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