For those of you don't know, this is the dream beach for buggying/boarding/jumping/skudding/kitesurfing you name it.... a twelve mile long uninterupted stretch of wide flat beach. Plenty of dunes to play on. And... (Californians will be envious) NO PEOPLE, and NO FEES!!!!

We're located on the North Oregon coast, about 5 miles north of Seaside.

During the spring, summer, and fall, we get steady, stable west winds right off the ocean. There's a reason why one of the major buggy events (S.O.B.B.) happens here. Did I mention no people and no fees??

Well it's starting, the west winds have been coming in , and it's only gonna get better!!

Here's a website that gives you live access to weather stations near Sunset Beach, As well as additional info such as tides, winds, wind direction. A very useful site because its up-to-the-second accurate.

www.brevins.com/wx/astoria.html

Sunset Beach is located right between Astoria and Seaside (the two stations listed) Seaside is slightly more accurate for Sunset Beach, because the Astoria station tends to be affected by the Columbia River, which messes with the wind direction readings.

Dude,
I'll see ya there on monday. 'can't wait, I'm already packed!

Hope to see you guys out there sometime!

Bring on those nice summer winds....:D

come this week, if you can make it. I fly on those beaches often but this will be my first visit to Sunset. Archkiter, I see we use the same harness. I think its great. almost like having an easy chair. I really like the lumbar support. My back isn't all that great but the with the fusion I can kite for hours and still feel good when i'm done. Speaking of that, I leave in the morning for the beach! he he........

Hope to see both of you there. and in case you're interested

Low tide at 11:16 a.m. mon.
12:16 a.m. tues.
1:25 p.m. wed.
2:37 p.m. thurs.
and 3:39 p.m. fri.

Check that website I gave for the latest weather (they tend to be a bit more pessimistic in their forcasts)
Pray for sun and a good west wind!!!!!

later

I'm sooooo disappointed. I was out Mon, Tues, and Wed. All three were good/great flying days. But did I see another buggier, boarder, powerkiter out there?!? Noooooooo!!! It's O.K. though, I got my kiting fix, and I'd been jonesing for several months. Well here's the rundown:

Monday started off in the morning with a nice with a S.W. wind at about 7 to10 knots. As the day progressed however, the wind started picking up more and more. I finally packed it in when it it reached 25 knots at around noon.

Tuesday was BEAUTIFUL. Blue sky, warm, and nice 10 to 15 knot northeast wind that gradually moved to N.W. Minus tide, so we had tons of beach. Tried out new modification on one of my buggies (new mount/extension for adding a full extended rear axle onto my flexi sports - worked GREAT!!) and a new bar control system for my foils. (based on something I saw on Ebay called an "X-bar" - full handle control including power and brake line induced turns with a BAR!. I'll be damned if the thing didn't work perfectly!! Why haven't I seen these things more often?!? I actually flew my Razor on a BAR!!) Great day!

Wednesday was also very good. Cloudier and cooler, but better wind 10 - 15 knots out of the N.W. and gradually moving to West. Big long runs up and down the beach for miles...

Today... Well today sucks. Its raining, no real wind. Oh well, It's only April.

"I'm sooooo disappointed. I was out Mon, Tues, and Wed. All three were good/great flying days. But did I see another buggier, boarder, powerkiter out there?!? Noooooooo!!!"

Well thanks a LOT Bucky!!!, I guess I don't count as a buggier or what?.... lol See if I let ya share your stuff with me again.. :frog:

Take care man

You were out there?!?!? Oh yeah.... Now I remember!! Your just so much a part of the landscape there, I didn't even notice :wink2:

Hey wad'ya think about the new "UBER AXLE" for the flexi?? I found some extensions that will push it back about another 10 inches. And I'm also building my new beefed up side-supports (roll-cage). I should be taking both out in the next couple of days.

Always appreciate your input. Hope to see you out there "again".

I thought that axle was awesome to say the least. Looking forward to see how that extension on it works out.

Alright I heard that a few other folks as well as myself are planning on being out at Sunset next Sunday (the 16th). Who else want's to meet up? It would be cool to get a good size group together to kick off spring! Whoo hooo!!!

Stace:tumble:

Sounds good:

We have a minus tide at 10:17 a.m. on that day.

Pray for for good wind. Maybe we can compare note on our bar sewtups

Hey Bucky, I would like to see some pics of your mods on the flexi axle. I'm getting ready to start tweaking mine and would love some ideas.

O.K. I just read your post, grabbed a camera and here we go.

The mods are as follows:

Side and Back support "rollcage": About $28 worth of 1 inch pipe and "T" connecters from ebay and the local hardware store, a $5 package of pipe insulation, all covered in shiny black and blue duct tape!! Cheap, but super effective!!

Axle mod: 4ft 1 inch pipe, a couple of reducers drilled out so that a 12mm bolt slides through. (a flange,washer and nut inside the axle hold the wheel on.) , some parts from a chain-link gate and some short 12mm bolts (total cost about $25) The axle is incredibly strong (The weakest point is actually the stock 12mm bolts on the tires. I've ordered 15mm bearings and can quite easily drill out the reducer to accomodate the larger bolts).

Big Fat Tires: $37 each at the local tire store (though it was difficult to get them on, I used the stock plastic flexi wheels) I run them at about 5psi so its no big deal.

O.K. now before everyone goes nuts saying I'm a "cheapskate" and I'm going to kill myself using crap parts; Let me say that I'm not an idiot. nor a cheapskate. I simply saw a way to improve a design. Everything added meets three criteria:

1: It doesn't decrease my safety in any way (most actually improve it)

2: Overbuilt so that it won't break, even in the event of a flip over (of course the 5 foot wheelbase virtually eliminates that possibility.)

3: Designed so that it doesn't add any additional stress to the buggy frame (The rear axle mod actually significantly reduces lateral stress to the frame by transfering that stress to the new axle)

These inexpensive mods will make your buggy safer, more comfortable, faster, WAY more stable, and last longer!! You will be able to fly far more powered up than normal.

But don't just take my word for it, Several friends of mine who own Libre's, love the way this buggy rides.

Here's pic 1

Pics no workie! Sounds great though! You can email them to me at jdjudd@earthlink.net if you want.

O.K. thats the last one so far.

Let me know what you think.

Franken Buggy is cool! Cheap or not, I bet it works great.

I'll attest to that. It rides really sweet. Although I haven't had a chance to try it under some "powered up" conditions, when sliding thru a turn it was very well balanced and sticking to the ground (just the way I like to be) and not even a hint of getting yanked out the side.

Great job Bucky.

Still on for Sunday!

Planning on leaving Portland around 8AM to make it out a bit before low tide. If anyone has suggestions of where to meet up please post otherwise look for big kites!

It's going to be a bit busy on the beach that morning due to the clamming. Under those conditions I typically head north from the sunset beach access at least 1/2 mi and start looking for a gap in the crowd. They should start thinning out shortly after 10:30 or so and if we have the good westerlies (which typically follows a good storm) we'll be able to buggy right up to and possibly even thru the high tide that day.

Ya' all might want to make note too of a kiting event at Sunset on the the following sunday, the 23rd that's not limited to just powerkites. Should be a lot of fun....

Thanks for the tip Jim! Hope to see you out there

Sounds good you guys. I think Jim's right about the clamming, but they all start to leave right at the end of the ebb. So that shouldn't be to much of a problem.

But hey, who needs hardpack! Day before yesterday we had a great N.W. wind, but it was high tide. No matter, dropped the pressure in the fattys and did some "offroadin" on the dunes "Yeahaaaa!!!" (insert image of me spittin out a big wad of tobacco at this point) But seriously, if you got fatty's or bigfoots, bring them. There's still plenty of playground, even when the tides in.

About a 1/2 mile north of the Sunset access sounds great.

Here are a couple of pics from yesterday. Sunset-Jim is in the buggy.





Nice to meet you yesterday Jim. Planning on making it out again next weekend

Man, is it good to be alive!!!!

These last few weeks have been sooooo good!! More good wind, sunny days, and open beach than I even had time for!!!

I've had the new "uber axle" buggy out quite a bit, and have actually made 3 seperate axle configs. that can be interchanged easily.

1. My original LOW pressure 22-12-8 knobbies on the 6ft axle in the rear and 16-6.5-8 knobby up front for big-grip, all-terrain, goes-over-anything-including-logs fun.

2. A set of stock 16-4-8 slicks on 5ft axle for speed., speed!!, and SPEED!

3. And my newest (and possibly most favorite) a set of 16-6.5-8 flat wide radial slicks on a 6ft axle. This is purposely setup to give the absolute WORST side traction possible! This thing will slide everywhere and is next to impossible to turn over! That's what makes it so fun! It's like a overgrown, kite-powered BIG-WHEEL!! 360 spins on the hardpack without even trying! So little side grip, I can launch my kite sideways in my buggy, and slide and spin before finally getting moving. (The siderail rollcage I built keeps you right in the buggy) Absolutely horrible upwind performance, but WHO CARES!!

Hey Sunset Jim, where you been??? I keep on bringing these out for you (or anyone) to try, but I no see you!! Come out, come out wherever you are.

Hope to see all you guys out this summer.

I don't know how we keep missing each other. It sure has been awesome out there though. Last week was even able to have one of those river to the rocks run with a sweetdown winder coming back due to a shift in wind direction. Sure is a blast passing up cars:tumble:

I'll be keeping an eye out for ya.