60 miles an hour was recorded in Long beach CA(video)

[fafa]

check this guy out with his lish ...dumb ass
http://www.youkiteboard.com/view_vid...7b62254211691b

you have to check his replies...that's how some beaches get banned

What a F@#$tard. Using a board leash too! Good thing he didn't get lofted, he'd have broken his legs then his board would have taken off his head.

I can't believe he hot launched in 60mph, foil or not!

Yeah, this guy is a tool. Give me a f***ing break, the board leash really shows how pathetic this guy's thinking was. What a no-skillz tool. It's funny that Toby is hazing his ass in the comments section.

[toby wilson]

I am just sick of seeing this kind of stupid kooky crap and have decided to start opening my mouth whenever I see someone (to put it nicely) making a mistake and putting themselves and/or others as well as our launches in danger. I have had more close calls with people being unsafe and almost running into me in the last month than I have over the rest of the time that I have been riding. It is really getting dangerous just being out there standing on the beach.

Amber (and Erick while helping me teach her how to launch and land her kite) almost got taken out this weekend by an out-of-control newbie learning from a more experienced rider just 10 yards offshore at Skyway North. The newbie got drug into her new kite and luckily didn't get caught in her lines.

If you are teaching newbies (especially at SWN), please walk out to the sandbar, and especially if they are working on water starts.

[bryanleighty]

Really not trying to be an azzhole but the "experienced" rider really needs to be talked to. I am not thinking of anyone needing to post names on this forum, but someone needs to make clear that this is not acceptable.

I was out there the other day... SSW, 8mph, 4mph on the beach. 12 kites in the air!! In 6-10mph?! What!

Imagine what a 15-20mph day will look like in 2 years!

I couldn't even find anywhere to lay out my lines, so I headed off somewhere else to ride in peace.

This sort of thing is exactly why I decided against becoming an instructor. I calculated that to make a living, I would need to teach between 78 and 150 students per year. Figure half of those are locals, and only half of them continue with the sport. That would leave at least 20 - 40 beginners per year from just me alone. In two years we would have between 40 and 80 new riders at the skyway in exchange for my new career, and that wouldn't include the numerous other instructors in the area.

I ultimately decided that whatever money I would make would never replace the riding locations the whole community would loose due to over crowding.

Don't get me wrong, my intent is not to bash instructor, they do a fine job and are generally great guys who work hard, and most have been riding longer than I have (but not all).

But the sad fact is that promoting this sport means over crowding our favorite riding locations. And when a large chunk of that crowd are beginners, the number of accidents will increase quickly.

Have a look at Sunset or Upham beach on a good day of surfing.... riders sitting shoulder to shoulder as far as you can see. That's a whole gulf beach... we only have a handful of good East wind locations, each smaller than half of a football field.

Our sport is fermenting.

[toby wilson]

Already taken care of. I am not so nice anymore when someone is throwing caution to the wind like that. I started yelling at him asking what he thought he was doing. He apologized and I said that his apology wouldn't be of much help if someone had gotten hurt. I then asked why he did not have the newbie out at the sandbar and he said, and I quote "I hadn't gotten to that yet". That pissed me off so I got on his case some telling him that he should know better than that and should have ridden the kite out to the sandbar in the first place PRIOR to handing the kite off to a completely inexperienced rider.

A woman in street clothes standing on the beach (probably the newbies' Mother) started yelling at me saying that I was over reacting and that it wasn't a big deal, he didn't do anything and no harm was done. Let's just say that she and I won't be doing lunch anytime soon...I just don't think that people "get" it and treat these kites like toys, it's good to be nice but sometimes you have to stop being nice and hit them with a scenario of what could have happened.

He finally had the newbie walk out to the first bit of sandbar off to the right side of the beach, basically the least amount of walking possible for the newbie. One power stroke and he was back in everyones lanes. Amber and I walked off to the left pretty much as far out on the sandbar as I could take her to practice her water starts. She actually got up for about 3 power strokes and had to stop when she saw the other newbie dead in the water ahead of her (in the riding lanes).

This guy had been doing backrolls about 10 yards offshore the day before and sometimes having to ditch the board and hit the ground running both that day and the day before. Basically, you could see it coming.

Like I said in my prior post, I am sick of the lack of caution being used on the water this year. I don't care if someone gets his ego bruised or ends up not liking me as a result, I'm gonna speak up going forward when I see crazy behavior on the water.

[bryanleighty]

22+ kites in air at EB 2 fridays ago.

many riders (experienced locals) not giving ample room for others to leave or come into the beach. no close calls that I saw, but I got very annoyed with guys throwing tricks at the waters edge at mid-beach location. not cool especially w/ so many people.

Some were throwing them more down wind and I thought that was better (still too close to the beach in my opinion)

Difficult to judge distance sometimes.. you might be a kite length away.. but so are they.. if both kites come down on same tack you are both in for trouble.

I stayed way up or down wind the entire day and had a blast. Saw lots of close calls in the middle.

It is getting crazy .. its getting more and more crowded and we need to police our beaches ourselves..


its been posted about a billion times of what we need to do .. but it comes down to the more experienced riders needing to ensure others dont hurt themselves or others. I feel that if you have a full season of riding experience you have a responsibility to do what you can to keep potential problems from occuring..

no attitudes .. just keep our riding spots safe.

[toby wilson]

No attitude, the newbie was not AT ALL at fault here and I feel bad that he had to hear me frustrated with his "instructor". He was not given proper safety direction and I think ALL of us need to get a quick reminder of what is and what isn't the right thing to do sometimes. Everyone makes mistakes, it is how you learn from those mistakes that is the most important thing.

Yeah, failing to walk out to the sandbar as a newbie is a dumb move because you can't learn anything that way, except how to do the walk of shame. If you walk out 100 feet and then ride left or right, you are soon in chest-high or deeper water and you either have to stay upwind or you wash down onto the rocky beach. Because going upwind is usually not an option for newbies because of lack of skillz, they are on the beach next to the road everytime, especially in light wind.

If you walk out to the sandbar as a newbie with the kite at 45 degrees, however, you can ride, stop when you f*ck up, then walk easily back to the edge of the sandbar and start again. You can make a ton of progress there because it is shallow and you can easily gain (on foot) any ground you lose on the board without tiring out by struggling in the depper water. I tell this to beginners over and over and I am usually ignored, but just inside the sandbar is really the best place to ride at the Skyway. Hell, I prefer riding there myself, just because the water conditions are usually better, with less current and chop, and the wind is much cleaner there, as well.

Props to Toby by bringing Amber out there, but aside from a chill 5 minute walk, it's really not a sacrifice. Instead, it's the smart thing to do if you want to develop some skillz.