Kite for 15 kt. GUSTING TO 45 kts.?

[sq225917]

yeh 45knots is going to nail you on anything. foil or lei.
i am biased but i'd prefer my chances of making a safe landing from that gust on a foil..

that foil would be a parachute of course..........

[Guest]

Helllooooo!!!???
Let´s take 40-50 kts winds and see who´s going out in that weather... Even if the wind is steady ( measured by hand from shore ), there are so few guys going out at all, that this discussion is just not needed.

A 15-45 weather is not for water sports. Even windsurfing gear making it in 15 kts, won´t take 45 kts safely and vice versa. I wouldn´t like to be out with my 62 liter board and the 3.7m2 when the wind drops from 45 to 15 kts since the 15 kts could as well be 0 kts for that equipment.

And here I mean real and measured 40-50 kts weather with humid and powerful cold air. You know, when the sea surface is covered in a 2 m cloud of flying water and your 51 cm wide waveboard flies here and there despite your 80 kgs standing on it. None of those "let´s call the meteo and ask the wind at the meter sitting 10 meters up" - stuff.

[RickI]

Let's see, WHERE in the world, could you possibly have steady winds that are low and suddenly jump to great (too great) velocities? Lots of places Europe, UK, Oz & NZ, USA, the Caribbean, etc. and in different times of the year. One are comes to mind, HERE in SE Florida and over the last two days. Normally we get these sort of violent squalls in the warm months in Florida, say the later part of spring into early fall. There is the odd exception in frontal systems that blast down in the cooler months.

So, what happened? Over the last two afternoons, we had 10 to 12 kt.+ side shore (largely thermal) winds out of the south. If you rig big particularly with the newer kites and a larger board you can shred fairly well. Over the last two days a NASTY long, narrow band of squalls formed around the center of the state and racked southward over the east coast. Warnings were posted about hail the size of apples and winds around 50 kts. I will upload radar images of this once I get to the office.

Guys had to have been out in areas of the coast. So, lets say someone actually stayed out and ALLOWED themselves to be hit by a squall? They could have been hit by 50 kts. up from 10 kts. This equates to TWENTY-FIVE times the power! This could be like having a SEVERAL HUNDRED SQUARE METER KITE in 10 kts. Absurd, maybe, but the power is IMMENSE at any rate.

For whatever reason the squall band went to sea and eased before it moved to my area on each of these days and worked over only 20 miles or less of coastline. Normal wx has been cancelled!

So what to do? Want to go riding?

1. Check color radar if you have it. Look for embedded storm cells in squalls moving towards you or forming in your area. Temper this with LOCAL knowledge as conditions can change radically in only an hour sometimes.

2. Check realtime wind reports. If there are strong gust spikes and/or sudden direction changes examine the radar particularly for that area. See if there are severe weather warnings, if there are pay attention.

3. DECIDE, if based upon this and PAST experience with similar systems if something nasty is likely to slam down on you or not.

4. If you decide to go, STAY AWARE, at all times of the weather. Things like cloud lines, wind direction and velocity, white caps, temperature changes. Good chance you are a wind junkie already so play the complete roll and tune into wx.

5. If you see a squall moving in, get to shore well IN ADVANCE of any change in wind speed, direction or temperature. Anchor your kite very well and detach the lines. Guys have already been severely injured by waiting too late in this. Lets try to cut down on repititons of these avoidable accidents.

If you ride with a bunch of regulars at your local launch consider getting an airhorn(s) and agreeing on a SQUALL'S ON - ALL IN signal. Something like three fast blasts repeated. Some also hoist a red flag at times like this. Try to look after your own in this, the squall doesn't discriminate and will spank anyone that is in the way.

[BLOWN AWAY]

A lot of the problems that come with squalls could be attributed to the fact that LEI kites are a sod to land and launch again from the beach. today when I was out i saw a squall coming so i landed my kite in the water so it was directly downwind from me pulling on the bar. i kept my kite in that position for the duration of the squall and once it had passed i relaunched again and got back into it.

With my C Quads it's a matter of landing it on the beach and relaunching form excatly the same position, no fuss like LEI kites.

BA

[RickI]

You guys have some whoppers in Oz and New Zealand. You also have some excellent Internet weather sites with color radar and realtime winds. I wonder what sort of resources other countries have?

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