Retro Day

Light SW winds blowing today. No chance of any windsurfing. That's what I thought, until Gary arrived around noon, with a 20 year old Mistral Malibu, complete with the original sail. The board had been gathering dust at his brother's farm for years. We rigged it up and took it for a spin. The board was very tippy and the sail was not much better. With equipment like that, I'm not surprised that so many people who tried windsurfing, gave it up after the first time. Anyway, we had fun, took a couple of pics, and probably wouldn't have been in the water with a regular board...

A Busy Friday...

Well, Friday was a really busy day. Met up with Mike and Grant at 2:00pm at Bluffer's Park. Admired Mike's new Coreban Wood SUP. Tried out the Waterproof Camera in the Lake, Surfed for 4 1/2 hours, broke a toe, and sold my Olympus FE-340 Camera. It's a lot different handling a camera in the water, and gives quite an interesting perspective to the shots. Maybe next time I'll leave the surfboard on the shore so I have just one thing to concentrate on. Pity about the toe, but at least I managed to bend it back to where it was meant to be before it all swelled up...

Testing the Camera...

I figured I would take the Waterproof Camera down to the Lake for an underwater test, but after last Sunday's SUP paddle I reconsidered. Although I wore a 5/4/3 wetsuit and was pretty toasty in it, my bare feet were cold. The water temperature in Lake Ontario is now 12˚C and can't compare to the water in the hot-tub, which is 38˚C. It was a little unnerving immersing quite an expensive camera, that doesn't even look very waterproof, into the water. Anyway, it passed the test with flying colours as you can see from the picture of the handsome devil on the left. Easy with the comments, please...

End of Summer Surfboard Sale...

Surf Ontario is having an "End of Summer Surfboard Sale." Board prices start at $399 from the following manufactures. NSP, Seven Fish, Webber, Aloha, Blue, and Walden Surfboards.
Orders and Payment need to be in by Thursday the16th of Sept 2010 to take advantage of these prices. All prices exclude taxes and shipping.
If you are interested contact them for more details...

Another Lake Erie Trip...

Got a call from Mike saying that the Surf was up on Lake Erie, so we headed back to the same spot that we went to on our previous trip. Strong winds and big waves made for a fun afternoon. I took a break after about an hour and shot some video and a few pictures before getting back into the water. The came out OK, considering the strong wind and the fact that I couldn't stop shivering from the cold. Quite a few surfers, kite boarders and a windsurfer showed up and took advantage of the conditions. Even Ryan, who had driven all the way up from NJ to surf the Lakes was there. Click here for the Pics and Videos. Looking forward to the next trip. Man, that was great...

An Underwater Camera...

Had "Camera Envy" after seeing Mike and Sonia's waterproof cameras and the shots they were taking with them, so I went shopping on Sunday afternoon. Got a great deal on an Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 and 2, 2gig xD cards. This will come in pretty handy for snorkelling in Cuba in November, and for SUPing, surfing and kayaking in the lakes. I've been a little wary of taking my good cameras for a swim, all except for the $10 GoPro of course. Now all I need is for the water to warm up, and a floating wrist strap...

Pier Jumping...

After a couple of email and phone messages on Saturday morning, we decided to head out to Cobourg Pier. Arrived there to find a couple of surfers already in the water. The strong winds and big waves crashing into the pier made the jump quite hazardous, but it was a lot better than the long paddle out from the beach. You just had to time your jump right! We even made the evening news as you can see on this CTV video. There are more pics in the Cobourg album. Great long rides made for a good day, and it was nice to see friends that I hadn't seen for a while. Later, on the way home, we stopped in at Bond Head and met up with Mike and Grant from Surf Ontario who were surfing and SUPing there. I had been wondering where they had got to...

Lake Erie...

Got a call from Mike last Friday inviting me to join him and Sonia for an afternoon of surfing at an undisclosed location on Lake Erie. We left Toronto in the Surf Ontario van around 2:00 pm and were in the water around 4:00pm. The wind and waves picked up all afternoon, the water was warm and the surfing was good. Probably around 12 surfers in the water at one stage. We left as the sun was setting. Arrived home at 10:00pm. More pics here. Tons of fun...

A Nice Surprise...

It looked like the wind was picking up around 5:00 pm yesterday, so I jumped on the bicycle and rode down to the Lake to check it out. Saw a couple of whitecaps, so decided to load up the Surfing / Windsurfing trailer. Loaded up the surfboard as well, just in case the wind decided to shut off. I wanted to have all the bases covered. Got back to the beach, the wind had died, but a decent sized, glassy little wave had started breaking on the sandbank just to the left of the Gazebo. Had it all to myself for an hour, just me and a bunch of curious onlookers! No pics of the surf, but met up with Lynn and her camera on the walk back...