Re: Warning! Newbie question inside...

From: Ken Poulton (poulton@zonker.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com)
Date: Mon Aug 05 2002 - 13:09:41 PDT


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Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 13:09:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ken Poulton <poulton@zonker.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>
Message-Id: <200208052009.NAA09507@zonker.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>
To: wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com
Subject: Re:  Warning! Newbie question inside...


> What makes a day a good day to go out?

Some info is in my FAQ at
http://alcatraz.labs.agilent.com/Ken_Poulton/windsurf/windspeed.info
under === Common wind patterns ===.

> I live near 3rd Avenue, and have been over flying the trainer kite about 3-4
> days a week for the last month. Some days there is a lot of wind, but the
> place is deserted.

Your trainer probably flies fine in 10 knots, but the real kite wants ~15.
Windsurfers want more like 20.

> Around noon today (Saturday) the wind was bending the
> trees, but the parking lot was empty.

Saturday was SSW. Very weird. Any wind that comes from the land is
gusty - it evens out after a few miles of water. WSW winds are gusty
(bad for kite beginners). SSW is totally offshore, which is a disaster
for a kite newbie - until you can reliably go upwind, you would have to
leave your kite and swim back upwind to shore.

> Some days I'll go over to 3rd Avenue
> and it's PACKED, and other days I'll go over and it's totally empty. What
> does everyone else know that I'm missing?

Windsurfers like the ebb tide in the channel at 3rd. Kites don't
generally even go into the channel, but want enough water inside to
make landings safe. So look for +2.5 on the tide table for 3rd.

Ken Poulton
poulton@labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com

"There is a tide in the affairs of men that has a whole bunch of water in it."
                                         -- Jon Carroll



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