One more at Wolf

Good session at Wolf yesterday! 5.2, gusty, slogging at times, overpowered at times, typical Wolf. Post sesh tacos at Perez (we are getting fancy with the restaurant choices, thank God, we've got our post-sesh tacos at some shady establishments).

OK that's all, did I mention May was EPIC?

Greenwood

I should have posted this last week but I left town after this epic session at Greenwood, and just got back. Friday we had winds in  the 30 knots straight from the North. LB went for a dawn patrol at Montrose and according to him it was already nuking when the sun came up. At 4 PM, after about 100 emails back and forth we decided to hit Greenwood. The place is a famous windsurfing spot on the North side. People have ben talking the place up since I moved to Chicago, but I never got the chance to go because, well, because Montrose is 5 minutes from by house...

The launch is on a sandy beach, and there is a nice grassy area to rig (you have to have a parking permit, which we did not have, so we risked a ticket, oh well). The beach has a mean looking metal break wall on the South side; Northwestern boat house is on the North side. On a dead North day, a curve on the beach creates a wind shadow that makes it tough to get out, so the trick is to rig a little bigger to get enough juice to pass the white water. Once you are out it's just great: massive ramps on the way out, and on the way back you can drop on a 7 foot face and hit three bottom turns before jibing between waves in the smoothest water. 

The break wall is scary, especially if you wipe out in the surf, and the wind shadow on a North day makes getting out an art. So in conclusion: the place kicks ass, but if the wind is dead North or it has any West, you are better off going to Montrose.

You launch from Dempster St. launch

Two at Wolf

May is the new April I guess. We had great conditions in Chicago pretty much every week so far. The southerlies hit the city for the past two days: 6.5 conditions at Wolf both days. Again, I could have been on smaller stuff but blasting up and down the lake powered up on some big rig just does not get old man. 

If small sails are your thing, check out Andrew's new rig: Naish Boxer.

The cult

Sweet session at Montrose last Friday, everybody was there! It blew in the high 20s with gusts in the 30s from NNW. I've never put so much downhawl on the 5.2, which was kind of ridiculous. I should have been on a 4.7; is it me or it's getting windier in Chicago?

We went for tacos after the session, the Cult in full, I'm going to miss these nuts.

Cult Meeting

One more at Montrose

We had a classic Montrose day yesterday: 20+ knots out of the NNE, 5 feet waves (with the occasional 6 footer on the outside), 50 degrees (OK maybe high 40s, but who cares!). Andrew and I showed up in the morning, and it was honking already. I was on my 5.2, Andrew rigged a 4.8 and we both were lit up. By 4 PM the wind came down a little, but then it picked up again. I had left the beach already but Michael, Steve and Andrew squeezed every  drop of wind left. We met afterwards and watched some footage of the day over dinner, perfect Thursday! 

Note: I broke both harness lines. I'd like to think it's because of all the hard riding, but I'm starting a diet just in case ;)

Riding in the sky

Andrew from the jetty

Montrose on a South day

Rode Montrose with Mike yesterday. It was blowing 25 knots or so at the crib (3 miles off shore), out of the South, wrong direction for Montrose. We had no choice though, we were both coming from work, so we took it. Between the dog beach and the jetty the wind was flaky and gusty, but past the jetty it was all good. I was on a 6.5 and 105, Mike was on his 7.5 and 140 (I think). His rig was too much once we were out there, so he sailed mostly inside.
I don't know how many more sessions I will have in Chicago, and one of the things on my bucket list was to make another run to the crib, so I gave it a shot: my first solo crib run, epic.

The Crib, Chicago in the back