Hi all

Wanted to share my take on some of the local launches from a beginners perspective. I picked up some great new gear this fall and have been getting out as much as I can. Before I got this gear I'd been windsurfing maybe a dozen times, but only in extremely light air, and on an ancient Bic Nova with similarly old and broken gear and sails, that I would take out once a year on vacation in July.

I've tried a few spots sourced from this forum and wanted to write down my thoughts on the spots I liked.

Silver Lake: My favorite spot, it's about 1hr north of NW Chicago. In the summer they charge a parking fee ($20!) but in fall it's free. You park on the N side of the lake, recommend going all the way to the SW corner of the lot as you can back right up to the grassy area above a dedicated windsurf launch area. It's a quick walk to the beach. You have to keep walking about 100' into the water before it gets deep enough for a fin, can't imagine how far for a foil. Once launched there are some shallow areas just off the rocks by the beach, as well as to the west where it gets shallow and rocky. The lake is oriented great for S or SW. I tried E once and it was extremely shifty. The bottom is mostly nice sand. There are big big weeds, although they seemed to get a lot better in Nov.

Lake Andrea: About an hour N of Chicago, and about 20 minutes away from Silver. Good for N and NE. I have tried it in NW and it's very shifty, and you get a decent wind shadow near the launch area which is frustrating. The shoreline is rocky to prevent erosion, but they have added 2 gravel paths to make it easy to launch. In the summer you need a parking pass, but in fall it seems to be free. You park just N of a picnic pavilion that is itself about 1/8 mike N of the swim beach. The bottom is black mud, and adds a challenge to beachstarting as your shoes want to remain under the mud. The bottom is the opposite of SIlver lake, as fin depth happens about 15' off the launch area. Really tight in N as you have to turn before you hit the opposite shore.

I've also tried Montrose beach, ironically it was the first place I ever surfed after getting the Nova, I just threw it in the water on a light NE day and was fine, but this fall nearly got into real trouble there when I went out as the wind went from NE overnight to SE. The leftover swell was quite large, but as soon as I got through the break it seemed like the wind dropped to nothing and I had real trouble turning, and then it got worse when I lost my boom clamp (uphaul rigged incorrectly, doh!) and ended up paddling back in to shore towing the board. No fun! I think I'll stick to small lakes until I get better.

Scary moments but you managed the situation. These moments help you to know your limits and keep calm in unexpected situations.
I hope you'll try Lake Michigan soon though. The Big Lake is an awesome place for our sport - often easier to sail because the wind is a bit less gusty there.

For safety reasons, I always carry an extra 3' length of downhaul line with me. You don't know what might break and the extra line might make a difference between swimming or self-rescuing back to shore.

Also, fixing a loose boom clip in the water is doable and might save a swim (release outhaul, reattached boom clip and re-outhaul the clue. However, I would advise not to detach the board from the rig while away from shore (if the board runs away from you, you can be in trouble) unless you decide to fold the rig completely and paddle back to shore on the board.

Hi all, was just going through the instagram page I use to track my days on the water learning windsurfing and wanted to share it here as I have read through many interesting topics from other beginners. Have had a lot of fun this fall learning, and have gotten a lot of great information from this site about the local spots and windsurfing in general.

www.instagram.com/Lowspeedwindsurfing/

Looking Great! Now following your Instagram posts!

You are progressing very well. One of our rapidly progressing Greenwood sailors is always quick to switch to his high volume boards that have a daggerboard if there is any issue about staying upwind, and he would stay out for hours, always making it back fine even with some downwind adventure. If your old Nova is the one with a daggerboard, that will work perfectly fine to get planing and in the footstraps. The Novas with fixed center fin won't work, you can't retract to get planing. On L Michigan you can get long sustained gusts that will get you comfortable and used to everything. I was viewing some of my GoPro from this season, one has 11 minute video on one reach back to shore on a flat SW wind, 2 sustained planing runs of maybe 4 minutes each, 20+ knot board speed, so 2+ mile run.

I'm really looking forward to sailing on the big lake once things warm up, work keeps me busy in spring so it'll be later summer and fall. Like the idea of going on days when there's a group, so at the very least someone could tell my kids it looked cool.

My Bic had a US box for the centerboard and the rear fin. Understand that's quite weird now. Before I got my current RRD the one skill I really developed was limping upwind in light air on the Bic without a centerfin. The idea of a longboard with a kick down centerboard is cool, but so far I have been able to get upwind on the RRD when things get squirrely. I saw a fellow sailor take a monstrously long light air board with a huge dagger that was able to make boat-like tacking angles.

I like to be organized when it comes to sessions and seasons, and for next year I really want to:

Waterstart (gave up on this as the water got colder this fall to focus on more upright time)
planing gybe
planing upwind
fast tack

It's going to look goofy but I think I'm going to rig my smallest sail in my workshop this winter and do some footwork practice, as I feel like that's the next step towards better turns.

Thanks all, happy new year!

Footstraps got to be at the top of the list. If you think you are hooked now.....that's when it happens. Goes along with waterstart, you need enough wind for either.

Right! Completely forgot about those... have been in the front strap maybe a dozen times but either I luff up hard or the wind dies (and then I luff up hard)

I've read that the key to avoiding that (beyond having enough wind) is to get low on the harness lines to load the mast so that your wandering front foot doesn't turn the board, does that sound correct?

Had a great fall with this, but it feels mighty unfair that winter cuts this all short!

They call it mast foot pressure, its a pressure on the mast base that counteracts the change in your weight distribution on the board which is now further back (front and back foot) and causes the board to pivot up wind. About 15 years ago when boards got short and wide, I noticed that boards needed to be aimed downwind more to get on a plane, they just don't track as well straight across the wind, so you need a downwind push to get them going. The board will want to round up unless you have enough speed. Having enough wind cures all problems until there is too much wind and you get blown down wind.

That's interesting. The first time I popped onto a plane I was absolutely not in control, and was expecting the board to luff up but instead blatted away downwind without any clue, followed by a splash. Got a little easier the next couple times where getting weight back and easing the sail seemed to help.

What's a good longboard with a kick down centerboard?

If I recall there's a swap meet in Evanston in spring, always meant to go but kept having emergencies come up so ended up just buying new gear in Sept.

Wanted to update my beginners' review of local spots to include Wolf, as many here suggested I try it and it seems very popular.

Wolf has nice parking access right by the playgroud, and it's a quick walk over some field grass to the beach. I was advised to launch straight out to avoid rocks to either side of the launch, however on SW days I noticed a lot of foilers would walk through the water upwind toward the island to get a little extra windward gauge so tried that and it's no big deal. Bottom is not as sandy as Silver lake, but not as muddy as Lake Andrea. Scattered rocks so I wore boots both times.

Have heard that once launched you want to stay away from the islands to the N and NW, no idea why you'd go there in the the first place anyway, but I did keep clear. They do kite training over there so can't be that bad. You can sail all the way to the opposide shore by the Iliana yacht club, although I didn't push right up to the shore. There are some sandy spits around the islands where I noticed people taking a break when the wind went fluky, so going to try that if I ever feel like waiting out the breeze for a bit. Depth seems good in all the areas you'd actually want to sail, except right near shore in the obvious places. Can't tell anything about water quality, but at least it doesn't have any obvious oil or odd foam. Weeds seem better than Silver. Wind wise I've visited it twice, and it wasn't quite as consistent as I'd hoped but no worse than Silver. First day was forecast to be 12-16, ended up being more like 8-14 S and SSW, but even though it was light it was very solid and the deltas between lull and gust gradual, which is a big deal for a learner. Second day was weird, as it was supposed to be 16-22 SW, and was exactly that when I rigged, but dropped quickly and sputtered a bit.

Lots of windsurfers, windfoilers, kiters and wingers there, and everyone I've met has been nice as usual. If you're curious about it, check it out as it's a pretty benign place in terms of launch, rigging and sailing. Really would love to try it on a high wind day but my presence seems to scare those away.