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Old 02-20-2009, 09:08 AM
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Some more examples of terrain that creates dirty air along with clear zones. In some of the following cases the upwind obstructions are fairly low. As such, the normal issue with close to side shore winds flowing over these lower barriers is avoiding kites stalling, falling like rocks and risking wrapping other kites, cutting people with line. In these cases getting your kite up, over the water and getting out promptly is indicated. As a rule, going in side off winds in these areas isn't feasible. You might get offshore with some effort but the lulls nearshore (within a 1/2 mile or so) will usually see your kite on the water and you swimming your stuff back to shore.

In areas with large upwind obstructions, tall buildings, hills, mountains, etc. particularly with strong and direction shifting winds the hazards of kiting in rotor go up substantially and feasibility of kiting drops (vanishes?) dramatically. Depending on local conditions the wind shifts in the "some rotor" area may still be too excessive at times.



The larger the obstruction and the stronger the winds, the more erratic and potentially hazardous the rotor induced lulls and gusts. In this case given the size of the obstruction, it might be more fair to call "some rotor," "lots of rotor."



Here is an example of a low obstruction. It can still easily mess up prospects for staying upwind or easily returning to shore if side off. The quality of wind when it is side shore is lessened as well.



Islands often have irregular shorelines, frequent wind obstructing headlands. Changing launch locations can make a big difference in the quality of wind on islands. As compared to some parts of Florida where you might travel 50 miles with no significant change in wind direction relative to shore.



SE Florida mountains, aka condos. Where you have them there's wind shadow and eddies spinning off the sides downwind. Where there are holes, you can get stronger wind but still uneven, perhaps dramatically so. Where they are bunched together you may have no useable wind. Again, side off in this area generally doesn't work, at least not without a chase boat and a few miles from shore. When it is close to sideshore and shifting over barriers near the water, kite launch, landing and riding can be challenging and even dangerous.



The "some rotor" zone is wide in the case due to the island and notch present to windward. The wind direction can shift quite a lot due to eddy effects around these objects. With the shifting the wind can gust and lull substantially making staying upwind, launching and landing tricky and again potentially dangerous.

If you are new to kiting, to the area or are just back from being away from the sport for a while, avoiding "some rotor" and definitely "rotor" conditions makes good sense, even more so in stronger winds. There have been too many avoidable injuries related to these causes.
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