Crissy - Rescues, South Tower, Presidio Shoal, R-E-S-P-E-C-T

[baypirate]

We've been having a pretty steady flow of 2-3 Coast Guard rescues a day. Many/most were non-frivolous (various gear failures – figured it’s that part of the season) and also the… reliably fluky Crissy inside has been shutting down early, with the bubble centered on Anita Rock expanding mile-wide by day-end. However, I dare summarize my list of more obvious bear traps at Crissy, in order to avoid the balance of “unforced errors”.

- rarely if ever there is anything to kite towards Presidio Shoal, i.e. on the inside, upwind of Crissy. Draw a line from the restrooms/flag at Crissy to the South Tower. South (beachside) of that line you’ll likely find only toil, tears and sweat. On Friday at 4pm (sic!) I saw half-a-dozen kites down littering that space. If there is a place for false security in being “close to land”, Crissy is it.
- give South Tower a really wide berth. The topography and the Fort there make for a wind shadow that moves like a ghost around the tower based on how much S there is the wind. Unless you experienced it, hard to believe how your kite can drop like an anvil in 7m wind. Then you (usually) have a washing-machine of voodoo chop there. Even after you drift away and relaunch (if lucky enough to have no twists from rip tide or swell etc.), you may have to deal with retrieving the board still floating in the middle of the wind shadow.

Then, a kind reminder on my (hard-earned) Crissy take-aways:

- watch like a hawk the locals on the water, if you see a big pack rushing back in, it’s always worth taking the hint;
- if light on the inside, take a few tacks and recon the wind line to find a way back home. On good days, coming in high (way upwind of Anita) is fine, on most days ripping across the wind may be best, but sometimes going low is the only (and counter-intuitive) option
- last chance beach (the stairs before StFYC) is usually an easy shot or even swim from inside Anita. Don’t fly your kite over the civilians that always sightsee there, it’s really a “beach” only on low tide, so don’t get greedy: self-land on the water line; you can chill w/ the peanut gallery while your kite gets dry (they took bets whether you make it in, anyway);
- if you dropped the kite inside Anita, it may be worth just swimming for it; the current is strong enough even there to take you back out/down if you fool around too long (wrapping lines, bending kite etc.). On Fri I made the mistake of staying out late; after failing repeatedly to pierce through the bubble (in the good company of all the other late-homers), I tacked back out, and with every attempt, the bubble grew bigger; eventually I rode in to the last chance beach, but dry kite ego aside, not sure would not have been easier to swim in, half an hour earlier when the bubble was smaller.
- visualize beforehand what’s likely to happen when you get in trouble:
- yesterday, in head-high swell and 4.5kts ebb, we had one lost board and one torn kite by the S.Tower. We looked for the board for quite a while, unsuccessfully (the whole ocean was moving, suffice it to say that the ferries didn’t dare crossing under the bridge), kiter eventually dragged-in to Fort Point (imho, btw, that is not a rescue option – flanked by rocks, concrete walls and huge surf-break - unless you really know it and at any rate only on low tide when you could see the small clearing between the rocks; and I speak from what I think was lucky rather than successful personal experience)
- when losing your board in rough conditions, take a time mark; how many minutes passed since you lost it is the most important information to give to the “searchers”. At 4.5kts, the board will drift a mile every 10 minutes; there is another reason to take a time mark: even in a 5/3 suit, you may get cold after a while and not realize it, so you’d want to know how long you’ve been in the water and even in a clean self-rescue hit the panic button before you lose track
o how fast you/board can drift out in the channel was vividly illustrated by the other kiter downed by the S. Tower yesterday, as the CG responded in under 10minutes from the call and still picked him up halfway to the Mile Rock, despite the pack of assisting kiters anchoring him
- buddy system is hard to beat, otherwise just try to stick with/in sight of the pack; if you get in trouble, chances are you’d get “buddies” anyway, unless you’re way out there by yourself, lose kite etc. Even if you can’t be rescued from out there by another kiter (like, say, at 3rd), my experience has been that watching the South Tower going “bye-bye” while you're being pulled out out into the open sea is a lot scarier if you’re all by yourself.
- for Crissy first timers, if in doubt about your skill set, ask yourself two questions:
1) can I safely ride a kite two sizes off from the ideal size for conditions, both too big and too small? On most any day, you're guaranteed to find both extremes between mid-bay, the gate and beach.
2) do I have a dynamic appreciation of... wind over water conditions, i.e. look at water texture and spot a wind line, flood areas or vertical chop etc.

Sorry for getting on the… sandbar and preaching the obvious, but besides the choir we have quite a few (and welcomed) new converts. Crissy is like an ancient goddess, she’ll seduce you with its awesome powers and sights, but she demands respect (and occasional offerings…).

[moblvet]

Lots of good points, kudos.
Guess you haven't experienced last chance beach, though. Steps at yacht club 2nd last beach.
Last chance beach is end of rip rap after 2nd yacht club, at entrance to StFYC marina.
Then rock wall at marina green, piers after that, have taken taxi from pier 39 after self rescue.
After 2 decades of windsurfing and kiting there, I always have a marine radio, useful to help others, and maybe one day for self.

[Tony Soprano]

Good write up.

Many gear failures this past week at Crissy, NOT the Place to kite with worn out gear.

Time to re-evaluate your gear, due maintenance, upgrade.

[baypirate]

Guess you haven't experienced last chance beach, though. Steps at yacht club 2nd last beach.
Last chance beach is end of rip rap after 2nd yacht club, at entrance to StFYC marina.
Then rock wall at marina green, piers after that, have taken taxi from pier 39 after self rescue.

See, goes to tell I haven't kited enough at Crissy. Furthest I went was through the restaurant at StFYC; a couple of guys in Savile Row coats having cigars on the terrace offered a smoke "after all, you are dressed for the weather".

Oh, and yeah, carrying a radio goes without saying. I guess my point was not to trivialize the fact that a rescue is always at the other end of that radio. If you listen in on a typical weekend it's almost tragicomic what the CG deals with, other than kiters. We don't want to go back to being called Dopes on Ropes...

[feixaq]

Great post. Ollie -- worth sticky-ing this thread?

(I've definitely learned some of these pointers the hard way kiting Crissy the past 6 years ](*,) )

[jbirdmarin]

It's august and there are still lots of summer visitors kiting at Crissy, it is a good post but might not hit the intended targets. There was a guy on Sat afternoon (yellow North) throwing front and back rolls 5 feet from the launch at full speed. He was not from around here and wasn't too interested in receiving advice.

[OliverG]

Indeed, good post, we'll post this in the archives.

I'll move it to Locations and Guidelines and Sticky it, and post is as an article here:

https://www.bayareakiteboarding.com/ind ... &Itemid=38

under SF Bay Area Kiting Locations in that section. Remember, forum posts will all eventually drop down unless stickied (but can't have too many stickies), so important info and articles are posted in the front end for readily available and easy to find reference.

[pacspeed]

Man I guess I got lucky. My first day ever at crissy, just 1 week ago, I was about 10 feet off the beach when I got the "kite anvil" treatment. Like, WTF, mate? (Muchas gracias to Marcello for fetching my board for me)

4 or 5 repeats of that was enough to convince me to wrap it up for the day. Then when everyone else got in, and I saw the radios, brand new lines, 5 mm suits, I sorta had a "gee whiz" moment.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going out to warp on my new lines right now!

[jaxonholer]

Thanks to some of the locals for coaching me through some nice death spirals yesterday (stefaans, eric), my lines were so effed, there was no way that kite was going fly normally so I took the CG up on their offer for a ride to shore. Great guys on the boat too, everybody was helpful and understanding, i don't understand how I was the most pissed about the situation. I guess I was the one swimming...but that advice about the wind shadow anywhere from shore to the south tower is GREAT advice, it seems like the best route back since it's a straight line, but it's clearly better to go down wind and around the shadow, possibly even down wind of Anitas. There can be zero wind in that shadow... try relaunching in that.

If nothing else, just don't kite alone, there was nobody on the inside there, I had no business being there. Do what everybody else is doing, even if it's counterintuitive.

I won't go on and on, but talk to the locals, they are your friend and they will always steer you in the right direction if you respect their amazing spot. Respect...

jon

[baypirate]

It's august and there are still lots of summer visitors kiting at Crissy, it is a good post but might not hit the intended targets.

Yeah, unfortunately not much we can do about those. Hence the thrust of my worry about "moral hazard" of having a rescue on call. And, based on just yesterday, a confession to make: I have seen the enemy, and it is us.

There was basically no wind the entire half of the bay, rigging up I was pretty sure that (many of us) had no business going out, but it's amazing how true is that group decisions are always riskier than individual ones. Casualty rate on return was above 50%, ok most of the regulars did make it in dry, but it took a good 90' for the Guard to ferry in all the downers.

I really have no standing to criticize (hence the use of "we/us"), just noting there are caveats even to the "do what the others do" advice.

And that we really owe the CG big time for putting up with us. There was still somebody outside the bridge past 7pm, all by himself . I give the benefit of the doubt that he must have been an expert, seasoned rider with extensive knowledge of Crissy waters etc., but couldn't help wondering what those CG guys were thinking about us seeing somebody still out there, when they had been plucking people from the water for a couple of hours at that point.