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Pompano Kiteboarding - READ THIS if you are kiting there
Pompano Beach has had a number of issues with some heating up in the last couple of years. As of now and perhaps indefinitely, kiteboarding is allowed off the public beach at only one location, NE 16 St.
An aerial photo of the launch appears at: http://tinyurl.com/3o4peb You will see signs that spell out what the rules are at the entrance and on the beach. There are often traffic cones on the beach in the rigging and launching area and channel marker buoys showing the designated launch corridor. Go out beyond the buoys and stay out, about 100 yards until time to come in. This means coming back through the same channel buoys. This means you have to be able to stay upwind to ride here. IF there isn't enough wind or it is dead onshore to where you can't make it out beyond the buoys and stay out, don't ride here, simple. Do not ride the shore break here, if you want to do that why not find an emptier beach, perhaps north of the inlet? That is as long as it doesn't cause more complaints and problems for our sport. This beach can become crowded so look out for and protect bystanders from kite hassles. DO NOT come into shore anywhere else particularly a block or so south where we have had a ton of complaints. Those complaints are largely the reason we've lost access to most of this city. More about the problems in Pompano re: kiteboarding, there's even a podcast at: http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=5795 http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=6813 |
Rick,
If you get into trouble and cant make it back through the corridor for whatever reason....lost board, wind dies down, malfunction etc...and you have to approach the beach in some way or another outside the corridor, what is their preferred procedure. Also, at what distance to shore do you think it is shallow enough to touch ground? Trouble |
It can happen. Best advice if you can setup to self rescue and wind your lines properly to avoid relaunch and use your kite to sail in. If your kite is on the water, lines wrapped up it is a lot harder to cause problems even coming in on a guarded beach in this fashion. We need to watch the lines though particularly if the kite is still inflated and gets caught be a wave. The lines can be an issue to both the kiter and folks in the water, if any.
If you could head into the north area, I would say to try that. Going in south will likely inflame things further. In Delray, if I can't make back to the riding area south of the guarded beach, I head about a mile north and come in on unguarded beach. It is a pain, but it is that important to stay out of the out of bounds areas particularly guarded beaches. Guys walking down the guarded beach, kites in the air will only cause complaints and problems. At high tide you may not be able to touch bottom until you're almost on the beach as I recall in Pompano. At low tide perhaps 20 to 30 ft. off? Also, I don't think they get much of a nearshore sand bar there. For folks that are still working on staying up wind. You need to take drift into account. For instance if the out of bounds area is to the north and it is a NE wind, there is a good chance you won't have a lot of problems going where you shouldn't be. If you're at the same launch and it is out of the SE, then you need to walk way south (hundreds of yards, quarter mile) to allow yourself a buffer before you're into the out of bounds area. He're an important point, if it is near dead onshore, don't go out or find another launch where it isn't dead onshore. Until you can ride upwind, you likely won't be able to get a safe enough distance offshore for you or folks walking along the beach. |
I see guys here riding within 5 feet of the shoreline ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL THE TIME! They sway the kite back and fourth over the old fat people in lawn chairs. I keep thinking to myself one of these days one of those guys is gonna drop the kite on some tourist or wrap their lines around them. However there are kiters that stay away from surfing the shoreline. Those are the responsible ones.
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