Pond A4 Santa Clara anyone?

[keithdkd]

I'm curious about pond A4 in Santa Clara and would like to visit it. Mmm, flat water. Anyone going this weekend? I don't want to go if I'd be the only one there. For one thing, I'm not even sure if I'd find the right pond.

https://www.bayareakiteboarding.com/for ... =23&t=9540

[yojimbo]

Ponds in the SF bay area are highly underutilized. There are so many of them and they offer butter smooth kiting. The write up on this particular one is well done. Sounds like the hang up is the 20 minute walk to launch. Too bad there isn't an organization for kiters to make these spots more accessible and legal to kite. Hope you made/make it out to that spot and report back what it was like

[The111]

Better a 20 minute walk than a 40 minute drive in traffic (I work like 2 miles from this pond and usually drive 40 minutes to 3rd ave after work). But... I still haven't tried the pond. I'm new enough at this sport that I don't want to be going out at places where I'm the only one out. Although the butter is enticing. But... the talk of questionable water quality also kind of sketches me out...

I think 3rd also blows much harder than this place on any given day, but that's just a guess..

[kenjidnb]

Someone even made a looong video description of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL7RkpwHJ6c

[kitenaked]

It is getting late....I should be heading home....i cannot confirm....one last thing....


that was a funny video.

[RPskater]

Too much info has already been freely given out and is on the web. Those who really want it, find it (location, kitability, water quality, launches, parking, pros and cons, etc).

[yojimbo]

Give the guy credit for getting out there and shooting this video-but what is up with kiters and helmets? I live in the north bay and we have like 10 of these former salt ponds. They actually harvested salt from these ponds at one time. The water in this pond looks very clean. Up here they have all been turned over to the state and Fish and Game oversees them. They have spent a boatload of money turning them into wildlife habitats. Beforehand they were either dry or if there was water in them, the water was a bizarre orange color with lots of foam on the surface. Some allow hunting and others are completely off limits to any activity except hiking. I see birds in some of the shots-just like in the ponds up here.

Interestingly, while the state grapples with budget cuts by closing parks, Fish and Game is hiring additional wardens to patrol these areas. I heard that they are receiving money from Homeland Security. There was an abandoned railway line that runs through Carneros,(South of Napa and Sonoma) ,that they just rehabed with the intent of providing a back up route for bringing supplies up through this area in case something went down-this is the story I heard.

[The111]

Give the guy credit for getting out there and shooting this video-but what is up with kiters and helmets?

I wear a helmet while kiting, to protect my head.

The long-video-guy is wearing a bike helmet... I'd infer he wears it while biking, to protect his head.

What is up?

[RPskater]

The guy who shot the video goes by the the name FredX (whom I have not met). He is a fairly recent kiter to the kiting community and shot that video last fall when I started talking about this place. He in fact was the very first person to kite that pond last fall. There was only a couple of weeks of modest wind left in the season and I didn't want to risk missing a "sure thing" (like 3rd or the coast) so close to the end. I give the guy kudos for kiting it on his own while being kind of new to the sport. He went down to so-cal for school. This pond is not a salt pond but a storm relief pond when the creeks are flowing high during the height of storms and the high tide is too high for the creeks to flow out fast enough, thus it fills the pond up as a relief until the tide lowers saving the area from flooding. So don't diss the video, it was very kind of him to do that for everyone else.

[Aloha]

Now I am speaking from a holistic perspective here when I say this--the posts, the video, the actual pond, etc. but...

Is this a joke? lol