Hillsboro Kite Session In Photos

[ricki]

Had a gift of wind on Sunday. It was sideshore and close to 20 mph for several hours. I had been forecast to be closer to 10 mph. I took along a GoPro mounted on my helmet thinking I might catch some interesting images. Here is some of what showed up:


Just got a launch from Mike.



Mike is a long timer kiter at Pompano. He also was a witness to one of my early kiting incidents. I was on a two line 5 m Wipika (classic, like there was any other kind in 2000). Mike was a core windsurfer at the time. Anyway, I was out when a nasty squall blew in and I ended up being dragged about 150 ft. across the beach. This was before QR and so I couldn't unhook. I steered it towards the water and managed to eventually unhook while getting half drowned. Then a short sprint a 1/4 mile out of breath to catch the kite down the coast. The old days.



I like to take the helmet off to make sure the GoPro is in the correct mode and running before heading out. End of with a lot of bizarre self-images, here's one more.






Time to go



The waves were pretty small still shooting every second, the GoPro can capture some interesting images.






Fun riding conditions






Foam-o-rama!



Passing by the outermost channel marker, the whistle buoy. I once brilliantly chose to head out with a 3.6 m windsurfing sail with dead offshore winds gusting to 40 mph. This was several months after I started windsurfing. The wind shifted across a 45 degree cone backwinding the sail every few minutes. After water starting a gazillion times and being blown off the board by sail reversals, I decided to swim the rig in. Despite going at it for 45 minutes I barely advanced. I think I was caught in the tidal outflow from the inlet in addition to heavy offshore gusts. I decided to drift out of the whistle buoy, grab a line and wait for a boat to showup to give me a tow. There was very little (no) traffic out in these poor boating conditions however. Fortunately, a guy on a waverunning came out and offered me a tow in. Lots of dumb choices with a good outcome anyway.









The lighthouse has been here since 1907. More at: http://www.hillsborolighthouse.org/history.html




I shot a video of this area with a GoPro mounted on the kite a while back. It was during sunset providing some interesting colors.



Even wipeouts look good.



Inside the break for a look.






Time to tack back into the south wind before squalls arrive or it clocks inland.



Back to the start.


.