Living in south louisiana, our kite spots kinda suck. We've got chop, or slightly larger chop. I was wondering, what is the most extreme measures you would take to get a great session in with smooth water? Im exploring different areas by kayaking or canoeing for 45 min getting into calmer waters. Does anyone else do stuff like that?

why not do some down winders?

The only answer I have to that is, it involves 2 cars and we carpool to the usual location. The locations that I'm exploring to are through camps and marsh area. No way to launch a kite there, so that's why we use the 'yaks.

A drive for a couple of hours each way, is pretty typical.

And some drive even longer - but not so often then.

It is just the opposite - we drive to GET AWAY FROM THE FLAT WATER
And into waves - even small waves are better than flat water for most of us.

But the other reason why many drive, is because there can be no wind in the summerperiod right here around the big cities - so many drives to the westcoast where it is almost always windy.

And here you can find buttersmooth flat water or good and big waves and swell, depending on what you want.

But a couple of hours drive, sometimes also after work on working days (as it gets dark pretty late in the summer)

Not every time we go out though - as we have wind pretty often locally too - but sometimes we dont want these smaller waves and go west, even if windy

And as said - occasionally in the summertime, many drives longer to get wind.

Peter

For me, it's about an hour and a half or so to the best local spot on the Mississippi gulf coast. It generally isn't too rough out there, but still can get a bit choppy.

The drive to Pensacola for marginal waves is about 4 hours. And corpus cristi is about a 6 hour drive.

My secret spot that I'm still waiting for a windy day, is 30 min by vehicle and another 45 by kayak. To me, this is the better option. Worst case scenario, I know there are fish here.

I feel lucky.

The drive from work is 2 mins. from home 10 mins. I can kite 360 degree wind angles within 40 min drive.

but i do have to drive 3hrs + to flat water. All i have is waves, waves and more waves..... which is more fun than flat so i am pleased.

Great !

I live right next to the ocean too, so besides occasional low wind periods, I can kite right here in waves.
But only with wind less than 180 degree in span, otherwise I have to drive up to 45 minutes to waves (or flat water) and sideshore or onshore.

So I feel lucky too - having so many choices typically !

But as said - our waves are small around here, not more than 2 meters normally, and often smaller.

So we drive often, to get bigger waves - and as said, in the summertime if high pressure systems has nailed us - we drive just to get wind

But generally, we can ride every second day or more, locally somewhere.

PF

Where is that? I might want to check it out this spring.

In sept 2009 i was living and working on a cattle station in the middle of the Kimberley, in Western Australia. I bought a kite from thw US and has it posted to Broome, Western Australia (and 11 hour drive away). I then drove another 2 days to Exmouth so i could kite for a week! Then drove the 2and a half days back to Kununurra.

1.5 hrs to "local" spots, chop or butter
2 hrs to waves
3-5 hrs to OBX
27 hrs to ZA
Had great times all those places,
been skunked all those places.
Get it where you can....