Start Up Entrepreneurs and Kiting

Last weekend while out on the water, I was awestruck by the number of kites at 3rd avenue. I counted 55 (yes fifty five) kites actually out on the water, and what looked like another 20 rigged and / or getting ready to launch.

Only a few years ago, it was not uncommon to show up to launch, HOPING that at least one other kiter might come so that if I got in trouble someone would notice. A big day would be 8 – 10 others on the water simultaneously.

While I’ve never questioned the addiction....Read the rest HERE

Kite Cam Video - Pentax Optio Attached to Kite

You can attach a camera (in this case a 6Mpx Pentax Optio W10 digital still cam, in movie mode) to your kite and film. After some expererimentation, placing the camera about a third of the way back on the strut centers the rider pretty well. Here's a test :

Storm Winds Whip Bay Area - Christmas Kiting

A winter storm rolled through the SF Bay area just after Christmas this year. Wind speeds held steady along the coast at 50+ MPH, with waves nominally 20 to 27 feet. Gusts in the Tahoe Ski area were reported at 90 - 115 MPH at ridge tops! All this made for a windy day inside the bay as well. In the morning, 3rd was blowing 40 knots with gusts consistently at 50.

Kon Othmer and I made it out to 3rd Avenue in the afternoon as the winds backed off a bit. We first tried lauching FLAT kites on the mud flat - me with a Best Waroo 9, and Kon with a 12 Switchblade.

Flat?!? - On peak gusts, the kites literally flattened - hard to describe, but when direct downwind, the kites would compress, leading edge pointed downward, making them look like ram air kites.

We decided to rerig with smaller kites - this time me with my trusty Torch 8 C-kite, and Kon a 9 Waroo, and also this time at lower beach where there was a wind shadow - in this case a good one that shielded us from peak gusts. I launched Kon first, then self launched my 8. We both made it out and had fun til the sunset with winds lulling to 20 with gusts to 30.

More Infamy....KITEfamy !

Cimeron authored a fun piece for Kiteboarding Magazine, highlighting the unusual mix of wind, surf and kiteboarding addicted people we have here in the SF Bay area and Silicon Valley. It's this months issue - cover highlighted to the left.

It's a great read!! Buy the magazine by clicking HERE.

Here's the front page of the article (pp 80 - 87). There was no wind on picture day, so we took a parking lot shot!! (and no, the Ferrari is NOT mine, its Ian's!!) . BTW there's an AVVENU from this pic to a pdf file of the article that is downloadable from my home PC.

No wind?? Try this Kiteboarding Simulator

It's that time of year. I have not been on the water for several weeks now and am having severe withdrawal. I'm going to have to head to hawaii, mexico, fiji.... SOMEWHERE windy to get another fix... unless....
If you are in the same boat -- one of 3rd's anchor tenants, J.R., has written something that can give you a temporary hit.

In his spare time away from kiting, J.R. Gloudemans is a NASA specialist on aircraft design -- who incorporates 'real world' laws of physics into his code. Click HERE to go straight to his download page.

I've asked him if he can integrate it into SecondLife where my name is "alan greenspan golem" -- my intention was to wreak (in a fun way) havoc with the money supply -- but instead, now i'm relishing a chance to see if alan can kite!!