Not all of us have nice wide sandy beaches to launch and land. Here in the Pacific NW, many of our local launch sites are only a bit larger than your kite and lines, are rocky and without any downwind outs.
If you have a sketchy launch site that you ride all the time, please post it here. It'd be great to see pics of the gnarly launches all over the world.
Pretty much everywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area, with exceptions for 3rd Ave upper launch and the coast. Rocky, small, gusty, parking lots, gravel, glass, you name it we have it.
El Yarque, Margarita. Launching up against a cliff wall on a snall beach with beach visitors crawling all over the place. Even through my lines... That was sketchy...
When I was in Tenerife I saw photos of Mark Shinn kiting this spot, where he had to throw his board in first then jump off the sharp lava rocks into the water using the kite. The kiter at 4.02 in the video may be Mark on that day.
Siafu, Taiwan was a gusty and sketchy launch site to me. Target landing/launching area was concrete and just a few meters wide. Things to avoid near my target include rocks, walls, slippery moss, sharp oyster shells, windsurfing sails, boards, fisherman with invisible fishing lines, and cars fully parked on a windy day. Many thanks to my windsurfing buddies whom helped me launch and land as a lonely kiter. Here is a photo and a video from six years ago:
Wow that is amazing...! Good thing it's only Windsurfing....
and the cars can't get out till the others go...
Great to see///
jasontsai wrote:Siafu, Taiwan was a gusty and sketchy launch site to me. Target landing/launching area was concrete and just a few meters wide. Things to avoid near my target include rocks, walls, slippery moss, sharp oyster shells, windsurfing sails, boards, fisherman with invisible fishing lines, and cars fully parked on a windy day. Many thanks to my windsurfing buddies whom helped me launch and land as a lonely kiter. Here is a photo and a video from six years ago: