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Old 08-27-2012, 12:24 PM
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ricki ricki is offline
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Tropical Storm Isaac is moving northwestward towards Louisiana. I wish those folks and everyone else impacted by this system the best. Yesterday a few of us got out in some holes between feeder bands embedded with violent squalls. Some shots follow.



Bret rides by against a ragged sky. A new feeder band is inbound delaying my going out for almost an hour. Choose your weather, particularly in these sort of conditions.



It is best to have a large, clear hole between feeder bands as shown above to the east of "95.". You don't want to be too late getting off the water with an inbound squall. Too many kiters have been late coming in and have been badly lofted or dragged as a result.




I was able to get out between about 5 and 6:30 pm, missing some of the large clear holes unfortunately. Winds were about 25 to 38 kts., no shortage of wind as was the case at times the day before.




We went into weather waiting mode shortly after I arrived.




Sean and Bret had been riding exchanging an 8 m kite for a while before I arrived. This was shortly after I hit the beach and rigged up. A heavy squall blew through boosting wind, dumping tons of rain and dropping visibility. Sean, Roy and Bret hang out from left to right. Roy is a local kiter and Ocean Engineering student at FAU.





I didn't realize it but Bret with Adventure Sports Ft. Lauderdale is a gymnast. He can throw these backflips all day long from the look of it.





Surfs up, or more accurately near closed out conditions. Checkout the reduced visibility in the driving rain and wind.




That is my 9 m Vector, pretty wet with the driving rain.




Fortunately, that squall line passed over and we were able to launch and get out.




There is Sean a team rider with Best tearing it up with a strapless surfboard.

Sorry about the blurry images in this post. The wind blown salt cake was out of control. Rain-X usually covers things well for me. Next time I will just dunk the camera frequently. It would blur up in a minute or so after going into the water.





A fine thing about stronger wind is you can boost some nice jumps. I worked out past the first breaker line for the higher jumps to have some room to drift through if needed.





The good and the bad thing about going strapless is that you're strapless. I think Sean landed this one too!









Passing Bret while trying to work back offshore. The winds would shift from onshore to side on which along with the waves slowed working out past the first breaker line at times.




Making north to head out again.









Time to land and secure for the day before the next feeder band boosts the wind or changes the direction. We've had some hazardous squall spikes from squalls associated with this tropical system as is often the case.


I have some interesting vide footage that I will put into a clip and may process some more stills.




Good luck to all the folks down weather who have yet to deal with Isaac, particularly if it becomes a hurricane as currently predicted.
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Last edited by ricki; 08-28-2012 at 04:28 PM.
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