Gusty North Winds 11/21- Alameda
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 3:20 pm
So I was running a few errands Sunday, had my gear with me and was near so I dropped by Alameda, even though I knew the wind was northerly. It had been showing NNW, so I thought I'd check it out.
When I got there the wind was ranging from 3 to 30, and there were a couple of people hanging out, just checking out the direction and such. The wind was basically fairly offshore.
Well, one guy had just split to go a find a boat or something because as it turned out he had his kite laying on the beach unweighted :!: (big no-no) and had grabbed his bar while still in his street clothes to check his lines or something. Apparently the lines got a bit of tension, and BAM, the kite took off, dragged him about 25 feet and over the embankment near to the waters edge, where he then let go of the bar. Bye-bye kite.
When I got there, he was already gone, luckily un-hurt, but we couldn;t hardly even see the kite anymore, was only a distant speck.
So, just for fun, we discussed the wind direction, speed and gustiness for a while, then another guy decided to give it a go. He suited up and I held him while Artie launched him. The kite lulled, shot up, lulled again, blew up in another gust and subjected him to few healthy loftings, during which I had a hold of his harness at arm's length directly up in the air. So rather than getting bounced up and down in the air yanking on my arm, he pulled his safety, kite goes down in water, end of story, nobody hurt.
So there you have it - a few exciting moments, with positive reinforcements of the do's and dont's of kiting. I can only imagine how fast the first guy's runaway kite must have flapping end over end (with bar & lines) across the bay....the water was just lit up and whitecapping fiercely as far as you could see, but was still pretty flat water....
When I got there the wind was ranging from 3 to 30, and there were a couple of people hanging out, just checking out the direction and such. The wind was basically fairly offshore.
Well, one guy had just split to go a find a boat or something because as it turned out he had his kite laying on the beach unweighted :!: (big no-no) and had grabbed his bar while still in his street clothes to check his lines or something. Apparently the lines got a bit of tension, and BAM, the kite took off, dragged him about 25 feet and over the embankment near to the waters edge, where he then let go of the bar. Bye-bye kite.
When I got there, he was already gone, luckily un-hurt, but we couldn;t hardly even see the kite anymore, was only a distant speck.
So, just for fun, we discussed the wind direction, speed and gustiness for a while, then another guy decided to give it a go. He suited up and I held him while Artie launched him. The kite lulled, shot up, lulled again, blew up in another gust and subjected him to few healthy loftings, during which I had a hold of his harness at arm's length directly up in the air. So rather than getting bounced up and down in the air yanking on my arm, he pulled his safety, kite goes down in water, end of story, nobody hurt.
So there you have it - a few exciting moments, with positive reinforcements of the do's and dont's of kiting. I can only imagine how fast the first guy's runaway kite must have flapping end over end (with bar & lines) across the bay....the water was just lit up and whitecapping fiercely as far as you could see, but was still pretty flat water....