Ripping it Up

A great time with warm temperatures earlier in the day and winds up to 100km an hour generated a decent swell and sizeable waves on Lake Ontario.
Surfers travelled from as far afield as the New Jersey coast to partake in the fun.
Click on the image to see pictures from a couple of different locations.

Rocks, Dec 15

Got out for a couple of waves today. The waves were bigger in the morning, but the swell dropped off in the afternoon when I finally got into the water . It got quite glassy at one stage with some nice rights setting up. Took a couple of pictures, there were 2 guys still out when I left.
I hope somebody else took some better shots!

Rocks, Dec 6

Got out yesterday afternoon at “Rocks” and tried out the new Board and Booties. Feet were pretty toasty for a change and the Board was great. 7 mm mitts and hood kept my other parts warm. It was a balmy -4 degrees! My old Neil Pryde 4/3 that I’ve had for around 12 years felt like I was wearing a straight-jacket. Will have to do something about that next!
There were about 8 guys already in the water when I arrived.

New Booties

Picked up a pair of 7mm Xcel Infiniti Tek round toe booties from Boardsports yesterday. They look and feel great. Finally, no more cold feet! Thanks guys.

The Fish

Picked up a gently used Fish from Bob at Fishstick last Sunday. It’s 6’ 2” x 23” x 3” so should be nice and floaty. Took it to Lake Erie for a 3 day vacation last week, but the wind and waves were a no show. Hopefully I will get to try it out this week on Lake Ontario.

The Cove 2nd November

Kudos to all who braved the 3 degree temperature, and there were a lot of you. My hands froze just taking pictures.
Looked like fun, maybe a clean up session tomorrow? It’s supposed to go up to 16 degrees.
Click here for Pics and Video.

A Fun Day.

A fun session in Lake Ontario yesterday. At one time I counted 20 surfers in the water. Great surfing with some old friends and making some new ones. Check out the great photos taken by Joe Hamilton, who was freezing his ass off while we were having fun. Thanks Joe, we really appreciate it.




Photo courtesy of Joe Hamilton.

Contact Page

I have just updated the “Contact Me” page to include “Captcha”. Hopefully this will reduce the volume of spam messages that pile up in my InBox.

SeaSpecs

My new SeaSpecs arrived in the mail yesterday. I am very impressed with them and should be able to try them out on Friday afternoon, as it’s supposed to blow. Will post a review after Friday.

Port Union Road

Surfed for an hour 4pm-5pm. Waves were 3 ft with the occasional bigger set. Tried out the 7' Becker and got half a dozen decent rides, and have come to the following conclusions:

1. Need bigger waves.
2. Must lose 30 lbs.
3. Need a board with more volume. (Are you reading this Bob?)

Had a blast anyway...

Words by Walma

Words by Walma highlights the writing, editing and other talents of my brother in law, Mark W. Walma. It is also the home of the Phillip Gold mysteries, a series of exciting novels and short stories featuring the lawyer-turned-investigator, Phillip Gold. Pop over to his site for some interesting reading...

The Lighthouse

I was out at Port Union Road all morning. Not bad, probably waist high. At least I got some waves after being skunked at Lawrencetown.
Drove down to Bluffers in the afternoon and saw around 8 guys out. Looked pretty shallow near the shore break.
Check out the pics here.

Briggs & Little

Here you are knitting ladies. The oldest woolen mill in Canada. This should get your needles clicking!
Click on the sign to see the pictures.

Back to Reality

Well, the trip was fun, no waves to be had as Mother Nature didn’t cooperate and the swell was small when we arrived and then just got smaller.
Saw Whales, Bald Eagles, visited Family, drank a lot of beer, ate an astonishing amount of seafood and visited every Yarn Shop on the East Coast including the ones inland!
For you Knitting Fiends, I will be posting pics of Yarn in the next couple of days, so stay tuned. Of course, the pics of waves will be posted first.

Off to the East Coast

Off to the East Coast for 10 days. We will be based in Fredricton. Plan on whale watching at St. Andrews, surfing near Lawrencetown and visiting "Yarn Shops", as Ravelry has become a bit of an obsession, to say the least! There will also be the compulsory visits to all the craft and quilting shops along the way. Looking forward to the lobster and will be posting pictures on our return.

Dungeons (Outer Reef)

Looks like it’s going off.
Read the Full Story here.

Contact Form

I have added a Contact Form to the site, so send me a message...
There is a limit of one attachment per email.

Surf Shop

Our new Surf Shop is now open.
Check it out!!!

SA's Twiggy Baker wins BWA Event.

The Red Bull Big Wave Africa 2008 is over and the official results are in. South Africa's Twiggy Baker has won in 15 to 20 foot waves. The final results are, Twiggy Baker (RSA) in first, Carlos Burle (BRZ) second, Greg Long (USA) third, James Taylor (RSA) fourth, Anthony Tashnick (USA) fifth and Mark Healy (HI) in sixth.
See all the photos here.

Big Wave Africa

The South African Big Wave Africa Event starts on 24th July 2008 at Dungeons, near Hout Bay.



Local
Ian Armstrong, Grant Baker, Chris Bertish, Mickey Duffus, Sean Holmes, Simon Lowe, Andrew Marr, Charles Reitz, Jason Ribbink, David Smith, James Taylor and John White.
International
Carlos Burle, Ross Clarke-Jones, Mark Healy, Greg Long, Peter Mel, Ramon Navarro, Paul Paterson, Tyler Smith, Jamie Sterling, Anthony Tashnick, Ian Walsh and Grant Washburn.

Travel Forum

TravelKind.com has an article and some pictures on Surfing the Great Lakes
My Web Cam and a link to the Origin Web Site are also featured.

iWindsurf Web Cam Link

iWindsurf.com has added a link to my Web Cam. It can be found here.
Looks like a first for Ontario.

Marine Weather Update

Environment Canada has updated the Marine Forecast site.

Another Web Cam Upgrade

I have replaced the iSight with a Sony DCR-TRV110 Camcorder which was donated by Brad. It has a great zoom lens wich results in a much closer and clearer picture of the lake.
It is connected to a Mac Mini via a Sony DVMC-DA1 Hardware Codec Converter.
Check it out on the Web Cam page and feel free to leave a comment.

Camera Tests

I am testing 2 Cameras to replace the iSight Web Cam.
The image on the left is from a CCD Camera with a 12mm fixed lens.
The image on the right is from a Sony CamCorder with a zoom lens donated by Arden.
Now I have to figure out how to put the streaming images onto a web page.

Web Cam Upgrade

Added a Tokina 2X Converter to the iSight.

Web Cam is Working

Finally got the Web Cam working. It is an Apple iSight and I am in the process of adding a 2X Converter to it. Should refresh every 15 seconds. Pointed at Lake Ontario at Port Union Road..

Home Weather Center

I started running Home Weather Center. It records the weather history at Port Union Road. Bluffers Yacht Club has a Weather Station, so I will add that as well.

Weather Station Woes

The Weather Station is suffering the effects of our recent snowstorms. Will have to wait for a thaw, as I'm not going to try to climb onto the roof to fix it.