Sunday 4/25/04 - Clinton Lake, Illinois (Glen's report)
Sail size: 5.2-5.5, wind W 20-30 mph, air temp 70, cloudy skies

Yesterday Clinton came through with a good 5.2 session, Reid, Chris, Ken and I took advantage of the Westerly down in the main pool with many flat out slalom races from the farmer’s beach to just south of the west shore at the narrows. Due to the overcast skies the wind was a bit puffy – not quite the 4.5 day we had a week ago but pretty good for the Midwest. The bass fishermen were having a tournament but didn’t venture in our territory very much.

Later,
Glen

Sunday 4/25/04 - Eagle Ocean (The Rev's report)
Sail size: 6.2-5.5, wind SW-W 15-30 mph, air temp 70, partly sunny skies

For Jill, Ron, and I it was opening season at the Eagle - and a very gusty
one, more so than usual. Indy Car Mike also made it out and a new sailor
from Lafayette - Bob. The wind was SW early and shifted to due West by
middle of the afternoon. With the West shift it seemed to increase in
strength and that seemed to make the sailing better for me. I really
flattened out my 6.2 at this point and sailed a bit longer. All in all it
was good to get out at the local site and a nice day to be outside.

Aloha
Rev

PS I measured a water temp. of 61 F.

Saturday 4/17/04 through Friday 4/23/04 - Hatteras (LLCJ's report)
Sail size: 3.5-8.0, wind SW mostly 20-25 mph mph, air temp 70-75, sunny skies

This...ouch...had to be...oww...the best...groan...Hatteras trip ever. Olaf at the Sail Repair called it a Bermuda High. What ever it was we had 7 straight days of beautiful warm, sunny weather. Oh, and it was windy every day. The Riders were completely worn down after 7 out of 7 days of great sailing and no one even suggested staying to sail on Saturday. TI no longer stands for Team Indy, it's been changed to Team Ibuprofen.

The typical day started calm or with light winds allowing the riders a leisurely breakfast and time for the Ibuprofen to loosen those stiff muscles. I generally grabbed an early lunch while the wind machine started cranking up and other riders hit the water with big gear. I'd start around noon with the 6.2 and then switch to the 5.5 after an hour or so.

Tuesday was the exception. Jill and I were preparing for a dawn patrol and it looked 6.2ish to me. We managed to chase down a Canadian who had just came in. He was on a 5.0 and 72 liter board and "Eet eez no fun. Eet eez very rough, and zee door, she eez always open." He was dropping down to a 4.2. I went 4.7 on the 72 liter and I think Jill went 3.5. Although overpowered at times, the 4.7 generally was just right. The wind started developing holes after an hour, but I stuck with the 4.7 and got in more time on the 85 liter and finally finished the session around 9:30 on the demo AHD Type F 64. The rest of Team Ibuprofen kept going on bigger gear in the dropping wind for another hour or so while I returned the now slightly overdue board.

I really liked the AHD. It's a 106 liter Freeride board aimed at control and comfort in high winds. Sail range is claimed to be 4.5-8.5. It certainly handled the 4.7 conditions well. It's fast enough to be competitive with Duckburn and Alward, fun to carve in the chop, jumps and jibes nicely. I was tempted to buy it, but my preference is to wait till fall when the demo boards go on sale. When I asked the salesman the price he said they were all out of them, but he'd make me a killer deal on the demo I had just brought back. SOLD! My beloved Veloce was last seen heading to Kokomo with Scarey Larry.

The reef was user friendly early in the week and several TI riders took advantage - even Dr Evil who ventured out with his Go board. About half way to the reef we found the Jibe-a-torium. It's a big stretch of flat water just made for carve jibes. Duckburn and I ripped it up all one afternoon trying to find out just how far you can lay a board over when carving. The answer is a lot farther than you think. The AHD handled everything from my usual long drawn out planing jibe to some extremely tight laydowns and still ripped out of it - provided I was fast enough with the footwork and flip. Word spread and the next few days several other TI riders joined us. Everyone make great progress with their jibes.

We discovered the far edge of the jibe-a-torium via the first ever triple land loop. Techno was leading and was midway through a nice carve when he fell. I was close behind and decided to mark him. I had plenty of speed and had just started to flip the sail when I felt something tug at the fin and kersplash. Duck was right behind me and saw an opportunity for a double mark and went for it with gusto. Another splash. Fortunately the bottom was soft and everyone was unhooked to jibe so there were no booboos.

About the only down side to the week was the shallow water at the launch. We seemed to have less water every day and you either had to hike out past the platform or try to get planing in the channel and try to make it through the slightly deeper water just down wind of the launch. The exact location and depth were difficult to judge and there were several hard landloops - I think we injured three boards, an ankle, and a back in all.

Now, if I can just get up enough energy to unpack...

LLCJ

Sunday 4/18/04 - Eagle Ocean (Martin's report)
Sail size: 5.7, wind SSW 25-35 mphs

Sunday was one of these rare nuking days on EO. SSW wind gusting up to 35 mph 90F air temperature in April!!. It was outstanding. I sailed for a good 3 hours on my old Bic veloce and a Highfly 259 (90l) board on a 5.7 trimmed all the way flat. I was overpowered at times, but the larger size helped in the lulls. The ups and downs of EO sailing...There were about 5 other windsurfers, but we sure missed the Hatteras gang. I hope you are getting lots of use of your 4 and 5 size sails down in Hatteras.

See ya! Martin

Thursday 4/15/04 - Clinton Lake, Illinois (The Rev's report)
Sail size: 5.4, wind S 20-35 mph, air temp 70, sunny skies


We had a pretty good crew at Clinton yesterday: Glen, The Impaler, WW Dave, Mark-Reid, Hugh, me, and another local sailer. The wind was a bit gusty (later in the afternoon my 5.4-flat was quite a bit to hang onto) but I was on my little wave boad and enjoying life quite a bit. Saturday looks possible too, SW 15-20 forecast. Hope that the Hatteras crew has a safe drive and is rewarded with good windd this coming week.

Aloha
Rev

Sunday 4/4/04 - Lake Maxincuckee, Indiana (Duckburn's report)
Sail size: ?, wind NNW 20-30 mph, air temp 45, mostly cloudy skies

Both Joe and I took it to the Max. on Sunday. We rigged 5.0's and
were on the water around 1:30 pm we sailed up to 5:30 pm with one
break to eat an apple. Like Maxinkuckee is awsome on a good north
blow. The south end of this lake has a sand bar that really stacks
up the chop and makes for some really nice ramps. Both Joe and I
agreed that the combination of wind and water conditions is as good
as Indaina gets. When you all get tired on sailing in that EO mud
hole you guys should give the Max. a try, but do not all come up here
at once. We only have parking for a couple more people.

Duckburn