Hi all, I am new here, just moved to Chicago from Barcelona, Spain, a few months ago and, after settling down, I fell is time to go back to the water!I would appreciate if any of you can give some advise on (based on local weather conditions):
Board and sail size to buy for an intermediate windsurfer (basic foot straps and water star)
Wind app mainly used here 
Recommended neoprene thickness 
Best place to launch based on each wind conditionI know
More crowded places, the more windsurfers the better, so that I can meet some of you in the water
I am asking for a lot of info in just one post, but if you can throw me some light will be great!!
Thanks, Josep 

Chicago beaches are closed. The one spot in Evanston, Greenwood beach, requires a permit until Labor day. We are in the dead period of summer so you won't be missing much. After Labor day, you can sail out of any beach in Evanston. Best part of season will be mid-Sept until mid-Nov and longer if you can bear the cold. If you want to sail cold, 5-6 mm wetsuit or a drysuit. For average 70kg sailor, planing conditions for 5.0 up to whatever size you want will occur, so most serious sailors use at least 2 boards commonly. I top out at 8.0 sail size, I use a 120 L board for that. My 95 L board will see use less than 10X year, because certain high wind conditions from the SW are too gusty and the wind line is a fair distance off shore. All the sailable wind directions you sail out of Greenwood (N, NE, S, SW, rare SE). On N, NE windy days the shore break and current can be challenging if its been windy for a long time. SW is a common windy direction with terrible wind at the launch site, you slowly work out to a distant wind line. For NW wind you can try sneaking on at Gillson Beach in fall.

You moved from Barcelona (warm ALL the time) to....Chicago??? Have you ever endured a full winter there? Even with global climate change, I hope you know what you're in for! Only saving grace is that it's a easy to fly to the rest of the world from there.

Welcome, Josep! Wolf Lake, IN (straddles the Indiana and Illinois state line near Lake Michigan) is a good option for SW winds this fall. A good crowd on windy days. Explore the Launches page (top menu).

Bienvenidos, Josep! Que lástima que no tenemos ramblas aquí en Chicago! Barcelona.... que preciosa!

David M. covered some good ground, and do check out Reid's Launches page. (When Reid finishes rebuilding the page, there should be info. on each of the locations as to the best wind direction, etc. Is that correct, Reid?)

Depending on how much you weigh, I'd say a good intermediate size (short-)board would be anywhere between 120-145 L. I sailed a 145L for years when I was learning and I got great use out of it with 6.0 to 8.5 sails. In recent years, I've also become a big fan of longboard riding for Lake Michigan, if you have the space and car rack for one. I've gotten more use out of my 11'8" longboard than any board I have. For me, at 175 lbs, it's great for big sails for straight-windsurfing in 15-20 mph winds, and the center dagger allows you to sail in virtually any wind direction. Additionally, it's great for catching small waves near shore with mid-size sails (from, say, 5.5 to 6.5). I have tried various sizes of boards on Lake Michigan in the past 13 years, including 94L, 108L, 145L, 180L, a formula board (can't remember the liters), and the 220L windsup. If I had to do it all over again, I honestly think it's possible for a sailor my size to get away with one ~105-120L board and one longboard, especially if you want to sail Lake Michigan (vs. primarily inland lakes). There are lots of good longboard options. The key for Lake Michigan is the center dagger and, if you're interested in waves, the board length (10 ft or bigger). Hope that helps!

Josep, another thing you can do is go through some of the sesh report topics (red wind sock icons) in the Chicago Windsurfers and Lake Michigan Windsurfers forums here. You can get an idea of conditions, board / sail size and how much rubber they wore.


Chris wrote:

Yep, 4th generation. What happens is, I get the whole thing built with slick functionality from a custom template and Google maps changes something on their end and breaks the whole thing and makes me start over. So now i'm using it as raw as possible in case they make an update. I'm slowly filling in launches - over 100. They'll look like this below.

Hi all! Thanks for your answer and warm welcome!! You answers are very useful for me.
I will definitely start to search for equipment and hope to be ready to sail in September.
See you in the water , Josep