Jason and I were lucky enough to make an impromptu kiteboarding trip to the Bay Area from Wednesday until Sunday.  For the last 6 years we have spent every Memorial Day weekend in the Gorge with the crew, but the forecast wasn’t looking promising enough to stick around locally this time.  Our friends Jeff Dack and Nate Brooling invited us to join them for a fun weekend at Sherman Island and we couldn’t pass it up once we saw the forecast.

We hopped on the 7:30am flight so we could spend all of Wednesday at the Delta.  After take-off, the pilot announced that we had an abnormal 150mph tailwind propelling us to the Oakland airport in a record hour and twenty minutes, a sign of good winds to come!  We loaded Jason’s sister’s loaner Toyota 4Runner to the brim and made the trek out to Sherman Island.  Turns out a storm-front was passing through central california bringing with it plenty o wind.  This meant that the winds were coming out of a northerly direction contrary to the usual westerly thermals, making for gusty, shifty conditions. 

  

Look what the wind blew in!! 

 

The 5m Slingshot REV was the kite of choice for me that day while Jason and Jeff took turns powered up on the 7m REV.  

 Jason got a good chance to test out the new Crazyfly Rocky Chatwell Limited Edition Kiteboard.   Review to come soon.  Let’s just say he never went back to riding his other board.

 

Taking advantage of the plentiful, consistent winds in the Delta.  My favorite form of green energy! 

Word to the wise though: after spending a few hours trying new moves and getting dunked in the river water, I ended up with horrible stomach pains and even tossed my cookies that night.  It could have been caused by something else but we couldn’t come up with any other reasonable explanation (wasn’t food poisoning).  However, it didn’t stop us from kiting there the rest of the trip and it can’t be much worse than the Gorge anyways.

 At 6am the next morning, we got our kiting wake-up call from our favourite Brit, Guy, claiming that the Bay Area was the place to be for the day.  He couldn’t have been more right!  I snagged a brief 7m REV session before getting blown off the water at Alameda.  Jason also got a quick chance to try out the 2008 Slingshot Fuel 13m for the first time as well.  Unfortunately, it switched to offshore but on a good day, Alameda is an awesome spot!  It’s a shallow, long beach with a safe launch making it very beginner friendly.  Depending on the tide, the water can be pretty flat too. 

 The Kiteboarding and Windsurfing community do a great job with their signs posted around the area.

Once the wind clocked offshore at Alameda, we crossed the San Mateo bridge to try the other side of the bay at 3rd Ave.  There were plenty of kiters and windsurfers already soppin’ up the gravy when we arrived.  With Nate’s handheld wind meter, we gauged the wind at a sustained high of 44mph!  Jason rode powered on the 7m Slingshot REV and Nate braved the conditions with a 7m Cabrinha Crossbow2.    

 

Jason was jumping sooo high he had time to look down at us and pump his fist a few times, amazed at how high he was jumping in those 45mph gusts!

Nate skies over Jason.  Props to him for getting the guts to go out in the first place, and major props for going out with a helmet and impact vest to keep him safe! 

It was a pretty amazing day, one the locals won’t forget anytime soon.  Reports of the high winds were all over the news that night and they didn’t help firefighters as they fought big forest fires in Santa Cruz.  Jason says he’ll never forget his session there either.  He compared kiting 3rd Ave to kiting in chocolate milk thanks to the churned up, silty brown water.

Friday morning, we headed back out to Sherman Island in hopes of the hot weather pushing in a thermal.  We waited around until about 3 o clock when we got teased with a light 14m session. Upon hearing the reports from the last few days, Mike Hartzog and Kirsten Shultz showed up from Seattle to join us for the rest of the weekend.  Unfortunately, the wind never picked up beyond about 14knots and many people wound up downwind in the reeds.

 

Jason, Mike and Kirsten scoping out the conditions.

 

Guy wows the crowd with his amazing one foot dangle

 

Nate & Guy crossing the river.

Usually the weather is in the 90’s this time of year in the Delta but the weird low-pressure front that moved in made things quite chilly.  We spent that night in downtown San Francisco and got to experience the city for an evening.  Too bad we were so wiped out from the past few days that we crashed before 10pm.  Saturday was a transition day and was actually the first time it had rained in the Bay Area in 4 months!  We took the opportunity to check out Crissy Field, the Golden Gate Bridge, Ocean Beach and visit our Mystic importer in Sausalito. 

 

 If the wind ever did pick up, this guy was ready!!!

 

Jason, Jeff and Nate. 

 

 Jeff, Jason and I doing the tourist thing at the bridge. 

So, we never made it out on Saturday, but 3 out of 4 days on the water isn’t so bad.  We just got word from Mike and Kirsten that they scored a nice 10m session at 3rd Ave yesterday. I was glad to hear they didn’t get skunked after we left. Turns out the Gorge and Jetty Island delivered some good conditions back home too so hopefully everyone got the goods this weekend!  Can’t wait to hear about everyone’s adventures and I hope you enjoyed reading about ours.