What happened to the good old days where I froze my a** off in Januarys 30 degree weather with the whole beach to myself?!
Welcome to summer~! My favorite flying spot is now packed with non-flyers! Can you believe it?! If I am lucky I can get in an hour of decent flying
before Biff tells me to leave. I know I should leave before the beach gets populated to not hurt someone but I am having a hard time finding a spot to
fly!! The coastline here [Cape Cod] is very narrow. Finding sandy beaches is tough. Plus there are no and I mean no fields bigger than a baseball
field to fly and they are booked all summmer with kids- Unless I drive 30 minutes I am restricted to early morning and 7pm flights. Whats a power
kiter to do?! Has anyone else had a wake up call to summers issues? I guess i am just venting to people who will understand. Pablo - 26-5-2007 at 06:43 PM
1/2 hr drive is short, I'll often go 1/2 hr to 1hr to find a clear spot with winds. We've got local feilds that are a fair size locally, but living on
top of a hill, we get some really squirrly winds here, lots of huge rotors as well, quite nasty and dangerous to fly in. I'd rather drive the hour for
wind, I'll take 1hr each way and a 1hr session over 3hrs sitting there getting mad at the kite any day.beachrights - 26-5-2007 at 06:51 PM
How true you are! However, I guess you get spoiled when you only have to drive 5 minutes for 7 months out of a year! I think I need to rethink my
complaining! Still want my beach back though! I guess I will have to wait for cloudy days to get some decent time on my spot. Though looking at the
bikinis on a sunny day does take some of the pain off!Pablo - 26-5-2007 at 08:07 PM
Well, put it this way, our closest good wind spot is either a football feild sized park about 45 min from my house, maybe one hour with traffic, or
the tidal flats affectionately called "Mud Bay". Lots of room, clean wind but it requires thorough cleaning of any kites you bring out there, anything
you unpack is guaranteed to be absolutely covered in wet silty sand by the end of the day. Mud bay is only about 20min from my house though.
We are however surrounded by some wicked kite surfing spots, there's 4 locations within 1/2 hr from our house, The infamous Squamish Spit is only 1
1/4 hr from our house and ranked in the top 5 spots in north america.crosshatch - 26-5-2007 at 08:26 PM
I feel your pain...
I fly daily (when weather and schedule allow) on an abandoned soccer field and also on a natural beach, both of which sit behind an amusement park
that's about 1 minute from me... But, alas, now the park is open...and both my spots are overrun with people...
So until September, it's Mondays only, when the park is closed...
However, I try to keep in mind that if it weren't for the amusement park, all that land would likely be bought up and developed on, and then be
unusable year-round.
Plus...sounds like others have farther to travel than I usually do, so I'll rethink my complaining as well
Time to scout for other, bigger flying lands anyway.Bladerunner - 27-5-2007 at 08:48 AM
Our troubles are numerous. In the winter tides are usually too high and days to short to get out on the bay. ( we get the odd night kiting session
in.), Our parks turn to goose poop soup and our most popular one is allowed to flood in hopes it may freeze ( rarely ) . Space is limited and days
are wet. The closest place to Snowkite is Whistler ( 2 hrs ) and the lakes don't freeze for long + the thermals are not there.
We are stuck between mountians and the coast. Open space / clean wind is A LOT harder to find than imagined. Still the sport is taking off on the
heels of the Kitesurfing.
In summer we are starting to get almost too popular for our space. It starts to get crowded but with US kiters ! The same issue faced the kitesurfers.
They found a home ( with thermals ) in Squamish and with the towns support have just finished the 1st stage of major improvements. Hopefully once our
#'s are there we will be able to find a park of our own.
If we get what we want it will Either be in Squamish or an old oval in a Burb called Ladner. Both will be a long drive for many of us . You all
understand why people will !!!
4 hours drive for 1 hour of kiting is SOOooooo worth it !!!!acampbell - 27-5-2007 at 06:37 PM
I'm starting to track the low tides that occur near sunset in these summer nights. At this time there are people on the beach but they are walking,
not sitting on their butt sunbathing. And they are usually walking either on the surf line or up by the dunes, leaving the center for me!
This time of year the winds are often from the east on our north-south beach, so I park the kite off a shoulder, kick back and cruise 3-4 miles down
and back.
Just finished the tandem buggy hitch version 2.1 and am looking forward to beach trials soon.
And the beer-- I mean water holder is just about done and ready for beta testing. Photos to follow.beachrights - 28-5-2007 at 05:54 AM
Angus- I think you should cut to the chase and stop wasting your time on those prototypes that well.. lets face it never end up working as good as
they should! The solution- one of those hats with the beer can holder on each side and the crazy straws coming out! You could even fly some kite
laundry from your head!!LOLPablo - 28-5-2007 at 05:18 PM
Nah, just fill the camelback with beer, less obvious as well.Taper123 - 31-5-2007 at 09:44 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by Pablo
Nah, just fill the camelback with beer, less obvious as well.
Good Idea!
I have a local field that's within five minutes, but the wind has to be out of a certain direction to be even fairly clean. So when the weekends
come, I try to make it down to the coast, which is about an hour 1/2 to 2 hours depending on where I go.
I'll do some static flying and try to ride now and then near me, but most of the times... the longer drive is nothing compared to how zooming along
the shore recharges the batteries in my head. Yet a night with the moon out, a steady breeze and a low tide.... deserted wide hardpacked sand in
the middle of the night... that's priceless.acampbell - 31-5-2007 at 01:51 PM
