The Skyway, aka the Highway to Hell

Good post. I left the Skyway yesterday at 5pm to ride a better spot.
The spot I rode had one other rider (Donna), stronger wind, and was awesome.
I ride there all the time. Nope, if you don't know it... sorry.

The SW is the most over visited spot in our area and I personally will ride there less and less, despite the nickname Rob Hassle gave me 6 years ago, mainly due to crowding and the fact it is often a circus. As E-bone said, it's not exactly the only game in town.
It's my opinion that any level kiter is still going down when another lands on him or jumps right through his kite lines. Not only newbies will get hurt out there this year.

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.