VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Port Alberni economic development manager, Pat Deakin, is trying to find some windsurfers and kiters (who are willing to sign releases) to be in a promotional video that is going to be filmed Tuesday, August 18, in the harbour. The film crew will be in town all day, but this footage will be shot around 4:00 p.m., or later, assuming there's wind.

This is going to be part of a video promoting outdoor activities in the Alberni valley, such as mountain biking, kayaking etc.

Come on out for a session and help promote windsport development in Port Alberni at the same time. Mike, Tara, Ralph, Adrian, Gene, Dave, Dale? Anyone else? Post or PM me ASAP so I can give Pat an idea of how many sailors there might be.

Pat's email to me is below:

Hi Gordon
Thanks for making the time to talk briefly with me about this opportunity.

As mentioned a film crew is visiting the Alberni Valley tomorrow to pick up
some High Definition footage for our future use. Since we are starting to focus more on adventure tourism, we are arranging for them to do a variety of appropriate shots.

One shot we'd like to get is of a windsurfer or windsurfers or kite surfers
on the Inner Harbour. We have lined up the fireboat for them to shoot from and are needing one or more folks for action in the late afternoon/early evening (say 4 PM?).
Anything you can do to help out with this on very short notice would be
greatly appreciated.

I have also left a voice mail message for Dave Strang but am wanting to try and confirm a 'prearranged participant' ASAP given the very short notice on this.

As mentioned, where do you suggest we launch kites? China Creek is too far away ...

I doubt you would want to advertise it as a kitesurfing destination without a viable or "official" launching site figured out ...

Cheers

thx Gord, a bit more notice and I mighta made it, not now but good luck

Sorry Gord,
Notice is just too short for Tuesday
James.

Bummer, I am working on Cortez or would have made the attempt to be there even if I left early from work. Sadly too far away.

Mattdog, get in on it if you can.

There are two launches.

The first is on the north side of the harbor at the head of the bay. You drive out of Port like you were heading to Tofino, cross the bridge and take an immediate left. You are entering T-shaht (sp?) territiory so be respectfull of vehicle speed. You go down that road keeping to your left until you get past the gates and into a big "ex" logging camp. You go around and onto the gravel and head up a small hill. From there you will exit out of the "yard" through a gate and turn left. Follow that gravel road until you hit the water. You will come to a gate, sometimes open sometimes closed. Go about 300ft past that gate, get yer gear out and swim across the channel (120-200ft depending on tide) and set up on the grassy area. Launch is fully onshore and you need to make your way upwind into the bay area. Do be carefull as there are lots of deadheads in this area as you make your way out to the Harbor Quay. Landing is simple, get back to the grassy area, and land the kite. Swim back across the channel and voila.

The second I just tried and it worked out ok, but comin home was sketchy. Just upwind of the Harbor Quay is a big wharf that the Port Boat house utilizes to store boats and others park after launching their boats. If it is not too busy you rig up on the upwind side of the wharf with the kite on the water side. A tarp is HIGhLY recommended. Launch the kite carfully as there are down wind obstacles. Once in the Air walk to the edge and Jump of the warf (10-15ft drop). To land there is a small tiny gravel beach just upwind of this wharf. When I came in I kept the kite high until I beached then threw the kite water side, but the wind is funky and I almost lost it into the barbwire fence up on the roadside. I would suggest keeping the kite as low as possible with speed and as soon as your kite is at the beach put it down and you use your speed to make it to the beach and grab your kite. Definately an advanced landing to say the least but doable. This wharf is also utilized by the windsurfers. One comment I will say about the harbor, I blew my foot strap this last time and had to crawl up 15ft of blast rock shoreline with the kite in the air to fix my board, definately do not reccomend that to people but in the event of equipement failure there are few options available to you as most of the foreshore is wharfs and pilings.

Anyhow good luck..hopefully Matt you can represent us to help encourage the City to develop a more Kite/Windsurf friendly launch and landing area that has ease of access and moderate skill to launch and land.

The harbor has alot of potential for windsports, hopefully more work can be done to make it easier to have safer access.
Dale

sorry, I could have made time, but the short notice......

looks like it is setting up to blow this afternoon, it would be worth the trip anyway.

Dave's in Port every tues, i'll call him at home this morning and make sure he takes his gear.

If you are really needing footage and nobody shows up, I have been out a couple of occasions this season and there has been a ton of people taking video while I was on the water. The newspaper also has alot of photos from one of those days. I suppose you could put a request out in one of the papers for someone to submit their video. I really would love to see the area developed for windsports so anything that will help ....

Hey Gord,
I will be there for sure. Probably not until after 5pm though. Tara won't be able to make it because she is out of town this evening. Hopefully mother nature helps out.
See you there,
Mike

Dave knows about it and will have his gear so as long as it blows you should get some footage......sounds like one hairball launch ksd.....

gives a whole new meaning to Survival Kiting.

Is there access where those lagoons are on the island?

It's not looking good for wind this afternoon.