by Jason Klein » Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:32 pm
I arrived to SC around 5pm. There were 4 or 5 windsurfers there, but only 2 out on the water. the wind was 15-17 avg with gusts to the low 20's. For me, that means using my 15m, but unfortunately i had done some repairs to the leading edge on that kite and hadn't put the bladder back in yet. It took me about an hour to get that squared away and everything set up, so i headed out onto the water around 6pm. Missed what would have been a good 45 mins or so. Then went out and had a good 45 mins before we had a 5-10 minute lull. luckily i was near shore when it came, so i waited it out on the boat ramp. Wind came back up and i got another 45 mins, but it was definately tailing off the last 15 mins. Overall, the wind was a little gusty and sometimes punchy, but not a bad session by UT(WY) standards. Easy enough to stay upwind, jumps not huge, but it gave me a chance to work on sticking the landings. Seems when i'm fully powered out there i have no trouble getting 15+ feet off the water, but i only manage to actually kite away from 1/3 of the jumps.
The water has warmed up a bit there. Still colder than Utah lake or DC, but i was completely comfortable in a 3mm suit. you don't need a dry suit there at this point. temp was 83 or so when i arrived, overall a pretty comfortable temp out on the water.
Got to meet Josh S. for the first time, and said hello to John D., whom i'm pretty sure i met last year at DC one rainy day.
We don't have a lot of people kiting there, an i kind of scratch my head as to why because there are a lot of days when that is the only location within a 1-2 hour drive that there is wind. I've been there a half dozen times over the last 2 summers and i'm usually the only kiter there. The lauch out by the boat ramps is a little tight, but doable. Last night i rigged closer to where you pull into the lot, basically well into the cove. this spot has more open, grassy space, but there is a slight wind shadow being set back from the main lake seciton. Probably not a great place for beginner kiters as there isn't a straight shore you could kite along and it gets deep quickly, so you can't stand more than about 15 feet offshore. As long as you can stay upwind, i think this is a nice location to catch some stronger winds.