Photo Of The Day!!!

[ricki]

A little bit more about this session and snow kiting in general from kiteforum. Including:

Originally Posted by Lost

Riding in the mall is very technical. The wind is shifting a lot and is like cheese. You get 5 miles per hour, after that 10 after that plus 25. All in less than 5 min.

I give props to Duncan but at the same time he shouldnt have been there that day since gusts over 45 miles were announced. Getting dragged in that spot is not fun, plus you will close it for all of us.

Crush and burn:
Your method will work if:
- you have a lot of space downdwind of you so you can land (not the cash on the mall - each field is delimited by some poles connected with ropes)
- if your wind will be a little constant. In the case of riding in the mall, you will send your kite up and you will crash like a rock at the apex of the jump, since the gust will end.

http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.p...62847&start=10


and a more in depth post dealing with hazardous weather phenomena and snow kiting at:
http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.p...23429&start=10

[ricki]

Feel like some island time? Here you go ...



Click Image for video

[ricki]

Kent and Paula shot a video from ASM off West End, Grand Bahama. A tandem kiting run with some nice angles. Hope it shows up for non-facebook folks. Please let me know if you can't view it.




Click Photo For Video

[jaco]

Thanks for the video. It's bad up here. You don't really understand it until you've been living here through the whole winter.

Good news is, I'll be back down in Florida two weeks from today. Hopefully warm temps, good winds and waves. Can anyone hook me up with some gear demos?

View from my dorm room at Penn State University.

[ricki]

Not getting enough wave time? How about cold water? Well, got you covered on both, read on. Off to Mavericks for the big surf contest!



















Is the guy on the right holding back? If so, wonder if it worked?! Ouch!








This is the wave that smashed into the cliff injury 15 spectators.


All photos from: http://surf.transworld.net/100009636...-surf-contest/ There are many more there too from the contest.

[greg meintjes]

those are some great waves, really smooth and clean for the size, wish I could of been there to watch the contest.

Greg

[ricki]

Just a plane flight away Greg! In this case being a spectator has its risks too.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mavericks...nclick_check=1

Why monster waves at Mavricks? It seems to come down to deepwater, long period swells being refracted together by the bottom bathymetry and summing amplitudes when they converge. There seems to be a narrow strip of rubble on the bottom west the of point which helps in shoaling the waves in a narrow sector.

Here's what the USGS has to say about it:
http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/pre...607_items.html


An overlay of wave nodes and amplitude amplification points through wave convergence and summing.

There's a nice slide show of the event including some really good inwater shots of the monster waves rolling through at:
http://extras.mercurynews.com/slides...0214mavericks/



The crowd under wave attack at Mavericks. Wasn't President Bush, the dad, not junior, about swamped by a wave out of no where in Daytona years back? Recall it washed some cars around the beach and scared the hell out of some folks. The Secret Service thought the Soviets might have been tossing monster swells at him or something.

[ricki]

Will you look at this place, Witsand, SA.


From: http://i61.servimg.com/
Some of the steepest, high narrow wavelength surf I've seen. Impressive stuff. The winds look honking strong too.



From: www.yosurfer.com
Gothic waves? Interesting place.

[500EPILOT]

I watched the contest live at maverickssurf.com you might still be able to see some video clips from the event there.

JP

[ricki]

Some random shots from past Florida kiting events ...



A look at II09




Off to the course races, II09




A cool windy but memorable day off Ft. Desoto some years back during the first Masters Competition.




There off racing south to Vero in last year's Central Florida Downwinder




Another from the race to Vero. Josh "NPX Toastinator" rips along in fine time south.




Sunset on the Gulf at yet one more great event.




Come in from orbit at II09

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