wait a minute...this is not a "debate"... and I feel like I'm starting to get pinned as some freak with a death wish and want other's to die too!
Rick, I advise kiters not to go out in or come close to squalls too, and I advise them to take paticular care in tropical systems that have tons of squalls in them too. I advise this for our instructors, students and fellow kiters worldwide.
I think my current position can best be summed up with this statement you (Rick) made last night (with the excepion of the first part):
Quote:
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Years back, I advised staying out of all tropical systems. Since then we've been talking about finding large enough clear holes IF they exist for sufficiently experienced kiteboarders. How large a hole do you need? Riders choice, considering that small partial list above we had better choose well.
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I'm here to say that they (large enough clear holes) DO exsist and that kiters have been taking advantage of them (with mixed results) since...well...kiting began. To pretend like they don't exist sends out an inaccurate message to others and can potentially confuse or mislead an eager kiter. For example: A kiter hears/reads advice that "kiting in tropical storms is bad and should never be done" and then goes out to his/her local beach and sees some kiters out killing it having a great time (in a large enough clear hole)...that kiter might be led to discount the advice they got about tropical storms and any other good advice from the same source.
I'm not in a debate or playing devil's advocate ar even trying to get all technical about it. I'm just saying that tropical storms make alot of people really excited and the more we can justify our actions by educating the public...the better.
Rick, the radar image you have up in this thread is obviously not the time for any kiter to go out in Islamorada. Can you pull up the radar from the following day, Tues at around oh, I don't know, noon or I think again at 5pm (when a group of us were riding).
Hi Marina, I agree that there is a fine line there, but it must be relative because some people think that kiting at all is just plain stupid! And that line (wherever it's at) always seems to keep getting pushed...