I'm a windsurfer from Northern Illinois an considering making a trip over to Michigan City or Bridgman area this Friday if the forecast holds. I was wondering if a NNW or N wind works well in either place for waves or is it to onshore there in those directions?

That stretch can be pretty nasty unless it gets into the NNE range. Michigan City's main beach is on the wrong side of the breakwater as well. Not ideal unless you're looking to break some gear
Drive a bit farther and launch at Silver Beach in St Joe! Go right downtown and watch for the signs. If you go over the bridge you've gone too far.
Drew

I'm considering St Joe if its NW or Evanston if its N or NE for this Fri .

Right now........forecast is looking like NNW shifting to N/ NNE on friday.

So- Greenwood Beach in Evanston is THE place to be. Close to home, and if its windy, there will be 10-15 guys on the water. Free to park and sail.
Montrose beach is also fine on a NNW, but there are a lot of breakers, and you'll likely be the only windsurfers (it is a good kiting spot though).

As others have mentioned, MC and ST jo are best on a SW to W wind . Remember N, or NW is straight onshore on that SE part of the lake.

Finally......the 2 week 'late summer doldrums' are over! We've got wind and waves for couple of days (we had a great supsurf sesh today at greenwood with 2-3ft peeling waves) - Chris took out his new windsup and sailed it for a bit too
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Let the new WS season begin!


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It will be Greenwood for me today.

Leaving for St Joe in a few minutes... should be on the water by 2pm.
My sails are solid orange or red/white striped.
Would be fun to have some company!
Drew

Super fun day at Evanston today! Great to be back on the water again. Big thanks to all the locals for showing a "northerner" around!

I'll have to drive down again later this fall for a day when it's really going off...

Bring on the fall season.

Finally met Jacob and Patrick! Two very accomplished windsurfers btw, who were ripping it on their 80ish boards despite the moderate wind and less then optimal direction, something I wasn't able to do on my 94/5.7 for all but the 30 or so minutes between 5 and 6 PM when it blowed the strongest. Changing to single fin didn't help either. I need a 6.2 I guess, but then I'll have to replace my overly soft mast as well so it's going to be pricey. Will have to wait. Windsup to the rescue as usual and "May my fixes hold! "
The Crib readings look accurate only the wind speed was probably 5/6 mph less near shore.

St Joe was an awesome afternoon, especially after weeks of windsurfing drought!
Waves were better than the wind a 2pm so I rode the 10'6" SUP with the 5.8
After about an hour the wind kicked in and I switched to the Evo wave board and had a blast.
Waves on the outer sandbars were consistently 5-7 feet with fun clean areas between.
Waves nearer shore were 3-4 feet and there was good riding to be had, especially since the wind kept clocking.
I quit a bit after 6:30 as the wind was dropping quickly. I'll try to post some pics today.
Happy Drew

St Joe has outer sandbars like Sheboygan!! Awesome, I need to check it out asap!

Glad you guys had fun on both sides of the lake!

I grabbed some screen shots off the St. Joe cams.


St. Joe buoy - Peak wave height 7.9 ft. - wind mph



Andrew



Marc & Andrew



Andrew & Marc



Marc & Andrew



Andrew



Andrew & Marc




Andrew will have to give ya the close ups later.

A short video from yesterday






Photo album link: St. Joe 9/29

Drew