Fill Your Sail, Catch the Wave

By Julie Dean Kessler

The bright yellow sail is billowing, you’re laughing as the spray hits your face, there’s sunlight dancing on the waves. Your bare feet are gripping the board and you’re holding your own, riding in with the tug of the surf …

The surf? On Lake Michigan?

Ohhh, yeah. With a good wind ripping southward down all 307 miles of this lake, you bet surf’s up on Lake Michigan. Not every day, mind you, but watch the weather reports, tote your windsurfing gear down to the shore and paddle out, and you might be surprised how much this Great Lake can deliver.

“There’s definitely a nice abundance of windy days at Lake Michigan,” affirms avid windsurfer Bill Wolf, enough that the La Porte doctor has brought his considerable expertise in the sport to Lake Michigan.

Do you have to have expertise to pull off this high-energy sport? It helps, but novices can have plenty of fun, too, as long as they get the basics from someone in the know.

Catching the wave
Robert LeMay, a family practice doctor, heads out on the lake every chance he gets – and got into the sport by chance. A few years ago a Long Beach, Indiana neighbor was moving and gave his board and sail to LeMay. “I tried it out and it was fun – but I wish I were better at it.”

Better as in … ? Well, for one thing, says LeMay, 56, “A jib turn downwind takes some skill. And on the water you can let the wind pull you up on your board, which makes it a lot easier to get on the board – I’m working on that one.”

We can’t help but ask: Is he totally at the mercy of the wind?

“Well, nooo,” hedges LeMay. “We’re on the southern tip of Lake Michigan, with the wind out of the north, so there’s a lot of tacking.” But wind is good, right? Sure – once you’re out on the lake, but “If you want to go into the wind (to get out past the waves), you have to tack into the wind at a 45-degree angle, and that takes a lot longer.” As in, longer than when Mother Nature is willing to just purse her lips and – blow. In the other direction, yet. “But once you get out there” – and here’s where you hear the excitement in LeMay’s voice – “it’s really fun to surf back in on the waves.”

Adrenaline rush
LeMay has a friend who taught him windsurfing. Should everyone have a mentor? LeMay is emphatic: “Absolutely. It’s a very steep learning curve.”

Wolf agrees. “You need to know how to sail, surf, water ski, how to balance – it’s a combination of all of those.”

Once you’ve got it down, the possibilities are exhilarating. Wolf, 49, calls himself a destination windsurfer, hitting sweet spots ranging from Hood River Oregon, on the Columbia River Gorge, to the north shore of Maui, to Bonaire off the coast of Venezuela. Serious stuff, to be sure.

“I get an adrenaline rush,” says Wolf, from the fast action provided by the strong winds in such locales. “But windsurfing you can do on inland lakes, too. And Lake Michigan is great for people’s schedules because it’s right there,” with waves that can reach 5 to 6 feet high.

Like LeMay, though, Wolf enjoys “being one with nature. Everybody wants to go 90 miles as hour with a gasoline engine; we need to rediscover what nature has to offer with the wind and waves.”

And for couch potato/windsurf wannabes looking for muscle-building fun, “Windsurfing keeps you in shape, that’s for sure,” says LeMay.

• Wind conditions and safety tips: www.windfunstl.com

• Equipment start-up costs: National associate Bill Brink at The House Boardshop (www.the-house.com) in Minnesota says initial cost runs from $1,100 to $1,700; for Lake Michigan, Long Beach windsurfer Dr. Robert LeMay and several Web sites advise a wetsuit for chillier days. LeMay says The House Boardshop is “very helpful; they know what they’re doing.”

A resource for windsurfing equipment closer to The Beach Coast:
Windward Sports
3317 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 472-6868
www.windwardsports.com