windiest place in america
 

where is the best spot for wind , is there a i dont know a top 20 list and whats the lightest wind place (so i never go to these places for vacation)

This one is debatable in terms of what windiest means to you and how you want to interpret stats.
For me, a windy spot would mean a place that gets a lot of days that have 15 knots or more, for 4 hours (or more), especially if the wind was after work :), like starting at 4 and ending at 8 pm.

For some others, it might mean the place that hits 35 knots the most days.

If you accept the most days with solid 15 knots idea, I think that a few places in Texas are going to rank high, like Corpus and SPI.

(Unfortunately, I think we live in a place that is sub-average for wind... oh well). We have plenty of other stuff and if it does pick up, we got tons of riding options.
If I didn't have family and a house here, I would have been in Tx ages ago. Everyone is different, but I'd give up 25 plus knots to ride a ton of days in the 15 to 18 knot range.

KANSAS and OKLAHOMA RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/...d/avgwind.html

I think that might be true :)
I sold a kite to a kid in Ok. one time. He told me it nuked all the time there!
He said it was flat and windy, wit nuttin but corn.

as long as its some place with winds above 15 knots like a steady 18-25 all day or at least half the day could see myself in texas heard everyone kinda dick out there

Nah. Quite the opposite, imo.

I lived in San Antonio for two years and use to drive to Galveston all the time.
I travelled all over the state for racquetball tourneys and I found the people really nice throughout the state, actually.
Houston was my least favorite, Austin probably my favorite. That was literally 20 years ago though, so maybe things have changed.

i travelled to houston for work about 6 months ago. I was only there for like 2 days, and was mainly just driving through and didn't interact with much of anybody. However, the handful of places i did go into (hotels, restaraunts) i got this REALLY bad vibe like i wasn't welcome there. At first i thought it was because the semi i was driving had pennsylvania plates, so i started hiding the truck and walking everywhere......no dice. I guess they can sense an "outsider" and just don't want you there. Maybe we should start treating the snowbirds like that around here.......

That's sad Chad. I have lived here all my life and "some" give me that very same feeling. I have travelled all over the world in search of the greatest waves and only here in Florida, my home, do I ever get that feeling of teritorialism.

I think the snowbirds provide the local economy with a large proportion of our income. Probably not a good call to treat them poorly. I've never had a problem with a happy vacationer, anyway. Heck, before the undertow clamped down (I use to ride there ALL the friggin' time, prior to about 8 months ago) I was offered free drinks quite often by vacationers (and the bar). It was pretty nice.

I never could figure out people that put those "Welcome to FL, now go home" stickers on their cars. Especially since most people in FL are transplants. It seems odd. From what I understand, I think people are leaving our area.
Too expensive to live here on our wages with the housing up to where it is.
I think many are going to.... Texas. :)

I thought the windiest place in the U.S. was Mt. Washington New Hampshire with average wind speeds of 56 mph ( gusts to +100mph )

Don't think there is much to do on the mountain but freeze your butt off

If you're hardcore, you ride there with just a shortie. ;)

make plans for a trip to the Gorge in Oregon.. just outside of Portland.. during the summer months.. July / Aug..

Nice temps.. amazing..AMAZING wind.. you will be 30 minutes from Portland so there is tons of stuff to do on those days of rest (you will need them).

I did a 10 day trip there last summer and could have rode 9 of the 10 days.. typically on my 9m kite (i weigh 200 lbs).. blowing 20 to 30 each day.

Thing about going to OBX or some places in TX is that you are pretty isolated from any city life. In Hood River you can be downtown in one of the nicest cities in America in less than 1 hour from your launch spot.

If you are the camping type and dont need the nightlife.. then maybe OBX is another great vacation bet..

If you check GoogleEarth or www.maps.google.com you can see that there is an AWESOME downwind camping marathon in Texas. From Corpus Christi to South Padre there is nothing but 150 miles of east facing shoreline with nothing, i mean nothing, there. Ride 50 miles then camp out, ride 50 miles camp out, etc..

Another awesome run (and much closer) is from Naples/marco Island down to Marathon. Probably want a boat for this one. 95 miles straight south, would work on a NE, E, W or NW.

Hey Big G, feel like ridin to the keys??? Your boat would make that run yeah?

Use your kite for a tent/ sleeping bag and catch fish with your bare hands and hope it rains for water?

There's always Tuckerman's.
But I wouldn't bother bringing a kite, just skis.

[QUOTE=Skyway Scott;27333]I think the snowbirds provide the local economy with a large proportion of our income. Probably not a good call to treat them poorly.

You're right, but as a lifelong local to this area they do get on my nerves from time to time. What i don't understand is why developers are tearing down all these hotels and shoppes and building condos in their place. Take a look at clearwater beach, perfect example. As a tourist your options are now very limited as far as where to stay and where to spend your money, and guess what? Those condos aren't selling!!!! Half of the condo projects haven't even come out of the ground yet due to lack of interest. All part of some master plan, i guess. So i don't hate tourists, but i still love the saying "If its tourist season, why can't we shoot them??"

My boat is ready for a Keys trip anytime someone want to make the trip. I may even thow in a few dollars to sponsor that. There would be a couple of good stop along the way if necessary.
1. Port Charlotte
2. Boca Grande
3. Marco Is. (last stop to the Keys)
4. Key West.

I am good for that trip! Consider my boat in as the lead...

Sweet Big G ! I knew youd come thru.
To save gas I thought we could trailer to Naples then make the 95 mile run down to Marathon. We can take turns kiting and driving the boat.

Hell yeah Big G. Count us in. I will chip in gas $$.

Chris

thats 100 miles as the crow flies over completely open ocean

maybe make it in 8 hours if your course is true

I would do it with at least another boat in case one breaks down ( or at least have two engines if only on one boat )

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.