Annual Lake Simcoe Wind Sports Festival

Information

Saturday/Sunday February 13-14th, 2010 11:00-15:30hrs

The Annual Lake Simcoe Wind Sports festival was launched in 2003 with the goal of organizing an exciting winter wind sailing event on a provincial level. The event is a celebration of winter wind sports and brings out some of the most enthusiastic riders throughout Ontario and Eastern Canada. Visitors from afar are encouraged to stay in local accommodations so they may enjoy the two days of riding.

Over the years, different locations were tried to try to find the best wind, ice and season conditions close to Toronto. We are happy to call Glenwoods Avenue the home of the festival. The put-in at Glenwoods has become so popular for winter sailing, its common to find 30+ riders out enjoying the terrain any time it is windy in the winter.

The major focus at the festival are various forms of kite flying: traction kite flying, single and dual line. Although the predominant one at the festival is the power kiting, the single and dual line kites always paint a beautiful backdrop in the sky for riders and spectators.

Finally, it merits noting that this event includes riders from 10 to 76 years of age. The event serves as an excellent opportunity to promote the sport and to watch real passion seekers as they show you how they enjoy winter in Ontario.

Saturday Feb 13, 2010 Update

The day stared out slow with marginal winds at about 10am, then dropping to nothing. Some time before noon the winds picked up as forecast and the riders day began. This worked out quite well as rider had a chance to socialize before riding out the rest of the day. Although the conditions were not perfect, riders still enjoyed an everlasting day of rideable winds.

There was a lot of hardpack snow base following a good width from the shoreline. It was only a couple inches deep of hardpack so as you got a little further out there were scattered ice patches but not drastically hard ice and if you wanted to you could pick a path to avoid them in the area that most people were kiting. There were a few snowboards out but the thinner snow conditions pushed more riders to head out on skis. Kiters numbered in the 30-40, which meant that the sky was painted pretty.

The open fun race was held late afternoon. Some found it difficult to judge how far to head upwind before turning to make the mark and the actual course layout varied a bit from one competitor to the next - so it was a learning experience for some and good fun. First place went to Igor on a Snowfer style wind surf rig, and second went to Mark Groshens flying a Peter Lynn Charger. Looking forward to day two!

Note for Sunday Feb 14, 2010

The winds are looking stronger in the morning then decreasing in the afternoon. We will try to hold the race earlier in the day to get the best results.

Warning

Due to liability matters, in order to ride at this event, you must be an experienced winter sailor. Beginners are welcome as spectators or accompanied with a qualified kite instructor.