Rigging and Control 4line LEI

[Purple Hayes]

That's good news!

Thanks Ron.

That's funny that you mention the visibility, I thought (before listening to Rick's points) that would be my only reservation. I had this image of launching off of Salmiya losing sight of land pretty quickly, tacking back after a little while (but a few degrees off of my original line) and landing miles from where I started.

I think you really have to experience the dust, first hand, to appreciate it. One of my strongest memories of it was when I first got here; it was 3am and I looked out my window and saw what I thought was FOG (I didn't think sand storms occured at night and there wasn't much wind blowing). I could see halos around the street lights and the visibility was down to around 50m. That's the funny thing about the dust, it doesn't always require a strong wind to bring the visibility down. (there are a lot of factors such as convective lifting that stir the stuff up) When I stepped outside though, I could literally taste it!

Originally Posted by Ron

Hi Patrick,

There are others in Kuwait that Kitesurf and/or Groundboard/Buggy. We have an informal group that mostly communicates via SMS messages or just turns up when the wind blows. Your certainly welcome.

Some folks here taught themsleves to kite, others have gone off to Egypt or Europe to learn. I'd be glad to assist you with the basics if your serious about learning.

Here is a link to a forum that will give you a lot of the information you'll need to know about kiting in Kuwait such as safety, riding spots, where to get gear, etc...

http://kuwaitkite.10.forumer.com/index.php

I'm in Salmiya. Mobile 788.4934

I want to see pics of you riding in this stuff. I guess the photographer will have to be close to see anything at all?

[Purple Hayes]

Originally Posted by Skyway Scott

I want to see pics of you riding in this stuff. I guess the photographer will have to be close to see anything at all?

Welp.... the hot season is rapidly approaching.
Learning to kitesurf might take a little while but going down to the beach and taking some pictures shouldn't take much effort.
I'll see if I can deliver on that request.

[Ron]

Rick,

The info on the lightning is very informative. I learned to ride in Kuwait and have never ridden when the potential for lightning is present. The rainy season here is quite cold and damp and mostly puts one off from kiting in the rain and cold that are present when there is lightning in Kuwait.

The Al-Baraweh winds that bring the duststorms will start around June and can continue thru August-September. During this time, Kuwait City receives very fierce NW winds that blow down from the desert interiors of Iraq and northern Kuwait. The average wind speed during these storms is 20-28mph with frequent gusts into the 30ish mph range, The highest gust that I've personally measured was 42mph but are reportedly much higher in the interior. These northerly winds are most often accompanied by wicked dust storms that can reduce visibility to a few meters.

As Patrick said, one really has to see them to experience the full sensation. At night, these duststorms are just plain eeire and they can literally turn day into night. The worst duststorms I personally experienced in Kuwait were touched off my movement of forces into Iraq in 2003. I was working as a US contractor at the time and the duststorms were so severe that they set of the US troops chemical alarms.The dust is so fine that it blows thru window sills and doorframes and leaves everything with a fine coating.

Patrick, I wouldn't recomend going out in these winds until you've mastered riding upwind and are familiar with Kuwaits waters and riding out a gust. It's a bit disconcerting at first, not being able to see the shoreline because of reduced visibility. I remember my first session in a duststorm, my buddy just disapeared into the dust about 50 meters from shore and it took a couple tacks for me to get used to riding in the reduced visibility It's often very gusty during these winds so a helmet and impact vest is also highly recomended.

Scott, I don't have any pics of riders in the sandstorms but I hope to take some when the sandstorms come this summer. Until then, I'll post a pic of a sandstorm and a pic of one of the local kite spots, just for visual reference.



Sandstorm at a military base in Kuwait


Some locals kiters on a clear day

Cool pics. What is the average wind speed you ride in if you are not riding in the storms?

[Ron]

The average wind speed in Kuwait is about 14mph from the Northwest. However, Kuwait rarely gets clean consisent winds. 90% of windy days are gusty days. One learns how to spot and ride out gusts really quickly here.

About 60% of sessions are light to medium wind (10-20 mph) sessions.

So, what is your guy's approach to making the gusts manageable?
I would probably be on a 13m kite with a slightly larger board to ride out those lulls.

Have you found a "magic gust muncher" kite yet?

St. Pete isn't so gusty per se (moment to moment), but we encounter changing wind speeds (over time) throughout the day a lot. Having the wind jump from about 13 to 20 and then back down and then back up (in waves of 25 minutes) is moderately common.

You guys must be thankful that alternatives to C kites exist.

So, what is your guy's approach to making the lulls manageable?
I would probably be on a 13m kite with a medium sized board (43 wide) to ride out those lulls. That has to be a topic of your guy's conversations there, the best approach to gusty winds.

St. Pete isn't so gusty per se (moment to moment), but we encounter changing wind speeds (over time) throughout the day a lot. Having the wind jump from about 13 to 20 and then back down and then back up (in waves of 25 minutes) is moderately common. So, we deal with that here too, just on different time frames.

You guys must be thankful that alternatives to C kites exist.
I know kiting for me is much more pleasurable now than a few years ago.