Shhhh. Don't look at it. You're looking at it. Stop looking at it. Use your peripheral vision.






Clinton Lake Forecast

Thinking half day of PTO and heading out good forecast for late June.

I am planning on coming
The unknown is if I come with a friend (who never windsurfed before) or by myself

Update: Upgrade. It's looking 5.8. Don't leave the 4.7 at home. It's already gusted to 24 mph in Bloomington and Decatur before 9:00 am




See you at the Marina. If anybody asks tell them you're a guest of mine. Mind your distance, Illinois's been one of the best states in the drop in COVID-19 cases, let's keep it dropping.

Don’t worry about social distancing.... once on the water, you will Always be 10 ft behind me...

Awesome day at Lake Clinton

Kept on failing the jibes
But tried 3 new things
1) hand on mast waterstart for light wind
2) jump
3) hand in water while planning

It was a really good time for me, no GPS but got a few fast runs. Was having trouble finding good ramps for some reason maybe was the conditions or maybe I’m loosing my eye. I’ve only been able to sail a few times this year but at least I can still jibe and duck jibe well. Reid gets the go for it points, saw him try a few jump jibes. Was good to see as many windsurfers as kites on the water.

Nice day! Rigged 5.8 with 108 FSW. Headed up to The Narrows. Sylvain was already up there. Wind just slowly ramped up throughout the day. Chased everybody around to get pictures. Bill dropped down from Evanston. Nice to meet you. I'll get some shots of you next time. Where was our Dennis? We missed you!. Could have rigged down to 4.7 around 4:00 pm. Like everybody else I was too tired. Toughed it out on 5.8. Great to see everybody.


Bloomington


Champaign


Decatur




11 of the day's 39 photos.

See More Photos Here


The first cove above The Narrows. You can stand in front of the high bank. Good place to jibe at the top of the cove. Don't go too far the wind goes to 0 in there.



Sylvain (5.9 sail, 106 L)



Sylvain (5.9 sail, 106 L) Nothing wrong with this jibe entry. Good position. Make a step-jibe or flip the sail right here.



Chris (5.8 sail, 93 L)


Chris (5.8 sail, 93 L) Lofting a nice jump. (See photo link for full sequence)



Chris (5.8 sail, 93 L) and Sylvain (5.9 sail, 106 L)



Rich (8.5 sail, Kona)



Rich (8.5 sail, Kona) Blasting!



Me (5.8 sail, 108 L) The west side of The Narrows. Sand bottom changes the water color. Lake's been high this year.



Me (5.8 sail, 108 L) Going for Vulcan / Air jibe.



'til next time!




See More Photos Here

Hey Guys, sorry I didn't make it. Ended up working too late in the day for the drive north. Ended up going over to Carlyle Lake at CSA. Rode the 7.7 for a couple hours. Spent first half of session on 110 liter RRD and 38 cm RRD free ride fin (Reid's old board) and then second half on the 130 liter RRD X-fire. Tried various fin combinations on the RRD. The 46 cm (super stiff carbon Profile V-max) was tail walking across the lake so ended up going with the 44 cm Curtis (an old G-10 fin that sings at higher speed) Wind was good on the west side of the lake from CSA. The east side the wind began to rotate and become highly variable.

Another windsurfer showed up -- Scott Stauder. Scott and I spent a half hour or so moving rip-rap between sessions. Trying to restore the shoreline here to make it feasible for windsurfing again. Hope guests come down some time we are trying to make it easy to get in and out of the lake instead of risking life/limb across the slimy rip-rap. Clearing a 10-ft wide path down thru about 30-feet of rip-rap. We have the path cleared for about 20 of the 30-feet. I'll take a picture of the CSA site and perhaps it can be added to the Carlyle Lake launch sites? It used to be the best site on the lake back a couple decades ago.

sorry again, wind looked better for you guys for sure than what we had.

Dennis Koscielski wrote:

I put it back on the Launches page. Thanks for the restoration you're doing to it. Pics would be cool and I'll add them to it.


When you get tired of tunneling through 30 feet of rip-rap. Drive up the road and take a windsurfing vacation at Harbor Light.