Kite Beach Islamorada
 

Ride On Rick with the Florida Keys Forum!!! Thanks for all the help you continue to give to kiting communities around the world!

Some updates from Seventh Heaven:

I am happy and proud to announce a much safer launch at the Keys most popular launch site! Last week, Seven moved 4, 30ft palm trees from the center of the beach at Whale Harbor back to other areas of the property clearing out a nice launch and landing area! It is still realitively small compared to big ol' sandy beaches, but much, much better.

Still, the normal launch procedure is to set up, walk out into the shallow water (ankle to waist depending on the tide) with your bar and launch the kite from the shore. You can totally self launch and land if you are pulling dawn patrol or nobody is around. As with many launches in the Keys, you can still walk out with your bud a ways offshore to launch in the water for more safety and room.

We added a second line of waverunners (for an area total of 33 machines) so there is always a waverunner available for rescue. If you still need some back-up, check in with us for all the different "continued education" programs available to suit your specific needs.

NW to North Wind Sandbar Sessions. To accommodate increasing numbers of kiters in the area seeking North Wind launches, Seven is now offerring FREE boat taxi sessions to Beginner-Advanced riders on North wind days!!! So if it's not rideable from the shore...not to worry, we've got you covered. Check in with us for more details.

These changes: larger launch, more water support and FREE taxi service is our way of thanking the kiting cmmunity for supporting us throuought the years and our way to help make kiting safer in our area.

Ride On.

Flats Guides
 

Attention All Kiters:

Please, please, please do everything you can to stay away from flats fishing guides when you are riding. The Windley Key flats (sandbar) happen to be some of the best bone fishing in the world.

So if you see someone in a small boat polling around...just try to give them tons of space...like 1000 ft or so. We'll be making friends! Thanks!

(and the next three days March 26-29 happen to be a big fishing tournament)

This is a big one guys. Fishermen have been at it a lot longer than us. Bonefishing guides can be a powerhouse all by themselves. They have legend-like status in a few areas and some influence. Don't piss them off, we don't need avoidable hassles from the fishing lobby. They are easy to spot and avoid.

http://www.smallhope.com/GIF/69Bonef...tGuide.464.gif
From: http://www.smallhope.com/
These guys are off Andros but they are present in a lot of locations in the Keys too.

bonefishermen
 

Being an avid fly fisherman. Here are my thoughts. Bonefish spook very easily, and someone can wait all day just to cast to one, especially in the keys. So someone will be very pissed if you spook a potential world record. (Existing record caught in Islamorada). And the good guides in that area seem to be legend. You might even spook George W.'s fish. There are a lot of big whigs that fish there, so if the guides clout isn't enough for you.......

On the other side of the coin, it's very hard to get a good cast off into a 15kt wind, so the guides are going to look for positions on the flats where the client can cast downwind, or crosswind, so do the geometry. The client is paying big money to be out there, and the guide is expecting a nice size tip if he puts the client on a good fish. People get mighty pissed when it comes to their dinero. If you stay far enough upwind, who knows, you may even be driving the hounds to the hunters.

true true...

thanks for the pic Rick-

and they don't anchor up and make it hard to ride...they work the flats...so you might just have to make a couple short tacks and then you are back where you want to be...the more space the better!