2009 Fall Gorge Trip: 2009-09-16-Hatchery-Dougs-Trade Show

I started off the day today at 4:00am. I drove Kent to the Airport for his 7:00am flight. He was much better this morning. The pain seemed to be managable - at least he wasn't flinching or groaning as much.... He seemed to be in relatively good spirits - and, I think looking forward to getting home to Laurna.

I got back to the house again at 6:30 and went back to bed - had a great sleep until around 9:00.

The call for the day was the Hatchery - and possibly out east later in the day.

Winds at the Hatchery were relatively light - most of the guy's were out on 5.6's. Andreas asked me to take some photos, and I thought that if I waited a bit, the wind would kick in, so I spent the first hour taking pictures. He was complaining that he was under powered, but his jumps still looked pretty high to me...

Andreas learning a new trick....

The wind did seem to pick up, so I rigged my 5.6 and went out. Unfortunately after half an hour the wind totally died. It was now 3:00pm. The rest of the guy's were talking about going to Doug's Beach, but I thought I would go to the Windsurfing Trade Show that was going on at the event site.

I packed up and headed out. I ran into Scott Currie, (From Edmonton - Starboard and Savern rep), Declan (from Nitinat - Trident Sports), Phil Soltysiak (Friend from Nitinat and ranked 8th in world freestyle), and Jeff Style.

Scott and Seatrend had all their 2010 boards lined up. The wind started out very light, but continued to build until about 7:00pm. I tried a SUP (Stand up Paddle Board) with a windsurf sail on it - very cool surfing in waves - easy to use, Phil's new concept sail 5.8 (ligher than my 4.2), two sizes of Kode boards, an Atom board (designed to be strapless - very easy to wave sail with), and two sizes of Futuras - a slalom style board - very fast in straight lines. My favourit was the 112l Kode - but I think I would like the 94l Kode if it was a bit windier... I had a great time.

I was first back to the house - the other guy's had a great sail at Doug's. Great day - and great week (except for Kent's accident).

I am now packed up and will be leaving for home tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed the blog.....

Ted