09/05/2005 - Students show how to do it best
We'll get the rant out of the way first...
If you want to sail at Whitstable safely and have a good time, check the tide times and heights BEFORE you decide to come down. Saturday saw a lot of "imported" kite surfers from all over the south east who know that Whitstable is a top kitesurfing location when it blows any way northerly.
The local riders and those that had been here before though know that unless you want a date with a groyne or a sea wall you don't kite surf at Whitstable in a notherly at high tide. You see at high tide you are always overflying the sea wall, which creates large amounts of uplift in a notherly wind - you are also overflying pedestrians and chances are you are riding over groynes.
Couple this with the squally weather we had over the weekend where the wind went from 15 knots to over 35 knots in merely a couple of minutes and it was lucky no one ended up seriously hurt or worse.
To get the worst of it out of the way we saw two accidents on Saturday one of which was so close to a near miss the rider should have gone and bought a lottery ticket as he got lofted in a squall over several groynes and nearly hit the sea wall. The rider, only known as "Red 14m Toro Man" should have come in before being hit by the squall that could have killed him. Said rider didn't even know how to work his quick release so it really was a near thing. Cuts and a battered ego usually heal pretty quickly so he got away with it this time.
Kudos to Gavin who jettisoned a kite into clear space to avoid hitting people on the beach and getting mashed himself - though a look over your shoulder once in a while would help as well to see the squall coming before it hits you ;)
The afternoon was much better with the tide out and the strong wind blowing, although there were a suprising number of local riders absent - nursing aches from all the riding they'd done earlier in the week no doubt. Loads of ex-students turned up though and managed to get out and practice. Huge well done's go to Terry, Andy and Jim who got the best of it out there. Also to Ashley and Paul, for sheer determination if nothing else. Martin and Nick also took the bull by the horns and got those crucial hours of riding in to better their skill level.
And just to prove that we don't sit up here saying "I told you so" all the time - Andrew, our head instructor headed out on his 14m Rhino2 on saturday but was a bit over powered. Choosing his times to go out completely wrong he managed to try and ride around in a squall not once but twice - and much to the delight of instructors, students and the other riders, ended up self-rescuing twice as well. The lesson was learnt and he'll ensure he has a smaller kite to ride with next time...
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