Downwind SUP blog. Content on downwind stand up paddling technique and instruction, downwind route maps, downwind paddling videos, local session reports, board tests and other SUP gear reviews.
Probably the windiest downwinder I've done so far. During our paddle on Sunday, winds were averaging 30mph and gusts were averaging 40mph. It was nice to have some company as Dan, Jess, and Del joined me. Since we hardly ever get conditions this windy, it was challenging but still a blast. Problem is that our windy days occur outside of summer. Downwinding is not a summer sport here. Just get the right suit and it's comfortable, even in winter. We launched from Norris Cres., just west of Humber Bay and finished at the Toronto Windsurfing Club. In Humber Bay the larger groundswell pushed us WSW while shorter period wind waves were blowing WNW. This made it tricky to maintain longer glides. As we reached Toronto Island, there were a few minutes of howling wind that threatened to push us away from the Island so we dropped down to our knees and paddled hard to make the beach on the point. Took a break on the beach before doing the rest of the paddle mostly sheltered from the offshore wind by Toronto Island.
I did get a bit of video, which I'll post at some point. In the mean time, here are some pics I took today:
Wind readings at Toronto Island
Launch site:
Dan with his prone board. He came 7th in the stock class at the M2O this year on that board.
We tested 6 14' boards with 5 paddlers. The boards tested: Starboard Ace 25" wide
Starboard All Star 25"
Starboard All Star 26"
Bark Dominator 27.5"
Custom Bark (based on Dominator shape) 26.5"
JP Race (2013) 27"
The paddlers: The testers were all experienced paddlers and competitive racers. To provide an idea of their speeds in flat water, they all competed in a race last fall and averaged between 5 - 5.5mph over a 9 mile course. - Male 5'11", 148lbs, racer - Male 6', 185lbs, racer - Male 6', 190lbs, racer - Male 6'4" 225lbs, racer - Female 5'6", 135lbs (estimate), elite racer
Test methodology: - Length of the run was about 0.3 miles (or 1600 feet or 485m) - Paddlers were allowed several seconds to reach full speed before hitting the start line for each run. - Straight line runs with no buoy turns - Each paddler tested all 6 boards doing an upwind run and downwind run for each board (actually 7 boards were tested but there was insufficient data on 1 board so it was eliminated from the results. Each paddler completed a total of 14 runs) - About 3 minutes of rest between the upwind and downwind legs for the same board. About 7-8 minutes rest between boards. - Staggered starts were used to avoid competitive racing effects Conditions: - Lake Ontario - Flat at start with about 5mph side-offshore breeze - Wind speed increased to about 7-8mph and shifted to side-onshore, creating small chop as test progressed Conclusions: The fastest boards were the Starboard All Star 25" and Starboard Ace 25". Beyond that, it was more difficult to draw reliable conclusions since the times were pretty close and there were also some data gaps (software glitches and some missed times due to spotting problems since there was only 1 person recording all times at both ends of the course with binoculars). One lesson learned doing this test is that we need at least 2 time keepers/spotters to make sure we capture all results. We just didn't have that luxury this time round. We used paddler signalling at the far end to mark lap completion times. Because of data gaps, changing water and wind conditions, and fatigue effects in later trials, I only feel comfortable listing the overall speed order of the boards tested and not all the gory details. With those caveats, here is the order of the boards tested (fastest first): 1. Starboard All Star 25" 2. Starboard Ace 25" 3. Custom Bark 26.5" 4. Bark Dominator 5. JP Race (2013) 27" 6. Starboard All Star 26" The 25" All Star and 25" Ace were very close (although if we removed the 225lb tester's results, the Ace would be slightly faster). Of course, the order will depend on the individual paddler and especially their weight. It's interesting to see that the 25" All Star was the fastest board while the 26" All Star was the slowest. It goes to show you that these shapes were very close to each other in our test. The 25" All Star was the board our elite female tester and our fastest male tester (6', 190lbs) said they liked best. The Ace was just as fast if not faster, but it's unusual shape has more of a learning curve and testers may feel uncomfortable on it the first time round. In general, narrower boards are faster but some shapes are more flat water focused while others are more of an all-round shape. Of course, if you get too narrow for your weight, you end up being slower - and we saw this in our test, particularly with our 225lb tester. Being a flat water focused shape seemed to help in our test, which was mostly in flat water. Of the boards tested, the Barks are the ones that have more of a flat water shape. However, when the wind and waves picked up a bit in the second half of the test, paddlers made favorable comments on the speed and handling of all-round shapes - particularly the All Star. It's interesting to see the different approaches to nose design by Starboard vs Bark. Starboard's noses are blunter/higher volume and have some rocker. Bark noses are piercing and try to take advantage of the full water line of the board. The Starboard noses tend to splash as they're being paddled, even in flat water. It looks like you're going slower, but that wasn't the case. They also tend to ride over small chop. The Bark noses cut more quietly through flat water and when it gets a bit choppy, the nose will cut through the water more. Depending on the paddler, they have different preferences on which nose style they prefer. Our fastest elite male racer (who couldn't make it to our test) prefers the piercing Bark-style nose since there is less up and down movement of the nose going upwind. He's been riding a Dominator for a few years though and that's what he's used to. Personally, I prefer the Starboard nose that rides over small chop and it's definitely faster for me upwind (and downwind). My All Star and Ace go faster upwind in chop for me than my 25.5" wide custom Bark did. Recent 2014 race designs by Fanatic and NSP/DC also seem to be adopting the Starboard style nose. Just make sure your board is well suited to the type of conditions you like to paddle in. And of course, demo in your local conditions.
Ivan and I launched from Humber Bay Park late on Sunday afternoon after 4pm. The weather was momentarily sunny there among the green grass and dandelions, a false indicator of the conditions we were about to get into. We were in the wind shadow at the stone beach and the water looked calm. However, mini storms had been moving through the area in the afternoon so we know we'd likely hit some interesting weather. Ivan was on his Dominator and I was trying out my new Starboard All Star on its first downwinder.
As we got further into Humber Bay, we could see that the winds were stronger than anticipated when the storm clouds would pass over us. Complicating matters was the direction of the groundswell, which was not aligned with the wind direction.
Toronto skyline from Humber Bay:
Here's a video taken sitting on my board while in Humber Bay. Unfortunately, I didn't have the mount for my camera so all the video was handheld while I was sitting on my board.
Ivan's visible where the water meets the sky. Tricky groundswell in Humber Bay as we got closer to the Island:
Corduroy texture on the water from the strong winds:
Wary of the wind shifting offshore, we decided to go through the Western Gap at the Island Airport and through the Inner Harbour, rather than sticking to our original plan of going outside of the Island. As we approached the Western Gap where the Island Airport is, the bounce back of the waves off the Island was creating swell coming at us from both behind and from front. This also resulted in very choppy, steep, and unpredictable waves. Very weird. And impossible for Ivan and I to paddle standing up.
Video taken when approaching the Western Gap at Toronto Island:
We dropped to our knees and paddled through the Western Gap, making sure we avoided the airport ferry. As we emerged on the other side and in the Inner Harbour, the swell and waves were flattened by the Island. To make things interesting at that point, a dark storm cloud passed over us and brought some nasty hail and extreme winds. We also had some pretty loud thunder claps during the storm but I didn't see the lightning. Looking at the readings from Toronto Island Airport for that time, the wind was 36mph with gusts to 46mph. The flat water quickly took on some texture and small bumps appeared. As I stood on my board with my paddle in the air, I reached speed of 9.7kph in pretty flat water!
Wind readings at Toronto Island airport:
Here's a pic of the water in the strong winds as the storm kicked up:
Here's a video that I took while sitting on my board during the hail storm. You can see the strength of the wind by the texture of the water. It was so easy to link the small bumps with the help of the high wind. I was standing on the tail of my All Star as it just kept connecting the runners. This part was a blast. Fun with no risk of wiping out on a tricky or big wave.
As we approached the eastern end of the Inner Harbour, conditions became very tricky once again as we were now dealing with bounce back waves from the eastern wall of the harbour. At this point, a Toronto Marine Police boat pulled up beside us to check if we were OK. I guess they don't see too many stand up paddlers going for a paddle with 30mph winds in the midst of a hailstorm. They followed us through the Eastern Gap and out into the Outer Harbour just to be sure.
From there, it was a routine paddle back along Cherry Beach as we were mostly in the wind shadow at that point. We did paddle hard to catch the groundswell back to the beach with no help from the wind.
My 14'x25" Starboard All Star performed very well in the varied conditions and was quite a bit more stable than it's 25" width would suggest. It felt about as stable as a typical 27" wide board to me. The nose is well shaped so that it doesn't bury too much after catching a bump. The few times I buried the nose, I was able to maintain much of my speed and just waited a bit for the nose to pop back up.
I wasn't sure how it would feel to move to the tail of the board when on a big bump, since the deck is sunken at the centre. It was fine - the sunken deck gradually rises to the flat section at the tail and I didn't notice any transition in the deck when stepping back. Overall, I was quite happy with how the board performed on its first real downwind paddle.
