My intention is to sail on Andrea. It will be gusty and some chance of tunder storms later, but I’ll be with family and friends so Wolf is out of question.

Had a blast today! Started on a 7.5/110 and later switched to 6.5. On another lake I would have been fine with 5.7 in this wind strength, but the wind on Andrea is very gusty, so a bigger kit is more efficient.
The number of rigged kits was staggering ! That was the most amazing thing about the day. There must have been over 20 boards and windsurfing folks from very young to very old , man and women. Whole families were taking turns learning to windsurf and I’m sure some of the young ones will get hooked up for life. It must have been looking like that in the 80s at the popular spots, but freaking Lake Andrea, in the middle of nowhere, nowadays-thats just incredible!

Not quite like that, but close

That is truly crazy, I am visiting home at SF bay and cruising around at Crissy Field under the Golden Gate on a 5.3 and there are only about 7-8 windsurfers and about 7-8 kiters out 2 days ago. Big difference from when I lived there in the 80's 30-40 people would be out.

A major contributing factor for the growing numbers of windsurfers in the Chicagoland in my opinion are the large East European communities traditionally settling in this area and our offspring. The most numerous being the Poles and the Russians I think, but you can find a bunch of other ethnicities amongst the windsurfing crowd too. I just bumped into the third windsurfing person /albeit a beginner / from my native Bulgaria. For a country with a population of just 7 millions and being that far from here that’s quite a surprise .

That picture of this many Windsurfers on their long board in almost no wind makes me think of a sport that used to be the equivalent of today’s paddle boarding: Accessible beach activity and fun for everyone. At least that was what you could see on the Mediterranean cost of southern france back in the 80’s and early 90’s.

Greg from Sheb. wrote: Good old times! The Planche cover with topless Jenna de Rosnay comes to mind for some reason
Can you believe, I saw a young, local guy I think, that learns to windsurf on one of those early 80s Bic Wing’s. Just like in the picture, the original tie-on boom, baggy sail and no harness lines or foot starps-pure classic . It looks extremely painful though. I hope he doesn’t get injured, before switching to something more comfortable.