Hurricanes. Kiteboarding. Sweet.

[BrianK]

Hurricanes. Kiteboarding. Sweet.

Introducing the Mini-Movie: "Kiting Fringe Vol. 1"

Kiteboarding action driven by the recent Florida Hurricanes. Music by Liquid Image, Dead by Gun, and Complete. Produced by Rockledge Engineering Inc.

Watch it online now on Channel 3 at www.AdventureOnline.TV

[ricki]

Originally Posted by BrianK

Hurricanes. Kiteboarding. Sweet.

Introducing the Mini-Movie: "Kiting Fringe Vol. 1"

Kiteboarding action driven by the recent Florida Hurricanes. Music by Liquid Image, Dead by Gun, and Complete. Produced by Rockledge Engineering Inc.

Watch it online now on Channel 3 at www.AdventureOnline.TV

I'm waiting for the download to see your video, 3 hours and counting. Unfortunately, when I hit "Broadband" it comes up as not found.


Speaking from personal experience the sequence could also go ...

Hurricanes. Kiteboarding. Maimed, disabled or dead. Whoops!

There is a way of using hurricane related winds, sometimes IF conditions support going. Much of the time hurricane and tropical depression winds are for fools and suicide prospects, seriously.

More about this at:
http://fksa.org/viewtopic.php?t=808
http://fksa.org/viewtopic.php?t=210

Hopefully your footage is of some guys ripping it up well outside of the feederbands and squall lines. Not everyone bothers but then again, not everyone makes it either. Natural Selection can be a cruel process.

[BrianK]

I had a typo on the broadband link which Ill fix right now, but if you click on the picture the video will play. I have cable broadband, it takes about 10 secs to come up and play for me.

As for the hurricane comments, you should watch the video first, the conditions are quite nice.

In my opinion, hurricanes sometimes suffer from the "shark" complex, say the word and things sometimes get blown out of proportion. The days before and days after hurricanes can provide some great conditions for kiteboarding, sailing and surfing.

Really, watch the video first.

[ricki]

Just tried again, still getting "not found." I really would like to see your footage but I just checked and now it says 13 hours for downloading. I am on a cable modem too.

You are right, useable conditions for kiteboarding can occur the day before and after hurricanes. They again feeder bands containing squalls can mess up things even on those days.

Kiteboarding has a very different dynamic than either surfing or sailing however. If you hit a surfer or sailboat with a 15 to 30 mph gust, they will not likely be picked up off the water and blown into whatever. In kiteboarding it is quite a strong possibility however.

The caution I am referring to relates to embedded squalls in tropical weather systems. Stuff that can boost the wind in seconds to very hazardous velocities to drag/loft kiteboarders. Windsurfers might just get catapulted perhaps even go through their sail. They won't be picked up and blow 80 ft. at high speed into a tree or car unlike the risk we run in squalls.

A case of a Pro kiteboarder getting caught in a fairly small squall gust just to 30 mph appears at:

http://fksa.org/viewforum.php?f=81

He could have easily been toasted for his experience but fortunately was not. There are some other squall related fatalities in the same section.

There was a guy in Korea last year, a former Olympic Windsurfer, who deliberately went out in squalls and was proud of breaking some of his equipment under the wind loads. He went out into one squall too many one day however and met a rock wall at high speed in his last session.

Squalls and by extension portions of hurricane systems are highly hazardous to kiteboarders, regardless of skill. Hope to see your video soon as I even got some good sessions in this year when conditions openned up around hurricanes per sat. and radar imagery.

[BrianK]

Ok, it should work now, make sure you hit refresh for the page. The video should load progressively, which means the whole file doesn't have to load before it starts playing.

If that doesnt work Im not sure whats up with your download. I just tried it on my wifes labtop and it worked on there. Should be ok.

Hopefully youll be able to see the video. The first part with Preston was closest timewise to the day a hurricane hit Florida, it was the day before. Other parts were filmed during that hurricane season. The guys I filmed are all pretty smart folks, I never had a sense there were any daredevils among them that were taking any undue risks. Pretty much had a lot of fun.

[ricki]

I was able to download your video. You used some effective transitions in the editing. For the parts that I was able to play it looked fairly clear and even sunny. Good signs that you were away from the more violent weather that tropical systems can bring. If nothing else the really nasty weather with low light and gusting wind makes filming a bear, riding too!