Saturday sesh at Wolf

This Saturday we had another nice session at Wolf... It's crazy how this little lake gets packed with windsurfers and kiters.  I guess it's because the lake is so close to the city...
We had a good time, I was fully powered on a 6.5 (again, could have rigged less... I know, this is becoming my motto lately)...
Sorry I don't have pictures, my camera was dead. But I'll post some pics from another day, so you'll get the idea...

Tarifa 2010 four years later

Tarifa, on the Spanish coast of the Gibraltar strait, will always be a special place for me. This medieval town, right where the Atlantic Ocean joins the Mediterranean Sea is the first serious place where I sailed. In 2006, my brother Carly, a hardcore windsurfer who is as nuts about the sport as anybody else, invited me to Tarifa to go windsurfing. By then I had not stepped on a board in my whole life, so I learned the basics on the Charles river in Boston,  and off I went to Tarifa, whithout knowing: a. how to waterstart; b. how to put my feet on the straps; c. how to use a harness. What followed was one of the most incredible trips I have done; sufficient is to say that I have not stopped sailing since then.

Carly's rig: Mistral Synchro 90L and Ezzy wave Panther 5.5... Thanks bro!!!!

Spin Out gear rental and the bar/lounge for post-sesh relax

Gotta love Ezzy sails!!! That 5.5 handled some pretty tough gusts...
ANYWAY, last month I went back to Spain to visit Carly, his wife Lula and their twin daughters, Olivia and Elena. As much as we tried to arrange a trip to Tarifa, work schedules were conspiring against us. While I was in Madrid, Carly, who as any other normal person, checks the weather forecast every 30 minutes, found that it was going to blow in by mid week, and in an action only understood by a windsurfer, he and Lula gave me their car, and Carly's gear and said: GO. And so I went. I drove the 8 hours from Madrid to Tarifa across Spain, an amazing road trip, but that's another story... At some point, when you reach Malaga, you can hear radio stations in English (Gibraltar is a british colony), French, Arab (Morocco is just across the stait), and Spanish. That gives you an idea of thte place where you're going to launch, a place where geography, cultures, and WIND clash...
As you can see, I can go on and on about Tarifa, so I'll just show a few pics and let you discover it for yourself... If you want to know more, just find me at the beach and ask "Hey, how was Tarifa?"

What to rig? These guys are totally spoiled by the way, 5.5 is big stuff for them. C'mon!!!

Some of the locals started to show up by noon...

East wind, also known as "Levante", can get pretty gnarly

My kind of weekend

Yesterday I had my first session of 2010 in liquid water, and it was lots of fun... But, as it turns out, the wind never stopped blowing and it ended up being one of those weekends when you get to sail Saturday AND Sunday. Regardless of the conditions, those weekends are always remembered as epic by the weekend warrior. And speaking of conditions, today turned out to be even better than yesterday for several reasons: more wind (overpowered on the 6.5), more sun, and the presence of other windsurfers!
In other news, my drysuit is dead. The neck seal melted, and I had to duck tape the pieces to my neck. Not the safest thing to do I know, so I used a wetsuit underneath the drysuit... pretty funny to look at.
I took some pics of the windsurfing crowds (6 windsurfers, 1 kiter). They are not awesome, I know, but once the season kicks in, we'll be back to the high quality pics that we're used to (i.e. Reid from www.windsurfillinois.com will be taking them)...
Anyway, enjoy the pics, send some comments, and as usual, I'll see you out there!

The ice is gone!

Well, three months after my last session in liquid water, I had the first session of 2010! I hit Wolf today for a gear test drive before getting serious in Lake Michigan, and that turned out be a great idea...
Not that I was going to get on the Big Guy after three months of no windsurfing, alone, on a cloudy, rainy day; but I've done stupid things before, so nothing is for sure...
Anyway, I found out that the winter took a toll on my gear, especially the boots, and the dry suit, which may need some fixing or even replacement before I get into deeper waters.
The sesh was a pretty good one, I guess I was so happy to be on the water that anything would have been fine. Anyway, 6.5 was the call, NE wind, gusty Wolf Lake conditions, but as I said, nothing beats being on the water again!
I'm also happy to finally have something to blog about, and I hope this will be the first of many more notes in 2010...

See you out there!

Finally!

Finally the conditions were just right for a killer ice sailing session! It was sunny, the wind was blowing about 15 mph, the lake was packed with thick ice, and I had the day off. I rigged my 5.2, which was plenty for the conditions. The rig finally felt right in the ice; having tried it in different terrains, I found it works best in the ice with patches of snow, to slow you down a bit... Seriously, this thing goes off, the drag of the skis against the ice is minimal, and you pick up some serious speed.
Freestyle: after a few runs and after building some confidence, I tried to make the skis spin out. Well, they spun out... of control... The helmet you see in the pictures was worth every penny, I waked my head in ways I never thought were possible... but by the end of the day I was getting more and more used to the rotation of the skis and was able to stay on my feet most of the time...
Anyway, big day in for icesailing, I'll be back for more!!!
No harness needed

Ice freestyle 101, thank God for my helmet

Windy Sunday

We got some great wind today! I arrived to Wolf Lake little after noon, and it was already blowing. The lake was covered in about 10 inches of snow (still nothing like yesterday at Dunes). In regular conditions (that means liquid water) I would have rigged 5.2, but I knew that I needed more power to get going in the snow, so I went with 6.5.
I'm still having trouble controlling the windski, I either go too upwind and loose speed, or I go way downwind... Another thing that seems not right are the harness lines, I have a hard time hooking in and making it work, I go much better unhooked. Maybe I should move the mast track further, if I only had a drill...
Wolf Lake, frozen

I should get a few fishing poles if I'll keep spending countless hours in frozen lakes

Who needs Bonaire... Maybe me...

Dunes take 1

First session of the year! Winter is in full speed here in the Midwest, and we had lots of snow. The lakes are frozen, even the Big Guy is frozen! This, of course, represents a minor inconvenience in the life of a windsurfer. However, windsurfers know very well how to make lemonade when life throws lemons... Anyway, these conditions were perfect to keep testing my windski. I decided to check out Dunes Sate Park, in Indiana; a natural reserve that I thought would offer the perfect playground for the windski. The wind was not huge, just enough to keep me moving, but the snow was too deep, and my 80's skis kept sinking in the powder. Tomorrow it's going to crank, so I hope to get some action at Wolf, we'll see...

Walking the gear through the snow. The frozen Lake Michigan in front of me...