Sherman Marker

[Scotty]

With KiterCarl's experience on Sunday with his Best Waroo, this brings up an interesting question. The sensor from 8am-12pm showed wind ranges from 18-24 sustained out of the west. Some gusts went to 27mph. However, I was totally lit on my 11m SS Diesel from 8am to 12pm. Normally, I need sustained mid 20's to be powered on this kite. If I had rigged according to the sensor, I would have gone out with my 13m and have been way OPed. When the wind is out of the west, does the sensor read a little low? I guess you can make the arguement that you should rig according to the wind on the water vs. according to the sensor. BTW...A big kudos to LiteWave Dave for demoing some of his boards and the people @ the launch for being so friendly and helpful.

[fearlu]

Yeah, the sensor is down near the sign and it was pretty windy given the fact that I rode a 13 all day. I did the upwind grind past Collinsville, rounded Marker #1 and rode swells back to the launch. Good ebb for it, but that takes some REAL wind too, not your average day there for sure.

[Bulldog]

Yesterday the wind in the channel downwind of the launch was lighter than the wind in front of the beach and upwind of the launch. I think when the wind is straight out of the west, the hills shadow some of it further down the levee -- at least that was my experience kiting at little Baja.

The Ikite sensor almost never matches my experiences on the water at Sherman.

Then again, there are some days when the combo of tide and swell make it easier to hold down a bigger kite, and others when they make it much more difficult.

[zgur]

Which brings up the point I've made many times when people ask "what is the best wind guage on the market"....the answer, common sense.

First - if you don't have the milage to estimate kite size correctly, ask a local. And listen to the advice.
Second - Rig smaller then you think. You can always rig up if it's required. Launching a big kite can cause problems to the uninitiated.
Third - get some milage under your belt, learn how to read the water without relying on any sensors.

The Serman sensor is almost 2 miles downwind, on the other side of the river. This is not where we launch/ride.

Fly safe and get some, Z.

[berrisbob]

It has been my impression that the sensor at marker 14 reads a bit low on west days. It seems to be more accurate on the normal WSW days. The most likely explanation is that it's more in the wind shadow of the hills when the wind is coming more out of the west.

For those who don't know it, I have a wind meter on-site at the access (sorry, but it is not accessible remotely). It's set up on the pole behind Tassie's (the windsurfer's) beach. The meter was broken for much of this last winter and spring, but I fixed it a couple of weeks ago.

Now that it's fixed, the big question is.. is it accurate? The honest answer is.. I don't know. I initially tried to calibrate it against two identical hand-held meters that I was holding while standing at the top of a ladder at the top of the pole. But the hand-held meters didn't agree well at all, with one reading about 16mph while the other read about 20mph. It seemed to me that the one that read 16 was probably more correct, so I compromised a bit in its favor and calibrated my meter at 17.

But even if that was the real wind speed at the top of the pole, that doesn't mean that it's the wind speed out on the water, which is what we're all really interested in. Of course, as anyone who has kited or windsurfed Sherman more than a few times knows, the wind speed can vary significantly out on the water, sometimes predictably, and more often not.

I think the goal is to set the meter so that it reads about the average of the wind speed out in the normal riding area of the river, for the normal wind directions (SSW through W). The good news is that the meter should track fairly well for those wind directions (even through N also, although probably nobody cares about that). Also, it's easy to change the calibration on the meter. The bad news is there really isn't any good way to accomplish this calibration. So...

I welcome anybody's opinion on how accurate it seems to read. If there is a consensus that it's reading too low, I'll bump it up. Similarly, if the consensus is that it's reading too high, I'll drop it down. If you have an opinion, reply to this post, drop me an email, or let me know in person next time you see me.

Oh, and if you think you have a better way to calibrate it, I'm all ears.