Kiteboarding on small Lakes in the United States?

[Kite Force Academy]

Hi Everyone,

We are currently battling Park and Recreation to Kiteboard on a lake in our county but they argue its too small and we will be endangering normal park goers. This is one of their main arguments.

Its Longview lake, Missouri with 930 Acres of surface area.

In order to help our case we need to find other lakes in the united states that are as large or smaller then this lake that allow kiteboarding.

Anyone have any info and website so you might be able to help our case please?

Thanks in advance,
John

[ryanroberts1983]

Lake Lanier - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Lanier has a surface area of 37,000 acres (150 km2) and has 540 forum users on http://windsurfatlanta.org/ and probably 50 regular windsurfers around the area. Their are roughly 1800+ members in the 3 sailing clubs and here is a clear glimps of conditions. http://windalert.com/profile/196907

In short - I would tend to agree that unless you have super clean wind and tons of fetch kiting on 900 acres is prob a little sketchy. Some of the smaller lakes in Michigan get ridden in the winter snow kiting etc. You might try looking around there...

[Moultonlava]

Aurora Reservoir, this is where we kite in Denver area. https://www.auroragov.org/ThingsToDo/Re ... /index.htm. The lake is only non Motorized though.

[splatnikGanglion]

We ride Lake Pflugerville (http://www.cityofpflugerville.com/index.aspx?nid=824 and http://www.cityofpflugerville.com/index.aspx?NID=1483) which is only 180 acres and only non motorized boats are allowed.

There is a regular crew of about 15 of us and the city includes windsurfing/kiteboarding in the lake description. The city even had us show up for a minor commercial shoot, which we haven't seen the results of yet. So, at this point we have a pretty good rapport with the city but we also actively try to police our sport and keep everyone safe. We talk to all new people and have had some pretty harsh words with folks that don't take safety seriously and have done stupid stuff (that could have endangered other park users).

Turns out the lake is really gusty and not particularly good for learning (or learning new tricks) but it's close, so we take what we can get. Here's some videos of our spot:

http://www.youtube.com/splatnik

keep in mind, looks fun but you can't see how friggin' gusty the place is...

[kiteguy23]

Nice, thanks for the replies guys! This will help out the case. Any small lakes below 900 acres that ARE motorized?

[tomatkins]

... but they argue its too small and we will be endangering normal park goers. This is one of their main arguments...

Thanks in advance,
John

By this, do they mean that the park area, where you would launch the kites, is the area where you would be endangering normal park goers... or do they mean the area out in the water, away from the park area, where normal park goers might be swimming, or canoeing, etc.?

The reason I ask is related to what I have always felt: that there is the need for the development of a method to easily and safely launch a kite from deep water, after blowing up the kite on land, and then, walking into the water with the kite, with its lines wound up on the bar... and swimming out away from shore... or instead of swimming out...using the kite to pull you out into the deeper water, by grabbing the wing tips or some bridal line, in the same way a kiter gets to shore, after a self-rescue.

If such a technique were available, and if all kiters would exit the shore and return to the shore using this technique, would this solve the "endangering" of park goers problem?

[KiteboardingTampaBay]

Hi John,
I brought this to the attention of a friend of mine up there with MDWSA (disabled waterski group) who may have some resources or contacts for you in your state. He will be down here kiting this weekend and I will let you know if he has any hopeful info or contacts.
I have more info for you as well- feel free to call me at the # below.

Ryan- really good info dude

Lake Seminole in Pinellas County, Florida (250 acres) is 'kiteable' and we have never had an issue the (few) times we have kited there. It has quite a bit of boat traffic and kinda sucks for wind, so no real reason to ride there other than for the hell of it.
I don't know if they any specifics regarding kiting on the lake but we're in very good standing with the park/ county.
http://www.pinellascounty.org/park/08_seminole.htm


Regards,
Steve (813) 389-3683
www.kiteboardingtampabay.com

[matthepp]

In SW Colorado, we kite and windsurf in Miramonte Reservoir. 405 acres. Motorized. It's in the middle of nowhere, so it's just us airheads and a few retired fishermen. Windiest spot around. Gusty most days. It is managed by the Div of Wildlife so it is free from the banalities of the State Park system. It's free, you can camp at the water's edge, drink your beer, kill yourself if you want. Nobody really cares what you do. It's the wild wild west.
You pretty much have to be a meteorologist and be able to drop everything to go when it blows. The water is real cold. If you break down it can be epic. But when it's good, it's awesome. If you squint, you can almost make out palm trees on the far shore. Not too mention snowy Lone Cone Peak towering overhead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjBf2_5dLZg

[Dj A-Ron]

Our local spot is on Cass Lake in Michigan and gets super busy with boaters in the summer. It's 1280 acres but there are many other lakes around us that I've kited and are much smaller but they really don't have a launching area. We have to boat launch. The Cass lake launch spot is a state DNR regulated park and we don't have any issues. The DNR guys think kiteboarding is very cool and often hang out and talk with us about kiting.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Lake_(Michigan)

[edt]

I sometimes kite a lake same size near my house. About 1k acre, and long like yours. From its shape and size, your lake is only decent in one wind direction SSW, probably 2 or 3 days a month.

Even if you get access you are in for some serious road trips if you want to kite.

Ask them to let you try it for 6 months. When they see how infrequently you are there, they won't care.

Dj I don't think people water kited Cass lake more than twice or three times all last year.