Ha! Marty I know this about the dust thing... And prefer it to be a recreational jaunt down... Right with you Marty, but you know these things turn into a race... But it's all in great fun! Also, it did sound a little like I was talking out of both sides of my mouth there about the Kites not being invited to do the blowout anymore... The one kiter used waterskiis to kite straight to Hood River, I'm sure you've heard... That's what makes it amazing that Dale Cook beat him a couple of times... (asterisk asterisk)... But I would expect it to be a Windrider thing... No question... How about one windsurfer teams up with one Kiteboarder timewise, the lowest combined time, wins... Many options:
In the Gorge Blowout, the Kiters started 15 minutes before the windsurfers... The Kites have at least twice the area to use for downwind so it's a no brainer...
In fact, I'd eventually like to see a short kiting clinic or on shore demonstration for windsurfers on the new safer kiting technology... Just like Robby Naish says, it's good to be well rounded!
This first time we do this, I would really like to keep it simple, Pelican to Provo Boat Harbor... See it go safely once, learn from it and then expand it after that possibly... It's just something that we need, a Season Opener... Much reward could come from it. I'll show some of the ideas I've written down if you're interested...
WEATHER: As far as the weather question goes. Here's my proposal... We watch the forecasts... If we see a good north option day... Ask Craig about it or have him give us a good 3 day heads up... I post a 2 to 3 DAY OFFICIAL HEADS UP UTAH LAKE CROSSING ALERT (Still coming up with the best name for it... First Annual Cocoa Crossing, First Annual Donnor Party Windstyle, etc. Ideas?)... Then the day of we make a more confirmed call for that day... YES or NO... Plan on a start of around 3:30PM to 4:00PM NO LATER... It's 7.8 miles to PVU. If you make a bee-line, that's ~10MPH to finish in an hour... One ZigZag is about 12 miles... But we'd really make the call of yea or nay, at the launch. Hopefully Craig would be there!
We'd have a "Skippers Meeting" 30 minutes before start... Go over the safety reminders, rules reminder, to see groups of 3 or more, make sure everyone is part of a mini group...
STARTING LINE: I'm not sure what they call this start or if it even exists... But 15 minutes before start the boat would put up a flag (Shirley and I were thinking skull and crossbones
)... Then 5 minutes before start, blow a blow horn and wave flag... Kiters start lining up on a vector behind/not crossing the perpendicular 150ft to the back of the boat that will be heading toward the Y (just north of the Provo Boat Harbor) at about 5 MPH... Then when the 5 Minutes is up, flag goes down and boat punches it... Kites are off... 15 minutes later, the windsurfers would be off... So the kiters leaving would signify the beginning of the 15 minutes before windsurfers leaving... The reason for a vector start and not a rabbit start is to get people on the right "trajectory" and ensuring that people are relatively together... Especially windsurfers...
SAFETY: Manditory groups of three. Pick your group according to relative predicted crossing time. Groups must stay relatively close... A buddy system... You don't leave that group... Stop, stall, do whatever you'd have to in order to stay with group... Boat(s) would do their best to keep an eye on people... Signals for distress... Stand up on your board as well as possible and wave arms if you are in trouble... Kites, have an advantage that they stay above water, windsurfers are a little harder to spot... Maybe require a kite to stay close to a couple windsurfers... How's that for building comradery between the sports...
I might even ask Ty Hunter (Utah Lake State Park Manager-Ranger) if he would like to follow us in one of their boats to learn about our sports... I mean, they need to know about how our sports work... We use the lake they patrol... It might also help him to see HOW MANY OF US THERE ARE, and the needs that we have as far as launches etc... It'd be a great way to prime that pump...
I agree with Sarah, keep the ideas coming...In fact, please start emailing me with things that you'd like to see from the UWA or ideas you have... But I really would like to keep it pretty simple this first time for safety/research reasons... Then we get a little more ambitious and make it a longer trip some other time... I'm with you Jason, I love the long distance stuff... And Marty, you're the GSL Bird Island Magellan...
So, I know you guys have it in you!
By the Way, where would Kiters launch from at Pelican Bay Marina?
OK, so those are just some of the ways I'd like to do it the first time... Once again we'd really need to keep it simple in order to make it work with schedules etc... Plus, if we do the $100 bus back to Pelican, we need to keep everyone at PVU... Of course, whoever wanted to continue on, that's your choice, but as far as a group thing would go... Pelican to PVU... We'll let you know...
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN AS WE COLLABORATE ON THIS... I THINK WE'RE VERY SERIOUS ABOUT DOING THIS, BUT WE'D HAVE TO STILL DO IT WHILE WE HAVE SOME NORTHS IN THE OPTIONS...
Spence or other moderators, could you please move this post to the message board possibly?
