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The ninety degree days were wearing me down! Couldn’t wait to see what the cold front would bring. All eyes were on Lake Ontario and even the weathermen got this one right. 20-30 N/NW winds. The local news reported that the holiday festivities at Durand Beach were devastating to the environment due to litter from party goers, five tons of refuse had to be removed! I wasn’t sure just what I’d find on arriving to our favorite launch spot at Durand.
I hate being first to the beach because you have fewer data points to make a call on your setup. So I was please to see Keith had arrived first at Durand and gave me my first data point. Keith rigged a 5.9 on his 105 Simmer wave board. The meter was hitting 28 in the gusts and I debated between which sail to rig and finally settled on my 5.7 Ezzy Elite with my 95 Fanatic Freewave. Keith and I stuck with these choices for the rest of the day! AND the beach looked awesome, I flagged down a beach employee driving by in the clean-up truck to tell him what a great job they had done!
Soon everyone arrived and it was a decent turn-out and great to see all the guys. Doug, Gary, Ken, Bill and Art were in attendance. Where was Issac? Joe and Ted were in the gorge living life large in the nations greatest windsurfing mecca. Fair to say they didn’t miss anything. Pete Woodam was there too but wasn’t on his windsurfer and I’m sure he wished he was as he lost his kite board and it is still missing. The wind was fairly steady and even blown gybes were saved by a quick pump from the sail. Occasional directional shifts allowed punching way upwind which was then rewarded by ripping reaches to get back. There was a fair amount of chop and I found myself hunting for ramps to get air and swells to gybe on. I saw Doug pull off a beautiful planing duck gybe, too bad it wasn’t on film. He pulled out his drone and took some aerials of the boys playing in the froth.
You never know when your next session will be during the summer doldrums so I just didn’t want to leave. And today I am paying for it. Everything hurts! Til next time.
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Great post Scott. I was delayed in doing a post and was glad to find this great one.
I was formulating a title in my head before the session was even over. I was going to go with:
Durand 7.6.18. The Return of Keith…….and Ken, and Bill, and Pete W.
As Scott mentioned, it was awesome to arrive and have Keith already on the water and having success. Work and figuring out new gear had transpired against Keith in some recent sessions, but he had it all figured out and working today. Success bread confidence and he was ripping around in the wind the whole day.
Scott was like the new dog at the dog park though. He was all over the place spreading his scent and buzzing buddies with unmatched speed and exuberance all day. The big dog!
Ken was shining on the water as well with his, 6.5 and getting a ton of planing time and jumps…and who was he joined by but the Ponch to his John, Windkid Billy! (Crafty CHiP’s TV reference there). Bill is recently a man with more responsibility (or a sense of it) so we haven’t seen him as much, but he promises he is keeping an eye on the forecast at all times to try to score a session.
Gary, Art and I rounded out the windsurfers planing and playing in the wind. Kites included Nick A. and Pete W. (who lost a board out there, in case you find one).
I tracked my session with Waterspeed on my Apple Watch, and travelled a whopping 28 miles on the water during this session. Top speed of 27.1 which came early in the session since the swell built through the day. Scotty was on the water way longer than me, so he must have travelled a distance in the low 30’s.
As mentioned I did pull off three duck jibes on the inside riding my 5.8 and 95L board. Local historian H2O Rick has a pick of Dan Scorza ducking at Durand on a classic Gaastra MW5 that has been in my brain, and recently seeing Eric M. perfecting his has got me motivated. Keith witnessed the first one, and then later I pulled off two in a row to finish the session off. The first one was nearly planing, the others not so much..but these were good enough to be called duck jibes if you ask me.
I also got the drone out and chased Keith, Art, and Gary around for a bit (Pete too, I think). GoPro as well. Some edited footage to follow soon.
Windydoug
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Doug, I’m so stoked that you were hitting duck jibes. Can’t wait to see it. I think they are soooooo much fun to do and to watch. There was a guy, Marty, from Canada a couple years ago who came to Hamburg, and all he did was duck jibes that day. I watched him from the hill for like an hour that day when I was done riding and decided that I had to learn it. The move just happens so quickly and snappy that I love it. Saves me a lot of energy when I’m tired too. I hope we get a day to ride together.
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Eric, I think I may have been there that day. Marty was riding one of the beautiful Hot Sails Maui “Maplefreak” sails that Windsurf Canada did a group buy on. He also bought/sold a used board that day too.
He was duck jibing on the inside all day long. Marty is the Windmil guy right? His blog or website I believe.
I had duck jibed my 6.6 very ugly and non planing a few times before, but it was so much easier with my 5.8 this past Friday. Still need to dial the sail throw in better…too much hand grabbing and moving after the flip still.
Wd
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