VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

I'm writing an article on kiting on Vancouver Island for a travel magazine in Toronto... thought this might be a good place to post the question as to what the latest and greatest 'move' or trick is? Or the trick that's the most desirable to accomplish...

Also wondering if anyone on the Island has a funny story about making mistakes as a beginner, such as a minor accident...

Thanks for the help! I look forward to reading your stories...

Hi Ashley
Unfortlnatly when some one screws up on a kite it is not usually funny and is quite scary when someone does something wrong.
As for a trick
"I think a mute grab unhooked kiteloop into a handle pass would look OK"

Hi Ashley,
The coolest move that I've almost got nailed is a Naked kiteloop saltwater enema with a roast beef grab finished off with a handlepass where you hold the bar in your teeth and then land blind.

A few years ago I was camping at the lake and some guy showed up that quite obviously had no idea what to do with the kite he just bought. He decided it would be easier to figure it out himself rather than take a lesson. He took the brand new kite out of the bag, pumped it up, hooked up the lines to the bar and the kite, put on his harness, asked his friend to launch the kite and then smartly (this probably saved him from severe injury) asked someone on the beach to hold his harness while he launched his kite. His lines were hooked up wrong and when his friend let the kite go, it came slowly across the top of the wind window and then when he tried to correct the kite, it looped wildly through the power. Thanks to the stranger who was able to hang on to his harness for a split second before it got ripped out of his hands, the newbie launched himself over a 10 foot high jagged tree stump on the beach and narrowly missed impaling himself on the stump. He would have hit the stump insted of going over it but this was prevented because of the resistance offered by the harness holder guy. The Kite then crashed into the top of a tree and the new guy hung from the tree with his feet about 2 feet off the ground. he pulled his safety and landed on the ground, looked up at his shredded kite, walked to his car, left and never came back. I don't think he even took off his harness let alone his wetsuit. I'm pretty sure the guys entire kiteboarding career lasted about 20 minutes. someone got the kite down after about a week. I laughed my ass off for about 3 weeks because the guy never got hurt. Moral of the story- If you want to be a pro kiteboarder, take a lesson!

Yeah, there aren't that many jokes going around about newb's mishaps since a dozen or so (or more) people a year die in this sport. Most are due to ignorance and stupidity. We don't have all that many good learning spots on the Island. The best spots are wide open unobstructed sand beaches with few people on them. If you can, you're better off spending a week in La Ventana and learning what it would take a season or more to learn here. That being said I think there are some good instructors on the Island.

Out

But when people aren't headed for the hospital (and sometimes even when they are) there are a lot of funny stories - here's one: Waay back, when I think it's safe to say nobody on the island could kiteboard, but about 4 of us were determined to figure it out, I ended up at Island View beach on my own. The other guys must have had better wind somewhere else. Hot, sunny summer day, lots of people on the beach. Windy, really windy, as it ocasionally can be for an hour or two when the summer southeast fires up. Somehow I self launched my super-cool Peter Lynn c-quad ( this is a kite that was never meant for water, and would sink to the bottom as soon as it got wet).I think it had two handles tied together with a harness line. I tea-bagged out through the people, between the kids and babies and Moms and Dads. People were talking to me but I was so nervous I have no idea what they were saying. All I knew was that I couldn't stop, and I didn't stop. Just kept on going out to sea, never got on the board, never did anything except try to turn and come back to land, I guess the wind was more southerly than southeast. A few minutes later I reconnected with the beach about 2 k downwind, near the pump station on what will forever be known as Naked Beach. I'd heard rumours about this, but the sad truth was way short of what I'd imagined. I got yarded out of the water and along the sand, plowing a deep, nearly straight gouge down the beach. As I went by the driftwood, naked guys began to pop up and run away. All guys, middle aged to quite elderly, of alternative sexual preference. Most ran away, one guy pranced along beside me and asked if he could help. I didn't know if he could, I put the kite into a loop and pulled away. Up ahead I could see two angry looking native guys that had driven up from the reserve in their big truck. They didn't like the scene unfolding before them. The beach turns a corner at the pump station, and I got dragged back into the water, but luckily crashed the kite. It promptly sank. As I flailed around in the shallows I got a huge cramp in my hamstring and had to sit down in the seaweed and water, and roll around to stretch it out. One of the native guys came over and asked if I was ok. He kind of gestured at the kite mess and the naked dudes running around in the logs. I shrugged my shoulders and told him I was ok but that I couldn't move. I don't think he understood. Can't blame him.

PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:55 pm Post subject: Jimmy Lewis's Kitemare : Jimmy Lewis your intrepid weatherman would like to share todays coast guard free session:After reading my own forecast (thundershowers) I decided damn the torpedoes & launched my 16 @ I-View. S.E. wind 4-12 knots was o.k...The fun began when the kite fell out of the sky. As I struggled to relaunch I noted the wind was increasing but turning west. In desperation I let go of the bar & swam to it, this allowed the kite to relaunch in the gusty westerly. I cruised to the sand bar( N. of the outfall ) and let the bar go, with the kite streaming off my wrist leash. After dragging the kite toward the beach for a while I had a brilliant idea(NOT!) I would pick up the bar and wind up my lines. Just as I completed my second turn on the bar a lovely west gust drags me back out to sea and of course I couldn't get the turns off my bar and let it go..No' not me!! I've got a knot so that the kite is dragging me toward James Island....NOW the fun begins!! I release my wrist leash and swim back to the sand bar, walk to the beach & watch my kite cruise in a much improved northerly track toward Cordova spit..O.K. I say, time for a hike...I walk to the spit (you know it, the one opposite James Island at the narrow spot.) Did I mention the flood current? As I near the spit I realize my kite is caught on a crab pot !! I wait 30 minutes but nothing changes so I walk back to the parking lot, picking up my board on the way..I flag down a central saanich constabulary and let him know that if the rescue coordination centre is called no one is attached to the kite..( I hate it when those sea kings come my way)......I drive home and load up my sea kayak, drive through the indigenous peoples ruins and launch at the treatment plant, paddle out to the crab pot and assess situation...It looks like about a 4 knot current is streaming my kite North. I release one side (2 lines) at the kite before I realize I need a knife. I paddle back to the van and grab some line, 2 knives and some short stuff to make tethers for my knives so I don't loose them {with slip knots at the kayak in case I get fouled}. I cut the remaining 2 lines at the kite,paddle to the crab pot, free my bar, wrap up my lines, secure it to kayak and paddle back to the kite.....I fix a short line to one end of the kite and paddle for about 30 minutes.......I've lost ground and drifted a good distance away from the spit....Hmmmmm.....I paddle back to the kite, release the leading edge valve,roll up and tie one end, roll it up from the other end, tie a line around it, close the valve (no water) and sling the whole soggy mess over my shoulder onto the deck of the kayak behind me and secure it with a slip knot to the deck...A lovely paddle into the wind and against the current and I'm back at the van..A brief stop at the C. Saanich police station to report my success and home for dinner!! how was your day?................my biggest mistake today was trying to wind up my lines without walking back to the beach securing my wrist line and deflating the kite etc...alternatly I could have pulled my wrist line until I was back at the bar and wound that line back to my wrist, thus effectively keeping kite asymmetrically depowered and avoiding a lot of hassle!! Jim
_________________

Jimmy is that true that you can call local CG station and start a conversation like "Hi, it's me"?

grant macpherson wrote:As I went by the driftwood, naked guys began to pop up and run away. All guys, middle aged to quite elderly, of alternative sexual preference. Most ran away, one guy pranced along beside me and asked if he could help.

this post made my day - hilarious!

nO.

When I was learing to kiteboard . I had no idea about conditions
and how they change. Any time there was wind when i started I was always keen to get out ont he water. One time the wind was quite strong
and I headed to esquimalt lagoon. No other kiteboarders in site.
As the wind was about 35 knots i rigged up my nne meter kite.
As a few people noticed they watched in anticipation to see what was going to happen. The inside of the lagoon looked good but when i put my kite up. It continuously picked me up in the air and dropped me. After about 4 minutes of trying to control it I e and made my way to the ocean side of the lagoon. Knowing that the wind would be better i rigged up again and headed out into the 35 knots.
On the inside the wind was barable heading out i saw a wind line on the water and loaded up to jump into it. The wind line was over 40 knots and when i jumped on the 9 meter I must have gone 60+ feet.
So high that I aborted the board and had to concintrate flying the kite.
Some lady Called the coast guard. She never thought that we should be picked out of the water. Withen 5 minutes there was helicopters, three rescue boats, and a hover caft looking for me. But afetr that Jump
I though that the conditions were a little dodgey.