Les Roches
5.0 day at Les Roches (Lake Champlain) Messy setup due to a SW wind. Funny the Meters were showing South??? Good 4 hours of sailing. Nice weather and an easy drive now that you can access the 30 and bypass a lot of traffic on the South shore. Mercier bridge was open even though they are hauling up parts from this crumbling monster.
Lots of fun sailing on the Water with Stephan. What a great guy, always smiling and sharing the stoke. He is now also video taping us with his GoPro and even stops to burn a cd for me in the car. Much appreciated!
http://artzy.photostockplus.com/slideshow_all_896569
Windsurfing Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene
If you live in Montreal or possibly much of the rest of Canada, you know this summer has been brutal for windsurfing. I have been cranky and wound up and desperate, desperate for a fix.
Finally a forecast is born and Hurricane Irene is headed our way with Tropical Storm force! Sailing spot choices for today, St Zotique, Vaudreuil or (NDIP) Notre Dame de L’Ile Perrot. Reports came back early that Vaudreuil was a zoo. Parking full and cars lined up the road. Not looking good. Pierre was at St Zotique and it was too North so we headed for NDIP. Big Vezz had spoken with the park people to arrange parking inside the “Parc historique Pointe du Moulin” for us.
Hurricane Irene getting started
We crossed above the tall grass and sailed up to clear the point and bolted across the lake towards Isles de La Paix. I was on a 4.2 lit up but the water condition where still so-so. As we neared the island things started to look better with some small but clean swell. Then I remembered Big Vezz telling us to sail lower for the larger waves. Jack, Amine and I were all a bit West of Ile aux Plaines on our first tack across and started to head about 200 meters downwind towards the Red Buoy (WA38) NIRVANA!!! Beautiful clean glassy waves… a real treat. Now Hurricane Irene was pumping up her furry.
Jack Marzenski ripping up Hurricane Irene
We all headed back to rig down. 3.7 for me. 3.4 for Jack and 2.9 for Amine. The waves continued to build. It’s a long reach but Irene was not slowing down. We ripped the shreds out of the waves for a few more hours until Irene pretty much blew everyone off the water. I could easily have put my 3.4 on at the end but was having so much fun ripping the tops of the waves and nuclear speeds. The wind made for impressive pray action and liquid smoke was everywhere. Indeed it was raining as well lol. TO bad non of the photos show the sailing spot in the channel. All you see is white so no pictures form where the real action was happening L Hopefully Big Vezz will have something. He was onsite with his camera as well. First time sailing here and I honestly think this was my best day ever onSt Louis. And it was on a NE!!!
This is how you feel after you ride a Hurricane!
Thank you Irene!
On the way home as we where driving along a massive explosion in front of the car momentarily blinded us with a massive CRAAACK. I though we had been very nearly hit by lightening. Sparks were flying and splatting off the ground and t hen again KA BOOM!!! We pulled over and saw it was a set of power line transformers exploding. We stopped called 911 and kept the camera ready… KA BOOM. I caught it on camera!!!
Check our all the pics with this slideshow: http://artzy.photostockplus.com/slideshow_all_887940
More links from Hurricane Irene
http://www.akvq.ca/photo/dsc00317-8?context=latest
http://gtj.malavent.com/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=55&blogId=2
Summer sesh in Sandbanks (yup – still worth the drive)
Another summer trip to Sandbanks, Amine, Jack and I enjoyed a light day that still provided plenty of wave action and fun! Jumping was excellent and even thought conditions were small we still had lots of steep waves to practice aerials off. Its amazing how the waves pitch up and make for steep ramps even when the wind is onshore. We sailed at Sandbanks beach. Not much current today so getting out was easy. Last time I was there on similar conditions the beach had a huge rip current (strange). Just goes to show you never know what you are going to get at Sandbanks but its always fun!!! Surprising amount of guys sailing at Macs… It was super clean as usual but looked really small. Then again it often looks that way and once on the water its great fun as well. Little slide show from our day: http://artzy.photostockplus.com/slideshow_all_877639
See all the pics here: http://artzy.photostockplus.com/event_877639
APVM Kids Day-on-the-Water
Beautiful day over at the Club Nautique de Chateauguay for the APVM Kids-on-the-Water Day.
See all the pics here: http://artzy.photostockplus.com/slideshow_all_857365
Lessons all day for the boys and girls (Pretty equal ratio btw ) who had fantastic learning conditions. Sunny, flat, sandy little bay with 4-8 knots rolling onshore. Lots of volunteers present to give the little guys and girls one-on-one training.
My boy Noam and my girl Mila both had great sessions as did my wife who gets credit for most of the pictures today (Thanks babe x). Seems the windsurfing bug is running strong in the family… can’t wait to get everyone planning, jumping and slashing!
A big thanks to all the volunteers from the APVM for making this day a reality and a real treat! All the kids were seriously awesome out there. All of them showing pride and determination in these perfect conditions.
Thank you again to all the organizers. I know all the kids are feeling the stoke tonight and are going to sleep with dreams of grandeur 
See all the pics here: http://artzy.photostockplus.com/slideshow_all_857365
Check out the APVM website for more info: http://www.apvm.ca/evenements5.htm
Lac St Louis Freestyle
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Best of Sandbanks (Lake Ontario)
A collection of shots from the last few years . Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/78SJk8XPthI
St Michel (Quebec City) road trip
4.2 way over for me and 3.5 for Amine. I had lots of fun kicking spray with a twin fin Amine lent me .
Excellent day. ouf… I can feel it!
Photos from our session http://artzy.photostockplus.com/slideshow_all_822786
High Water on Lac St Louis
My house looked very sketchy to launch at so I went over to Cartier but… it really did not look nice. Way to choppy and not much for waves. Came back home rigged a 5.0 and attempted to get out. Lots of large rocks in front of the house and I quickly lost my rig in a huge wave. Everything smashed on the rocks. Sail ripped in two panels and board dinged in three places. ARGHHHH. first time for everything but when the water is this high its really tuff. out comes the ding stick. 3 quick repairs and I re rigged a 5.4. Probably the worst setup ever lol. Stupid over. Back in at the neighbors an my wife comes running. What do you need!!! 4.7 please. Still over but a pretty fun little (Expensive) session.
Here are a few pics so you know what your getting into if I invite you over to Dorval on the rocks
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmp…um&event=812855
Season opener on Lac St Louis April 11th
A nice warm opener
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=154&user_id=9&action=slideshow_all&photo_id=&album_id=808906&event=808906&rank=
