Heading to St Joe for the day. Silver Beach should have some great waves by early afternoon since it's supposed to blow N all night.

Wind is expected to increase throughout the day and be pretty strong (30+) by sunset.

Come on over!

Andrew

Hey Andrew,

A couple of my Wisconsin friends and I were just looking at the forecast and wondering if St. Joe's would be any good. I see that NOAA is issuing a flood warning--do you think there's any risk that they would close access to the beach?

It looks like you might get solid conditions both Wed and Thursday. I've never sailed there before--how bad is the shorebreak? I assume it's not too bad if you launch close to the jetty. Do you think there's much of a risk that it'll get too big tomorrow and difficult/impossible to get out?

We will make the call early tomorrow morning. If we don't make the drive, we will sail Sheboygan. Looks like an amazing day all-around!

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Jake

I think if I was in Wisconsin I'd just go to Kenosha or Sheboygan instead of such a long drive! The wind looks like it will be stronger over there anyway.

The waves *could* be super nice at St Joe, and launching by the pier (south side) will make for an easy launch. I have seen Silver Beach close water access, but that was on a warm summer day.

It is possible that the wind will be a bit too much side-off for good waves so I have spots on my map farther around the lake. Michigan City's beach is on the wrong side of their pier for good waves on a NNE wind. Not sure if the lee side of the pier at New Buffalo has a public beach. There's a beach at Beverly Shores, but no pier.

Hope everyone gets to sail today
Andrew

Thanks for the feedback, Andrew! We'll stay local today and come join you some time when it's forecasted to be nice down-the-line riding.

Have fun out there--the marine forecast says it should be a great day....

Jake

Sheboygan reads North with a tiny bit of West at 23-26kn.
Expected to turn a bit more North-East by afternoon. Don't know what the shore break looks like - probably as usual and will most likely be stronger as day unfolds.
I'm heading out there now! (South of Blue Harbor Resort - South Municipal Beach)

St Joe served up quite a day. Rode the 5.8 for a while right after lunch then switched to the 4.7 later on. Waves on the outer sandbar were huge (13-14' according to a more seasoned eye than mine; I can't argue, they were massive). Waves nearer shore were not super clean but large and loads of fun. I uploaded a few pics.

The sunset was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen...


Today the water temp at South Haven was 45 yow!

Andrew

Andrew, you survived the monster behind you! Nice pics. Our water wasn't that cold though ...for once!

Sheboygan was also on fire. A great number of local and non-local kiters, wingers, and windsurfers on the water. We were 5 windsurfers on the water that afternoon I think (Patrick, Jake, Jon, Bruce and I). Shorebreak wasn't too bad and for once I didn't get thrashed around. This has to be the biggest seas I've ever sailed on with what appeared to be sets of swell about 12 feet and maybe more out in the bay near the lighthouse; felt like the crest was as high as my 400cm mast on a couple of occasions. GoPro Superview doesn't do justice to size. This was intimidating but so much fun.

Here are a few pics and check out the album for more.

109/5.2 most of the day. Then 4.7 towards the end but the camera ran out of battery by then.







Started the session on my 125/6.0 which rapidly became too big for the conditions

That looks totally great and fun. In Chicago, it was really windy 4.2 conditions and only a few people went out, Greenwood gets very gnarly with that much wind, difficult shorebreak, inconsistent wind at the shore, strong current that steals the wind. I decided to pass, perhaps should have ventured a bit north to see if there were friendlier conditions elsewhere. We never get the 10-12 ft swells far out here. I actually drove down to the Wall and Calumet park to take a look, the barriers create flatter water down there, but too windy to sail by myself. The water levels are still high and the waves breach the barriers, so the water was quite swelly at the concrete launch areas so launching or landing seemed dicey.

Flashback: 9/22/21

A man and his lake. Andrew.

Jake wrote:

From the Launches page

Ha! One year ago... I just finished packing the van; I'm headed over there in the morning.

It looks like the wind direction (combined with pier angle) will make the best waveriding at South Haven tomorrow (9/22/22) so I plan on being there. But St Joe will be very good too, just a bit more onshore. Would be nice if it was a bit warmer (fx is 57F), hopefully the water is warm.

There are two live South Haven beach cameras on YouTube. I'll be on one of my SuperFreaks, either solid orange or red/white stripe. Planning on being there from about 11 to 3:30pm. (got 5pm band practice of course) Hoping to try out the Quatro Quad I got myself for Christmas.

Got a new housing for the GoPro so hopefully I can get some decent pics before I break this one in a big crash

Hope everyone gets some rides in tomorrow!

Andrew