Disaster in High Winds + Lessons Learned

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le noun
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Re: Disaster in High Winds + Lessons Learned

Post by le noun » Sat Mar 09, 2013 8:04 pm

Yes, that's what I meant. If you're not on the beach, that means you're landing your kite downwind of the shack which explains why your kite dropped.
Just stand on the beach and lower your kite until somebody notices you and grabs it.
It's always a problem in alameda on a busy day: people not stacking their kites, lines all over the place, etc...
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Re: Disaster in High Winds + Lessons Learned

Post by CdoG » Sat Mar 09, 2013 8:20 pm

Or just in front of the sand berm out of the "shack eddy"just like a lot of "us" were doing.

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Re: Disaster in High Winds + Lessons Learned

Post by le noun » Sat Mar 09, 2013 8:23 pm

CdoG wrote:Or just in front of the sand berm out of the "shack eddy"just like a lot of "us" were doing.
EXACTLY. Especially in a low tide condition like it was on Friday.
In really high tide, as soon as my feet touch the sand it's usually about a line length from the berm. :mrgreen:
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Re: Disaster in High Winds + Lessons Learned

Post by CdoG » Sat Mar 09, 2013 8:47 pm

we stopped the young woman becouse she could not "get to her board"
she could not walk up wind and out toward the water to pick it up.

I like to put my board upwind and out toward the water so i can see if i can get it, if not i'm overpowerd and drop my kite right back down and rig down

also if your going downwind alot not holding your ground jumping or not your overpowerd

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Re: Disaster in High Winds + Lessons Learned

Post by nick_80044 » Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:42 am

le noun wrote:Yes, that's what I meant. If you're not on the beach, that means you're landing your kite downwind of the shack which explains why your kite dropped.
Just stand on the beach and lower your kite until somebody notices you and grabs it.
It's always a problem in alameda on a busy day: people not stacking their kites, lines all over the place, etc...
No kidding.

Normally, I would do the stand on the beach, lower the kite gently into the landing zone thing. The problem with yesterday was I could tell there was a lot of activity going on in the desired zone--people were preoccupied with setting up their kites and I couldn't catch anyone's attention. I didn't want to stand there long with my kite so powered up so that's when I climbed up the berm. The first guy to catch my signal was further in towards the shack, and the closest empty space was across the asphalt path also towards the shack. You know what happened next.

Ironically, about 20 minutes later when I was ready to launch my 9m, the area was empty and I had to wait a few minutes for someone to come along to help me launch. Timing is everything!

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Re: Disaster in High Winds + Lessons Learned

Post by le noun » Sun Mar 10, 2013 1:43 am

Well, if somebody is more preoccupied about setting up his lines than to land a fellow kiter obviously overpowered, I hope he/she doesn't get somebody to launch him/her... :roll:
You shouldn't put yourself at risk by landing in a wind shadowed area just because people are to busy setting up their lines.

Anyway, no matter what I say, seems like you learned from your mistakes and ended up in one piece. That's all that matters. SS$$
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Disaster in High Winds + Lessons Learned

Post by nbon » Sun Mar 10, 2013 8:01 am

Hey Nick

Thanks for sharing your experience. I think its gutsy of you to come forward and tell this forum about a situation any kiter could find themselves in. A very good reminder of how quickly things can get sketchy.

Hearing these kind of stories makes it more likely that I will punch out and self rescue if I'm getting that spidy sense that things could go wrong.

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Post by jzderm » Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:58 pm

I pulled kite rescue duty in this case and saw the whole thing. I think the wind shadow from the boardsports shack got you. Glad to hear you were Ok.

Feet on sand, kite in hand is the take home point, for sure.

Jz

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Re: Disaster in High Winds + Lessons Learned

Post by friggin old guy » Sun Mar 10, 2013 7:00 pm

a couple points:

1) Alameda can be a clusterfook even if people are not overloading the lz by being rude about clearing the area quickly. It just is not that big.......although frowned upon officially, sometimes better in that situation to land the kite in the area just upwind of the lz (assuming you have decent kite handling skills and can avoid the hazards like the showers. Some will disagree, but it seems to me to make sense to land the kite outside of the zone where people are laying lines out and so mindless they can't see somebody's overpowed and trying to land (0bvious priority).

2) Elaborating: it's crazy sometimes how many people there can be at Alameda and nobody will jump up to land an incoming kite. Even if you have the skills to self-land, the place is just not big enough for people to self land without the possibility of a problem if the kite skitzes just a little bit.

Word......the onus is on the guy flying the kite but jeez would you please keep your eyes open for inbound guys and land them......?

I would have to say that I've never been there on a day when landing with your feet on the berm would not put you in the wind shadow......no way in the world you should ever ever ever bring your kite down over the path.......kind of a cardinal sin really.

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Re: Disaster in High Winds + Lessons Learned

Post by Aloha » Mon Mar 11, 2013 12:52 am

Shellgate if you value your gear...

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