2011 - 40 kt SQUALL vs. 11 m Crossbow

[ricki]

A powerful cold front was just moving off the coast east of the USA. This front had stranded passengers all over the northlands and boosted winds to hurricane force at times in the midwest. The southern tail of the system was substantially weaker but it was still pushing some squalls eastward in front of it. On Thursday morning, November 3, 2010 during the Pryde Group Dealer Conference on South Bimini in the Bahamas, some of those squalls came along.






Around 10:45 am looking westward towards an incoming squall across the Florida Straits. Guys are out while some others are already wisely landing. You never know what these things might throw down, taking out the wind entirely, spinning the direction all over the place sometimes violently so, boosting the wind speed to 40, 50 or even well in excess of 70 kts. in bare seconds. It happens throughout the area in squalls best to take it seriously.
CLICK image for full sized photo




The squall line about an hour after its passage over Bimini. That red stuff and kiting typically don't mix well.
Big thanks to Tim with South Florida Kiteboarding for providing this weather image to me!



Aaron Sales walks out for a better look at the dark stuff moving in fast.



I put together a video of the squall bringing winds estimated to gust to around 40 to 45 kts. (about 46 to 52 mph!). There was a well experienced kiter, Devin Caroll in from the Gorge out on an 11 m 2011 Crossbow who was caught by the video camera. The remarkable thing was how stationary his kite remained during this onslaught. An 11 m kite subjected to intense winds that high particularly when parked at the zenith could still convey some power to the kite perhaps a lot. A traditional C kite would have him flying to Chub Cay well to the east. Even some flat kites could convey excess power or might spin or otherwise put the kiter in jeopardy. That didn't happen in this case. I was standing by Pete Cabrinha who offered a few comments on what we were seeing.

Many kiters, several dozen have been lost in squalls over the last ten years. Perhaps hundreds worldwide have been badly injured in squalls in that time as well worldwide. The power delivered by squall gusts can come very fast, defying proper reaction. That is why it is so important to react well in advance of squall winds through careful weather monitoring and planning for each session. We're in this sport for fun, severe injury can derail the fun for a long time or simply take you out. Recently kiters have been lofted over a seven story hotel, hundreds of meters into seawalls, 1200 ft. over land and back to water and historically over 1700 ft. downwind and 300 ft. off the water impacting into a mountain at high speed. We need to work to stay out of squalls and excessively windy conditions.

This case might have worked out that way with a bad ending but did not this time thankfully.




2011 Cabrinha control bars are equiped with the "Recoil" spring feature. I understand it is intended to allow incremental depowering of the kite and recovery without stalling it outright. In discussing things with Cabrinha staff it may actually compress the spring under kite and rear line loading "automatically" depowering the kite as long as the bar is allowed to travel upward in wind extremes. The two above photos are screen captures of a GoPro helmet cam I had running. It captured a small "lofting" no more than a couple of feet shortly after launch. The wind was side offshore with land effects contributing to additional gusts in already gusty conditions. I was on a 9 m 2011 Crossbow and at around 190 lbs. was underpowered at times and boosted off the water (and beach once) at others.

The bar is below the Recoil spring in the left photo. In the right, the back lines of the kite are pulling the bar into the bring while I am pushing it there to remove the kites power during a gust. I have included this sequence in the video clip below. Once the bar goes up, the spring is compressed and the Angle of Attack of the kite is reduced, the kite stalls and power falls off dramatically. The wind was less than 20 kts. gusting in excess of 25 kts. I would guess. I was still popped twice. If a squall happened along and boosted winds to 45 kts., IF I held the bar down I would likely be badly lofted. You can see in the video that this didn't happen to Kevin because he forced the bar up. In fact the kite pretty much stayed in place, didn't bounce or cycle threatening looping or even drift downwind much. All this in 40 to 45 kts. with an 11 m kite, real impressive.


Anyway, here's the video. We really need to work to avoid squalls as the outcome is always uncertain. Wind shifts blowing you offshore, lightning strike, get brained by a large hail chunk, used gear failure, whatever. You never know. Also, not all kites will react as well as this one did, not even close. Or, if you fail to do the right thing at the right time you could well be toast.

We need to avoid squalls, if you screw up, it is good to have good safe gear and sound procedures to fall back upon. that said, check this out ...



Larger image at: http://vimeo.com/17144602


More about avoiding squalls at:
http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=9528



An isolated shelf cloud squall heading west the day before. Keep a weather eye out for the heavy stuff.


NOTE: Just so folks that pick and choose what they recall from accounts like this, for the record ...

A main message for about the last ten years is to STAY OUT OF SQUALLS, regardless of what kite you're flying. That hasn't changed. If folks conclude this is an endorsement for riding in them, look at the video and read over this account again. There is so much that can and has gone wrong. If you really screw up and end up in one, hope things work out as well for you as they did for Devin. There is no guarantee in any event, there is a wide variety of things that can go wrong, lethally so.


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