[South Bay] Redwood City - Seaport Blvd

Information about San Francisco Bay Area kiteboarding locations and guidelines.
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Chris
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[South Bay] Redwood City - Seaport Blvd

Post by Chris » Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:48 am

Has anyone thought of sailing out at the end of Seaport Blvd in Redwood City? There is an office complex at the very end of the road that has a nice park right next to the slough. I used to work there and the park is where I learned with a trainer kite. I drove past last night and it looked like it would have been perfect in the slough, steady wind and very flat water. There are power-lines in one place, but they are very high because this is where ships come in to the nearby dock.

Here is the location:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 6&t=h&z=16

The launch area would be the grassy park in the middle of the map. The wind blows from the top-left of the map. The slough where you launch is narrow so not for beginners, but when I was there at high tide there is a relative easy launch, just a bit rocky underfoot.

Does anyone know of regulations about where you can and can't kitesurf/windsurf in the bay?

I am off to Hawaii for a week, but when I come back I am tempted to try it out.

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elli
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Re: Redwood City - Seaport Blvd

Post by elli » Sun Oct 11, 2009 3:08 pm

Interesting. Its very narrow channel, like 500 feet. Not many kiteboarders at once unless you go upwind to the next channel. Did you ever see windsurfers there?

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Re: Redwood City - Seaport Blvd

Post by goosh » Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:27 pm

Yup

Kited it about 3 weeks or so ago with Guido during our lunch break. (we both work at the complex)

It doesn't get THAT windy there during normal days. So we waited for that Tuesday that was nuking out in the bay a few weeks back.
It was W and gusty as hell, but even then it was awesome!

Security came to see what we were doing but never said anything. Some of the workers at the cement factory were also checking us out and didn't seemed to mind either.

We did launch from that grass area that you mentioned (right by the cement factory).
It was high tide and even then, it was pretty scary walking down to the water through the rocks (specially in those gusty conditions)

Certainly not a beginner spot. We both kept it pretty safe and didn't try anything crazy. (didn't want to drop the kites, just in case)

It would only fit 3-4 kites at one time. It's fairly narrow. I guess if you spread out a lot upwind and down you could fit a few more.

Anyway.. it was awesome to be out there. Don't really know what the regulations are. Seems to me that security didn't know either but we seemed to have gotten away with it. At least that one time.

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Re: Redwood City - Seaport Blvd

Post by RPskater » Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:18 am

I've kited it about 7 times this year. Two things to consider. wind direction and tides. The slough is more like 800 feet at high tide in one particular spot. The best tide is at high tide and it is just going out. Tide coming in produces a flow going down wind a little. Wind is not that good due to the silos, cement factory and trees. If the wind is more north and coming from the bay it is better. Of the 7 times kiting there at least 4 were good sessions (1-2 hrs). Walking down into the water is very tricky because you are walking on rocks that are the size of soccer balls. Security has seen us many times and have done nothing. Once they came by and told us it was ""cool" and that they wanted to learn themselves. If you consider riding there DO NOT GO TO THE ISLAND ACROSS THE SLOUGH. There are signs forbiding entrance and it is part of a wild life reserve. That will close this spot down and bring attention to the activity. Of the 7 times, 2 of them were during winter storms using the south wind near the harbor. Stay away from the harbor as well. Mark Sanders is very protective of his harbor and could cause problems as well. The good points to this place is rigging on a nice big grassy area and flat water! 3-4 kiters at most. If the wind were better, I probably would not be writing about this spot :-)

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Re: Redwood City - Seaport Blvd

Post by ramsey » Wed Jun 16, 2010 12:37 pm

I kited there as well. It pretty much sucks. Even on a strong WNW wind it doesn't really fill in to that launch spot. I could see it working on a strong NW wind, but thats not very common. On a W wind it will be very strong just 200yds upwind of the launch and nearly nothing in that grassy area. There are lots of other spot in and around the redwood city harbor that would work, but there's no launch. With a kayak or even a SUP you could paddle out to some good flatwater spots.

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Re: Redwood City - Seaport Blvd

Post by ramsey » Wed Jun 16, 2010 12:39 pm

Oh yeah, if you look on google maps theres a little beach just east of the stanford sailing and rowing club. If you could get access to that then we would have a good kite spot.

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Re: Redwood City - Seaport Blvd

Post by ryggen » Sat Jan 30, 2016 6:22 pm

Has anyone been here since 2010?

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