LAKAWA

The more experience I gain the more I realize how subjective windsurfing and kiting are. One person’s good day is another’s bad day. It depends on a lot of different factors many of which are highly personal and not even related to what the wind happens to do on a particular day. I remember a few li...

Waconia will likely have some boat traffic today so windsurfers and kiters should remind themselves and your fellow windriders to stay well clear of the main boat ramp and launching area. NW wind tends to suck you right into the boat launch area if you are not paying attention, but there is plenty o...

Great shots today Sean. What a nice day. My arms were toast from riding the last couple of days but this was still the best day in recent memory. Nice swell and lulls were not too deep. Rigged 5.9 with 105l board and was purrrfect. Kiters were hucking, windsurfers ripping. Too cold for July but no c...

Just back from my second session this year on Wayzata Bay launching from the city beach. This is an ok option for Westside windsurfers (attempting to kite on this bay in the summer would be an extremely bad idea) when the wind clocks too far to the east for Waconia. The park makes for a very pleasan...

Peter Noren at Midwest hooked me up with this bad ass Bearclaw knife made by Columbia River Knife & Tool. It comes with nice a hard plastic sheath that it won't fall out of until you pull it. Mine is the 2510 model with the rounded tip and has a safety orange handle. I have it strapped up high o...

The only thing wackier than the wind this evening was seeing a little sail in a white bag tied to the sign post with some old kite line. Shoot me an email if you left this under a tree on big Wednesday.

mark5767 at yahoo dot com

Google is not updated for the new highway yet, it stills calls it 312 and it only goes to Hwy 41. Mapquest has the whole thing. Looking at Mapquest I am rescinding the Tellers/Laketown recommendation. It looks faster just to take Hwy 10 into Waconia then backtrack to Co Rd 92 to the lake or take Co ...

Thanks Brian you're the greatest! These links work perfect, saved to bookmarks. There does appear to be agreement between Sailflow and Experimental for tomorrow, maybe Sailflow uses Exptl as a source? Hope so! Thanks again!

Randy/Tighe/Anyone: How are you getting the NOAA Experimental color map to work? I'm using a PC and you guys are prolly on Macs so maybe that's the problem? When I click on it I get the NOAA RUC page with no color map like I used to get it. Now it's just a blank box which makes me think I'm missing ...

Just got back from a nice lunch conference (my first ever!) at the University of Lake Waconia. It was pretty sketchy and light, just enough for a 14M kite and big board… could’ve even hucked a few jumps in the gusts but I stayed on the surface for whatever reason. Did not want to chance an afterwork...

I believe 1 meter = 3.28 feet, so 85 feet would be roughly 26 meters? Hmmm, sounds like it might smart to fly a kite?

I think you are correct Rob, height probably matters mainly in relation to the surrounding topography. Just read the lowest point in the state is Lake Superior at 602 ft and we know that gets pretty windy so height in general is probably not much of a factor. However a lake like Okabena is in a rela...

We all know size matters. What about height/elevation? I've heard rumors Waconia is a little better because it's a higher elevation... finally went to the DNR site and did some checking: Okabena 1580 ft Mille Lacs 1250 ft Green 1158 ft Washington 1070 ft Cannon 978 ft Waconia 963 ft Minnetonka 930 f...

Jeff G was out there as was Eric P and several other kiters. I didn’t arrive until 5, so missed the early sailing, but the wind stayed up until I left around 7:30. I rigged the Professors’s 5.2M sail on the other professor’s (Bill S) 93l board and was lit up for the hour or so I was on the lake. Cou...

BTW: When you pronounce "eastside", make sure you leave the "t" out. Practice saying "easide" over and over. If you leave the "t" in, you will be identified as an outsider right away. Funny, we seem to suffer from a similar vernacular affectation out west... ...

Yes, excellent suggestions! I would also add that since tomorrow looks to be NW, it should be possible to walk farther upwind for launching kites. It's shallow for quite a ways NW of the launch and that should get you even farther away from the boat ramp and boats coming in and out. Same holds true ...

The fisherman who voiced a concern was specifically refering to an instance last Saturday where he felt he could not get away from the launch safely in his boat due to multiple windcraft riding in front of him and effectively blocking his course out to deeper water. I have launched our little motorb...

I can plead guilty to not giving right of way. A couple of Thursdays ago when the boats were all congregating for their shotgun tournament start I sailed into a group of boats on a windsurfer by the launch. Well I realized there was no way to navigate through them so I dropped in and went to waterst...

There seem to be more front entries at the lake each season, so I can't imagine the zipper is a problem for most people. I've been using the front entry OR Pyro Pro for a couple of years and the zipper is not an issue. It's a little bulky in the front, but does not get in the way. I usually top it o...

Not sure what to say about today but it was good. Due west brings better swell and rollers than other directions so that was nice. Rigged 5.5M with 96l board, pretty much in the zone the whole time, still working out some of the rust from the offseason. A few kiters were killing it, and the windsurf...