Anyone Getting on the water

[BizGuru]

Anyone been able to get any riding in.

[kiwiar2000]

i havnt dude.... not much wind blowing lately!
today was 10 mph, but i was like "eh" i cant cause i have a 13 meter
season is coming though
-Danny

[ricki]

Yes, this morning for about an hour. I was even powered up and boosting at points, unpredicted and fun! A squall had just moved onshore a few miles to the north and the wind was up for a while. The coast looked clear for nearby inbound squall clouds visually and on the radar so I had at it for a while. Unfortunately, a low settled in a while later and I ended up doing an involuntary downwinder just to get past the out of bounds guarded beach area in Delray to be able to land. Summer! Fortunately my wife anticipated this and tooled down to pick me up.

[kiwiar2000]

You could've avoided that involuntary downwinder, Rick. Normally, when I see a squall approaching in less than 5 minutes, i lower the kite down and land it on the water either at the left or right. Then I pull in the 5th line all the way until I get hold of the kite itself. Let the squall pass by and let out the fifth line nice and easy, just to be safe...
thats my 2 centavos
-Danny

[ricki]

Yes, this morning for about an hour. I was even powered up and boosting at points, unpredicted and fun! A squall had just moved onshore a few miles to the north and the wind was up for a while. The coast looked clear for nearby inbound squall clouds visually and on the radar so I had at it for a while. Unfortunately, a low settled in a while later and I ended up doing an involuntary downwinder just to get past the out of bounds guarded beach area in Delray to be able to land. Summer! Fortunately my wife anticipated this and tooled down to pick me up.

You could've avoided that involuntary downwinder, Rick. Normally, when I see a squall approaching in less than 5 minutes, i lower the kite down and land it on the water either at the left or right. Then I pull in the 5th line all the way until I get hold of the kite itself. Let the squall pass by and let out the fifth line nice and easy, just to be safe...
thats my 2 centavos
-Danny

There was no squall in my case, at least not inbound to my area. If there was, I wouldn't have had a kite up or been out on the water. It had passed inland several miles to the north as I had mentioned and the radar and view were both clear well upweather. The low followed fairly inexplicably about two hours after it had passed inland.

5th lines are good as far as they go but they aren't magic. Checkout what happened to the rider in Ft. Lauderdale with his 5th line fully pulled in when he was hit by a fairly mild squall by local standards.

I would land, have the kite anchored, both lines off of one side of it or better still rolled up and anchored before the temperature, wind speed or direction change with the arrival of the squall. Too many guys have been hurt trying to do otherwise, like:

myself, 6 years ago:
http://fksa.org/viewtopic.php?t=210

a bunch of guys two weeks ago, this is particularly worth a read:
http://fksa.org/viewforum.php?f=81

and a few hundred in between worldwide, perhaps more. A number are analyzed on this site and on kiteforum.

Inbound squalls are not worth messing with.

[ricki]

The second link was incorrect, it is fixed now. Lots of storm stories out there.

[BizGuru]

Thanks Rick

I was up at Hammock Park in Boynton yesterday evening testing out my new contra 23.5m. Great kite lots of pull. Winds were 12mph when we got there SE and shifted to about 8 E. So a little body dragging is all I got in. But I saw a squall coming in right after my buddy hooked in and launched the kite. I had him land the kite and began packing up, and sure enough as soon as we got it packed and started heading for the winds gusted up 25+ :shock: for a brief period of time but with a 23.5m kite in the air that could have been devastating. Thanks for all your advice I just wanted you to know that you advise does not go unread by us new guys and it can defiantly keep us from learning things the hard way.
:P

[ricki]

Thanks Rick

I was up at Hammock Park in Boynton yesterday evening testing out my new contra 23.5m. Great kite lots of pull. Winds were 12mph when we got there SE and shifted to about 8 E. So a little body dragging is all I got in. But I saw a squall coming in right after my buddy hooked in and launched the kite. I had him land the kite and began packing up, and sure enough as soon as we got it packed and started heading for the winds gusted up 25+ :shock: for a brief period of time but with a 23.5m kite in the air that could have been devastating. Thanks for all your advice I just wanted you to know that you advise does not go unread by us new guys and it can defiantly keep us from learning things the hard way.
:P

Thanks for your input! I am glad you were able to get your kite down in advance of the storm. Yes, big kites, particularly C kites and squalls can be a bad combination. Shannon Best was out with an 18 m when a squall hit boosting winds to around 30 kts.. He could have easily been badly injured but fortunately was not. More at:

http://fksa.org/viewtopic.php?t=121