Went to explore Crystal Beach on the shores of Lake Erie. Found some great spots, wind was not the greatest but a tried some new stuff!

Saturday September 23, 2006

All week I had been watching the wind forecasts and things had looked very promising for a big wind day at my favourite place to kite Sauble Beach. However on Friday, the frontal system that was going to generate SW winds slowed down and turns out was delayed for 24 hrs. It’s very difficult for me to kite on Sundays - I’m very involved in my church.

Set the alarm for 0600 hrs and got up and checked the wind Saturday and sure enough, it wasn’t blowing at Sauble. Went back to bed and slept in until 0900 hrs. When I checked the wind forecast, it seemed have some promise for spots on eastern Lake Erie around Crystal beach. I decided to go on an exploratory journey down there and see the spots and hopefully kite.

Crystal Beach is about a 1.5 hr drive from Pickering where I live so I got down there about 1200 hrs. Using some info from a site I managed to find 3 beaches down there. Two were sandy beaches with fairly wide launch areas and one was quite rocky with limestone shale and bigger rocks in the water. After cruising around for an hour, I decided to go back to the one called Thunder Bay.

Conditions were quite gusty and the wind was from the west and forecasts indicated that the wind would swing to the SW and increase. Because I was only one on the beach, I decided to rig my 12m kite. I knew I might be a bit underpowered in the lulls but was more concerned about the gusts.

Turns out that the wind did not increase and the 12m was not enough to stay upwind. I had some fun though doing some downwind work and playing in the small waves. It was good practice trying to get my 139 cm board planing in low wind conditions. In the lulls I worked on keeping the kite in the air and walking back up the beach.

On one of the walks up the beach I thought hey it would be cool to try flying my kite unhooked to see what the feel of it was and to try a kiteloop! I did both - yahoo!

It was interesting to feel the full pull of the kite when I was unhooked. The kiteloop generated a lot of power and dragged me a bit. I did this without the board well out from the shore.

It made me realize though that I had started unconsciously “steering” the bar when I turned the kite. This is not a good idea if you are going to do a kiteloop as I was tempted to followed the bar around with my steering.

So what did I learn from this less than epic session? Plenty. I found some new places to ride. Also I got to work on flying my kite in low wind, flying the kite unhooked and tried my first kiteloop.

This is mission control. We have lift off of the kiteboarder known as Mobettah last seen at Sauble beach doing jumps for the first time

Friday September 8th - We have lift off!

What better way to spend a Friday than to take a day off work and get 7 hours of kiteboarding in!

Last Friday looked like it was going to be a great day at Sauble beach with a SW wind blowing up to 20 mph. I decided to take the day off work if the forecast was accurate. Woke up at 0500 hrs and looked at the current wind speed. Bingo! It was already blowing 13-17 mph. Decided to get going so I could get there earlier in the morning. A cold front was coming and in Ontario that means thunderstorms and squalls. It was forecasted to be okay until mid afternoon.

Sauble beach is 2 hrs 45 minutes from my house. When I got to the location (Flags for you in the know), at about 0900 hrs, there was no one else there! Wind was blowing a consistant 14 mph so I rigged my 12m kite as the wind was going to pick up later in the day. I self launched and had my first session. For the first hour and bit I was the only one on the water! The beach at this location is very sandy and shallow. During the first session, I worked on transitions and rode for the first time toeside. It was weird feeling going toeside. I was surprised because I’ve waterskied a lot and thought I would be used to the feeling. It was great session and I built up my confidence doing slide and carving transitions. For most of the remainder of the session, I tried edging really hard and hopping off of the small waves there were. It was really the first time the board had left the water intentionally! It ended up that later in the session there were only 2 other kiters out on the water.

I came in after 2.5 hours on the water and had some lunch and then headed back out. Initially there were about 6 kiters on the water but then most folks headed in except for another guy and me. I thought this is it. I’m going to try a jump! Everything was just right. I was on my favourite size kite, I wasn’t overpowered, waves weren’t too big and there was lots of room to try a jump. I was suprised that I was just a little hesitant to try it. It was a bit of the fear of the unknown. I went over in my mind what to do. Edge hard, send the kite from 10 to 1 until lift off, then kite back to 12, and as you come down, pull on the front hand. The night before I had watched an instructional video over and over on jumping to get ready. So right in the middle of the run across the bay, I sent the kite as I was edging as hard as I could and it happened! Big air! I went up, up and up! It felt like 50 ft! I forgot to steer the kite forward as I was coming down so I splashed down stopped. The kite almost crashed but I had done it! My first jump! Fifty feet you say? Well it felt like 50 ft. In reality it was maybe 7-8 feet max. It seemed like forever I was up there! Well now that I tried one, I then next spent the next hour and half trying jumps both ways. No fear now! I managed to land 3-4 of about 20 jumps. It was really special when I went up and then came down and landed on the board and kept going the same way.

The whole day was a stupendous day. Sunny not too cold, I got to wear my shorty wetsuit. The showers and thunderstorms held off till 1830 hrs. By that time I was on my way home. Boy was I tired! But very happy. Robby, Aaron and Toby shouldn’t start worrying yet, but Mobettah has entered the airforce today!

Here are the things that I have learned as I’ve started kiteboarding. I’ve found that at several instances where something has gone click! and I’ve made a progression kiteboarding.

Early on

1. Taking a lesson is great! You learn alot about all the different stuff in kiteboarding including safety, how to set up and down, and flying hooked in and unhooked. That is just a starting point. What is even better is practising the things you learned in your lesson.

2. Sand is much harder than water! I found this out the hard way when I flew my 9m kite for the first and last time on a big sandy beach in gusty conditions. The kite hindenburged on me (lines went slack) and fell forward across the power zone and powered up and yanked me right off my feet. I did a face plant in the sand. Ouch! Fortunately, only my pride was hurt.

3. Do not fly your kite on the beach! Launch with your kite out towards the water and get it out over the water ASAP. This is not just a safety thing for you. It also protection for any beach goers nearby.

4. Pilots develop a checklist to go through before they take an airplane up. I know this because I am a private pilot. I found that I have developed something similar for kiteboarding. I have a sequence that I go through during setup, preparing to launch and just after launch.

5. If you want the kite to stay in a particular position when you are not riding, ensure that your back steering lines are tensioned. If you depower the kite too much, the kite will fly more to the edge of the wind window. What you are trying to do is balance depowering the kite, not getting dragged and absorbing gusts.

6. Absorb gusts or lulls by sheeting out or in. Sheeting out or in is moving the control bar away from your body or closer to your body. What it is doing is changing the angle the wind hits the kite.

Getting Up in the board

7. Relax your grip on the bar! It is not about brute strength flying a kite but a nice light touch. If you golf think of the same grip for a golf club - firm enough that your hands don’t slide around.

8. When you sine the kite for the initial power stroke, keep your arms at the same place. I found this to be one of the problems that prevented me from getting up on the board. I would sine the kite and reef in on the bar, get unhooked and crash the kite. It is easier to control the kite with your arms at the same place initially.

9. Keep your hands in the centre of the bar close to the chicken loop line not out on the ends. This gives you smoother control inputs. it also aids in hooking in quickly if necessary.

10. Anticipate the need to bring the kite back up after the first initial power stroke. What I mean is think of a letter S on its side and send the kite back up right away. The benefit of this is if your initial power stroke was not strong enough, the upward movement of the kite keeps you out of the water!

11. Head downwind at the beginning! Then as you start to go faster ie the board starts planing, you can turn upwind.

12. Be persistant. you will get it!

Flying the Kite

What can I say. This is so important. I think that 80% of kiteboarding is about how well you fly the kite. I noticed that when I went on the beach that I saw people that it seemed like the kite was at their spoken command. Rock solid where ever they parked it, almost no movement in gusts and no crashes. I remember one day there was a guy at our local spot and the wind was just not quite enough to go out on a 16m even on a surfboard. The guy was flying his kite close to the beach and he was totally in control of that kite. He kept in moving in the wind window and was doing some kite loops.

So what did I do? If I was taking a break between sessions, I would watch what people that were riding did with the bar and depower and at the same time see what the effect on the kite was. You can also ask people questions. Many kiters are more than happy to help.

That’s it for now. I will also do a part 2 on some other stuff.

Kiting the remnants of Ernesto at two locations in Toronto Canada - Ahsbridge’s Bay and Cherry beach.

Saturday September 2, 2006 - Kiting the Remnants of Ernesto!

Set the alarm for 0600 hrs on Saturday since the forecast was for the wind to get stronger and stronger during the day as the remnants of Ernesto came to Toronto Canada. Got up and had a look outside - no wind apparently blowing so I went back to bed for an hour. I should have checked the weather site I use. Turns out the winds had already picked up.

Asbridge’s Bay

Headed out about 0730 hrs and decided to go to Ahsbridge’s Bay. This is a large sand beach right in the middle of Toronto. Good in a NE wind although the waves can be big for Lake Ontario. When I got there, there was one guy on the water in 1.0 - 1.5m waves and another setting up. Took some video of the conditions. You can see it on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZN4FPp4K7o

Sept 19th - Here’s the full video… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuKbOIFy7eY

Folks were riding 9m kites and the wind meter indicated that the winds were 18 - 23 mph. I’m a beginner - started kiting in May 2006 so I pumped up my 9m. Got a launch from another person and started having fun! It was a challenge for me to get going upwind, which was required to get out past the shore break. I tried 4-5 times and was marginally successful but ended up walking back up the beach. Wiped out a couple of times and had to relaunch the kite a couple of times. Great thing was there were only 3 of us there at this time.

I walked up the beach the last time with the kite over the water and noticed that the flag near the beach was blowing about a 10 degrees different direction than before. Gusts were more frequent and stronger so I decided to land the kite and check out Cherry Beach. Cherry beach does not have as big of waves as Ashbridges. Good thing I came in because more guys were showing up and I would have just got in the way. This was excellent experience though and I’m looking forward to the next time I can ride in waves!

Cherry Beach

Drove over to Cherry beach (10 Mins) and there were 3 folks kiting there. Waves were small - less than 0.5m with the wind about the same as before 18-22 mph. This was the first time I had ridden at Cherry and one the experienced guys helped with the launch and explained what to look out for. Had lots of fun on my 9m C kite. Was able to stay upwind, avoid the windsurfers , and not get stuck in a lull that was hanging around out in the middle of the bay. This lull was really weird. All around it the wind was blowing very strong. Yet one guy got into the lull and couldn’t get out and had to self rescue. Came in after about 2 hours for a break and some lunch.

What happened for the rest of the day was quite interesting and as I always find when I kiteboard, I learned some things. The wind did some very wild things

- several times it increased with gusts well over 30 mph (not too suprising). I learned to watch the clouds - they can sometimes give an indication what will happen with the wind.

- Wind switched from the NE to almost due north which created a wind shadow on the beach that made it difficult to launch. I learned stay on the beach!

- the wind died out where one might think you could increase the size of your kite. None of us did that.

The net result of all this was that for me, I didn’t get out for another session. I wanted to be safe and kite another day. It ended up 4 others tried to kite the conditions. Two people on C kites (10.5m and 7m) and two on SLE kites (12 and 9m). Both the people on C kites had to come in - one didn’t make it out because he was getting dragged. He hit his safety. The two SLE kiters had trouble launching but once they got their kites in the air they were ripping on the far side of the bay. Note that this is not a plug for bows but merely an observation that they can handle gusts well. I ride C kites by choice for my own reasons.

Well that was my last session that I’ve had. A good one overall. Got to try bigger waves for Ontario at least, and had a good session on my 9m, and rode at two new spots. And thanks to the guys both at Cherry and Ashbridge’s that provided advice and helped out!

Mobettah

Just started kiteboarding in May 06. I will try to capture my progression!

Hi there. I started kiteboarding in May 06. What I will do it is share my experience in getting into this totally awesome, mind blowing sport!