a very under pumped 6m rebel 2012 he was doing well but the white outs were killing him . i went to rosebud early 9 am but it was out of control so i i went to franger and
caught this guy who been out on a 9 and got flogged. he did well on the six. then i headed off to green point and photoed the wind surfers. awsome . what a year of wind. tomorrow rosey and middleb late
Frankston is the best place in high winds. I get's awesome. Sounds like fun. I hope you had someone to put your kite down. Im guessing crowds were not a problem.
it looks like a gnarly day and full respect to the bloke kiting- but i reckon that's 30-35 knots judging from the photos. it's a fair way off 50.
sorry to spoil your post but that ain't 50 knots. Not even close.
Solid 30 possibly.
Kiting in 50 would require a 5 or 6 metre, if you were silly enough that is.
This is 51 knots.
I'm the one with the orange Cabribha kite 6m. I only managed 2 runs. I couldn't stay on the water.
50 knots ??? i was down yesterday and today and its been no where near 50 knots . 35 ish tops .
sorry i was only going off bureau of meteorology fawkner beacon 11.30 i figured they are the experts. maybe i was wrong??? and every one else knows better!!! i was at rosebud before that and my car got sand blasted.later i went to green point and when it is
a sheet of white u know its honking.Check out the dude going for a paddle he was flying down wind
thats surely does look windy. Its pretty hard to call a wind speed from a photo. But i would call that mid 30's maybe 40. whose to say they didn't have localized gusts to 50?.... if so thats balls to the wall.
I enjoy a good storm kite session. you certainly know your alive.
I was at Pt Henry yesterday at 11.30 on a 7m. When that front came through it peaked at 40kts.
I was also out a couple of weeks back when the 50kts front came through, my kite did not have enough inflation and when the 50 hit, it purged forward and folded !!!
IMO Its no fun in anything over 40, strange I was still out both days though!
pgc - who cares how windy it was. It looked awesome.
You were firing out there - we were not.
Wow .. windy .. solid storm we had a few days ago.
FYI, there's a "Yesterday" link, and yesterdays data is always plotted up.
Check this link on the graphs/maps pages sidebar:
Here's the data from Yesterday:
Hey Laurie!
Any chance you can post the Sunday the 10th of June? - show them what a real storm looks like.
Ocean Reef.
So much claiming in this thread... None of you were out in 50knots and especially not on 6's and bigger.
We've had a few days on PKRA where we have to call the comp off because it's gusting to 40 or just over and professionals can't even ride on 5's...
I have experienced true 50 knots once in my life. I tried to windsurf on a 3m sail and got destroyed...
To be honest I'm sure I probably couldn't have even been holding my kite on the beach (in a U shape) let alone kiting with it.
I'd take a stab in the dark and say 70% to 80% of kiters who have kited for 2 seasons could handle 50knots with a small kite.
To say that no one has makes you look like a scared pussy cat.
50 kiteboarder knots- what a bunch of claimers hahaha.
Your probably the same tossers claiming the surf is about 2-3x bigger than it actually was.
And when you say "50 knots" or any wind strength you are talking about an average wind strength... not some gust that came in once at some obscure wind observation centre on top of a hill somewhere near by... It has to be on the beach at the water level.
indeed some wild claims. 8m kites in 50 knots? .... not unless your very very heavy.
I have kited once in a wind meter checked and verified against the local weather station 35-50 knots. it wasn't an average 50 knots it was peaking at 50 knots. I can tell you it is very very very very very very windy.
I had another day that i estimated at gusting to 50 but didn't have a wind meter with me. So i can't prove it. But i was well trimmed on the 6m reo. I don't even look to trim that little kite until it nudges 40 knots. on the way home the clouds were doing 100kph!
Most 1-2 season experienced people cannot fly in 40+ knots. infact they are just starting to venture into 30+ knots and that scares them ****less. I'd also state further that most kiters regardless of experience will not handle 40+ knots. its just too insane.
But for some the challenge of riding in those manic conditions is a thrill. Risk factor is huge though.
50 knots = 58 mph
Force 10 on the Beaufort
Trees snappped and uprooted and structural damage to houses and buildings
So, if it is 50 knots on a beach on the coast, on the drive home you will see some structural damage to someone's roof and at least one tree down.
If you drive home over the hill then the road will be closed to high sided vehicles.
To experience it drive down the road at 95 kmph and put you head out of the window. Now look forward and try to take a breadth and open your eyes. That is 50 knots of wind. You have to turn you head from the wind just to breathe in and your eyes water as you try to see where you are going.
I've seen a 110kg experienced rider on a 7m bow kite in 40 gusting to 50 and he was having problems on his gybes because he kept getting lofted in the air. He stayed out for less than 5 minutes before he called it a day because it was too hectic.
The only thing that concerns me about people constantly quoting gusts as the wind speed they were out in is that beginners seeing the information don't understand this. They see a guy talking about riding his 12m in 30 knots and think they can launch their 12m in 25 knots gusting to 30 because its under what they think the kite is capable of.
The second thing we need to be aware of is the difference between beacons and wind speed on the beach. Some beacons are based further out in the bay and read higher wind speeds than that experienced on land. Quoting a beacon 1km out in the bay doesn't mean the wind speed on the beach is the same.
