Lake Andrea looks good tomorrow. We gonna hit it with my buddy.

The worst part about windsurfing is probably it’s wind dependency and the downgraded wind forecast Saturday morning gave me a bit of anxiety especially because I’ve invited Greg to come all the way from Sheboygan. The whole wind guessing game has made me superstitious and I know from experience that nothing improves the odds better then listening to The Prodigy on the road to the spot. Worked this time too and we had a blast. I was one of the first to arrive at the launch just before 11 o’clock, followed by my buddy /and native/ Ivo, Greg and my newest windsurfing pal Bart. We went straight for the biggest kit we brought, taking no chances with gusty Lake Andrea. And gusty it was, OMG it was crazy with the wind from SW exceeding 30 mph in one moment and dropping down to nothing in the next. It gets very physical when you hold a big rig and that’s why I like to crank the downhaul close to the max when sailing Andrea-saves me some energy. And so we went out -Greg on his sleek Bolt 125 and deep Lion 8.5, Ivo with his lean Koyote 7.4 /my ex/ and floaty Bic Techno 145 and my on my almost default kit for this small lake the green turtle 110 and trusty Retro 7.5 . I’d say those kits were perfect for the first half of the session and me Ivo and Bart went down to the narrow - downwind-end of the lake where the large building of the sportsplex seems to be funnelling the wind. That part is quite narrow and the chop is more pronounced so is hard to reach high speed but the wind is more consistent and the short reach forces you to turn more often and that makes for a good practice. The suitable conditions helped my friend Ivo to achieve his biggest goal for the season-to start planing in the footstraps. Despite his extremely limited TOW and with a very little guidance from me he did it with flying colors and for a very short period since he started sailing on a short board. He was ecstatic off course and I’m very happy for him. Good job Ivo!!! Congrats for becoming the latest intermediate member of our small community!
Turns out he is not the only one with a first time achievement and I can brag now to have bested my own speed record not only for Andrea but overall. My latest peak speed-34 mph Greg the ball is now in your court
I think I got this lucky gust after coming in to replace my GoPro battery and Greg was in for a break while Ivo was packing up to leave. I was probably the only one on the water in that moment and had a nice long reach and undisturbed water just below the launch all to myself. Got lucky it seems!
From this point the wind started deteriorating becoming even gustier then it has been and that was a lot of work, so much that I got a small blister even-the first one for the season. Greg joined and for a while we were the only ones sailing, the rest of the fleet were waiting it out for the carnage to pass. We definitely should have downsized around 1 pm when it picked up. We would have been more comfortable in the violent gusts and even in the lulls, but I just wasn’t sure how long it will be before it drops again. Turns out by the time it started to drop we were so exhausted that nothing could have kept us on the water anymore and our only wish was to get to the pub ASAP.
Sizzling hot chicken fajitas and cold New Glarus pale ale recharged my batteries for the way home. Well deserved end to the challenging but rewarding day on beautiful Lake Andrea in the great state of Wisconsin. Thanks for having us!