Great Nicola session

[Brian C]

Got home last night from a great session at Nicola. Went up Monday afternoon but the wind was too late and light at Monck for windsurfing. It came up for a fun hour session on Tuesday evening, but the best by far was yesterday afternoon. It was still mostly sunny and 24 C, and the wind was strong and steady from 230 pm onward.
We sailed from the windsurfer memorial site (1 km south of Quilchena). Had nice 5.0 conditions with 2' lake waves from 300 - 430pm. When we left at 5pm it was more like 4.0 with 3' waves but we were tired and happy (and had to drive home).
Nicola seems to work best with both a temperature gradient (Hope to Kamloops) AND a frontal push. Temperature gradients alone (like Tues) often only produce a dinner slalom session, which is fun if you're there anyway, but not reliable enough to drive for. Yesterday made the trip worthwhile.

[Ryancr500]

Good Score on the Nicola Lake session!

[arg]

Yes, it is often recited that rain in the lower mainland and sunny in Merrit is the best predictor for decent wind on Nicola lake. And for sure, yesterday, I was in Lytton and it was still sunny, apart from the forest fire. On the drive home on highway#1, long before I got to Hope the skies were already cloudy, and then intermittent rain from Hope all the way to Vancouver. Remember to take the vent plug on your board out when going over a mtn pass. (I was rafting on the Thompson River yesterday, and despite the ~600 cubic meters of water per second flow rate, the S headwind sometimes darn near stopped the raft in the flatwater!)