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TomW wrote:how about a wind meter on the kite, send wind speed wirelessly to display on ground.

my experience here in Sweden is we get these magical spring days when water is like 8-10 c, air is 16 c. wind at ground seems like 3-4ms. but it's clear once kite is up that wind is solid 5-6ms up at 20 -25 m. no white caps, super smooth water.

once water is up to 16-18 c this never happens again. any scientific wizards that can explain this ?

That happens all the time, but unfortunately not on that day . I filmed the trees a little bit, so you see that tops of the trees are not moving. There could be more wind higher, but it certainly didn't feel like it. 1-2 knots more at best, but more likely not even that.

aleks wrote:

TomW wrote:how about a wind meter on the kite, send wind speed wirelessly to display on ground.

my experience here in Sweden is we get these magical spring days when water is like 8-10 c, air is 16 c. wind at ground seems like 3-4ms. but it's clear once kite is up that wind is solid 5-6ms up at 20 -25 m. no white caps, super smooth water.

once water is up to 16-18 c this never happens again. any scientific wizards that can explain this ?

That happens all the time, but unfortunately not on that day . I filmed the trees a little bit, so you see that tops of the trees are not moving. There could be more wind higher, but it certainly didn't feel like it. 1-2 knots more at best, but more likely not even that.

TomW
I get magical summer days in Florida when we get at coast of Atlantic Ocean some Upwelling
Air temp will be 32-33 c and because of phenomenon the water drops from 27-28 c to 18-20 c !!
This can last a few days and to create Upwelling the wind has to be light and "totally sideshore"
At my beach the wind direction has to be South to create the Upwelling

I have flown large LW kites in what felt like only 5 knots all around while rigging on the beach
Once the kite gets over the water and you start riding it pulls you around like it was 12 knots
Zero whitecaps..zero capillaries.. glassy water....doing jumps.. and even have to depower kite a bit

I am not wizard of science.....but i know it exist..
Powerful vertical gradient amplified to the max due to water and wind temperature differential


Aleks
I have noticed that onshore type winds do not create a quality gradient wind
My experiences have shown me that side-side on to totally sideshore have a much stronger effect

Supa

TomW wrote:
my experience here in Sweden is we get these magical spring days when water is like 8-10 c, air is 16 c. wind at ground seems like 3-4ms. but it's clear once kite is up that wind is solid 5-6ms up at 20 -25 m. no white caps, super smooth water.

once water is up to 16-18 c this never happens again. any scientific wizards that can explain this ?

Scientific evidence found on IWINDSURF forum posts from May 7th 2013

ISOBARS said:
NASA pegs that phenomenon at about 20 degrees F difference


SAILBOARDER said:
I have seen similar situations here in Montreal. We call it a dome effect,and it happens when the air
temperature is much higher than the water temperature.

No wind at water level but "some wind not much higher".The cold air close to the water stays on top and the "warmer air slides on top of it".

This is what i experienced during my upwelling ocean sessions in the heat of Florida summers
I have been calling that wind "magical wind" for years

After experiencing so many magical winds and vertical gradients....
.....windmeters become useless when it comes to LW

If you feel the possibility of magical or gradient wind just put a LW kite up and go have fun

Hey does anyone want to by my 2012 Fat Lady?! I got it at the end of the last season, so it is still like new! $900 KO.

PS: In retrospect, I shouldn't have praised 2013 version so much

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbsisPH7 ... e=youtu.be

Andy from BladeKitesUSA demonstrates the 2013 Blade Fat Lady and Unibar in Mission Bay (Stinkies) in San Diego, the light wind capitol of the world. This is the exact location the THE KITEBOARDER magazine conducted their lightwind test just 3 weeks ago. Read all about how the 2013 Fat Lady was not only the fastest turning Lightwind Kite..... It was also the most Powerful (even against other 19m kites).

http://www.thekiteboarder.com/2013/04...

You should be able to see that this kite not only performs in super light wind, it relaunches very easily.

In the entire duration of the WHOLE DAY the average wind speed did not exceed 10mph. At the start of this video, the wind report was 6mph average, gusts 8, lulls 4. The filming of this entire video was done within 20 minutes of noon on the graph shown. No others kiters were on the beach. It was too light to tempt ANYONE to be there.

Andy is 220lbs, and riding the Airush Sector 60, and the Crazyfly 146 "All Around". Both boards are able to ride sustained. On the Sector, speed was immediate, and on the 146 it took some work to generate enough speed.

More posts/videos/information at www.facebook.com/bladekitesUS

BladeKitesUS wrote:2013 Fat Lady was not only the fastest turning Lightwind Kite..... It was also the most Powerful (even against other 19m kites).

Wish i could have been there to witness that

[quote="BladeKitesUS"]

P.S. OldnBK will enjoy this the most

Well i have to disagree about wind the speed of about 7mph / 6kn in that very nicely done video

Like what is said..obviously nobody is kiteboarding....(maybe because i was not there )

When the kite is released with QR it does not eject as if it was 7 mph !

When the kite relaunches it does not fly up as if it was 7 mph !

When riding it does not look like 7 mph !

Even the water texture (capillaries) does not look like 7 mph

I once heard a company say that their kite had the power of a 19

I now hear another company say that their kite is more powerful than a 19

In any case LW Capital San Diego compared to LW Capital Florida has stronger 7 mph winds

You may have just sold one more kite just by me posting this

This post was written with all due respect.....you have a very nice product !

..................................... .....................................................................................

No disrespect taken. I am only using the tools that were available which was the Mission Bay sensor, which I posted on the start of the video. Certainly the sensor can only pick up the wind that is hitting it, and if it was stronger where I was, that's a possibility.

What's more telling than the sensor is that no San Diego kiters were there at that time. San Diego is known to be a very light wind spot, but even the locals that are accustomed to light winds weren't even trying to make it work when this was filmed. It was the hottest day of the year so far in San Diego.

Also to clarify... It wasn't me claiming that it was the most powerful kite in the test. That was quoted from The Kiteboarder's Lightwind Test.

Our Testers Say:
“To me the Fat Lady had the most powerful low end of all the kites tested. It’s slower turning than last year’s kite but is still very fast,”

http://www.thekiteboarder.com/2013/04/2 ... te-review/

SupaEZ wrote:

BladeKitesUS wrote:

P.S. OldnBK will enjoy this the most

Well i have to disagree about wind the speed of about 7mph / 6kn in that very nicely done video

Like what is said..obviously nobody is kiteboarding....(maybe because i was not there )

When the kite is released with QR it does not eject as if it was 7 mph !

When the kite relaunches it does not fly up as if it was 7 mph !

When riding it does not look like 7 mph !

Even the water texture (capillaries) does not look like 7 mph

I once heard a company say that their kite had the power of a 19

I now hear another company say that their kite is more powerful than a 19

In any case LW Capital San Diego compared to LW Capital Florida has stronger 7 mph winds

You may have just sold one more kite just by me posting this

This post was written with all due respect.....you have a very nice product !

..................................... .....................................................................................

Well I've had the 2013 fat lady all season now and paired with my 5'8" sweet potato, I couldn't imagine there being a better all around combo than this. I was in Maui at kite Naish beach in may and onl me and Rista were in the water due to the lite winds. He smoked me on his raceboard but the sweet potato isn't by any means a raceboard. I was also one of the testers for Kiteboarder magazines lite wind testing. I was actually impressed with a lot of the kites but in the end I was reassured that I made the right decision for my lite wind kite this year. I ride mostly strapless in surf now and this kite even loops down the line without any problems. 2013 Fat Lady and a ,5'8" Sweet Potato w controller fins is the way to go in our fickle conditions in San Diego. I'm just worried what changes will be made to the kite for the upcoming year. I can't see this kite getting any better. We will see I guess

Got to ride the 17m fat Lady, fast big kite, did I say fast, lets say lets F-16 the bitch, and yell weeeeeeee, light bar pressure, good construction, nice bar. Only con the kite is average in lift, but who cares you can kiteloop it.