Tuesday, I’m bringing the whole family to the lake for some windsurfing
That should be interesting, out of 4 kids and my wife, if 2 of them get into it, I will call it a slam dunk success

NOAA: Mostly sunny, with a high near 91. Heat index values as high as 103. South southwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph



















Looks like another day at the Marina. SSW in the 6.9 range. Maybe 5.8 in the late afternoon early evening. Bring lots of cold water. See you all out there.

Another fun day at the Marina. Had the morning wind phenomena again. Nice wind on the initial heating during the morning. Once the air temperature goes over 90 F the wind gets soft and patchy. I sailed my 6.9. Sylvain was already there with his wife and kids. He was teaching them in the beginner cove. It's nice that you can stand up in most of it. And just enough wind spills into the cove. I was able to head up to the the main pool. I tacked with each wind shift and got up there in no time. Later Rick followed me up there on his 6.5. And Susan followed too on her Laser. Water was cooler up there. Rick and I made long reaches in the patchy wind. I came back after a few hours. Got some shots of Rich on his 8.5 and Sylvain on his 6.8. A nice freeride day with friends.


Bloomington




Champaign




Decatur





6 of the day's 16 photos.

See More Of the Day's Photos Here


Rich (8.5 sail) and Sylvain (6.8 sail)



Rich (8.5 sail) and Sylvain (6.8 sail)



Sylvain (6.8 sail) rippin'



Rich (8.5 sail) was tearing into jibes.



Rich (8.5 sail)



'till next time




See More Of the Day's Photos Here



More on wind density if you want to nerd out...


Weight of the Wind
weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather/Weight-Of-Wind

"In dry air"

"The starting point is that the force on a sail or windmill blade varies directly with air density and as the square of the wind speed. Fairly obviously, cold air is denser than warm air and cold air will create a greater force than warm air at the same speed."

"The effect of water vapour" ( humidity )

"The effect will be compounded by the fact that moist air is less dense than dry air. This is because water vapour is a relatively light gas compared to oxygen and nitrogen - the main constituents of the air. The chemical formula for water is H2O ie two molecules of hydrogen to one of oxygen. When water vapour content increases, the amount of oxygen and nitrogen in a given volume of air decreases."

"The density of the air as a whole decreases because the mass decreases."

"For a fairly extreme example, in the tropics with a temperature of 32°C (89.6 F) and 90% humidity, the air density is 1.14 kg/m3. In a northerly airstream around the UK, we might have temperatures of 10°C (50 F) and 10% humidity giving an air density of 1.25 kg/m3. So with cold dry air, the force of the wind on a sail would be about 10% higher than with warm humid air at the same wind speed."

Had another fun day at the Marina. Nice to have a bit of a crowd and to see Sylvain's whole family enjoying the lake! Thanks for the wind nerd stuff Reid! It is something you can really feel when the darkness fills in on the water surface but you don't get hit with nearly the power you're expecting....good to know it's not just in my head!!

The whole family loved it. I was pleasantly surprised by sveryone’s Patience and progression.
My wife was able to really go... they all learned on a 2.5 m2, she would definitely benefit from a 4.2 m2 sail. My oldest one too did great. My second one struggled with oversheating, but had a good ride and got nice encouragement from Hugh.
My 3rd one, age 7, struggled the most. After talking about it, we brainstormed together and found a solution.... Boom, 2 minutes later, he was going.

Next goal for all is to straighten these backs, and use body weight a little more. Maybe some “on paper” theory would be useful..

A tip for parents trying to teach their kids.... bribing them with YouTube, I think, was a big deal... now, out of the 71 videos I took of all of them, I need to make a nice summary and post it on you tube.

Everyone was very kind as always. Lake Clinton is THE place !