Eric, with your avatar, i cant take anything you say seriously :shock:

you want in (with your buddy chris) on the first one to hit an F-16 wins a value meal?

can you handle it????

Did anyone nail the seabreeze? It's been nuking over there for a few hours.

Got some. It was real good :wink:

Yeah, got some too. It was great. Rode at BS on the other side of the channel. No water on the inside.

inferno said:
Nope. Judging by your physique, you've won too many of these bets already. I'm not going to get suckered. Besides, with an extra large fries on the line, Chris is probably going to step up to the plate.

hit PAG at 430.. 12m waroo.. first 15 minutes i was gaining upwind, but it was borderline ... about 445 it really kicked up and I was well powered...

wind was quite wnw so i was catching HUGE tacks from PAG all the way up to the Don and beyond. 3 big tacks and I was above the undertow. was pretty damn nice time out there.. jumps were sketchy and underpowered.. just enjoyed the ride.

dropped down after 630 or so.. but came up right before sunset for a late run.

Paul, Jordan, Dan and Chris all showed up and took part in the fun...Randy as well...

-Bryan

I was out with the Family at Busch Gardens this evening. This weekend I will be in Tallahassee returning sometime Sunday. I hope to get back as early as possible to hit a late Sea Breeze.

Well, BS was a disaster.... again

first I stepped on a hermit crab shell and put a 1" deep hole on my foot, and I'd like to thank Randy for the first-aid duck-tape, worked great.

Soon after that I think a gust of wind was to blame for me loosing the control of the kite and the element of surprise almost became the element of sudden stop, and before I was able to slam into the other van parked behind E-bone's I'd like to thank Tom for grabbing the bar and saving my ass.

The safety leash got stuck and even though I unhooked, the kite kept dragging me, I'd pay to see my face when I unhooked the chicken loop and nothing happened.......

luckily, no damage to the kites this time,. just my foot....

somebody correct me if im wrong but id say cypress is better for beginners than BS....

I think anyplace is better than BS for beginners, except maybe the Gandy! The launch at BS is tricky and there is not much room for error. Plus, the wind closer to shore is usually a little weird, making the launch ever worse for beginners. I did not ride at BS at all until this year, and I started kiting 5 years ago. There are still times I don't feel good about riding there, especially when the wind is really heavy or gusty. Hell, the last time I got hurt, I was at BS and got tossed onto the beach by a gnarly gust and suffered a contusion to my left heel that is still a little tender.

Z paid some dues yesterday but he will come back stronger. I think Z lives up in St. Pete, so hook him up with a few of the easier spots. Z, you might want to get some booties to wear, as well, to protect your feet until you progress with the kite to the point that you are not fighting against it by jamming your feet into the seafloor. That's always a prescription for an infected laceration.

One last thing, Z.

Z said:Remember that you are always responsible for your kite, so if a wind gust, wind lull, rogue wave, girl in a topless bikini, broken line or some other unexpected event causes things to get of of control, it is still up to you to get that kite back under control without the kite hurting someone else. Otherwise, the blame will fall on you.

Expecting the unexpected will help you to minimize the risk of problems, and putting the blame on yourself for any kitemares you have will help you to learn from errors and avoid repeating them.

Frankly, a lot of events are not unexpected. Gusts and lulls are part of every session, and you will need to learn to handle them if you don't want to spend your whole session with your kite in the water while you are not being teabagged.

I remember watching a kiter flying a kite once on a beach just upwind of a father and his little girl. The wind was going side-off and was gusty, so the kite was falling back in the window and eventually hit the beach, 5 feet upwind of this little girl. Then, the kite powers up and roars right past the father and his little girl. Bad stuff. When I confronted the kiter, who is a friend of mine, he told me, "it's not my fault, the wind is really gusty all of a sudden." That's a bullshit answer and I told him as much. There were a lot of things he could have done to avoid such a problem: getting further away from people, riding at a different spot, even putting the kite down because of the difficult conditions.

I'll get off the soapbox now, but a characteristic of every strong rider is that rider's knowledge that he is 100% responsible for taking care of himself and his kite. Given my full-on kitemare earlier this year, I need to remember this just as much as anyone else.

amen ebone!


Z..

i really really really recommend you not kite at BS until you have a lot more experience under your belt. i didnt ride there for at least a year after i started. it is the worst area to launch and land in our areas more frequented spots. mistakes will cost you here. this advice is for your safety and ours.

even kiting at the other side of the skyway is not recommended until you are very good at riding upwind. the launch / land area there is so small and book ended by rocks and kite eating mangroves.

cypress i covered with too many obstacles as well..

for NW riding I would recommend hitting big beach or PAG ... rig and launch far away from beach goers and expect to do a downwinder.

Even treasure island might be a good recommendation as you typically have a HUGE open beach in some areas. take advantage of large amounts of space around you.

take is slow and safe. once the good winds pick back up east beach comes into play you will be ready to really progress.

-B