VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Hey.

I know it sounds crazy, but guys are already getting thermal wind at Squamish. So with all this beautiful weather we're getting what are the chances of wind at Nitinat?

some people say they have had 4.0 days in Mid March...I'm not one of them, believe it when I see it. At the very least I think the "hotspell" and no cloud cover thing applies to get a decent thermal, kinda like the 16 degree day we had 2 weeks back.

Even if it is windy, the remaining driftwood and cold could be a killer, it's quite a bit nippier there right now. Kus

I went up there at around the 20 of march last year and got wind.
There are tons of black flyes though an the days are still short.
I think the way the weather is ""GLOBAL WARMING""
We are going to get a ton of wind this summer.
I hope anyway""

Frankly, this is the best time of year when it does blow, yes you do take your chances with reliablility, but as a former year round resident march and april can rock without the crowds of people. If you wish to be loud you can be, if you want quiet, well chances are you will be the only one or one of a very few so quiet can be had. There is lots of drift wood on the beach and the forest is still wet so fires are definately allowed, with no fire police to scowl (fires within reason of course). With spring around the corner and weather so mild, I can only surmise that once again it will be an early start to the season, and I can't wait for Tofino to start to fire, OH MY GOD that will be awsome!

I was at the lake on Sunday Feb. 20. As an inexperienced wind surfer I would estimate the wind to have been about 15k(+) for the few minutes i observed at about 3:30 pm. The road was in pretty good shape, but the camp was still very muddy.

You can check out Bobson's and mine sailing logs for Sat Feb 26. It clearly does blow thermal late winter/vry early spring but I'd be surprised if it ever got above 20 kt. When Bobson and I were there it was something like 15-17 degrees at Lk Cow during the day, absolutely clear, and there was fog at the ocean end of the lake. Coupled with essentially no outflow pressure, the conditions for a thermal were probably nearly as good as they are going to get and the wind didn't get above 16-18 kt max. I'd think an inflow pressure gradient might step it up to around 20 kt. 4.0 in mid March seems like a pipe dream, but lets hear from those with experience, and maybe we should be trying it more often. Our trip was excellent, even with light-ish wind (love that 7.5!) but even a 5.8 and 100-110 litre board (or 5.0 and 90 litre for BWD ) would have been going OK for a while, it wouldn't have been a skunk with this smaller gear.

Billy the kiter, you packed it in too early! Bobson and I slogged out in the offshore wind while you packed your truck, but in 10 min the wind was up, turned back SW and filled to the beach, and we were planing again for an early "golden hour"!

I'm going up next sunny weekend with my Formula gear . I would think I could have sailed from at least Noon till 5 or 6pm on the Formula gear . I'm hoping some other Formula/Big Gear people will join me so we can do a little pre-summer racing practice to get things dialed in regarding course setting and bouy placing.

I'll post when I'm headed up. If no one else joins me I guess I'll win the race....hopefully....HA! I'm sure some kites will enjoy the lighter spring winds with me.

I'm in if I can score some 14-16m kiting gear , hate that 6.9 stuff

Kus - You'd have WAY more TOW on Formula than on kite - it was apparently too flukey close in to be safe from a long very cold swim if the kite dropped - and the 6.9 would have been fine for 3 hours or so, way more wind (and way less gusty) than that last time out at Cattle Pt.

Ive heard people have already gone up there and got some.

see above!