Just spoke with Alan. He thinks that it might be a good wave day at Montrose. Looking forward to it.

Wasn’t any good today. Me and Chris Windsuped for couple of hours, but it wasn’t as much fun as other days. The wind turned almost straight E and dropped to 15 mph at best. The waves were mostly messy and lacking power on a weird tack. Add to that temperature in the 40s and drizzle most of the time and I wasted my time mostly with the exercise being the only positive. In comparison on Clinton Lake today I would have had a nice 6.5 at least blasting /if I had a fin of course, which I don’t/ and warm water and 80s temp on top of all.

My 2 takeaways/post session thoughts:
1. If I don’t make regular trips to Clinton my small board skills would barely progress. Quality, strong winds are exceedingly rare around Chicago, hence those who can afford it go on windsurfing vacations to places blessed with wind and I see these people less and less on local waters.
2. The only satisfactory bottom and top turn on a wave yesterday I did in the very beginning of the session with my Kode 94 when I still had some hope left that the wind will stay. I was underpowered with a 5.7 , shlogging back to shore and I was able to catch a good wave , put my feet in the straps and do the 2 backside turns. Got a compliment from Chris for it. I had many wave rides with the Windsup after that but they were slow , mostly straight line and I couldn’t make a single top turn, because by the time I step back on the tail and the whale wakes up and decides to turn the short joke of a wave has disappeared. Now I’m starting to believe that a big wave capable board like a Kode 109 would be more fun in light wind conditions . I should be able to uphaul on it and if the wind picks up a bit I’ll be able to plane.
An useful article about the so called “float and ride “ conditions by Jem Hall. Although it goes about side to side off wind and a good size clean waves and nobody will boder with our onshore mess it still has some relevance and we have to deal with what we have and make the best of it.
www.windsurf.co.uk/jem-hall-surfvive-float-and-ride/

I agree, but I get it when people with many years of windsurfing experience don’t find pure big board blasting worth the expense and transportation/storage issues. Like you said-a matter of choice and priorities. Hence the reason I don’t want to part with my 110 L Atom just yet and replace it with a similar size freewave board. The 75 cm width and the ability to cary long fins and freerace type sails give it a lower planing threshold- an advantage in moderate, patchy winds. True, even the most basic freestyle tricks are not fun on a freerace setup but that’s ok as long as I’m still able to experience enough satisfaction from meditative relaxation when comfortably powered or from the much needed physical workout when maxed out.
Anyhow, my near future plans are starting to take shape in my mind and eventually by the end of season I’ll be looking to buy a 109 L Kode /or 103 / from the Big Winds rental fleet and next year maybe a 6.2 Revo sail to replace my current 6.5 Retro. This will leave only the 7.5 Retro to be used with the Atom for pure blasting purposes in the iffy 10-20 kts days .