Rick and Mary: Have you dried out yet? Wet and blustery here, can't imagine there will be any damage to speak of.
The guy is in critical condition, can't imagine what he's thinking, hey BK are you getting the lasers ready?
How bout you Tiki? Looks like your area got it more than the Keys.
We have rain and kids have a few extra days off.
A tornado hit a horse barn here so the news will have something to cover.
Hope our luck holds out for the rest of the season!
Simply more proof that kiteboards are well-marketted suicide machines.
Am I the only one to notice that the mast of that hobie was flopping around? <img src=
alt=
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Am I the only one to notice that the mast of that hobie was flopping around? <img src=
alt=
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Wait, you mean he didnt plan to fly into that wall at 50mph?
LOL!
I also saw the mast, and was glad to see that it was still standing, and even more glad that it wasnt my cat
No damage in the area that I know of. Light debris i.e. leaves & twigs. Lots of much needed rain.
Was he tethered to the kite? Why didn't he let go?
Clayton
Yes, the local news said he couldn't get his harness unsnapped. I thought all these things had bailout lines? I guess he couldn't get a hold of his. If you look closely in the background you will see there are other kites out sailing.
last summer we had a very windy day (15-20) and then had a squall come through (20-30).
There were many people sailing and also lots of kite boarders out.
There was a young guy (i think 16) that was lifted up into the power lines when the squall came through. The sparks were visible and audible for a great distance. The power lines melted his harness off... he then dropped 30' onto the metal rail that was below him (divides a trail with the roadway).
I was actually sailing (trying to get to shore) when the squall line came in. I heard the electric shock, but didn’t see him.
What i did see about 1 minute later was his Kite fly into my boat. After it melted away from him, it flew across the causeway and into me!
The kite and all the lines got wrapped up around my mast and forestay. I had to pull out my knife and pop the kite (they are inflatable) and cut off all the lines.. it almost capsized me. It took over 10 minutes to free myself from it. I felt bad slashing a $1000.00 kite, but would have felt worse if I cracked my mast in ½ as this “NEW SAIL” took me out.
It is my understanding the young man recovered... with severe burns... broken ribs and other bones and months in the hospital. It was later noted (on a kite board website blog) that he had no business being out that day (he was not very experienced) in those winds, had the wrong type of kite for heavy air, was on the wrong side of the causeway (windward of the power lines) …
and I would bet he has probably decided not to kite board again.
Well, the two of them should get together and compare stories, I just hope they don't reproduce...Darwin awards and all that...
Hey, the eye of Fay is just outside Sebring now, we are getting some good gusts, maybe 40 knots, lots of rain all day of course. Coming over to the East Coast now! Enjoy!
Looks like Fay is coming our way as a cane! Hopefully there will be no major damage and the weather will be fine for Labor Day.
RMurph
They have bailouts if you can get to them fast enough, which looks like he didnt even have a chance to raise his arms.
Raining non-stop here. Looks like the storm has stopped for now and a rainban is parked over Cocoa. Good thing we cleaned out the gutters yesterday.
did you guys notice the architectural features on that wall ... yikes....that was vicious.
awwwwww....the newschannel snagged the video from youtube.
Straight from the source:
http:/
or
http:/
BK, I just looked at the Orlando news, looked like the
eye
is parked right over Rockledge right now! I hope all is well up there, you guys up in Jax at the Rudder Club had better think about taking your masts down, they are saying it will strengthen from 40mph winds to 60 then turn back inland up by you. Good luck.
No real damage to report here in Sebring, only blew about 30mph with 24 hours of rain, but at least the lake came up about a foot. Only need about 5 more storms like that to get it back up to where it should be... <img src=
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Mostly a lot of rain.
Heres a link to the Florida Kite Assoc Forum, they have a detailed discussion of the accident. Damn that must have hurt something fierce.
http:/
hey, at least that kite surfer isn't like this dude:
http:/
So how do you reef in a kite?
It was 40 mph gusting to 60 here Tuesday morning, but we were lucky and the power stayed on. Probably about 6
rainfall, which makes the pond behind the house look nice & full.
What's up with the other two
areas of interest" coming off Africa? Are they likely to develop into something?
Reef in a kite???
Are you asking about reducing sail area, or do you mean REEL in a kite?
Kiters reduce area by switching kite sizes just like a windsurfer. They cary an assortment of sizes, big for light wind, small for high wind.
They also have the ability to alter the power of the kite by adjusting it's angle in the sky as well as adjusting it's angle to the wind through the various lines that connect the kite to the control bar.
As far as reeling in the kite, they don't actually reel it in. The lines are a fixed length. So in most instances when the rider is ready to land the kite, they fly it down to ground level and then have a helper grab the kite and hold it on the ground.
The problem is that if the kite overwhelms or
lofts
the rider on the beach, it is very likely that he will lose control of it and it will inadvertantly power up before he can pull any of the emergency quick releases. This is a fundamental safety difference between kitesurfing and windsurfing.
sm
I would bet he was kidding about how do you Reef a kite
No power for the last 36hrs here. One stupid branch on one stupid wire..............> no power. The worst parrt was that only 20 houses were affected and just 4 people are here to complain. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Sunfish was great fun yesterday! Anybody know of a good bolt-on muffler for an 11hp techumseh engine on a generator the noise is awful right now.
If you find a muffler for that gen. lemme know .I've got a loud Tecumseh also, I'd like to put a muzzle on.
Todd
I'm trying to figure out how to muffle a 13 hp diesel generator... you think a gas one is loud!
Around here when power is out, gas is very hard to get. No gas stations in the outage area. We have 1K gallons of road diesel and 500 gallons of off road diesel at my shop for our trucks. I always have plenty of diesel. <img src=
alt=
/> But also a lot of noise.
Clayton
After Hurricane Charley, I put the generator between the hulls of the Hobie 16. Then took some sheets of plywood and leaned them together to form a leaky box with a partial roof. To maintain airflow I plugged a window fan into an unused outlet.
This really quieted it down.
Jack
A piece of plywood leaning up against the genny can make a big difference, your neighbor might not like it. I've seen guys build a 1/2 box to deflect noise and protect it from rain, just watch wear the muffler is.
Better yet, I've used that foil backed foam board insulation (the cheap stuff) to line my RV generator box to cut down the noise and heat (damn designer put the generator right under the main sleeping bed). Worked marvelously. I would say a couple of those duct taped together into a box would do the trick.
Strange, most RVs seem to have a generator that keeps everyone else in the campground up at night, but doesn't bother the owner in the least.