The proposal!

It was fun to have Ayrlea and Andrew visit the Launch Pad. Ayrlea’s father Dana had had some lessons over the last two years and proposed that they come for an afternoon session. Dana and his wife Katie actually looked after their grandson so that mom and dad could have a little time together to enjoy the windy north east corner of Georgian Bay.

We walked around the new Launch Pad building looking out toward Bigsby island. Little did I know that their marriage proposal had been made out on the water very close to where I proposed to my wife Jennifer!

But back to the windsurfing lesson. They came out to the point and we discussed the wind which was an unusually low 5 to 7 knots. We spent a good amount of time on the wobbly simulator getting comfortable. Most of it came back to Ayrlea very quickly after her summer camp windsurfing experiences. Most of the sailing terms (upwind / downwind) were new to Andrew, but he caught on quickly as well. I put Andrew on the Fanatic Viper HD with the old North Ice 4.2 sail. Ayrlea got the smaller Fanatic Viper 80 with the newer and smaller Duotone 3.2 Now sail.

Ayrlea quickly recalled all of her muscle memories and was able to consistently tack and stay up wind of the point. I had her start doing some jibes for fun to add to her skills.

Andrew had couple of good back-and-forth runs. I towed him upwind once so the two of them could both windsurf close to each other. We had lovely constant chatter and communication on the bbTalkin bluetooth headsets. They both windsurfed under their own power right back to the point and stepped off gracefully. What a nice moment for a wonderful couple.

A couple of selfies and then it was time to learn a bit more about wing foiling. I set up the WeCANfoil demo gear at the point and had them both hold onto the wing. We talked about the evolution of windsurfing, kite boarding and now wing foiling. I got the sense that they’re going to spend some more time windsurfing and then start thinking about the joys of foiling.

Thanks Dana proposing that they come over for a session and I’m looking forward to the next time we windsurf together. Judging by their very kind google reviews, they had a great time!