weather and sea conditions

[g0nz01599968659]

Dead onshore wind and a shore dump is never that nice. I think I'd be looking to use the different angles of the coast line to find a spot which gives you more of an angle to get off the beach. As has been said before, spend a moment just watching the waves and get the timing before you go for your board start. Let one break and try to start before it pulls back out.

 

Another thing to bear in mind is that if you are driving from London, you have the choice of a broad stretch of coast and high tide won't be the same time everywhere, so you can choose a spot for the height of the tide when you want to kite.

 

Spring tides with high high tides and low low tides roll into Neap tides, where the range is less extreme, and back every couple of weeks. The spring highs occur at the same time of day for a given location and this doesn't change. Check out what time of day the spring high tides occur for a given beach so you can avoid them if it doesn't work there. For instance, here at Calshot our spring high tides happen about midday (choppy and rough on the front), but at Portland spring tides give a low at midday (shallow, flat and lush). The opposite is the case with neap tides a week later, we get a midday low water at Calshot (perfect lagoons) but Portland would be high tide in the middle of the day (deep water/offshore). If the wind is south west it would work in both spots, so we would pick where to go based on the tide, neaps for calshot and springs for Portland.

 

Grab the tide tables for the spots you use most and mark them up with the best days to be there for the tide. Then you can look at the wind and go, OK it works in this wind direction, but I need to be here in the morning or whatever for the tide. Sorted.

 

Another thing is to consider the direction of the water flow at different tide states. If you kite somewhere like Avon or Exmouth, the flow of water can sometimes make or break whether you can kite there. At mid tide halfway between high and low water the tide is generally flowing it's strongest. If the water flow is in the same direction as the wind it becomes a pita to stay upwind. The opposite is true if you get wind against the current and it's like a magic carpet holding you upwind.

 

If you're into surfing, it's doubly important to watch the tide times and the heights. Many waves only work when the water is a certain depth over the reef or sand bar. Swell direction and size is also critical to many waves, magic seaweed is a good resource or get the storm rider guide. It takes time to work out the best tides and directions for different spots, and local knowledge is key so get talking to kiters, windsurfers, surfers etc and glean what you can from them.

 

Hope some of this is useful and makes sense?

 

Dan

[balugh]

The free tide predictions off easytide are pretty useful. Just find a port close to where you're going and you'll get a pretty good indication of high and low and how big the tide is...

 

Select Port - EasyTide - on-line tidal predictions from the UKHO

[amphibianalf]

cheerz dan ...

I knew (sort of) about the neaps and springs ..I had no idea that was how it worked together, this is the sort of info I was looking for ..

this is a good starting point with a few key points for me to look up and start reading ... this along with what the Geoff said about pressure systems should keep me busy for a while .........this has turned into a quite informative thread for me with really good pointers ...I started off looking for info about weather and got a lot of very good info about board starting in difficult conditions as well ...I'm free from Wednesday for a couple of weeks so bring it on..cheerz guys for taking the time to reply ....anyone find any good web pages to research drop me a link....cheerz all ....AL...