nice sunset session at the Canadian Hole.

Adam jumping off the huge sand dune just a few miles south of the Wright Brother Memorial.

Me and Adam catching the same wave.

Monster waves in the background, wish it was windy enough to go windsurfing that day.

Some real nice waves on a big swell day.

Skim boarding after surfing at the lighthouse.

Some wind and waves!

Hatteras has been pretty great so far. We got here April 30th at around 8pm and managed to find our house in the dark. The wind was pretty good for a few days but for the past three it's been pretty much dead. This gave us time to try surfing for the first time. First time out we borrowed some boards from our friend Tom Soltysiak and realized how difficult, but very fun, surfing actually was. So the next day we went out to all the windsurf/surf shop we could find and found ourselves some pretty good beginner boards for only $80 (after taxes). So the past few days were spent learning to surf! (Picture on the  Top left: Me catching a fun wave!)

However, the forecast looks pretty nice for the rest of the week, lets just hope it stays that way. We're looking at some nice northern winds then a days break then some southern winds coming in strong. The trip is going great, can't wait to get back out onto the water!

Off to Hatteras!!!

Finally we're all done school! Exams went well and marks or pretty good but now its time to forget about school and get our heads in pure windsurfing mode! We've planned our route and packed the car up to its max. There's no room left so looks like our dog (Pele) will have to hang onto the roof if he wants to come. Ahead of us is 14 and a half hours of pure driving. We'll see everyone thats down there soon!!! 

(Pele waiting to go on the roof)

The Spock 540

I've been doing this move for a while now. This Spock 540 I did at the Hamilton Harbour, Ontario last year. I first landed this trick in Hatteras, North Carolina a year ago. I came into Hatteras with a vulcan going one way and 2 weeks later came back with a Spock going both ways. If you want to learn how to freestyle go to Hatteras, its crazy windy, really shallow and flat water. You'll learn 10 times as fast if your sailing in the right conditions, especially where its windy more than 2 times a week (thats Ontario for you). I'm heading down to Hatteras for 3 weeks soon, my goal is to learn how to grubby both ways, flak-a both ways, try a shaka (really hard move) and some switch stance moves.