Is anyone thinking St Joe's for tomorrow? I'm seeing 20 G 30 SSW on NOAA... I need to make the call tonight as I'd have to leave at 4:30 AM to beat traffic.

Well, I busted my left knee today. Jacob can attest.
This knee needs a rest or maybe more...

Jacob, St Jo won't be any good in SSW-side offshore. Keep watching for Thursday when it may be SW and maybe side to side on. For tomorrow I'm thinking now Greenwood beach in Evanston or Waukegan.
Greg, that's a major bummer! I hope you'll be able to get away with rest only! The sport is brutal, we get our share of injuries , some more some less. Get well soon, we have a season ahead of us still.

Ady--thanks for the intel. I wasn't sure if St. Joe would work in slightly side-off conditions... I would be game to try Waukegan today. Both the forecast and the aspect of the launch look solid.

Gregory--I'll keep my fingers crossed that your knee heals quickly!

Headed to Waukegan with one other guy (Patrick)--should be there around noon. I'm assuming you guys launch just in the lee of the jetty on a south? Hopefully there will be some other folks out enjoying the wind.

So how did everybody do today? Chris and Reid must have had a blast on Clinton, this much is clear, but the rest of us? I went to Greenwood beach in Evanston mainly for my wife to have a good day at the beach. She did and I had an interesting windsurfing session besides. Wind was SSW and there was a large wind shadow in front of the shore which wasnt easy to overcome on my 94L. Started with a 5.7, but switched to 5.2 soon . I should have rigged the 4.6 actually, but that wind shadow was fricking me out , so I ended up being way too overpowered on the inside. Had a few short wave rides and some crappy jumps, but nothing to be bragging about.
All said Greenwood is not a good place for SSW , no surprise I just hoped for a direct S which actually happened only too late. Im very curious how it went for Jacob at Waukegan because this is the place Ill visit next time in SSW or S.

Interesting day at Waukegan today: I rigged 4.7 / 78 L and Patrick rode 4.7 / 88 L. It looked super windy and the kiters were consistently getting rides, but the wind was behaving very oddly at the surface level. I think the cold water temps were messing with the wind strength close to the water, because it did not feel nearly as windy as NOAA said it was during the day. It would be really nice and powered-up for 5-10 minutes and then it would lull for 5-15 minutes. I could barely get a water-start during the lulls and then it would be really good for a few minutes. Overall, it was an inconsistent day interspersed with some very nice sailing (and surprisingly good ramps!).

That said, I thought Waukegan worked well on SSW. If the water temps had been warmer, I think it would have been a very solid day. Easy launch with no shore break and pretty nice swell, although the waves were not really "rideable".

I was on my way to waukegan, and then decided at the last moment to go the other direction, and hit wolf lake instead. The wind readings (waukegan buoy) were reallyquite SW around 1pm, and that was bothersome to me. I didn't want to get skunked on this windy day. I sailed greenwood yesterday, and knew the conditions were likely the same (offshore winds, super gusty, big schlog to the wind line ...).

Wolf was on fire today. I arrived around 2pm, and the lake was completely filled in. guys were getting blown off the water on 3.7 sails!. The wind came down just a tad, and most of us were on 4/5-5.0 sails. I sailed all day till dark on 4.5 with 88liter. Maybe 15 windsurfers on the water; it was too windy for most of the usual kiters. I think we had 40kn gust many times during the sesh. The lake even had 2ft chop in places! Several kiters from SW michigan were there today; it was the closest spot for them on a ssw.

Thanks guys for your wishes. I busted my medial collateral ligament on my left knee. It hurts pretty bad but the good news is no surgery required. Just 4-6 weeks off any sailing activities. Stupid accident (aren't they always?): I set the front straps on the Starship too big (= foot too deeply engaged) and when I needed to release my foot during a transition, it just got stuck a fraction of a second too long as I lost my balance. Result: over-rotation of the knee. The fish in the lake appreciated my profuse swearing.
That's a bummer because I just combined a short business trip to SF ahead of the Memorial Day weekend and made plans to sail in the bay. Well, now that's down the drain, I'm joining the Sheboygan reading club instead. Ha!

I'm hitting Wolf today I think. Got my fair share of crap yesterday so it's time for some relaxation.
Greg I have my doubts that your wide footstraps are the reason of your misfortune. It's probably just a case of "everything that can go wrong, went wrong " type of bad luck. I also would recommend you, once your knee is heeled, to start doing some windsurfing specific exercises, especially "squats ", every day like this guy:



Im also doing planks, just holding in the position for 2 min. Great for the core muscles that we happen to use a lot.

And now the 3 exciting SW days are over. I had the last 2 of them-Greenwood yesterday and Wolf today-and they were very different in a good way. I was aware of the forecast and the gradually dropping wind, so I didn't wait too long to change from 4.6 to 5.7 on the 94 to finally 6.5 on the 110. A pretty nice day despite of that .

Since my wife was in charge of the camera at Greenwood I have only those 3 silly pictures probably not even worth posting, but whatever. Starring: me-Revo5.2/Kode94-backside, Mike and somebody else...backside, my friend Ivo...yes, backside