If there is ever any doubt why windsurfers still need to wear PFD's in Canada, here is a quote from recent correspondence with Transport Canada:Sandbanks Windsurfing Oct 7th,2009 from Nicolas Chapleau on Vimeo.
I did a real early shift and was there by 7:30. The waves looked pretty disappointing to start, but there was potential. Mac's looked lame, so I went to Outlet Beach. It was also pretty marginal, but all of a sudden, ramped up to nuclear. Rigged 3.7 and played around, or should I say, got spanked around, in building waves and winds 30 gusting 40. It sapped a lot of my strength, and was not the best call, since it was practically on-shore. A few others were out too, and eventually it was the 3.0's and 3.2's that dominated the spot. Everyone else was getting spit out.
Ilan, Jack and I popped up to Mac's, and lots of the Quebec gang was already there! At MY spot!! I don't even know why I bother going to the beach anymore. Mac's is the best spot at Sandbanks, no doubt about it... hence i like to call it my spot. 
Props again to the Quebec and Ottawa gangs for some great times. With luck, there might be some video and maybe some photos. 
Well, Mac's was the right spot. Could have had a bit more West in it, but that is splitting hairs. It was awesome. The wind ramped up around 2pm to a juicy 30-40kts from the Southwest. It was a mad rig-down frenzy as people rigged smaller and smaller. In the end, I was maxed out on the 3.7, while others were around the same size and smaller, down to 3.2. The waves on the outside got pretty damn large. It was an interesting mixture of messy choppy, interspersed regularly with big meaty mast-high sets coming through, enough to produce beautiful flat jibing areas on the wave faces and between. On the inside, it got interesting. As I said, a bit more angle to it and it would have been a touch more smackable, but it was still awesome. If you were in the right spot, you could get a handful of turns, perhaps sometimes even more. A smaller-than-average Ottawa and Quebec contingent made the trip this time, but all these guys are fun, and solid solid sailors. It was a pleasure to sail the spot with such a good gang, and there was a great vibe all around.
Needless to say, the lack of sailing lately is definitely showing up in my abilities, control and confidence. It was a battle to sail that long (I think I must have sailed at least 4-5 solid hours in the end), but I was dead tired by the end and slept like a log (after barely making a dark, rainy & ugly drive home). To top that off, being juiced on a 3.7 is not exactly my best scenario for trying tricks. I tried a few back loops, a couple pushies and forwards, but I don't think I landed anything but a few out of control shove-its. Near the end in fact, I was so tired I was barely able to make any top-turns without losing grip on the sail.
Amazing. Epic. You name it. Days like this make you realize why we windsurfers endure those long windless spells, just waiting for these amazing days to come along. Epic Sandbanks, strong winds and warm weather: More please!!
Transport Canada legislates lifejacket/Personal Floatation Device (PFD) use for windsurfers in Canada via it's Small Vessel Regulations. It IS the law, punishable by $255 in fines if caught without a PFD... and this has happened before, in a number of places in Canada. The marine police units know the laws and are enforcing them.
I experimented quite a bit last year with a chopped-down stubby freestyle fin. I took a pretty big old MFC Freestyle fin and chopped it down to 18cm, then ground back the material so it wasn't quite so thick and stiff. I sailed this quite a bit with my 105L Goya X1 and sail size from 4.7 to 5.3, mostly over a two week stay in Cape Hatteras in spring 2008. Here is my verdict.
First off, some background: I am old and stiff. Being from Kingston, time on the water is limited and this only contributes to being stuck in the slow-lane on freestyle progression. I've been sticking vulcans for years and spocks & grubbies for several, but quite inconsistently. I am working on tricks like flakas and shakas, and continue to put in the hours on the spocks/540's and grubbies. So, while I am working hard on spinny flat-water freestyle tricks, I am not a pro and not going for extra rotations... never mind switch stance, clew-first or one-handed.
My diagnosis is this: First and foremost, getting and staying upwind becomes a challenge. Why is this a problem? Well, maybe it's just me, but as a freestyler, I find there is considerable benefit to being on the smallest sail possible, yet sufficient to get me planing. So - ultimately, this translates to being under- to moderately powered, but rarely overpowered. Hence, already the lower power available dictates that upwind sailing will not be straightforward. Throw on a stubby fin and there is significantly compromised ability to angle upwind during reaches. What I have noticed however is that because of these apparent limitations, it vastly changes ones stance and approach to getting upwind. The standard approach tends to be pressuring the fin to deliver and maintain that upwind angle. However, with the stubby fin, you tend to adapt your style to rely much more on the rail of the board to cut in and grab the water to help you keep your board angled up wind. 
Secondly, did the fin help me with my moves? Short answer is no, it did not. While a massive slalom or freeride fin (25-30cm) in that same board would create significant spin-control issues, I typically run a 23cm MFC freestyle fin anyway. In the spectrum of fins, freestyle fins are generally on the small side already. So, the typical 23cm fin I use doesn't really discourage board spin like say a 28cm swept slalom fin does. Note that I have actually played on the odd board with a slalom fin since my spock days and you really, REALLY have to watch out for how fast those fins re-catch and want to spin the board once you are sliding backwards. This is actually quite dangerous, since if you don't spin your intial airborn part of the spock around enough, it is almost as likely that the fin will catch and the board will want to spin back the way you came!! This can result in 'rotini-body' and excrutiating back, leg and ankle twist. Even when you do spin enough and the rotation continues in the intended direction, the board spins very VERY fast. This is definitely a benefit of the relatively small and straight freestyle fins - a sailor has considerably more control over the direction and speed of the boards rotation, or at least, so it seems for me. 
So, what is my opinion? Well, with regards to those stubbies - personally, I think they have considerable benefit for sailors at the pro-level, in particular, for those less challenged by the compromise in upwind performance and those needing to 'cut-out' or 'spin-out' the fin to accomplish a second rotation. Certainly, when you look back at the archives on "The Future" and "double-flakas", they are not actually doubles, to be precise - they are often a single spock/flaka with a second on-the-water rotation (not meaning any disrespect - incredible moves far beyond me!). In this situation, obviously a stubby fin is beneficial to make that fin release easy for the second rotation. Nowadays, when you see a triple flaka, like this one by Golitto, he actually gets airborn like a true flaka on two of those three rotations. Incredible really. Now it would seem, the benefit of the shortest fin possible is that it is easier to get it out of the water (as opposed to spinning it out). 
Saying that, it blew like shtink here yesterday and tore a good chunk of the solid ice sheet on the Kingston harbour out and away! Amazing, 100% solid just two days ago, now today, half of the ice is gone. Check out the iWind graph. It's a shame these storms don't come in over the summer months!! ARGH! 30-40kts all day, just WASTED!
Just imagine what it would have done to the silly groyne that is proposed by the City for Richardson Beach "to improve water access". I suspect that thing would have been deposited on the yacht club's driveway if it had been built last year.
Lake Arenal was pretty sweet. It was not the epicness that was expected of the place, but saying that, I still had a great time. I sailed every day, although, the first two days and the last were the strongest winds, the last day in particular being noteworthy.
