Kiteboarding from a boat in the Keys

[ricki]

Originally Posted by Anonymous

Hi I have a weekend house in keylargo mm105. I am looking for a spot close to me. I go to the tiki bar but that is about 45 min by boat. I could go by boat or car. I have used rodrugez key but it was ok. Any ideas for new spots

With a boat your options are greatly expanded (hundreds, thousands of spots?). Go out most any inlet, find a sand bar well away from land, bridge/cut tidal currents and boat traffic, launch your kite from the boat and walk off along the bar and have at it. Boat launching is fairly easy but you do need to prepare with all your transverse bladders inflated, lines attached and kite rolled lengthwise and tied off for transport. You blow up the leading edge downwind of the rest of your boat or even in the shallows. I would be careful to ride away from the cuts and boat traffic. As you know the tidal currents can be intense down that way and you don't want to go through a bridge with a kite in the water (or air). A local was almost drown when his line caught on the bottom and he was pulled under by strong tidal currents down around Islamorada years ago.

You could go north to Card Sound by boat and go nuts when the frontal winds are kicking through:

http://www.skypic.com/flkeys/7-9077.jpg

Still north, there is also Jewfish Creek:

http://www.skypic.com/flkeys/8-9077.jpg

South Sound Creek:

http://www.skypic.com/flkeys/5-9072.jpg

and on and on down through the Keys and out to the Tortugas!


From: http://www.usimaging.com

You could always motor down to the Sand Bar off of the Tiki Hut in Islamorada off Holiday Isle shown above but you already know about that spot. Why not ask Brad at http://sevensports.com/ located at the Tiki Hut for ideas on boat launch areas both on the Florida Straits and Bay side?

There are also a LOT of shoal/bar areas on the Florida Bay side. I understand that some even kick off a bit of thermal wind activity in the warmer months.

I would study Sat. images** and NOAA charts and do a bit of exploring. You are in a massive potential launch area with calm waters throughout most of the Keys. Although if you feel like some wave sailing you could always tool out to the Dry Rocks, find a mooring ball in the lee of the shallows and kite outside to tear it up in the waves before they go over the reef tract.

** http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/place.aspx

Look at all those shallows. The west coast has tons too by the way. If you have a boat a lot of riding spots open up to you.


From: http://fksa.org/