NWers later this week

[tweegster]

BWD and Windyty are currently calling for some NW action later this week.

Tides not all that conducive to Ferry Terminal sessions unless you go early.

[Roxstock]

Jericho sailing club sensor is reading 16 knots right now. Tempting, but it will be a tricky high tide by the time I can get there.

[Slappy]

I was out at JSCA and Dog Beach today from 2:00 - 3:30.

The wind at JSCA was decent, a solid 12 knots on the water. The wind only extended out about 400m in to the bay though.

Meanwhile the wind at Dog Beach was 8-9 knots and seemed to be strongest close to shore.

I hope one day we get a launch near the sailing centre.

[Roxstock]

Launching at the sailing club would be sweet. A few times this year I've been at dog beach with no wind, and then when driving home passed the sailing club it's been 20 knots.

[Tony360]

Launching at the sailing club would be sweet. A few times this year I've been at dog beach with no wind, and then when driving home passed the sailing club it's been 20 knots.

Up until last year, kiting was banned from all Vancouver beaches except Acadia. Thanks to Coddy and many others who helped with the Spanish Banks kiting project, in 2014 the Park Board approved the use of Dog Beach. This spring a few of us from SWS met with the lifeguards and the Park Board and we asked to use either our usual winter launch or the parking lot just upwind of Jericho Pier. They said no, because the winter launch is the access point for the Coast Guard Hovercraft if it needs to drop someone off in case of a traumatic emergency, and because they don't want a kiter to end up on the Pier.

For this season SWS is working with the lifeguards to ensure that everything goes smoothly with our Dog Beach launch. The lifeguards also cleared rocks to make a path to us just south of Dog Beach for easier access to the banks at low tide.

It could be possible to lobby the Park Board for a different launch spot and many people led by Coddy are working on this. This will require some fairly intensive policy development including a certification requirement for kiters like they have in Chicago -- to ensure that only people who are competent and able to stay upwind are allowed to launch at the spot. The push back that will be likely from the lifeguards is that they will need to spend much more of their time and resources to regulate kiting. There may be fees associated. All of that remains to be negotiated.

If people are interested in helping with the project, rather than just pointing out the obvious advantages of other launch spots, I'm sure that Coddy would love to hear from you.

[Faceplant]

Any guess on Ferry terminal possibilities tomorrow???

[Alton]

Any guess on Ferry terminal possibilities tomorrow???

METAR/TAF for YVR doesn't look promising. Keep watching for updates. Maybe Friday will be better.

TAF Forecasted Jul 29 7:38 pm
Wed 8pm VAR 3
Thu 7am-9am WNW 10

[Slappy]

we asked to use either our usual winter launch or the parking lot just upwind of Jericho Pier. They said no, because the winter launch is the access point for the Coast Guard Hovercraft if it needs to drop someone off in case of a traumatic emergency, and because they don't want a kiter to end up on the Pier.

I was looking at possibilities for a hydrofoil friendly summer launch the other day and I found something with a lot of potential.

It has one big problem though, it would require moving the kayak and SUP shop over to the old pier beach (only a move of 50 ft but still a hard sell I'm sure). That beach is actually a better place to put in for kayak and SUP too as it's got much better wind shelter.

The plan would be to use the last head of the JSCA beach for launch & land but instead of using the beach to enter/exit the water build a sort of stairs on the rip rap to access the deep water away from anyone else (just like the awesome new river ramp for windsurfers at the Spit).

I've always though integrating kiting in to the JSCA was the right spot for it and this would put the windsurfers and kiters side by side like they should be.

While I haven't launched a kite there before I can tell by just standing around on the end of the head that the wind penetrates that spot quite well. It's a full 280 m down wind of the Jericho Pier so I don't think it would cause too much trouble.

It's a full 700 m upwind of the Jericho Yacht Club so there shouldn't be issues with people getting blown in to that pier.

360 of the spot

The dots in the picture are 25 m apart so that's how big a kite would be during launch or land.

JSCA-kite.jpg (96.33 KiB) Viewed 11964 times

[Tony360]

Thanks Slappy, that's an awesome idea. If you want to join the group that is working on beach access, email me at al(at)webhudco(dot)ca and I will put you on the list. We are also working on beach access for kiters at Centennial for the winter.

[Tony360]

Anyone at Dog Beach? I'm thinking about leaving work, but looks pretty marginal for a 10 and surfboard.