Cool weekend on #Toronto beaches

On what would be a typically crowded summer weekend the rain and cool temperatures kept many sun and sand worshipers off the beaches. At Ashbridges Bay a smaller group of beach volleyball players joined in the Not So Pro league play while later in the day the high winds brought out plenty of kite surfers at Cherry Beach.

Dramatic clouds filled the sky until rain finally fell on Toronto

notsopro.com league play

See more photos after the jump.

Ontario Volleyball at Ashbridges Bay

Ontario Volleyball had a large competition down at Ashbridges Bay/Woodbine Beaches as players started in the light mist and heavy fog of yet another beautiful Toronto weekend. I didn't even see any visible sunscreen and the typical beach volleyball swimwear was replaced with winter parkas.

The competitions looked pretty fierce with mens, ladies and youth games on the massive beach - it looked like a colourful net farm and the crop was doing good (probably all that rain).

Don't forget Hope Volleyball: Toronto's Largest Charity Volleyball Tournament on the Toronto Island on Saturday June 18, 2011.

See more pictures after the jump.

A walk in the Beach

Toronto has a love/hate relationship with the name of the area just on the east side of the downtown core (starts at Coxwell Avenue) of the city - even their website shows "The Beach/Beaches". Whatever you call it, the area starts at the sandy foot of Lake Ontario and continues north. The favourite part for many is the long and wide stretches of beach full of sun worshipers, swimmers and volleyball teams in the heat of summer. This place is so much fun that even the bell telephones are happy (although it could be one of those new fangled emoticons  and not really a sentient telephone who appears to be happy).

WindFest 2010 - Toronto Waterfront Kite Festival

The Canadian Wind Energy Association sponsors the October 2nd, 2010 edition of WindFest which is  Toronto's Waterfront Kite Festival held at Ashbridges Bay. I haven't seen a hot air balloon festival yet but I am hoping that this kite festival comes pretty close. As they say "WindFest is a chance to celebrate autumn, wind power and the breathtaking are of kite flying, on Toronto's largest beach". It's a little cool today so you might want to leave your bathing thong at home.

The kites take to the sky from 11am to 4pm. They also had kids having parachute races.

Mayoral candidate Joe Pantalone (centre) was also at the beach, he didn't bring his thong, he brought his beach suit.

Beach Volleyball

It didn't look like any organized beach volleyball games were going on in Ashbridges Bay, just a large amount of pickup games. From what I heard on a nice sunny, Sunday the beaches would normally be full of volleyball tournaments but the long weekend has a lot of people out of town. The games were coed and were a lot of fun to watch.

Most of the players really got into the games and the action was intense at times. Dives into the sand to return the ball or high jumping spikes and blocks as each team fought for supremacy.

Looking at row after row of multi-coloured nets shows how much people like to play volleyball on this beach.


HOPE VOLLEYBALL

Billed as Toronto's largest one day Charity Volleyball Tournament the 22nd annual Hope Volleyball Tournament will be held on Saturday, June 12 on Centre Island in the Toronto Islands. If you want to play you need to register on-line by May 31. Individuals can even sign up and be placed on a team.

HOPE stands for Helping Other People Everywhere and the tournament gets about 6,000 players competing in the event.

Ashbridge Bay-Watch

Lifeguards are on duty along the beaches of Toronto and the citizens of TO are on hand to enjoy the refreshing waters of Lake Ontario. I didn't see any lifeguards running in slow motion but there were plenty in their towers and lifeguard stations; rescue gear and boats ready for action.

Keeping people safe from June 12 to September 7 (until 6pm) the lifeguard services is run by the Toronto Police Department.





The huge sandy area was full of beach volleyball nets with youth games by PVB Canada going on and a seperate area for the Not So Pro Sports summer beach volleyball tour.