where to go, what to see?
will it be windy, will we freeze?
decided to go to the US last night on a bit of a kite trip over chrissy/new year period.
flying into LA and hire a car and head to the west coast, that is pretty much the only plan so far???
anyone been, any spots to check etc.
cheers lads.
Highly recommend hood river in Oregon to kite mate. Awesome experience.
My girlfriend and I had 4 weeks holiday all over the states and that was one of the highlights.
Hood River will be beyond the normal kite season and will be into winter with a chance of snow on the ground. Still well worth going as the Columbia River gorge and surrounding mountains and volcanoes are spectacular. For kiting get some advice on further south like Florida, Texas, Mexico etc
Does it have to be a kite trip? If not could alter your plans slightly and do a snowboarding trip.. Great mountains, cool vibe and a great time of year for snow. Maybe even give snow kiting a bash?.. Just a thought..
Cancel your trip, come to Midwest wa get some proper wind then go to mcdonald's for that USA experience, cheap as
The water will be seriously freezing. You can ski big bear and surf tressles all in the one day. Skiing is cheap compared to aussie prices, and they don't burn you for on snow food or accom either. They even used to give you some $ back if you finished skiing early in the day and handed your day pass back. Mexico is the good call for kiting. Check out san clemente near tressles where Mat Biolos churns out Lost surfboards. Otherwise you are going to have to drive north along Pacific coast highway. You will need decent wetty, boots, gloves and hood at that time; although was mild winter last year. Some great wine regions and state parks up north towards San Fran. Drive to Vegas, Hoover dam, grand canyon. You can loop back through indian reservations back down route 66. Hire a decent (large) car with satellite radio and sat nav.
Plenty of spots to surf over Christmas....
Kiting will be hit and miss, but head north to Santa Cruz for a bit of both. If you ski or board, Mammoth will be the call. Having lived there for many years this place kicks ass for steeps. Can get crowded over that period, but you will be challenged. Tons of beautiful girls... I mean tons. Aussies do well there meeting people.
If I was going on a trip there, I would almost leave the kites at home and just surf, ski and see the southwest as Pearl mentioned. Native American lands in the southwest are pretty awesome, and the Grand Canyon is as grand as the name suggests.
If you do bring kite gear, head down to the southern tip of Baja. El Norte will not dissapoint.
Enjoy the holiday, not all Americans are loud Americans, you will meet some pretty cool people. Just like not all Aussies in Bali are bogans, they are just the ones that stand out.
If you going to expect to kite in California this time of year you are going to be pretty disappointed. Sthn Cal has a particularly short season, the water is freezing this time of year and there is generally not a lot of wind and if there is it is from the North and you can probably figure out what that means.
My advice???.jump a plane to Baja in Mexico if you want to kite. It is one of the best place in the America's this time of year, it is safe, plenty of wind, warm water and is becoming somewhat of a kiting mecca. Short 1 1/2 hour flight from LA. PM if you want some more details or who to hook up with if you decide to go.
.....Some good advice here, and don't forget flights can be really cheap if you shop around. You could make it to Baja for a kite, do a road trip fitting in some of the most awesome national parks (you could consider yosemite, king's canyon) and you could end up in utah by road or plane for more national parks that will blow your mind and the some of the best powder planet earth has ever created if you ski or snowboard. Do not underestimate utah bottomless powder- it is worth experiencing before you die. Planty of options to have fun with. Enjoy your trip!
I'm looking for a mid-winter escape next year. I was looking at various south pacific / Indian options (Solomon islands, Tahiti, Sri Lanka) - now airfares to these destinations are around $1500! Or, I could fly twice as far to LAX for $1200 - and then from there for another few hundred get to anywhere in Mexico or the Caribbean where theres taco's and tequila and infinite more options for kiting.
So, what are the best options for southern Cali / Mexico during their summer months?
(sorry to hijack your thread btw)
Cheers for the replies fellas.
I got really cheap flights so I wouldn't be too shattered if the wind wasn't cranking. I've
Is there really that much temp difference from say on the coast near LA compared to down Baja Mexico...?
I wouldn't rule out a trip to the snow, that would be pretty sick for a few days.
I've read you pretty much can't hire a car and take it across the Mex border, is that true? Some thing to do with insurance issues.
It wouldn't surprise me. I've hired cars in Mexico, they're not that cheap ($80USD a day minimum) and once you get out of big cities the roads can be pretty sketchy. Have a look at ADO bus lines. They're comfortable, fast & good value: http://www.ado.com.mx/ado/index.jsp Otherwise taxi's are dirt cheap too.
The temp difference between LA and Baja that time of the years is pretty big. Board shorts, maybe shorty in Baja, LA is 3/2 4/3 weather. FLy to your destination and just get a cab. They aren't that expensive for how much you need to use them. FLy to La Paz and its not to far from there.
you lads changed our minds for half a day then we said bugger it??? we're doing it!!! tassie in winter was warm(ish!!!) 
hired a massive rv, man those things are cheap.
we'll have 4 spare beds, so plenty of room for any hot backpackers/hot hitchhikers etc, homeless people welcome also???
plan is there is no plan, structure around the wind forecast. might hit the snow if we feel like it, and the wavehouse is definitely on my list.
and a big greasy piece of pizza that folds in half when ya hold it???
Hi,
I did kite in Texas City south of Houston and at Wildcat Park near Corpus Christi, both flat water spots. If you are more into waves go check out South Padre Island near the Mexican border, I heard it's awesome. Not sure about the wind this time of the year.
Have fun!
You made the right call surfingboye. I've lived on the US West Coast (San Clemente, now Seattle) for the last 12 years. Southern California has pretty much no wind this time of the year. The Gorge had 40-50 knot easterlies for the last couple of weeks (-10C wind chill temp, 10C water temp) but that's about to shut down with a big cold front hitting this weekend. Snowboarding is great up north (around Seattle, BC, Tahoe). Snowkiting is hit-and-miss around Seattle and great around Montana, Wyoming (Alaska in April). Climate change has moved the dependable snow season from Nov-March to Jan-April. Water kiting is good in South Padre this time of the year but unless you're into meth there isn't alot of entertainment to be had. Come to the US in Aussie winter for fun kiting. For Aussie summer, stay in the southern hemisphere for water kiting - I'm coming back to Brissie for a month over Christmas. It beats the kiting in the US, Mexico (La Ventana and Cozumel), Belize, St Martin hands-down. I was in Tassie a couple of years ago - tons of amazing empty spots there and water temps no colder than here. You don't know how lucky you are!
Select to expand quotesurfingboye said..
Cheers for the replies fellas.
I got really cheap flights so I wouldn't be too shattered if the wind wasn't cranking. I've
Is there really that much temp difference from say on the coast near LA compared to down Baja Mexico...?
I wouldn't rule out a trip to the snow, that would be pretty sick for a few days.
I've read you pretty much can't hire a car and take it across the Mex border, is that true? Some thing to do with insurance issues.
I was in Mexico in Feb this year.
Anywhere you can drive across the border to is seriously dodgy - the border towns being the crossing points into the States. That's why you can't take a hire car from the US to Mex. However, the rest of Mexico is awesome. On the Pacific Coast you would want to go at least as far south as Puerto Vallarta to get decent warm weather. The main issue is the Pacific waters are pretty cold as they come down from the north.
There are loads of cheap flights to Cancun from LAX, from which you can access the Mayan Riviera - We stayed for a week in Tulum (about 80 km south) and the wind was consistent every day. The diving is also pretty amazing and the food is pretty awesome. Lots of options for any budget. December is the equivalent of the start of our Northern Australia dry season.
California in December would be pretty chilly, but hitting the steep and deep would be an awesome option.
Select to expand quotesurfingboye said..
Cheers for the replies fellas.
I got really cheap flights so I wouldn't be too shattered if the wind wasn't cranking. I've
Is there really that much temp difference from say on the coast near LA compared to down Baja Mexico...?
I wouldn't rule out a trip to the snow, that would be pretty sick for a few days.
I've read you pretty much can't hire a car and take it across the Mex border, is that true? Some thing to do with insurance issues.
The ultimate best location in California in the Summer is Sherman Island (about a 2 hour drive from San Francisco). I did a post on this earlier this year. Baja in Mexico in the US summer months you want to stay away from. Just too hot!!!!! Seal beach in Orange County in Sthn Cal is a great spot as well. You need to be an intermediate rider to do both of these spots.
Select to expand quoteFishOutOfWater said..
You made the right call surfingboye. I've lived on the US West Coast (San Clemente, now Seattle) for the last 12 years. Southern California has pretty much no wind this time of the year. The Gorge had 40-50 knot easterlies for the last couple of weeks (-10C wind chill temp, 10C water temp) but that's about to shut down with a big cold front hitting this weekend. Snowboarding is great up north (around Seattle, BC, Tahoe). Snowkiting is hit-and-miss around Seattle and great around Montana, Wyoming (Alaska in April). Climate change has moved the dependable snow season from Nov-March to Jan-April. Water kiting is good in South Padre this time of the year but unless you're into meth there isn't alot of entertainment to be had. Come to the US in Aussie winter for fun kiting. For Aussie summer, stay in the southern hemisphere for water kiting - I'm coming back to Brissie for a month over Christmas. It beats the kiting in the US, Mexico (La Ventana and Cozumel), Belize, St Martin hands-down. I was in Tassie a couple of years ago - tons of amazing empty spots there and water temps no colder than here. You don't know how lucky you are!
+1 for tassie in summer, sick place, loved scamander - and you could pop over to falls fest at marion bay if the wind is gone... or kite or surf sometime during the show!
in terms of the US trip, agree with all about the baja plan - would shelve any north of LA plans to kite
have a good one
Just thought I would give a quick report of my trip to California. 
First off we flew into LA. There was no wind around and the forecast looked pretty dim, so we thought we would head to the snow first up.
Getting to Mammoth proved pretty tricky, the first leg of the journey we had no GPS and no phone service. This meant plenty of wrong turns down some pretty ghetto streets.
The snow was very average, comparable to a season in Aus. They were saying the worst start to a season in 20 years.
We stayed there for about for days, sleeping in the RV in the parking lots at the bottom of the ski lifts.
Man that RV got cold in the night, once the heater turned itself off!
We left the snow and headed to San Fran.
No wind or waves so we pretty much be-lined down to Santa Cruz to pick up my new Engine harness.
Man that is the sickest harness in the world. Still froths me out every time I look at it!
We went another couple of hours down the coast to meet up with Ian Alldredge in his hometown of Santa Barbara.
Ian and his old man Earl were great value and very accommodating, we spent around a week and a half with them.
Ian took us kiting at his local at Ventura and up to the spot you see in all the TDZ videos.
At Ventura the wind was pretty light, waves were pretty small everyday. Had a ball though!
Up at his other spot the wind was around 20 knots and decent sized waves ripping through.
Once we departed from Ian, we headed down along the coast to stay around Venice Beach.
This beach is fricken awesome. Not for the water or waves, but for the amusement you get just walking along the beach pathways.
All sorts of people down there, homeless/crack heads/trippers/buskers/muscle men. You name it.
Then we flew home, not without drama though.
I left my camera bag in the cab with around 10g of gear and passport in it! 
Worst feeling in the world but after a bit of ringing around and PLENTY of luck the driver dropped it back off at the airport for me.
Felt pretty good to get on that plane and sleep my way back to Aus!
So yeah, a really fun holiday. The people were really friendly (wasn't sort of expecting that), and the RV was a pretty cool way to see the coast.
Anyway here is a video I put together of my trip. A snippet of kiting, but yeah just grab a beer and enjoy!!!
