BigR, I thought this was an extreme sport. :)

[QUOTE=Chad085;27391]Man, don't get me started. Progress? Ugh..... Do you remember the Aquatarium out on St. Pete Beach? I have home movies. I remember lots of stuff being different. Not so sure "progress" is good, but this is a kiting forum. :)

1)wax museum
st pete beach
2)waterslide world
ulmerton/66th
3)garden drive-inn theater
park st/tyrone
4)hot dog vendors
gandy
man...isn't anything sacred in this town?

Oh yeah. We use to have another waterslide park too, in the Pasadena area, AND a skateboard park right next to it.

Land is too valuable now to have fun on it, I guess.

She has got the twins screws onboard. I think she will make the trip. It would be nice to have another vessel.

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/e...o/DSC00841.jpg

Sweet. With two outboards, you are probably good to go, even without another boat, right? ;)

That sounds like a great adventure. If you go you might be able to use a rig we came up with to make changing from kiter to boat driver at sea much safer and easier on people and gear.

We rigged up a 50' 1/2" anchor line looped to cleat on boat at one end and a large #3 brass clip on the other, a water ski solomn boey about 2' short of the end with the clip. We kept the rig hooked to the boat at all times and coiled up at the dirvers feet. When the kiter wants to come to the boat, the boat diver swings by and throws the line, the kiter hooks the big clip to his chicken loop and lets the kite sit on the water (either on it's edge or face down) then un hook your harness from the CL roll to your belly with board on your feet and knees bent up so board is out of water and pull yourself to the boat on the line, Once to boat hand board to driver and you climb in, you pull the anchor line with kite to you. Once you have the CL flag the kite by pulling in a couple of feet of the front lines first and one guy pulls in the kite lines while the other wraps them up on the bar. When you get to the kite grab the front portion of bridle or leading edge and bring kite into boat upside down like you would carry it on the beach. We have done this dozens and dozens of times in all kinds of conditions it works really well.

Would suggest that you do a practice run of this before the trip so that everyone is up to speed as to how it works. Once they see it done everyone will be very comfortable with it.

Mistakes we have made that you don't have to:

Don't let go of the line on your way to the boat as the combination of current and wind may leave you in the water and the boat driver unable to come get you utill he has brought your kite in by himself (not fun).

Leave one motor running so if needed you can bump it into gear to off set currnet and keep tension on the kite while pulling it in.

If the current and wind are such that you can turn off the motors while bringing the kite in after shutting down the motors drop them in gear. This keeps the props from freewheeling in the current and elimitates the possibilty of them picking up a loose line and spinning it up into the prop (not fun).

If conditions allow walk the anchorline up to the bow and pull the kite up to the bow and work on the fore deck. We found really works great with one motor left in reverse just to keep tension in the rig.

Disclaimer we have only done this with bow kites that behave when being held by the chicken loop with the bar out. C kite would require pulling in a few feet of the fifth line to flag kite or hooking the clip directly to the safety leash point of the fifth line prior to going to the boat.

If you are just switching from driving the boat to kiter. Same procedure just when the first kiter gets to boat the new kiter jumps in with board (holding onto line) follows line to CL, hooks into it, unhooks clip from CL after hooking the CL to your harness, water relaunch and off you go. Kite rig was never near the boat.

Very good suggestion. I seem to remember someone posting a rig similar to the one outlined in Whitey’s post last year. I agree that rigging from a boat is tricky and feel it should be easier with bows vs C kites that fo show. I’ve launched a C with Chili last year and it was tricking. We looped the chicken loop to a cleat and simply lauched directly down wind. Launching like that was a rush that’s for sure and you can damage a kite quickly, not to mention stretching and possibly breaking a line.

The ride should be down the coast and therefore a beach launch and landing should be possible. Minimizing the need for any boat launching.

I spoke with Jason O. today and we discussed this ride. I committed to fueling the boat as I would not ask that anyone consider that. It just might melt your credit card. I’m figuring that at a rate of $3.85 /gal. and a 225 gal tank, thats $866.25 just for gas, throw in the oil, and your at roughly $1,000.00. There might be a couple of dollars left to pick up a small bottle of Belvedere and that always makes the Captain happy.

We could make this a couple day trip down the coast with the intentions of making it to the Keys. Coming up short would put us in many safe smalls towns to shack up for the night. I like to do things on a limited schedule. “ Where we end up, is where we shack up”.

After the Back to the Bay 2008 Kite Masters, we need to finalize a plan and get ready for and adventure.