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A few pics from today. I usually snap several when I get there and upload to Facebook:













And this is the new to me 10m Airush Lithium I picked up. This was after my session - decided to snap a pic before I deflated it. Flies smooth.. like a hot knife through butter smoooooooth. Definitely happy with the purchase. Kits have come a long way since I first started getting into the sport about 20 or so years ago - WAY better and safer now.



As you can see, it’s a pretty magical place and well worth the 109km drive each way. It was also super cool to see salmon running up the river.. jumping and splashing. Saw a seal chowing down on one, too. Lucky seal.. unlucky salmon lol.

Wind speed is very low and gusty today. Not worth the drive. Maaaayve could kite with my biggest kite, buuuut, it’s so volatile that a strong gust could be dangerous. I’ll save the trip and maybe go ride my motorcycle today.

Here are the live webcams, only a handful of people there and surely all locals that don’t have a long drive to get there just squeezing out one last session before it rains the next couple days:

https://squamishwindsports.com/conditions/webcams/

Was on the water for over 2.5 hours this afternoon. That’s quite a long session of cruising around Howe Sound! Only saw one seal and one salmon this time.

Quite a few kiters out. Expecting as many or more tomorrow. Traffic is gonna be nuts because of the Whistler Gran Fondo or however you spell the name of some bicycle race from Vancouver to Whistler. Oh well; it’s worth the drive time - especially since tmw is possibly the best day left this season.

Got out for a solid hour and a half or so this afternoon before the wind started dying and it was time to kite back to the island, pack down, and catch the shuttle boat back.

Left my board and a few kites in one of the shipping containers on the island as the forecast is Good for tmw and I'm going right back there. If there forecast was poo I'd have joined my brother and a bunch of others on a motorcycle ride to Mount Baker in Washington State, buuuuut, it's the tail end of the kiteboarding season and I'm gonna go kite every chance I get. Tmw might be the best day left.

Forecast was pretty good! Decided to kite instead of joining my brother and dozens of others on a motorcycle trip to Mount Baker and back. (In another country)

Got to the island, wind was decent but very variable/gusty with lulls super low.. waited about an hour before I launched. Was a challenge to get out, but wind was better away from the island.

Had an okay session for such gusty wind. Made me better at a few things - mostly kite control things.

Ended on a pop note tho. Got super gusty, lost my board crashed my kite.. boat came and brought my board close, got back to it, Almost managed to relaunch But I swear the moment I tried relaunching my kite was the worst gust of the day.. got yanked over my board, kite started looping - pulled my safety release and then had a challenging time winding my lines up in the water ~praying the kite didn’t flip and try to relaunch in a gust because I could feel a line wrapped around my foot/leg.

Got my lives wound up, hitched a ride on a seafood back to the island. No damage to my kite but my board f****d all the way off and floated/blew away and the seafood guy couldn’t find it. :/ It’s still out there and has my contact info on it so will probably come back to me in a matter of time.. maybe a day, maybe a couple weeks - depends when someone fishes it out of the ocean or it washes up somewhere. At least my contact info is on it!

Buuuut, if it doesn’t come back real quick then I’m gonna need to buy another board this week/tmw in order to kite until the end of the week/season September 15th.. soooo maybe it’ll be a good thing if I pick up a board that improves my kiting ??

Still likely wind after the 15th, but mid September is when there’s a big salmon run so no more kiting allowed so we don’t scare/harm the fishies.

ofc I had moments tdy where I thought, f**k, I should have gone on that motorcycle ride.. but then my mom relayed a story from my brother: him and his wife went. 60 bikes!! That's pretty huge. They rode to Mount Baker, then to some restaurant on the way back.. they said they couldn't serve that many people (lame to turn down business instead of work hard) so they picked another restaurant and my brother and his wife rode there.. met up with another rider, waited there for others.. and waited.. tuns out a woman that was on the ride who was fairly new crossed the centre line at the bottom of a hill/curve coming down the mountain somewhere.. car was coming, it swerved to avoid a head on and she hit the side of the car and got apparently her leg (I assume left) got f****d up good - like apparently it was Bad bad and there's a possibility she might lose her leg.

sh***y deal all around. Ain't nobody wanna see that. Kinda glad I wasn't there to witness it or get rattled by it.

Heard she was pretty new to riding. Maybe she was nervous ? Riding beyond her skills/limit ? Most likely made the mistake of looking over to her left instead of on her intended path ("Where you look is where you go.") and/or she panicked and was steering her motorcycle like a bicycle in that moment instead of counter steering as motorcycles need to be steered. (Push right go right, Not "turn," right like a steering wheel.) One, the other, or both is how you'd end up drifting over the centre line into oncoming traffic on a curve like that. Even just the story is enough of a reminder to me to further train myself to react appropriately so it's really set in stone in a "oh s**t," sort of moment. (The riding school teaches you how to go about training yourself - and this was a riding school alumni ride. Possibly the worst accident that's happened in their history I dunno but they have a stellar reputation.)

Went and bought another board. But different shape, new design & construction. Should be better than the old one.. then if the old one turns up maybe I’ll still use it in some conditions Or use it to get someone else into the sport. Kinda sucks to drop just shy of a grand, but whatever gotta pay to play and at least I can kite the last 2-3 days of the season.

Conditions are iffy, staff are on standby, it's cloudy.. But, I'm still watching the live wind reports and webcams to see if it Might be a kiteable afternoon again. Miiiiight go up.. buuut, the next few days look better and w/o so much cloud cover - which can cause turbulence/gusts. I think they'll make a decision in about 42mins, 1pm, whether the staff are on duty or not for the rest of the day. If it looks like it's building and smooth I'll make the drive even for a short session - I wanna try out the new board! That and Friday is the last day of the season there so IF there's reasonable kiting weather every single day I'll make the drive to get some time on the water.. but if today is a bust, no biggie, my body could use the rest in order to finish the week stronger.

Just talking to myself again I guess lol I do find it slightly odd that with all the obscure special interests ppl have on this site that approximately no one else here has even the slightest bit of interest in this sport.

Just sayin

Got in a late afternoon sesh on the new board.

It looks a bit different shape than the 8 year old one that floated away, so I expected it to feel different.. but Wow what a difference! Feels way better in virtually every possible way. Pretty amazing what 8 years of design improvements does. (Totally different brand and model, not an 8 year newer version of the same.) Much like the new kite I got that outperforms all the older stuff.

Wind was light, expecting to really feel the board perform in stronger wind. But everything I tried doing with it went sooooo well. Handles choppy water better, too.. just feels so smooth moving around under my feet. Apparently zero local purchasers of that board have disliked it and I get why.

Wind died, had to self rescue and wait for the seadoo that was picking up another kiter lol. Ah well, end of day.

A couple wing toilets rode in the wake of the shuttle boat and then the wind really died and one of them pumped his board and followed the boat all the way back!! Impressive. Looked up and saw a paraglider above the Chief, too.

Lines are all sorted out and everything is good to go for tmw. 2 more days left + post season bbq at the only shop in town. Dan’s built a super reputable business since 2010. Quite impressive for such a niche market. (He also rents kayaks, seadoos, foils, kite lessons etc.)

Blah blah blah; kite kite kite!

Got out and the wind was slowing down too much.. drifted down wind, self rescue and seadoo ride again.. setup a bigger kite but then watched the wind keep dropping and didn’t even bother launching because it was going to end in another rescue as the wind died lol guys 40lbs lighter than me were struggling on similar sized sails so f it.

Last day of the season tmw. Gonna go up a bit earlier in the day methinks. Make the most of it - but it won’t be ideal until afternoon sometime anyways due to temperature and tides.. but I can try to be there for then vs on the highway.

Laaaaaast day of the official season today.. coffee/breakfast time, then up to Squamish to catch the boat over to the island and get out there for one last rip.

There'll be other wind from storms down on the coast... never know, I *might* get out on some other beach maaaaybe if I link up with a crew heading out during a "small craft warning," day or something - just sooooo much safer and more comfortable kiting in Squamish where the winds are more consistent and there's staff with seadoos to come fetch ya when shtf.

But, with a few people out it's not so terrible with on/cross shore wind - safe enough, especially on beaches with ~no rocks/logs/debris in the water. Almost the entire world kites without rescue staff - mind you - Squamish is different in that if you drift downwind you don't end up on the beach you started at like when you launch in typical cross-on-shore wind anywhere else.

Last day of the season was good wind! Dozens of people out, everyone had a great time. Then back to Dan’s shop for pizza/kegs/raffle pries etc.

Wind is supposed to be good this wknd but the only way out to the island is with a boat or paying for a ride or renting a boat etc so season over for almost everyone. I like having the staff and rescue seadoos on the island so probably won’t go out again this year. Some die hard a will tho.

I noticed a sign the other day that said "kite fighting" was banned where I live.

What the heck is kite fighting?

Sorry - Maybe that's explained in this thread but I didn't read it all.

Totally different thing, nothing to do with wind sports where you’re harnessed to a kite to surf or board or buggy or ski/snowboard etc - move around via kite powered vehicle. (See sample of some of the photos I posted above - that’s one of my kites laying on the island and the kiteboarding I do.)

Kite fighting is done with small single line kites that have broken glass adhered to the (probably cotton) flying line that people use to try to cut the lines of other kites.. cut one off, that guy loses, his kite flies away/falls. It’s an Asian and Middle Eastern thing largely, but apparently also done in South America - who knows, maybe a lot of places ?, and banned because there’s no way to know where a broken glass coated kite line is going to end up and could end up injuring people/animals later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_kite