BayAreaKiteboarding.com

Alright, just got out of the water at coyote.
I was on my 11. light condition inside.
Could keep my ground but hard to get upwind.
Still having fun. Enough power to get some backrolls on the gusts.

I decide to go outside to make some ground upwind as usual, as I pass the yellow buoy, I see a gust coming at me really fast.
never saw something like this before. clear wind line coming my way.
One side was like blowing 13kts the other side the water texture looked like 40.
as soon as it hit my kite I got blown out of the water pretty high. Bar got pulled out of my hands and the kite bent BACKWARD.
Crashed in the water wondering what the ^!@#%$ just happened. Pretty sure that by the violence of the shock the lines probably snapped and I'm not even attached to the kite anymore.
But no, kite is still there. I body dragged quickly to my board and decide it's time to get back to shore presto.

Inspecting the kite onshore, I notice the violence of the shock blew the canopy on the edge of the windtip from the leading edge. (you can see it on the picture).


So my question is: is it possible I got blown away by some leftover draft from a plane landing at SFO and passing above me?
I've been riding at coyote almost all this season and this is the first time this happens to me.
Needless to say, conditions got better but I packed up and called it a day.

BTW, sonny, I'll probably be at your door with my kite by tomorrow afternoon. :mrgreen:

is it possible I got blown away by some leftover draft from a plane landing at SFO

Yes, the wing tips shed vortices that can travel along ways:

The strongest vortices are produced by heavy aircraft, flying slowly, with wing flaps and landing gear retracted ("heavy, slow, and clean")[citation needed]. Large jet aircraft can generate vortices that can persist for many minutes, drifting with the wind.

Years ago I got nailed by one windsurfing upwind of coyote.

That was definitely a wingtip vortex from one of the wide-bodies passing over. We see them every day out there, and on glassy day they make two perfectly identical waterspouts that shoot a few hundred feet in the air. Not a fun place fly your kite..

I have my sailboat at Coyote and you see the wind devils running down the line form the airport all the time. Probably 2-3 per day sailing. So i am not surprised that you got hit with one. Some even travel past Coyote point. Never saw one lining up at 3rd though. So yes if a 747 gets in the energy needs to go somewhere. right?

G

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NszWBXbXwGE[/video]

JR nailed it. First time I saw one I was racing my buddy on a windsurf board and he was upwind of me. It looked like some Tasmanian Devil water spout screaming across the water at him. I yelled but he was focused on beating me and next thing I knew he was bowled down like a duck pin. Not long after that I was out there on an old cambered Neil Pryde 6.5, tooling along just fine and then THWAK! The sail inverted and I even had a welt on my shins where the batten smacked me like a nun's ruler on a kid with Tourette's.

Wow. Well thanks everybody.
At least I know I'm not crazy. I guess I know now why I'm always the only kiter there! :mrgreen:

maybe it was a pole boarder with a airzuka

It's a pole dancer conspiracy!
They're bitter windsurfing has been cancelled!