The Skyway, aka the Highway to Hell

The skyway was entertaining yesterday. Kites banging together in the air, lines crossing, jumpers landing on shore, kites crashing hard on shore (at least 6 times yesterday just while I was there), people jumping on shore 6 feet off the ground and between other kites in the air so they can hi-5 their buddy standing by the cars, kites blowing away into people and cars, some arguments on the beach, etc. Saw all of those things in just 2 hours yesterday. Pretty interesting to just hang back and watch. Guess everyone was just excited to have wind.

You can ride by the sandbar all you want... but when you come in to land watch out...

[BigR]

yep, the carnaval was there yesterday all right, I heard the organ grinder playing......

[bryanleighty]

After yesterday I'm kinda in a "whats the point" mood.

The main message for the Skyway needs to be "no beginners at all". The core group of top riders were jumping all over the place.. just off shore.. on shore.. etc.. kites crashing on the beach line.. on the beach.. etc...

(the one SS kite that ended up on the cars was actually on the beach but just not secured enought for when the winds picked up..)

but that how the skyway has been.. and how its probably going to always be. guys love to stay and jump in that center to south side of the riding area.. I kept up to the northern side between the bridge and beach and rarely had a single kiter around me.

i caught myself jumping too close to shore a couple times.. but i noted my mistake and tried to get back further. I had a number of kiters fail to give me and others right of way as we were prepping to launch.. in fact i had to move my kite as a rider was cruising the beach line as I was about ready to send my kite for a waterstart only to have the guy to a jump-transition directly at me.. i had to swing the kite way out of the way to avoid getting hit.. wind was very light or that might have come to punches.

basically .. the rocks, bridges, interstate, mangroves, cars, etc are not the hazards that inexperienced riders need to worry about. they need to worry about our experienced riders.

two experienced riders crashing into each other or coming very close and they laugh it off... that is completely cool and I see it happen a lot. add an inexperienced rider to the situation and you have a very serious problem.

After yesterday I don't see the point of a sign at all at the skyway. I sort of feel like the sign movement is just a big waste of time altogether.

Maybe some more wind on Sat or Sun

[Sean B]

Sliced the leading edge on my 16m early yesterday to some barnacles....I hate light wind. Saw a wipika get shredded too. No mercy!! Unfortunately, my kite was down all day so I saw quite a few things as well. Got to ride late evening though....so not a total waste.

On another note:
"Juvenile," is all I have to say. Name calling and everything. Not only directed at one individual but at our community here as well. Some people need to grow up. I thought we were all adults here.

Tom- let's just say, after yesterday's garbage, the "safety movement" will probably not be getting passed around the skyway....for reasons not worth mentioning here.

[A-Bomb]

The light wind always seems to get the best of me too. A couple days ago I went out and cut my foot out there while screwing around in wind that I couldn't even stay up wind in.

Interesting posts... I wasn't able to get into the sign issue recently due to a new baby. I try to keep my kiteboarding as politics free as possible anyway. Sign or not, I do get the feeling that some good may come of all the talk about the Skyway riding spot. It seems like there's a new level awareness, at least when it comes to newbies anyway, that will hopefully keep all our spots a little safer. I've always told, and will continue to tell, people to never ride at the Skyway until you are consistent at going up wind. At least when experienced riders do stupid stuff, they can usually save themselves.

Problem is, the beginners usually emulate what the experienced riders are doing.

[A-Bomb]

True, good point. Yet another reason for us not to get too stupid out there. My first year or two of kiteboarding, before we had crowding issues, I would occasionally jump near shore. After learning my lesson the hard way, more times than I should have, I finally beat it into my head, and my holy wetsuit, that jumping near shore is generally not a good idea.

[stormatzio]

So this is about my second post ever but I actually have my two cents to add. I went to the Skyway on Thursday and saw a whole bunch of people I have never seen before trying to ride in 10-12Kts of winds. There were a lot of fluttering kites hanging straight in the air. Probably 2 or 3 guys barely staying up wind. It was just looking ugly. I decided not to tempt fate and I guess I missed a pretty good late session.

So here it is.... The moment we have all dreaded...... People, lots and lots of people. The wind sucked the other day and the beach was packed. Gone are the days of hanging out and knowing everyone in the water and how they ride. Who you should stay away from and who is a good rider.

I see all of these posts about the skyway not being a beginner launch. My take is that the skyway is about the safest launch around. East Beach - slippery as hell most of the time, full of sightseers, palm trees, and road signs. Sure the water is shallow, but there is no really good bailout point other then the beach. Remember the guy who was dragged into the minivan last year...... Gulf - Newbies riding surf with a beach full of tourist and gusty conditions... I can't wait to read the post about that. Westside of Skyway - Oyster bars, boat channel, ankle deep water at low tide, big submerged pipe we have all dinged our boards on, slippery as hell muddy bottom, launch about the size of a postage stamp. How many people are we going to be cleaning out of the trees this year? I could go on and on, Southside of Skyway, Lassen, etc. We all learned in these spots when there were 20 of us total, Dakota was a puppy, and the one pump was the trickest thing on the market.

I haven't thought of an answer to this problem. I know it's not going to get any better with crowds and people are not going to stop wanting to learn. The summer is almost over and the wind is only a few weeks away, no matter what happens, I can't wait for the season to get going.