NW wed 14th

[C36]

Yeah, Iona Beach was the call today!

Took my buddy out to show him a few things and enough wind when we arrived to fly my 9 and practice launching, landing and body dragging., probably 12-15. Wind freshened to 15-18 and pumped my 14 and scored about 45 minutes pretty powered up riding as the tide started to come in.

Iona is a great spot on a med to high tide, probably the best I've seen outside of Locust for beginners, esp on a NW. Brett is stoked and hoping for more tomorrow!

Fun session and made it to the Flying Beaver in time to watch the last three innings of the Jays game

...Iona beach is pretty tide dependant...very similar to 72nd, you'd have a looooooong walk on anything lower than today's tides. If you are making the drive in I'd just keep going to Acadia, much better waves/swell option.

Now if you want to learn to kite..... :)

It's a good go-to spot for me, living in Richmond although distance wise it's not that much further to the ferry terminal, only I get to avoid the tunnel traffic.

Nice change rooms at Iona, grassy rigging area and a hose to rinse off stuff afterwards.
'Very civilized' to paraphrase Alton

Nice to meet Roxstock today too! Sorry the wind crapped out on ya, thought for sure you'd be killing it with your 16!

Good to know. I'll keep this in mid as a learning spot for Ethan on a NW (easier to get to than Locust as Ethan doesn't have Nexus). Looks like the tide was about 4 m dropping to 3 m around noon - how low can the tide be for kitting before the 'big walk' happens?

[Slappy]

I would actually worry more about the tide being too high. When the tide is out you still have a great learning environment out there, just 20 minute walk out to get to it.

I've taught friends at Iona a couple times and due to the sludge in the back of the bay the tide is often too high where you will be willing to be in the water. What I do for this is have them drag back to shore (along North Jetty) and then I take the kite from them and either ride it back up wind or if it's too light for upwind walk it up for them.

[C36]

I would actually worry more about the tide being too high. When the tide is out you still have a great learning environment out there, just 20 minute walk out to get to it.

I've taught friends at Iona a couple times and due to the sludge in the back of the bay the tide is often too high where you will be willing to be in the water. What I do for this is have them drag back to shore (along North Jetty) and then I take the kite from them and either ride it back up wind or if it's too light for upwind walk it up for them.

Interesting. So 20 minute walk would be on about what tide? 2 m? 1 m?

[Slappy]

I always walk up 15 minutes to the bit of sand and pump up and launch up there so that's not included. From there you'd be looking at another 15 min walk out to the water around the 1.0 m mark, but then you need to slog for another 2-3 minutes to get to knee deep water.

Don't leave anything on the beach out there either, the tide comes in super fast.

Wouldn't it be nice if they opened up the gravel road and we could just drive right out to that sandy spot.

When teaching friends and the tide is high I make them walk back with extra gear and I'll kite down to the park area being careful to remain on a plane until knee deep water/sludge. From there you can self land your kite in the wind shadow behind the wall of the building right beside the parking lot.