Page 1 of 1

How good should be to kite SI

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 10:31 am
by cedric
Hey there !

I dream about flat waters but they don't exist on the bay (when there is wind). So I'd like to drive up to Sherman, though I read it is not an esay spot.

I got about 15-20 kite sessions under my belt, I can go reasonably upwind going left and pretty good going right. Depending on the wind and swellI can make it back to the beach (or not...). My turns are still laborious though.

Should I give it a try at SI on my own, or should I contact one of these SI school to get a downwinder ?

Also, I got a Diesel 11m and a Fuel 13m (I'm 167 lbs) and just bough a small board (SX130). Will those be OK over there ?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Cheers

Cedric

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 10:55 am
by kitechick
Hi Cedric,

The difficulty with TI is the landing and launching for which you should be very very experienced. The landing is almost more difficult than the launching.
Kiting itself is not the problem.
Launching: Between buildings.Walking down the boatramp. Just rocks around you. Absolutely NO room for mistakes. Zero.
Landing: Good opportunity to either destroy your kite or to get drifted to Berkeley. There is no good space to land your kite. The most popular method is to dive your kite in exactly the right moment into the windshadow of a tree at the wall on a building so it can sit protected there until you have walked up the rocks.
If you drop wrong then you or your kite is toast.
The alternative: Buddies who catch your kite for example in the parking lot - they often can't grab it in time. The wind there is incosistent and the kite very bouncy.
The other option: you land your kite into the water, roll up the lines and swim in. Depending on the current/wind this is not always as easy as it sounds. You could just get sucked away from the island.

Only very very advanced kiters go out there, even they sometimes get in trouble. I decided to not do that any more although the wind is very tempting.

If you have a way to get out there from a boat or jetski and launch and land in the water that's better. The wind there is really nice and strong. An 11m on an average day (average wind around 20mph) is a lot of kite for someone with your degree of experience and weight. Smaller might work better.

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 11:37 am
by cedric
Hey KC,

Did you mean "Treasure Island" ? Cos I was referring to Sherman Island up in the Delta. I indeed know that Treasure Island is quite tricky, but I guess Sherman is not *that* bad :) Schools teach there, right ?

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 11:52 am
by kitechick
ooops [glow=red]<blushing[/glow]>.....yep - you are right. Didn't have enough coffee yet.

True - What I wrote is valid for TI not SI....

SI is not that bad.
For going out on your own you need to know how to go upwind well because the wind at the launch is fairly onshore.
Landing - be prepared that you get back not where you came from, in worst case on rocks.
Anyways - you should talk to the locals there, they'll fill you in on the location. They have a launching/landing system to manage traffic .

The downwinders are a great option for your level of experience (watch out for the tankers in the shipping lane though).

Kite sizes vary big time, you need a small one (7-9m) in your quiver if you want to go there regularly.

Cheers! - KC

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:15 pm
by cedric
Great. For the downwinders one needs to get a boat ride upwind right ? Who should I contact to get tose downwinders ? Think I can just come on a weekday and hitch a ride (well, after dues) ?

Appreciate your help,

Cedric

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:16 am
by kitechick
Yup - a boat esessential to get there. You can just go up to the island and parking lot and ask for Nat. I believe Edge kiteboarding is the name of his school.

Also here in this forum there is a list of kiteschools, Edge kiteboarding is listed there and also Kiteopia, not sure whether the latter one is offering that service also.
Perhaps someone here has Nat's phone number, I don't (sorry....)

Cheers! -Sylvia

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 11:46 am
by cedric
Perhaps someone here has Nat's phone number, I don't (sorry....)

Thanks for the tip. BTW, I found Nat's (new) phone : 775-721-1132

Hope to get there soon !!!

:)

c

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 4:50 pm
by OliverG
The list for lessons resources is located here.

Let me know if anything needs updating, I think it's all current.