Day 1. Tuesday July 2nd
I was excited to get to Kingston for the first day of the WeCANFoil clinics. However, the weather was glassy calm for our first 5 PM to 8 PM public demo sessions. On land, there was a good roundtable discussion about foiling. Coaches Jonathan and Anna did a great job.
There was a pretty big group and so I went out and helped on one of the two ribs (rigid inflatable boats) that WeCANFoil had available. WeCANFoil director Agustin Ferrario was on our boat and helped driving as we taught students on what to expect and then how to foil behind the boat.
There was a variety of skills and everyone enjoyed their time on the water. The last foiler Aug managed to do an amazing five minute run. It became clear that one of the success factors for foiling behind the boat was actually to foil way out beside the boat. You can see in the photos how far off to the side the successful foiler is.
Looking forward to a windier forecast for the next few days?
Day 2 - Wednesday July 3
Day two of the WeCANFoil Kingston adventure started with a lot more wind than the day before. It was a solid 15 kn and the plan for early in the day was to get some photos of Anna and Johnathan on the WeCANFoil windfoil gear.
Aug asked whether I could sail one of the demo windfoil kits and keep up with Anna and Jonathan and be part of their photo shoot? I accepted and was excited to be put on a brand new Severne Alien 145L windfoil board and 5.7m sail.
We rigged up and started heading up wind sailing back-and-forth. The waves however made it challenging to get a shot of all three of us at the same time from the very bouncy boat. Anna suggested we sail way up to Wolf Island. I agreed although I was already starting to feel tired.
I followed Anna upwind and she is amazing. We got some great on the water shots of the three of us foiling. The wind turbines in the background are a nice touch. I had a very nice downwind run getting more and more comfortable on the gear. There were still some messy reflected waves out in front of the grassy rigging area. It was a good call that we had launched from within the harbor.
After that two hour and 25 km session I decided to try some wing foiling. The 5m wing wasn’t enough to get me going in the choppy waters by the rigging area so I decided to head out through the harbor. After a whole bunch of tacking heading back up wind got Harbour I was still never able to get on the foil. I was pretty tired and a little frustrated getting back in.
I went to get some sushi and the help with 5 to 8 PM demos. We decided to take two ribs out with the couple of people we had. There was a good range of skills and Henry was a very good boat driver. He also gave a good demo of the gear. There was now no wind so we tried some tow foiling sessions for each of the students to get them a bit familiar with how the wingfoiling gear feels on the water. I was excited to have taught Sail Canada IT guru Owen!
Here's what a typical demo session (rainy but no thunder) looked and sounded like...
Day 3- Thursday July 4
I had a good morning getting some errands done and got to the skippers meeting at 12 noon. Max Robinson arrived from Toronto so was exciting to have him there to help with some of the demos. There wasn’t any wind in the afternoon so I went and did more errands, including getting tow ropes for the WeCANFoil boats.
Max gave a great presentation at 5pm and then we all headed out on the boats. I had seven people on my rib to do tow foiling. It proved to be a challenge getting the beginners outside of the wake. We did have one very successful foiler and most were stoked to try it again realizing that getting up on your very first try is quite difficult.
Scott, Martin and Marco were the names I recall on my boat and all were proficient at getting themselves taxiing in both directions with a few longer runs standing up for part of their demo time. We then went to try actually foiling behind the boat, which was much more challenging today with yesterday's leftover swell and waves compared to two days ago when it was classy and calm.
Day 4 - Friday July 5
Friday started with the opening ceremonies for the racing weekend, but there wasn’t enough wind to race so we mainly hung out at Portsmouth and got ready for the Friday night WeCANFoil demos.
I had a good conversation with Ryan Kelly at Sail Canada about teaching, insurance and running a windsports school. Sail Canada does see Wingfoiling as a growth opportunity. I also had some great chats with Max, Jonathan and Anna about Sail Canada / WeCANFoil curriculum going forward.
Max and Anna lead the racers in a wonderful roundtable (board meeting?).
At 5pm Max gave a great intro to winging for the people who had assembled and joined for the demo.
Jonathan and Anna took the WindFoilers out and Max and I each took a boat with a couple of WingFoil beginners.
We finished the lessons and had a nice barbecue/Mexican dinner at August's place and compared more notes and coaching ideas. Saturday is another day of WeCanFoil coaching but I don't think I'll be part of that as I'll be Windfoil racing as part of Foil Kingston.
WeCANFoil suprised me by offering 2 wingfoiling and 1 windfoiling complete kits for me to use at the Launch Pad as demo gear for the summer. Glad I brought the trailer.
WeCANFoil is definitely living up to its goal of getting people out on the water trying foiling. Beyond excited for the LaunchPad to be a WeCANFoil demo hub!
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