{"id":2639,"date":"2018-03-29T19:56:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T17:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannonrocks.com\/blog\/?p=2639"},"modified":"2018-04-04T22:26:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T20:26:12","slug":"riding-waves-in-off-shore-winds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannonrocks.com\/blog\/riding-waves-in-off-shore-winds\/","title":{"rendered":"Riding waves in Off Shore Winds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/a>I spent last Week End in Cape St Francis.<\/a> For those who don’t know, it is famous for it’s wave, (and yes I did dust the old Waveski and got a few good rides in ). So if you ain’t scoring wind, you got the option of an awesome wave with friendly locals as long as you respect their spot and play according to the rules (Not all visitors seem to understand that)<\/p>\n

I was on a mission to kite it, to see how the wind was on the South Westerly direction knowing it would be pretty off shore.<\/p>\n

Riding real waves in those conditions \u00c2\u00a0is challenging for a few reasons:<\/p>\n

Firstly the wind is invariably gusty as it comes over land.<\/p>\n

Secondly the timing and way of rinding the wave has to adapt to deal with the wind direction and where the kite sits in the window whilst on the wave.<\/p>\n

The first day I went further down around the bay where the wind is a more friendly cross off shore to a spot called “Ducks”. The waves break on sandbanks and are pretty fast and gnarly. You also got some rip currents which can\u00c2\u00a0create chop on the wave. The wind as expected, was gusty but manageable for an experienced rider. The close outs did catch me a few times, but I also got some nice runs and turns. The beautiful backdrop of the Cape St Francis lighthouse makes for a good picture.<\/p>\n

On the Sunday, with the wind still around, I tried seals point where it is totally off shore. \u00c2\u00a0I realised that my board was lacking a little bit of volume to get me through the dead spots in the wind, so if I’d had the choice, I would have used a board with a little more volume.\"\"<\/a>My Peter Lynn Kiteboarding “Swell”\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>handled nicely as it has great drifting capabilities, I think without a good drifting kite, I would have battled in those off shore conditions. Another observation is that when the wind drops on you, you need to be able towork the kite to generate power. A quick and responsive kite definitely helps.
\nIt was amazing to be riding such clean waves, but challenging to time the turns on the beach break. You almost need to turn a little late to catch the lip coming down so you stay on the wave.
\nThe spot is also a little daunting because of dealing with off shore conditions, and I definitely only recommend it to very experienced kiters with the option of a rescue craft should things go wrong. (I had someone with a JetSki on standby)<\/p>\n

During the Week End I came to these conclusions:<\/p>\n