Great day at Old Federal with on-shore SW wind. Due to the Southwest wind direction, I sailed at Old Federal instead of Van Pugh. There were a bunch of kiters, maybe 8. Emilio and Mel were in control and only got knocked down in the strong gusts. There were three windsurfers. Unfortunately Al was catapulted in a gust and hurt, possibly dislocated, his shoulder. I sailed a 5.2 meter sail and 84 liter JP board with great conditions.
NOTICE: Blue & black kite pump found in rigging area. I'll bring it tomorrow to Van Pugh if the wind blows in the afternoon. Call if you lost the pump 404-378-2752.
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Barrett
Ditto on the great day. 6.5s were the majority choice at VP. Later, that was el grande loco... 5-something would have been more like it. Greg Chinik was on his dad's boat in the afternoon. He said their anemometer showed consistent 30s and around 4:30 a sustained puff of 40 (minus boat speed of 4 knots). That one put me in the water with no chance of waterstarting. Needed it bad-- got it good.
We had an AWESOME day today at Old Federal. Temp was toasty 60F, wind direction WSW, clear skies and a lot of wind - 20mph sustained gusting to close to 30 mph. The prevailing kite size was 11m, and it felt pretty powered up. By 3PM Mel and myself were riding together and were taken by a surprise gust of what it felt like 40mph lifting both of us out the water and little bit of "tea bagging"... soon after we both came back to shore to take a rest. I rigged then a GK Trix 9m and went back in again close to 5pm... men, it was nuking!!!! Couldn't believe how fast and precise this little machine it was. All and all, we had a super fun and windy day.
Quick Editorial note: We saw a windsurfer (think Al) that was on the water swiming/drifting downwind towards shore for a good while. He did not seemed to have any physical problem -I thought he had some gear issue - and that he most probably had everything under control, since he was not waiving or asking for help. By the time he got out, we realized he had dislocated one shoulder and was not able to move one arm. We all felt terrible, that nobody went closer to him while he was on the water, to offer some help. Let's make it a practice to offer help when we see people in the water not able to ride (kite/windsurf) and let's not wait to see the person asking for help. Al, hope you get better, and in the name of the kiters we appologize for not realizing that you were in need of some help.
Rgds,
Emilio.