Hail Storm Downwinder from Humber Bay Park to Cherry Beach

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.

A weird but fun downwinder!