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Old 08-16-2006, 03:59 PM
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ricki ricki is offline
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Default Kiting Into Squalls


COWABUNGA, looks good, let's rig up the kites and hit it! A supercell storm inbound to Ft. Lauderdale earlier in the year.

Short version:
- A very nasty series of squalls were obviously inbound to SE Florida to the naked eye and hours ahead on radar and satellite imagery.
- Two guys rigged up to ride out into it just before it arrived, ten miles apart. One guy ended up with a serious neck fracture (C2, Hangman's fracture frequently fatal) and the other guy escaped without injury but trashed a $1500. kite.
- Many kiters booked into shore, landed and secured well in advance of the squall winds but obviously not all.
- Some are still indifferent to the hassles, maiming and death, squalls can very easily dish out.
- AVOIDING VIOLENT WEATHER IS USUALLY EASY IN FLORIDA, if you try.



This is a tale of Squalls at three launches, perhaps soon to be four along the southeast coast of Florida in the USA. That is including Delray, Pompano, Ft. Lauderdale and perhaps Miami if more info comes in. Unconfirmed reported accidents and experiences that may have happened to kiters at perhaps four launches within a narrow range of time along a 65 mile section of coast follow.


A large disorganized tropical system was moving over the SE coast of Florida (highlighted in red, not TD Chris). The powerful cells and potential squall areas were obvious in brightly colored areas in both radar and satellite images, hours before landfall in the area from Ft. Lauderdale to Delray. Also, there were hazardous weather notices up online warning of powerful wind gusts as is so very common here in the summer.


This is an actual archived satellite image of the system appears above, shortly before things took off from Ft. Lauderdale to Delray. Miami had been lathered much of the day already by squalls from the tropical system. The northern lob was rotating towards the shore.

NOTE: Not all dangerous squalls are as obvious and dramatic as those shown in photos in this account. Still, when realtime radar, satellite and wind data are combined with launch observations and common sense, they often aren't all that difficult to detect or avoid. When in doubt, sit it out and live to kite another day. There was a case of an extremely experienced and well known Pro kiteboarder who was seriously lofted into a life threatening situation in a 25 kt. gust generated by a far less threatening looking cloud. More about this incident HERE .
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