Windsurfing & Stand-Up Paddleboarding in Michigan
https://youtu.be/jsDI_M3D8H8Who's sailing where?
Im thinking St Clair might be fun this Friday 10/11
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Wunderground says that a cold front will cross the state on Friday, followed by a couple days of (cold) clearing winds. It’s nice when Mother Nature aligns with the weekend calendar. Maybe a double-play weekend?
At the moment, I’m looking at the west side of the state (e.g., Muskegon), but I’ll continue to monitor the forecast. Cass Lake (Dodge #4) might be nice, maybe Lake Lansing. We’ll see. I’m open to suggestions.
PS, IMHO, light wind is better for practicing tacks than for practicing jibes. Light-wind shortboard tacks are virtually identical to planing shortboard tacks, but planing jibes are completely different than non-planing jibes. YMMV.
Other skills I choose to hone in light wind include sailing on the lee side of the sail, sailing clew-first, switch-stance, and/or fin-first. IMHO, gaining confidence in those situations can dramatically improve high-wind sailing, e.g, mastering clew-first water starting. Again, YMMV.
Very cool Lawrence. I'm interested in three light wind drills. I had a hard time doing post from my phone. Was trying to link a YouTube tut on non planning pivot jibes. I've been hearing Dodge 4 is interesting so Sunday remains a possiblity for me. I'll decide on sat.
Friday (10/11/2019) was lighter than I wanted but good exercise. It was fun to practice jibes. The water was cool not cold but rather nasty with seaweed. Traffic from AA was not nice. Enough so that I'm looking for other spots. When I was younger I would launch off a dock on the Detroit River in Grosse Ile. That's still an option, but a beach is way better.
Luna Pier looks interesting if this weather holds
Might beat driving through the entire metro Detroit sprawl. Lake Erie HAB is currently very low.
If this weather holds, next Sunday at Luna Pier could be my spot. Water temp at buoy is reads 63
4.6 at Muskegon today. It felt like 25 knots with occasional higher gusts. Lots of kites, but I was the only (lonely) windsurfer. When launching, I had to “punch out” through the shore break, just like you described, Chris. Thanks to your “heads up,” I spent the last couple days recalling the process before testing the theory today. Here’s the drill ... just before you reach the breaker,, head more upwind to meet it squarely. Shift your weight back momentarily just enough to make sure the nose of the board clears the breaker, then quickly shift your weight back over the center of the board as you go over the breaker. Once on the other side, sheet in in and go before the next breaker arrives.
Tomorrow rain is forecast in West Michigan. I’ll probably head to Lake Lansing.
Wow!! That sounds very fun. I'd say 'wish I was there' but I'm not sailing anything smaller than 5.9.
I have this 4.7 but can't trust it
I like this punch out technique. Thanks for sharing. What size board did you use?
I should have used my F2 80 liter wave board. That board sticks well to the water, even disorganized chop. However, that board was in Lansing, so I used what I had: my 105 liter freestyle board. That was OK, but I bounced around a lot in the chop. Also, my 4.1 sail was in Lansing. The 105 might have been more manageable with less power than the 4.6. Oh well, tant pis.
On Sunday (today), I sailed Lake Lansing with the 105 board and a 5.6. Those were better conditions for the freestyle board.
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