accuweather says wind for the weekend

[inferno]

they are predicting 14 with gusts to 30 from the east...
ill be happy with 14 at this point

[BigR]

Danny,

did you get the CRACKFORECAST again?

:lol:

[AEsco48]

so does ikitesurf...but weather.com shows no wind...???

[Unimog Bob]

I pray the weekend pans out! I can't F'ing believe it it is blowing 12 to 13 SE at Gandy right now (Next to my office) and my new waroo is sitting at home in Parrish on top of the freezer in the laundry room. It's a good thing I just tapped that keg of Sierra Navada Summer Ale yesterday. I'm going to need a couple pints to deal with the frustration.

Bob

[tomstock]

iKite forecast?

:roll:

Sigh, I wish they were even close sometimes. iKite is the REASON I get skunked soooo often. I hope they are right this time.

[E-Bone]

Looks like it's blowing right now. Although it might be an electric session.

[Z-Type]

Ikite says it's blowing 18 at skyway....
gotta question though
has anyone looked at the past 7 days on ikite wind graphs, there are gusts going from 5 to 35-40 in just a few minutes...

Now, if it's blowing East and I'm close to the shore at BS;
between all the trees and the 10 lanes of highway,
do I have any chance of survival at all?

I wonder what's the best to do in that case? Should I crash the kite or kill it completely, or is there a way to ride it out ( kite de-powered at 11-12 or something)?
on ikite, last thursday it went from 0 to 35 in 5-10 minutes, is the gust instantaneous or gradual build-up?

damn it, now I'm skrrrd

[tomstock]

Z-Type, I can speak from experience here.... but it's just my opinion and may not agree with everyone else:

if you get into that situation (yes it really does happen, 14 to 35 in my case while I was on an 18M), crash the kite into the water first and then pull the quick release immediately. That way if you can't get to the release, or the release doesnt work, or the it releases but doesnt depower your kite and leaves the bar out of reach, it's already in the water.

I learned that lesson the hard way. I got dragged to shore, between the trees and signs at east beach and across the road narrowly missing a car, to the far side (on my stomach the whole way going about 35mph). I was pulling the quick release the entire time but it failed to release.

If you are in serious trouble, crash it first, search for the quick release later.

[Wolfie]

There was wind!
And Freak out of nowhere wind is better than nothing. Anyway, I got about 2 hours in out at Picnic Island. About 3:15-5:00. It was 11knts gusting to 15 on the high side....Still need a bigger board, but at least I got a kite in the air!

[E-Bone]

It's usually not going to do that out of the blue. Sudden squalls usually accompany storms and other unstable wind events.

I deal with such squalls by refraining from riding in those conditions. Otherwise, you have to trust to an Oh-Shit device, which do not always work. Of course, at this time of year, storms mean lightning, and the only reaction to lightning coming your way is to die.

[Big G]

I would have to agree completely with Tom S. on crashing the kite if caught in an unexpected sudden wind increase. If the wind is upon you before you are able to safely get to shore or you are being lifted out of the water when your kite is maintaning the 12 o'clock poisiton...DO NOT GET CLOSE TO THE SHORELINE!

You want to stay far from shor untill you get that kite in the water and collapsed so that it cannot repower. If you crash it in the water, you have additional drag added by being in the water that may keep you away from hitting a har object onshore. That's how I handled a 17m SS that caught me by suprise while riding and the wind went from 17-20mph qquickly to 30+. Things on the water happen fast and staying away from shore will minimize the possibility of injury.

Good Luck...

Big G

[Unimog Bob]

There were at least four kites in the air at BS around 5:30 with a dark line of heavey rain moving in from the SW. I know it has been a long time since we've had decent wind but it looked sketchy on the drive by. I saw crazy Jays van and a Rasta colored Ion near the launch. Hope everyone ended up OK.

Bob

[mocean]

supposed to be 15kts east here in Nassau thursday.
and with this tropical storm coming could be a prity windy weekend, for us and for you guys.
anyways good luck
aj

[tomstock]

I also drove by and saw the squall line moving in while 4 kites were in the air riding 20 feet from shore.... hope nobody ended up in the trees.

[Unimog Bob]

Tom,
It sounds like we must cross paths almost daily near the Skyway. Give me a ring and We can pull into the rest area and I'll give you the wind meter stuff I've been hauling around in my trunk.

Bob
727 638-0014

[AEsco48]

no more wind predicted...

[inferno]

i think it moved back to mon/tues

[vic]

rode at the backside for over an hour yesterday, left before that storm hit though. the wind wasn't much, but i was able to fly my 12.

[bryanleighty]

i got about an hour in on Wednesday at St. Pete beach..
quite onshore and had to do a walk of shame a couple times.. but i did hit a couple great kickers and ....hey... i got to kite for a while.

item of note:

Randy was out there too.. and after i had a kite fall and he helped me relaunch, apparently some guy came up to him and started telling him off about how dangerous the kites were and how we shouldnt be flying them there..etc..etc..

of course, i didnt hear that i was trying to get back on my board and OF COURSE i go to water start and i send the kite right over the guys head..

he ducked like i was going to hit him .. but the kite was far above his head and it wasnt even close..

still.. he looked pretty pissed and then started walking back to Randy to give him more shit.

i didnt realize what was going on until later.

sorry about that Randy.. next time send him my way.. no need for someone else to take any heat for something that i do...

[inferno]

dive the kite a little harder next time :shock:

j/k :lol:

[bryanleighty]

and Z-type...

the huge jumps in winds are when storms move through.. squalls they are called .. they bring huge winds, rain and pain.

they are typically very obvious on their approach.. dark looming clouds ..

get your ass off the water.. thats all the advice i can give.

if you do get stuck out in one or think you might.. truly get away from shore and prep for a crash and QR.

this time of the year is not kind to kiters. we've been lucky that those in our small group of bandits that have been caught in a squall have only been shaken, not stirred.. Tom could tell you all about it. the fact that he was able to walk away from his accident is more luck than skill and we can all be thankful for that. others around here, the same.. others in other places have not been so fortunate.

[A-Bomb]

Off of imitesurf.com:
Sunday, August 27
Time 12a 2a 4a 6a 8a 10a 12p 2p 4p 6p 8p 10p 12a 2a 4a 6a 8a 10a 12p 2p 4p 6p 8p 10p
Wind speed (knots) 10 10 10 12 13 14 14 14 12 12 13 13 4 5 5 6 6 4 2 1 3 5 6 6
mostly from the East.

Meanwhile, wunderground.com says:
Sunday
East winds around 5 knots becoming onshore near the coast in the afternoon. Seas 2 feet or less. Bay and inland waters a light chop. Scattered showers and thunderstorms.

Slight discrepancy between these two. Only time will tell.

Though wunderground is not usually very optimistic or give too much detail, it does seem to be fairly accurate.

[BigR]

And Windguru.com says no wind for next week as does the marine forecast, what up with that ikitesurf???????????




:oops:

[tomstock]

Yeah right....

I went out one night when iKitesurf showed that it was supposed to go from 10 to 20mph at 9pm. All of the wind vector forecasts showed yellow. I double checked an hour before it was supposed to happen and yeah it still showed it was supposed to start nuking as some mystery front was to roll in.

Got out there 30 min early, set up and waited...and waited...and waited... it never reached more than 8-9mph. Nothing. Nadda. Got home at 11pm and the wind vectors still showed 20.

WTF!!!

NEVER trust a forecast unless you did it yourself.