Hey Maria -- super stoked for you to come to Squamish. I'm the only girl who freestyles there and would love to have you join us! Generally in the river there's 3-5 freestylers maybe 8-10 on a perfect day (nice flat water on low tides) plus another 10-15 windsurfers who come and going between the river and other areas. Then there's a handful of slalom sailors who race around farther out. There's another group that launches at the other side of squamish at Nexen beach (as opposed to the traditional spit launch which is the popular kite launch). The benefit of Nexen is there's a grassy rigging area for windsurfers and there's a different beach the kites launch at down there (so no risk of stepping on kite lines
, then you can sail directly in front of Nexen for bump and jump conditions or tack (about 3-5 tacks depending on the wind) to get to the river.
Gear is for sure an issue, there's really no where to rent in squamish. If you can bring your own that's best. If that's impossible but you're staying in Vancouver (and have a car) then you could consider joining Locarno (a club based out of Jericho Sailing Center in Vancouver) they have the best gear to borrow including freestyle and slalom boards and a great selection of sails. You just need to pay a club membership, jump through a couple hoops to get approved to take out the highwind gear and you're set. Although you can only borrow the gear a day at a time so works best if your base is Vancouver rather than squamish. Also would take a day to organize and is a year membership so probably would only work if you were staying here a little while to make it worthwhile.
Let me know if you have other questions!
Jen