friday am?
 

ive completely missed out on many of the afternoon sessions guys have been getting.. hoping the forecast for friday am is true..

need to get some water time.

...maybe even tomorrow evening....gotta try out my new 14 Era!!!!

You got one, too??! Geez....
Looking forward to seeing you out there, ay. :p

...yeah and finally dumped the Glide too....picked up the 08 Crazy Fly...looks wicked...now for 10 Knots....

I think we have a lot more than that coming :D

im either riding thur afternoon in the gulf or fri am at SSW....

have to wait and see what happens tomorrow....

Awesome!

Then it'll be just more than me and Lori @SSW fri morn ( 'cept for maybe Bob )

don't forget your drysuit!

c u there...












bootless

damnit alex, you always come when im not gana be there...

goin to NC for the next 10 days..

I think Alex has a new kite he wants to try out. Unless I beat him to it.

Did the new thrusters finally arrive?

By the way I'd like to ride SSW Fri AM but the tide is high around 5:00 and not low until 11:30. Pump in the parking lot and wade to the bar to rig??

with the strong N wind all night, it should be do-able by 7:30... i would think atleast, bigR is the expert..

We'll be there @ SSW early fri.,

I think the tide will be low and going lower,

But you are right, the bar to the right is where you rig and launch from during high tide

Don't forget your drysuit, it'll be nippy , air in the 50's/ maybe even high 40's/ but at least we should get wind before it dies at 10am and warms up to the 70's :o

Bob,

I was thinking the same thing about the tide. Low tide isn't until fairly late, by DP standards.

http://www.capmel.com/tides.htm

So, who is going out tomorrow am?
I am seeing different forecast temps. Is it going to be 49 or 58?
Big difference.

I'm heading to sunset mañana, before noon. That's about as a.m. as I get...

54 according to the sensor, right in between.

its pretty nuked out now ( 30-33 @ 5deg N ) but it should hold together at least above 20 till B4 noon.

Can't sleep, wind keeps waking me up.
I thought it was Major walking into the walls (went blind), but it's tree limbs and stuff landing on the roof.
I walked outside. It gusted to 40 I would guess, right in the front yard.

i might head out for a quick DP ride, but only if its still enough for my 8m Ckite..... and has enough east for N SW....

N E body goto S SW this am?

i would, but im real short on time... maybe 30-45min to ride, so im better off at the N SW... sorry bro....

its kite loop time on the 8m C-kite :)


bob i hope you got your 7m, cause youll never hold down your new 9m in this stuff.....

N SW on site
 

at N SW 6am
18-20mph on ground from N
chilly. water level good.
shane
813-927-6652

gonna be alot windier S SW, last pimping :D

I've got to drop one of my boys off at work, then I'll be heading to N SW. I'll try to take a peak at SSW on the way by. I think there will be too much water until around 10:00. I sure wish I had that dry suit I've been dreaming of.

Bob

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

damn
damn damn

cold.

shock to the system..

wind was sketchy at n sw.. rigged 12m waroo.. prob could have used 2 or 3 more meters..

skyway wind meter showing 28 to 30..
not even close on the water.

maybe 18 ...

it was absolutely ripping on the other side, closer to 28-30kts

prolly could'a rigged a 9m



yep, just as I figured...... dead by ten o'clock...

were you on your 12m raul????

No I wasn't, but I coulda' been on the 9m easly.
no one wanted to go the extra 4 min to the other side, even lori bailed on me. And I'm not gonna land a bow kite alone ( launching is fine ). I guess its back to c kites from now on during solo missions. luckily I kept a 12m nitro which works great for that!

i find bows much easier to self land..

I find bows much easier to self launch...

some bows are different from others

:rolleyes:

scott has the trick to self landing a bow even in 35Knots...
you just have to modify your bar to allow you to leash to a front line....

although im not sure it it will work with a cab bar.....

Was the tide low enough early to rig at South SW?

It was decent wind at N SW, nothing special.
Of course it died at 10am, it always does. I'd lay money on that one nearly every time. ;)

In terms of self landing. That mod on my Ozone got incorporated into this year's Ozone kites. The Ozone seems to self land no problemo in up to 30.
The new waroo 9m and 7m kites are so light, that I am not confident they would stay put after a self landing. The Ozones are much more beefy and heavy kites, especially near the LE.

Big R- Can you share your technique for self launching a bow? I tried the traditional sandbag method (C-kite) a few times with less than desirable results. I have seen people hooking the CL to something and balancing the kite on the edge of the window, but that seems very sketchy.
Drift launch is (by far) the safest method, in my opinion, and the easiest/most convenient launch at tight places like the South Side Skyway. I got tired of lugging everything out to the sandbar, so now I just rig in the parking lot and drift launch about 100 yards from shore.

I am sure BigR will share his technique.
Here is the one I have been using for awhile.
http://www.flyozone.com/video/self_launch.wmv

It's pretty easy, assuming you have enough room and the surface isn't glass or oyster shells.
Our fine sandy beaches are perfect for this, imo.

I rarely see anyone do this, but it's easy, especially with 12 and 9m kites. Big kites can get tougher.
Al-kite-ah did his first the other day (on a big kite)

hooking the cl to a fixed object and then placing the kite on its wingtip at the edge of the window works really well. The kite just bobs up and down on its wingtip. it will surge a bit if its gusty but always manageable. remember to depower it all the way with the trim strap so the pull is minimal. The way to self launch as shown in the ozone video I think is sketchier in that the leading edge will take lots of abuse raking over shells and sand as it pivots, and at least in this video the launch seemed more powered up or hot which has attendant risks.

self launch
 

Scott's outlined exactly how I self launch already; basically a reverse hot launch. I've done it on 17m, 14-12-9m kites in up to 35+ knts. ( I suspect that this method might be better for some kites that depower more than some others ).
I much prefer it to the CL method because you are in control of the kite at all times.
Hey Scott, the reason you don't see anybody launching that way is because if I happened to see you standing there, I would ask you to give me a launch instead....LOL! :D

I have never had a problem with the CL method but I would like to hear from more experienced people what are the bad things that can happen doing this. I will say I normally do it from a boat so there is nothing around me to hit , and ive done it from beaches without incident but maybe ive just been lucky! Thanks.

:confused: hopefully this weekends good but it doesnt look that way

This morning was good until 9am.
It's the same old story at the SW - with a 25 degree temperature differential b/n morning low and afternoon high, the winds picked up as it warmed (as the sun rose) then it gradually died starting at 9 am. The wind sensor for the SW was actually fairly spot on for this a.m.
http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwher...149&siteID=812

Adam and I are the only ones who got there in time and really nailed it.
Lots of people showed after it tapered off and was dying.