Not much was happening today … we woke up so hungover after a great party at the Grizzy Pub in Squamish and honestly we prayed there wouldn’t come any wind! We weren’t lucky. The wind came and it was just weird. There were huge gusts and massive lulls where the kites wold simply fall out of the sky. It sucked! I just gave up after I swam in the cold water for 10 minutes trying to get my kite back up in the air. The guys started one race and actually counted it as well which was kind of weird but whatever, I still had 1 discard after 5 races so it was alright. Overall I am on place 4. I was racing on a NJS board that Adam Vance has brought along. Really good board. It’s pretty easy to jibe and tack and kind of small so you need a little bigger kite. The smaller size makes the board super controllable in the chop. And chop we had a lot during the race with the current of the estuary pushing against the wind. It’s actually for sale the board so if you’re around and wanna get in touch with Adam. I’ll post some contact – details of him later.

This afternoon we climbed the Chief which is a 2000m rock face where people also basejump of. We didn’t climb the face but took the pathway around the back … was hard enough though! Freaking bears around that area so we were better of leaving the leftovers of Taco Bell down at the beginning of the trail.

Thanks to Mike Dowie for doing most of the great pictures I uploaded and also Jim Hegan for supporting me with some really cool shots.

Well … tomorrow night my plane is leaving and I am actually sad about that. Usually I am always happy when I get back home because it’s nice there too but this time I could have continued like that for at least another two weeks. It was so cool we could get a ride in Randy’s huge bus and didn’t need to set up tents or check into fancy hotels and pay a fortune there. It was a great time and I can’t wait to get back to BC!

Walked out the bus this morning and wasn’t really sure if I was actually awake yet! There was a huge cargo – ship at the terminal, no clouds, a massive glacier in the background and another huge peak on the other side of the valley which I all haven’t spotted before because it was covered in clouds before. I really thought this place couldn’t get any more beautiful but I was wrong …

Meeting was at 11am. We discussed a few rules and went over the starting sequence. I was lucky to find a guy who could borrow me a sick raceboard. Adam (he won every single race today) had another prototype of a highwind – raceboard with him that he didn’t use. It’s a NJS board designed by Nils Stolzechner and it worked just great! It was cranking today and the board was perfect. On the upwinder I could ride it flat and get the maximum upwind performance of the four fins and on the downwinder I could lean back, pull in the bar and shoot towards the buoy.

The first two races I came in at 4th place, the 3rd race I screwed up the start and ended up on 5th place and the 4th and final race of the day was just great. I was battling with Adam for first place until the very end. Unfortunately I didn’t win but it was alright. It was good racing out there today.

Now we’re gonna go to town and see if there might be some party.

Later

Sebastian

Yesterday the wind has been kind of weird. It didn’t come in really smooth but super gusty with short lulls and gusts. It wasn’t really too much fun riding out there so I stopped after an hour or so. Still we got some cool shots … the background is just mindblowing! There’s this massive wall right on the other side of the bay and you’re surrounded by almost 2000m high mountains. Unfortunately the weather is cloudy at the moment which screws the wind up a little bit.

When there’s sunshine the thermals kick in with about 25 to 30 kts of wind and it’s just smooth. There’s a big spit with flat water on the one side and a river on the other. Further downwind there’s an estuary with channels you can ride and gras in between. On the leeward side there’s terminal for cargo ships. If you’re just getting started with kiting there’s a rescue service. It costs 15 bucks to ride here for the day which I think is alright for what you get. They’ve prepared the spit quite a bit in the end. There’s sandbags to secure your kites, carpets to protect your feet and gear from the sharp gravel, toilets and a kite-center. The food in Canada just like the food in the States super delicious. A burger is a burger out here and not a small meatball with a bun like the stuff you get in Germany! Love it!

These thermals are supposed to work from April until September. I reckon when you aren’t afraid of a little bit colder water (a 5/3mm wetsuit is just fine) it’s a great location to travel to! The guys said that it was windy for 34 days in a row – until I showed up of course! Anyhow tomorrow it’s supposed to be sunny and we’ll pretty sure have good conditions for the racing!

Check the event page for more information: http://www.squamishwindsports.com/regatta2010/
Here’s the spot on Google Maps.

Stay tuned for the race!

Sebastian

Here we are, back in civilization. The event was over on Sunday and we just stayed couple of days more to do some whale – watching, canyoning and relaxed kiting. Just a great time! We’ll drop of two people tomorrow morning at the airport and then make our way to Squarmish!

Heard good things about the place. There’s a massive spit with flat water on the leeward side! Oh yeah … it’s been a lot of chop the last week. I wanna ride in flat water so bad.

There’ll be a big race during the weekend and I hope I’ll be able to get a board from a local dealer for the event because I only brought my Flyradical M with me. We’ll see if it’s gonna work out.

So, Monday morning … the event is over and I’ve got to say – I loved it!! So sick … everybody was having a good time and we were also lucky with the wind yesterday. We could finish all disciplines. Long distance race, boardercross and freestyle. Won it all! Pretty stoked about that. Was so cool in the finals with these massive speakers right at the beach having some cool tunes while kiting and the crowd cheering for you … so awesome!

Tomorrow we’ll get moving direction mainland and Squarmish! Then we’ll be there for an event the next weekend.

Sebastian