VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Hi,

we just moved to Victoria from the Gorge (and previously Vancouver). I swung by Cook St. / Dallas Rd today around 3:30pm thinking it should be great conditions with a great turnout. I saw about half a dozen kiters, one wing foil and one windsurf foil. No windsurfers.

What's up? No windsurfers left anymore or was there something wrong with the conditions? Or is there a much better spot for that wind? You can tell me what the secret great wave spots are in your reply and I promise not to repeat it ;).

We couldn't bring our gear and I tore my MCL the day before the move but otherwise I would have been out there. Hopefully by mid March.

Cheers, Peter

Peter, Welcome!!!!!!
Lots of people were working. Quite a few windsurfers that didn't leave to kite a decade or two ago are winging (should have been at least one out), almost all the keen fin sailors have joined the foiling craze and only fin sail once in a while. A few more fin sailors might have gone out west to the secret spot with waves (you can drive to on the highway an hour from town but isn't much of a secret since the surf shops direct newbies there). Yesterday was almost as windy and I know one was electing to fin sail instead of winging or windsurf foiling. There's great sailing at Gordons just past Sooke on summer westerly thermals - its crap in the winter there, and in the summer there is a lot of kelp that will encourage people to keep fin sailing.

Always choppy and gusty at Cook St (I was windsurfing there yesterday) so it's just more fun on the foil (which I also do).

However I am one of those who drive out west or north to chase waves with a fin over foiling in town.

Hey Peter and Rhonda welcome back! I haven't been over to the Island for a year now but I was starting to spend a lot of time out in Ucluelet. Hopefully one day that will be my new home. I'm sure I'll see you guys out at Long Beach at some point, looking forward to sailing with you again! Hope you and the family are well. Michael

Thanks for the comments. I guess I’ll start off at cook street when we get our gear up here and venture out from there. I’ve got foil gear but decided to put that on hold for a year. I guess Ross Bay is the place for that? That’s where the one guy was but I couldn’t tell where he launched.

We’ll also be heading to Tofino (Uclulet?) in a month and may have gear then.

Yes in the Summer when it get’s warm, the Westerly thermal in the afternoon/evenings is often very good all the way from Sooke (Gordons) to Victoria (Cook/Ross Bay). For the big ones, a couple bays over at Willows Beach, or rather out from Willows Beach off of Cattle Point, another nice place to catch it. But Ross Bay gets the nice swell coming in from the Strait and it can also be nice and flat on the inside, so good for a wide range of people. Beware getting too close to Trial Island if its getting light as the current really picks up, in same direction of wind, in there and you can get sucked in and hopefully you’ll make it in a few kilometers downwind at Cadboro Bay.
Pat Bay not worth the drive unless you’re out this way and a significant Westerly.
For South East days, Island View Beach is excellent. And Willows Beach for less violence on the big days.
Seems the true fin windsurfers are up at Columbia Beach. There’s a bar there that generates good jumping/surfing waves I guess and some pics on here of some impressive jumps there. They get the West/NW and the SE’s there, good waves from the Strait. Columbia Beach is in Parksville area.

Ross Bay is definitely foil heaven.

Cook st can be like the Gorge at times but usually way choppier. Generally the thermal starts up further West and moves into town as the season progresses. Too cold for that right now but this season the westerlies usually come with some big swell out west.