VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

skywalker wrote:

KUS wrote:suggest sticking with historic dates giving you the best potential: last weekend in July why it was changed was always a mystery to me

Kus feel free to organize a perfect event and prove your point

well, I might help as in the past if it truly was in the spirit of the old days....but things change, as do people and dates.....the latter that don't offer the best chances for windy weather at least historically speaking but with Global Wx change who knows....and it's KITE Fest, no longer windfest but that's all ok and those days are gone. Regardless I wish you nothing but success.....hence the suggestion

Carte blanche for pole dancers KUS. All us string monkeys will accommodate. Let us know what marks you need etc. Make it a grass roots Windsurfest

feel free to reach out with more suggestions at and we'll make it happen. Again carte blanche, just tell us what you need.

skywalker wrote:Carte blanche for pole dancers KUS. All us string monkeys will accommodate. Let us know what marks you need etc. Make it a grass roots Windsurfest

feel free to reach out with more suggestions at and we'll make it happen. Again carte blanche, just tell us what you need.

you need young blood not old geezers, try WindDuce he's got a racing background and I hear he is thinking about getting into kiting now too

Hello Windfesters

We are watching the forecast very closely at the moment and will make a call Tuesday night, July 12 as to whether this coming weekend is viable, July 15,16,17

Nobody wants to go up for a rainfest. The forecast on Tuesday afternoon will be accurate enough to make a call.

Thanks for your patience! We are doing all we can, but we can't control the weather. Jul-uary it seems.

NOAA: .LONG TERM...THE UPPER LOW OVER SOUTHWEST BRITISH COLUMBIA AND
NORTHWEST WASHINGTON LATE THURSDAY NIGHT WILL MOVE INTO THE NORTHERN
IDAHO PANHANDLE LATE FRIDAY NIGHT . THEN A MID LEVEL VORTICITY
CENTER DROPPING DOWN ACROSS THE NORTHEASTERN PACIFIC WILL CLOSE INTO
A WEAK UPPER LOW OFF THE WASHINGTON COAST LATER SATURDAY INTO SUNDAY
. THE UPPER LOW SHIFTS INLAND ON MONDAY , BUT YET
ANOTHER UPPER LEVEL LOW DROPS INTO THE NORTHEAST PACIFIC BY THE
MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. IN THIS PATTERN, EXPECT MOSTLY CLOUDY
CONDITIONS WITH SOME BREAKS IN THE CLOUD COVER DURING THE AFTERNOON
AND EARLY EVENING HOURS. THERE WILL BE A THREAT OF SOME LIGHT
SHOWERS AT TIMES THROUGHOUT THE LONG RANGE FORECAST PERIOD AND
DAYTIME TEMPERATURES WILL AVERAGE ABOUT 3-6 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL.
ALBRECHT

all the forecasts disagree right now.

We. Must. Wait!

Duncan from Weather underground:

GOOD NEWS/ BAD NEWS – Windfest Delayed till August 12-14

All of our forecasts are saying a max of 15 knots this weekend. Less on Sunday. The rest of July looks the same. Cooler temperatures have turned our thermals off. La Nina, maybe?

We will run this before Kite Clash that way you out of towners can hit up Windfest, then Kite Clash in Squamish. Also, we want this cool weather die already.

There were of event conflicts this weekend, all the way to August. Several of you reminded us of this.

When Windfest runs , with good wind, it will be the best weekend at the lake. Ever.

EVER!

So the GOOD NEWS?

This weekend, we’re going to set the race course at Nitinat and leave it there. We will be up most weekends from now until August to run informal races. The stage is built, we’ll bring up some gear and keep it simple until the event.

That means you’ve got a whole month to practice. One race weekend a year wasn’t enough anyway.

We’re actually pretty stoked about this idea. Grass roots fun.

We’ve been working on this event since November 2015. We are making the best of the situation. Thanks for your understanding

See you at the Lake

Windfest Crew

Surfing learned years ago the way to hold great events is to have an event window.
So tough to nail it on one weekend...and very stressful for the organizers.

I believe king of the air in Cape town now have an event window...and they pull the trigger based on an excellent forecast.

Good call guys, your effort/planning/reworking it is appreciated.
Added bonus, that weekend is actually the best weekend you could have picked for my schedule! (good news, good news for me)

Just saying every other windsport plans for a week, 4, 5 day period when all the competitors are there, with maybe 1 or 2 lay days planned, but sometimes you have to run the entire event in 1 or 2 days, or some years it doesn't happen. If you plan to have people coming from off island, booking vacation around it, flip flopping on a date doesn't work. Unless you're redbull and booking last minute tickets around the world...

Also a pain in the ass for people trying to avoid nitnat that weekend.

You contradicted yourself there Dude 1. A 2 day scheduled event makes it easy for those not interested to make other arrangements. NOT inconvenienced for 5 days. 2. It allows the Mon. - Friday working stiffs to enjoy the full event 3. It's Nitinaht , It blows EVERY day 4. Hats off to the organizers for making it the best event possible by trying to catch the sun. 5. Anyone booking a trip to the lake will enjoy it event or no event. 6. By keeping this thread going the organizers are avoiding anyone arriving & not being aware of the situation

JL wrote:You contradicted yourself there Dude 1. A 2 day scheduled event makes it easy for those not interested to make other arrangements. NOT inconvenienced for 5 days. 2. It allows the Mon. - Friday working stiffs to enjoy the full event 3. It's Nitinaht , It blows EVERY day 4. Hats off to the organizers for making it the best event possible by trying to catch the sun. 5. Anyone booking a trip to the lake will enjoy it event or no event. 6. By keeping this thread going the organizers are avoiding anyone arriving & not being aware of the situation

It only makes it easier if you're local.

Isn't it some sort of Canadian Qualifier/Canadian Championships? How are you supposed to have people booking and canceling flights every weekend?

I had a hard/unpleasant enough time with 2 or 3 kite instructors on the last weekend I was there. I can't imagine how unfun it will be with 40(?) kites doing a course.

Will the course take up the entire lake? what about freestyle, where will that contest zone be set? Fun to me isn't going up to watch kiting. If I go I want to windsurf, but that's not a reality out of courtesy if a course runs through the windsurfing area. Or the contest zone for freestyle is the entire beach, is it?

If you don't want to be there for the event please come join me at Gordons Beach

JL wrote:If you don't want to be there for the event please come join me at Gordons Beach

Best idea I've heard! Just wish I didn't have to keep changing my plans to avoid WindFest, my gf was really starting to get the hang of windsurfing up at Nitnat.