Safety at 3rd Upper Launch

[baypirate]

(I hate to this, so the disclaimer first: I learned at 3rd (still learning there) and I do my best to help newbies, I think it's the greatest thing happening to our sport. I am a friend of yours, trust me, just yesterday I brought in two boards and untangled a downed kite halfway to the channel)

But PLEASE body-drag out of launch at 3rd Avenue Upper if not 100% confident of your water starts. This has been touched upon recently (http://bayareakiteboarding.com/index.ph ... f=1&t=7387), but with every day that passes this issue becomes less a matter of courtesy and more a disaster-in-waiting.

Body-dragging at least a couple of line-lengths out helps clearing the congestion through the ~50ft opening between the rocks at the launch, and also gives you more upwind real-estate, as there is no good wind to be had close to the rocks along the bike path. There are also underwater obstacles in the vicinity of rocks. Related note, if the kite goes down and you get within ~100yds of the bike path along the range fence, pull some left line to swing the kite offshore for relaunch: besides avoiding relaunching towards the rocks, you get a better chance of finding wind out of driving range's shadow.

If your water-start confidence interval includes swinging the kite to the other side of the window (the side with the rocks) when you try diving it, you should definitely body-drag out, especially when there are "targets" downwind of you (such as a poor windsurfer) which end up taken out by the lines of the kite crashing through the power zone. No names/colors named.

Conversely, the water line of the launch is a dangerous (and rude) choice to wait with your kite at 12:00, e.g. for your instructor or somebody going out to look for your lost board or fine-tuning the power strap (btw, why they teach this 12:00 = " neutral" crap to begin with is beyond me), even in the mellow wind at 3rd upper launch.

Coming in, once you touch sand and start walking, forget your board, it is not going anywhere, it takes 30 sec. to retrieve it from the water after you safely landed the kite. You will not find your release if you're flying the kite with one hand and holding the board in the other, and that time is (50% of) when you most need to be on "trigger alert" about the quick release.

Lastly, know how your power strap works, depower (at least) a little both going out and especially coming in. If wind is light, it may be counter-intuitive but depowering a notch gives you more rope to sheet out and avoid stalling the kite.

Ask for help/assistance/"watch me over" for your first (dozen?) launches/landing. People at 3rd are willing to go back out and look for your board or drag you from the channel, they will certainly help you out to the water.

Happy learning, and show us those kiteloops soon!

[goosh]

I would like to add one more things to this.

People going out have right of way to people coming in.

If you are in the water you are a lot safer than people in-land. And you don't have priority. So don't butt your way in. If there are people trying to get out. Wait your turn, go for another tack if need be and come back when there is nobody coming out. Or there is space to do so.

If possible specially if the tide is high, come back from the upper side. Leave the lower launch for people going out. There is a lot of space to come in the upper bay. Even if the tide is a little lower, there are poles that indicate where you can come in and be safe.

Good winds

[stone]

Let me add one thing: IT'S FOOKING SLIPPERY AT THE UPPER LAUNCH RIGHT NOW.

Had to punch out on my launch today because I had no traction and was getting pulled--left 40 foot drag marks (and that was after I was down on my knees). No harm done, save for one bruised ego and one startled kiter. Yes, I was complacent. Wake-up call.

Saw many folks lose their footing walking in from the water, or even just walking around.

[Z4Kiter]

Yes, the recent high tide has the upper launch full of mud. I slipped backward while going after a dragged kiter. Slammed the back of my noggin - glad I was wearing a helmet.

[kjl]

When it's this slippery, there's no shame in:

1) Scouting for a drier piece of dirt to launch from, even if it means making the guy launching your kite follow you around for a bit.
2) Getting somebody to hold you in place as you launch.

I did both those on Sunday, as it was super, super slick.

[rvv]

I would like to add one more things to this.

People going out have right of way to people coming in.

If you are in the water you are a lot safer than people in-land. And you don't have priority. So don't butt your way in. If there are people trying to get out. Wait your turn, go for another tack if need be and come back when there is nobody coming out. Or there is space to do so.

If possible specially if the tide is high, come back from the upper side. Leave the lower launch for people going out. There is a lot of space to come in the upper bay. Even if the tide is a little lower, there are poles that indicate where you can come in and be safe.

Good winds

The person landing always has priority over launching. So says 99% of the kite world.
Don't give contrary advice please.

[shmed]

I agree with rvv here about launching your kite from the ground. I can think of a few instances at 3rd on the lower launch, where the wind is fluky and dying on the inside and people are coming in and looking to land their kite before it falls-- at the same time people are preparing to launch their kite. If the kite isn't already in the sky, than certainly it's in a safe position, and I think its courteous/safer to give priority to those coming in, who could be facing unsafe or fluky conditions or problems with their equipment or who knows what.

I think though, the original poster was talking about what to do when there is a kite already in the sky walking out on upper launch, vs. someone in the water coming in, which is a little different. In that case, there's really no where for the land/kite in sky guy to do but go out that entrance. So if you have the ability to wait a bit for that person to get out, it'd be courteous/safer to do so. But clearly, if someone is coming in already (walking on/near land w/ the rocks in play) while your kite is on the ground prepping to be launched, you should wait until its clear before putting it into the sky.

If one thinks courteously and tries to yield right of way in the name of safety whenever possible, I think it'd be hard to go wrong in these situations.

[baypirate]

if you have the ability to wait a bit for that person to get out, it'd be courteous/safer to do so. But clearly, if someone is coming in already (walking on/near land w/ the rocks in play) while your kite is on the ground prepping to be launched, you should wait until its clear before putting it into the sky.

If one thinks courteously and tries to yield right of way in the name of safety whenever possible, I think it'd be hard to go wrong in these situations.

Right on. Outgoing kiter (i.e. somebody attached to a kite in the air) has right of way over incoming kiter, as the latter can indeed easily take another tack/ make a "buoy" on the water). But launching your kite when you see people walking their kites in through the rocks makes no sense, besides being dangerous: you can't go anywhere anyway until they are through.

This setup is actually less theoretical, happens every day now at 3rd. Keep in mind there are beginners coming back in (may struggle to make the beach upwind; have wrong kite size if conditions changed etc.).

(You could easily understand this rule of "kite in the air beats kite on ground" by watching a "typical" end-of-day rush-back-in at Crissy, where even if there is an open beach with no bottleneck to get to the water, you can easily be coming in either superlit or agitating the kite like a community organizer just to keep it in the air enough to touch sand. Everybody will jump to catch and secure your kite FIRST, launch theirs second).

Another thing: in my original post I forgot about the board leash. If you use one and it takes a while to attach it (e.g. reel-in), ask for help rather than fumbling around between the the back of the harness and your ankles while flying the kite at the same time.

Anyway, looks like this will be another voice in the wilderness; the same guy hanging out feet from the rocks, the day I posted this, with the kite at 12:00 for about half an hour, was doing just the same yesterday, people attached to their kites were going around him to fetch their board and go out etc.

If nothing else, just keep this is mind: once your kite is flying, you don't take just two footmarks of space, you take a hemisphere that you can barely squeeze within the width of a football field.

[kailuakiter]

rvv is right, universal kiting code is that people landing always have priority because you never know if they are having an emergency. For example, my spreader bar likes to come unhooked on one side every once in a blue moon and when it does I have to book it back to shore and land as fast as possible before my harness flips me sideways and I lose control of the kite.

But to be practical, I don't think people should claim that right unless they are having an emergency since you are right, kiters in the water are safer at the moment and can just do another tack or two. It is important for the launching kiters to realize though that in reality they do not have priority so that there aren't any launch/landing standoffs when someone is coming in because they really have to. And keep in mind you won't always be able to tell that the lander is having an emergency

[friggin old guy]

Maybe some of these guys took a trip up to Sherman this weekend.

Hmm, roll out lines........then blow up kite......then take 20 frickin' minutes to put your wetsuit on.......4 kites managed to take up the whole launch area for a ridiculously stupid length of time. Who teaches people this is ok?

Then.....even dumber.....as the wind was dying bigtime there were at least 5 people sitting in the water right in front of the launch zone, not moving.....with their kites straight up in the air. Kind of looked like those WWI scenarios with barrage balloons all over the place. Meanwhile my kite was literally hindenburging, so I wanted nothing more than to get in and put my kite down, but these bozos clogged up the zone for at least 5-10 minutes.

ALL entry/exit zones with traffic need to be cleared asap or shit happens. For the life of me I don't understand why this needs to be explained to anybody. I mean we all were beginners at one point but DUH this exceeds inexperience and is just plain stupidity.

And leashes holy shit just get rid of the stupid things.