Windandbigwaves's Blog

Les Roches

Hitme — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 16:04:22 +0000

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

Sylvain Vezina (Svezz) Captures a great sequence of me riding Hurricane Irene (via Canadian Windsurfing)

Hitme — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:48:20 +0000

View all the pics at: http://svezz.photostockplus.com/event_888540 … Read More

via Canadian Windsurfing

Windsurfing Hurricane Irene

Hitme — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:27:17 +0000

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

Summer sesh in Sandbanks (yup – still worth the drive)

Hitme — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:07:53 +0000

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

Hitme — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:16:06 +0000

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

Hitme — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 16:07:17 +0000

Freestyle sesh on Lac St Louis. Was pretty strong for first hour. Jack and I scored some 90 liter conditions with 5.9,s really powered up. Could have been 5.4.

Ian, Francis and Christian showed up as the wind was dying a bit. Still some fun to be had. South East winds also tend to make the lake real choppy so not ideal for freestyle but the guys where landing front loops, vulcan, Spocks, duck jybes and more… View photos

Best of Sandbanks (Lake Ontario)

Hitme — Tue, 17 May 2011 23:14:23 +0000

A collection of shots from the last few years . Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/78SJk8XPthI

St Michel (Quebec City) road trip

Hitme — Thu, 12 May 2011 23:02:35 +0000

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

Hitme — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:44:56 +0000

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

Hitme — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 23:16:39 +0000

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=