ON THE ROAD
Squamish in British Columbia is located near the end of the Howe Sound, which is a network of deep tidal water channels North West of Vancouver. The clean wind funnels down the inlet from the ocean and creates some of the best flat water conditions in the world. The action takes place on a spit in an estuary where the Squamish River meets Howe Sound and offers some exquisite backdrops to sail in with its mountains and old-growth forests.
Squamish was my first idea seeing as there hasn’t been a windsurf travel story to Canada in a long time and this location is quite windy in the summer. It turned out actually to be too windy for most of our foil sessions, so I headed north to Whistler. My original idea was to catch some insane mountain biking and do my windsurfing travel story, but it turned into me having more fun windsurfing everyday on Alta Lake than going mountain biking. What this trip really did was open my eyes to what a mountain town like Whistler has to offer in the summer. The biking is world class for sure, but it is not just that. The beauty, the nature, the hiking, the events set up for kids, the restaurants, river rafting, everything that you could possibly want…and to top it off, windsurfing! Windsurfing in Whistler? Well, maybe it isn’t your dream windsurfing destination, but I’ll tell you what, if you have a family with young kids that are into learning windsurfing, it is pretty dang good.