Just a little update for Silver Lake: it gets REALLY crowded in summer, and they do charge parking so a couple of the guys who like it in fall and spring stopped going. It's a nice beach for my wife to paddle at, and kids to play at, so I picked up the season pass which is $60. Also, the weeds there are absolutely awful. I was hopping off the board to pull the weed off after every tack or gybe, and it had to be ten pounds a run. I was on an 8.5 so picking it up over and over again got old, so I started tacking, stopping, and going backwards as that shed the weeds pretty well. With the 8.5 I was able to get planing yesterday, and spent a lot of time in the front strap and occasionally the back. Interesting how steering with the front foot in the strap is quite different from being over the board; seems more like lifting or pressing with your toes than putting real weight on. Off to buy a weed fin!

Another little lake to report on:

Round Lake is about 50 NW of Chicago, and keep NW in mind because it has a launch that works with NW wind! The forecast for today was cranking, but Silver Wolf and Andrea all stink in NW and I didn't feel like heading up to Geneva, so pulled out the maps and found Round Lake. They have two parks, one on the NW side (would work in E, S, ESE wind, and Bengson Park on the south side, which lined up perfectly for todays WNW to NW wind.

Parking is easy in a small lot above the park, and it's only about 50' downhill to the water. No charge for parking, and I was able to confirm that windsurfing is allowed with the village. Lots of space under trees for rigging.

The beach itself is very nice, sandy and with a quick slope so you're deep enough for a 52cm fin right at the edge of the swim area buoy fence. The bottom is nice like Silver so you don't need boots* There are a couple buoys on moorings that hold up the swim fence, so be careful there although I sailed right over the rope without issue. NO weeds that I could see.

The sailing area in NW is really nice and long, you have almost a KM of run back and forth (compared to like 300m at Andrea when it's good) The lake looks to be deep enough for foiling just offshore, although there seems to be a shallwo spot in the middle but even there the depth is still ~1 fathom. The breeze is up and down a bit, but far less shifty than anyplace else I've sailed, and steadier by far than Silver is in NW. The forecast was building and had some nice sustained planing runs (in both straps I promise) but then an injury ended my day.

Great little spot if you're free on a day with NW wind.

*I gashed my toe open on the UJ and ended up quitting quite early to patch myself up in the parking lot. Ended up needing a lot of tape and gauze as it was a bit ugly. On that note, does anyone have a recommendation for a waterproof bandage that stays on inside boots?

Thank you for that report, especially the foiling information. NW is a problematic direction during the summer. After Labor Day Gillson beach should be available for launching and it works very well on a NW, decent but inconsistent on WNW. I am still hoping that there enough of exactly the right kind of day that I can learn to wing foil on the big Lake without having to drive far for a flat inland lake.
Sorry to hear of your injury. Most of us who sail barefoot a lot got minor nicks at some point and realized a volcano pad was a good idea.

I feel like depth and weeds are both good for foiling here, the shallow areas are right near shore, and probably no good for the docks there anyway!

Ever since I almost severed one of my left foot toes due to a hard kick to the sharp rear edge of a 50 cm fin while trying to waterstart a big rig I decided to wear booties all year round. The little bit of a coolness factor that bare feet add is just not worth the possibility of injury and all it’s consequences. Better feel you might argue, better traction I would respond. Choose for yourself.
I also question the logic behind going bare foot while wearing suffocating and movement restricting /especially when swimming/ pfd vest

Embarassing to say I actually have a nice old mast pad that would have prevented this; I'd pulled it off the other day when I was swapping my rig onto a friends old Tiga longboard (super cool ride by the way). As for boots, I'll probably like them more when I finally manage to get them in (and out, that's important) of the footstraps! I was able to hit the footstraps on the Tiga so think it's a config issue on the RRD straps.

As for the pfd, I never feel like it's restrictive, only hot occasionally. I've been wearing them off the dock on boats even in light air ever since I had kids and haven't minded it. I've known about a dozen people who have died in the water at this point, and quite a few of them would have either been OK or at least had a better shot with flotation. I've heard that lots of the little inland lakes have eager DNR/local water police that will ticket if you don't have a PFD of some sort, so there's that too. I'd love to find a lower profile one but all the sleek ones don't seem to have pockets. I'm using the Forward WIP impact vest right now and it's OK.

I used a short-kayaking-pfd , front pocket and all in my first years windsurfing. Then I replaced it with an impact vest of which I removed the back padding at some point. Until one day I couldn’t catch my kit after separating from it during a crash. I got so exhausted after a hard swim after it that I felt like my lungs will explode. Fortunately this happened on Wolf so not much drama. This was the final straw in my pfd quest and I’ve I never used one again for windsurfing. Gave away the vest and kept the boating one …well for boating. Never had issues with authority about pfd ever and I know for a fact that IN coastguard accept any wetsuit for a pfd substitute.

Back to booties topic. For the warm months I’m using the ION Plasma slippers 1.5. The most comfortable and long lasting booties I ever had. The low profile makes them less goofy looking and a lot easier to put on and off then high rise models. Highly recommended!

Ady wrote:
At least in Indiana, windsurfers are specifically exempted from having to wear or carry a PFD.
codes.findlaw.com/in/title-14-natural-an...-sect-14-15-2-6.html

Guess Big Windsurfing got to the In legislature somehow?

If I could find something lower profile, but still with a phone pocket I would happily do it. Can't see dropping a float vest entirely, and as for how it looks I could care less; if I wanted to look cooler I probably would have taken up kiting!

I've got the Oneill boots and then some bigger higher ones for winter. Finally took some time and stuff my taped-together-toe into some wet boots and fitted the straps to that, so I should hopefully have fixed my boots v straps issue. Now I just need to get wind and free time to align again!

Brian from the n suburbs is going to try foiling at round lake and I'll let you all know what he says, I think it should be really good though as depth is great just off the beach and I didn't see a single weed.

BrianLynch wrote:
It's the same for Illinois since 1993 for all public lakes. The board IS the floatation device.

The reason I know this is we (windsurfers at Clinton Lake) had meeting with a state representative in Champaign in 1993.

I'm tempted to try this location this coming Sunday for wing foiling. I think I need solid flat water with good wind to get up on foil, this looks like the ticket for Sunday, Wolf is a bit nasty on the bottom with some rocks in some places. Monday looks windier and also NW, that's a windsurfing day at Gillson Beach.