Richard Can Foil!

Richard is an excellent watersports athlete. In the past, I’ve taught him windsurfing which he took to very well with his sailing and wake boarding background.

But today was his first time to try wing foiling. I had the WeCanFoil foil demo gear out at the point and went over all the basics both on the pad on the rock and then the simulator. He took to the wing very quickly.

We put on the bbTalkin headsets and I went out for a demo run back-and-forth run. I went through the steps of taxiing, standing up, getting power into the wing and ultimately foiling.

Then it was Richard’s turn. He taxied back-and-forth standing up several times. He also caught one gust and felt a tiny bit of lift. A couple more taxis back-and-forth and he was feeling very comfortable

Of course while I was checking how windy it was he got up on the foil! He had a nice hundred metre run while I was fiddling with the phone and wind meter. I saw it all with my eyes but am very frustrated that I missed getting a photo or video. He even touched back down and managed to stay on the board.

So a very successful first time wing foil!

The above image is my attempt at photoshopping him up on the foil.

At that point, however he was pretty tired and there were no other favourable gusts coming. Richard cruised back downwind to the dock practising jibes. We were both stoked for him to have gotten up on the foil on his very first time! Checking out the construction at the Launch Pad made for a very nice end to the day.

Our corner of the Bay was the windiest spot - again. I was reading 10-12 knots while Richard was out, but the Tempest station showed up to 16 knots. Is our normal thermal wind even more powerful right now with the fire damage exposed rock visible in the satellite image?

Thanks very much WeCanFoil for the demo gear. What an exciting time to be growing foiling in Canada and at the Launch Pad.