AVOID ONSHORE WINDS

[BLOWN AWAY]

Nothing wrong with onshore winds.... just need to go to bigger beaches, with shallower water....

Nothing wrong with offshore winds either.. if you go to the right place...

BLOWN AWAY

[RickI]

No matter how large the beach is, it is still there and a serious injury can come from hitting the sand, gravel, cobbles or whatever your beach happens to be comprised of. You can ride in onshore winds for a long time without problems if you are fortunate and careful. Then again you can have one session too many that you may regret. The KSI has lots of onshore wind accidents crossing the spectrum of rider experience, from expert to novice. It is a fact that the probability of injury goes up in onshore winds, that is probability though not certainty. It is all about choices, just choose your risks well.

Rick Iossi

[Guest]

If I have to choose between onshore winds or not riding I will choose the onshore winds every time. I kind of like them for the reason of being able to easily ride all up and down the length of the beach. Just have to stay offshore. Helps to have shallow water to get away from shore to start with too. Not ideal in gusty winds.

[Guest]

Nothing wrong with offshore winds either.. if you go to the right place...

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[/quote]

What kind of beach conditions lend themselves to riding in offshore winds? Is side-off better than straight offshore?

[Guest]

The beach I ride at is an example of the wrong place to ride in offshore winds: 100' buffs with trees on top block all the wind right on the beach, and the closest downwind landing is 120 miles away. plus the water never gets much over 65 degrees F!

If the wind is out of the wrong direction, we don't go out here. I still remember the story of a windsurfer who nearly crossed the lake (by accident) when I was a little kid - He just barely survived by wrapping himself up in his sail.

On 2002-11-19 04:00, Anonymous wrote:

Nothing wrong with offshore winds either.. if you go to the right place...

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[loeuftok]

One problem with offshore wind is that obstacles upwind (trees, buildings,...) create turbulences to a distance up to 7 times their height and therefore create gusts. Not always easy to handle.

Rick, when you mention taking courses, I would add in a proper school. My friend saw yesterday a guy who had learn 12 hours in a school and still could say where the wind was coming from!!!!!

Surf in peace

[gaffer]

in South wales we got lots of big flat sandy beaches and with one of the worlds biggest tidal ranges there is plenty of space for riding in onshore winds. There is still the danger of getting dragged up the beach in a gust and doing a faceplant, you be very unlucky to get a serious injury but it doesn't tkae much to imagine being knocked out and dragged across half a mile of sand into the sea wall.

Mind you that said it is extremely good fun to speed along in the flat shallows between the whitewater. It's just not something to be taken lightly or undertaken by the inexperienced.

[Mr Jo Macdonald]

Well, here, in onshore wind I change beach and go to one that doesn't get eaten to nothing by the waves and is full of concrete huts waiting to smash me. Onshore is cool with a bigger beach with clear downwind area.
Straight offshore tends to be really gusty, 0-40 so no-one tries that.
I've tried side-off and that's cool although pretty gusty too and you have to take into account the fact that the wind can turn offshore pretty quick and even if it doesn't, if anything happens to you or your gear that will stop you making it back even by bodydraggin, or using the downed kite to pull you in, (inverted kite for example) then you'll probably have to abbandon and lose the kite forever, because even if you deflate the leading edge and roll it it'll still be pushing you offshore while you're doing this and while you're trying to swim back and that can mean getting a long way away from home.
In these conditions I stay closer to shore.
Jo

[BLOWN AWAY]

We have a spot in Auckland where a big sandspit juts out into a channel and in a Southerly or SSW wind the northern side of the sandspit gets great offshore winds. Nice smooth winds that are twice as strong as other Southerly fetching spots.... offshore, shallow water and the water is flat as...... you can go huge here if you really want to... like jumping on a giant trampoline... no people lying on beach..... it's THE offshore spot...

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