Hey Mike I'm running late. Not very exited looking at the temperature outside
I'll get there around 11 I guess.

NWhat a strange day yesterday! I went to the 87th St parking lot and Mike and Roman were already there. It was cold and strangly enough there were waves crashing in the rocks where we launch. We decided to wait another hour but Roman had to go. About 11.45 it got clear to me that if I want to get any wind at all I need to start rigging up. I was in the middle of changing into my wetsuit when a cop pulled next to me and asked me what am I intending to do, oh oh. I told him -windsurfing and he replied that I'm not supposed to do it from there as it is to dangerous on those rocks. After some explaining he started to sound a bit like : Do what you want by someone will call the fire department on you. I decided not to try my luck, packed up and went to check at the boat ramps. Mike went to check the beach.
It was clear to me at this point that high chop reflected from the walls, dying wind and small board with a big sail equals misery so I went to tell Mike goodbye. Somehow he managed to convince me to stay and launch from the beach where I sailed yesterday. So I rigged up once more but this time my 5.8 curious to try some float and ride "simulation " in the small waves breaking on the beach. I knew I'm going to damage my brand new 36cm fin but since I didn't have any smaller with me I bit the bullet and went in.
It was fun actually and not too cold because of the bright sun and I was able to do short wave rides /too short for a turn/ and lots of gybing/ tacking practice.Mike went exploring farther offshore, but couldn't catch any decent gusts. We played for at least 3 hours until my face started hurting from the cold.
All said it was an eye opener for me and now I'm considering selling my 9' wave windSUP which I never take with anyway because the wide Atom did a great job with all the space on deck that doesn't put the foot straps in your way when you don't need them.

Ady,
Glad you had a couple days of good sailing even though the conditions were difficult. Also, it sounds like you were able to keep the encounter with law -enforcement pretty chilled-out and peaceable. Good work! That's not always easy to do. I've gotten a ticket for windsurfing in chicago before, and also been at the wall when police got real nasty with windsurfers (though usually they're pretty cool about us launching there) ! I started a new topic calling for suggestions on how we can best maintain the access we have at 87th street (even though it's not perfect). Please share you experiences and ideas.

rule 1 - don't talk to cops.

rule 2 - if you're gonna go out, then go out. don't dilly dally around.

David,
Both good rules! Please check out the topic under "Lake Michigan" Windsurfers. There are some other points I'd like some input on as well.