What's up with WindNet.co.nz...?

North and South Brighton info has been acting up for the past weekend, and the Estuary is always wack...??

Any other local CHCH wind sites that are a little more dependable...?

Any one subscribe to HowIsIt.co.nz...? Is it any better..?

Howisit.co.nz lets you have a free trail for 7 days. i signed for a trail and got 9, seems pretty good but I'm not that good kiting yet. hope to get out again tomorrow if parential duties aren't required. 8)

Hmmm, thanks for the info I might give HowIsIt a try as WindNet is still busted.

I a 'noob' kiter myself and am hoping to be on the beach practicing tonight, although it is St.Patricks Day....

There is also www.wind.co.nz we have a sensor on the groundswell building so it has quite accurate readings.
You have to subscribe but they do have a free 7 day trial.
Works great for all of NZ.
See YA Adrian

My sources tell me the Groundswell building is going to be demolished in May....! Both Wind.co.nz & Windnet have their wind sensors on the building so I'm not sure what they will be doing.

Anyways.... I have signed up for the www.HowIsIt.co.nz 7 day free trial, and I must say it looks good already.... I'll report back when I have had a real chance to check it out..

** Christchurch Area Only **

Well 5 days into my 7 day free-trial at www.HowIsIt.co.nz (which appears to be a 10 day trial), I have to say I am quite impressed.

Although the webpage is pretty basic and the site doesn't have any fancy graphics and maps and such, it does have 4 useful windstations around the Christchurch area, (Waimak, Brighton, the Estuary & Ellesmere), that have info updated every 3 minutes during the day. Each site shows the usual peak gust, average, lull wind speeds and direction for their location and also a temperature reading.

There also appears to be some sort of rating index, (A, B, C, " ") for each location, to give some indication of the quality of the wind..? Not sure exactly how it works but it was showing an "A" at Brighton & the Estuary this weekend when the wind was really good.

The free trail is only at the "Basic" membership level, but it looks like there are some other goodies available at the site with the 'Power" membership, like historical data and tides and such.

One of the downsides of the site is that most windstations go 'off the air' at 6pm, and I am sure there are plenty of us who would normally only get out there around this time, although now that daylight saving has kicked in it shouldn't be too much of a factor. Also the "Basic" membership is $33.00 per year which seems a little pricey to me when there are other sites giving info out for free, but there are no Ads and the quality of the information looks to be a little more solid than some. (WindNet is STILL stuffed). I guess in the end you get what you pay for...

Anyway, it's a good little site and I am considering paying the $33 bucks for the next year, ( 9cents a day), if it means I can get reliable data of where the wind is....

I have the power subscripton for HowIsIt, and the logs are really nice. I can log on up to two days after a session and get a listing of the wind speed and direction every 15 minutes. Unfortunatley the logs are only available for 4 hours, and sometimes we are there all day. In that case I just make two logs...

The Brighton wind direction is off by about 30 degrees, which is frustrating for mountainboarding and dirtsurfing since wind direction has to be fairly much pure onshore. Once you sort it out it is OK however.

HowIsIt also is phone enabled, and I got online once just to see how useful it was. Kerry keeps a very quick, text based site, so it worked ok by phone, but it definately still takes a lot of time. This will be a nice feature when we camp down at chamberlains ford next christmas and want to see what lake ellesmere is up to...

Greg Morehouse

Well I have bitten the bullet and have just paid my $33 and signed up for the Basic Membership.

I have been really impressed with the service from www.HowIsIt.co.nz during my free trial, and particually the undocumented 'Index' feature. I know that when the 'Index' for Brighton or the Wiamak goes to 'B' or 'A' that it's really worth setting up and hitting the beach. During the Easter break it was spot on, with Sunday afternoon being the best conditions, (except for the high tide). I will be looking forward to spotting an Index 'A' throughout the coming winter months.

air-time - Living close to the Brighton sensor, I am not fully convinced that the reading from that station are as much as 30 degrees off. On the weekend of the Kitesports Challenge the readings looked almost spot on during the several hours I spent lurking around the South Brighton beach, which is almost exactly where the station is located. I think it could be a max of 5-10 degrees off on occassion, which I thought could be a result of data averaging over the 3-minute time interval. Other than that it looks pretty close to me.....

Spig

I wonder if sailing from N New Brighton could make the direction difference, or if it's been corrected recently.

I haven't checked it in a while as I just ignore the direction now, and if it's vaguely easterly I decide go or no go by windspeed. It's only a half a block walk to see if it's really on!

Greg

Thats a good point.... Are you making the assumption that East is always directly off-shore at any point along Brighton beach...? The North Brighton Surf club is about 2.5 kms north of the Brighton windstation, and therefore must be a few degrees further around the bay, (although it's almost imperceptible), I'm guessing maybe 5 degrees at most.

If East is directly offshore at the Brighton windstation would mean that wind reported as being Easterly may seem to be slightly out of the North East the further North you go along Brighton beach. This could explain part of the variation but not enough to impact the landboarding to any great degree...

Anyway, what we need right now is some wind, with the tides being right for some early evening landboarding. Maybe I'll see you down there soon.....

Spig

Hey Sig,

My street map of Chch shows the beach running NNW to SSE, implying true offshore to be out of the ENE. As I remember I made a log which indicated the wind was ENE when the actual wind was probably ESE, as I could only go north up the beach that day.

I ride a dirt surfer, so if you see me out there flag me down! Tomorrow should be OK (fingers crossed).

Greg

Hey Greg

Yeah, the wind looked awesome this evening, but I had a function to attend and didn't get down to the beach until 6:00pm for some scudding.

Was that you on the Dark blue kite, (blade maybe..?)

Spig

Hey Spig,

No, I was out kitsurfing in NNB under a turqoise 15 m Bomba. It was good, but a little patchy. The dirt surfer would have been powered up! What do you fly?

Greg
I am sure I will become the local Brighton leper for my kite choice, but I am flying a Best Kiteboarding 2.8m Foil, and loving every second of it.... It has me scudding up the beach in a good 10-12knot wind, and I am hoping it will be enought to propell me on an MBS Comp Pro 16 that I have coming. I am also currently looking to purchase a 5 to 7m foil to keep this 'noob' entertained over the coming winter season...

I can nearly always be found flying just north of the Waimari Surf Club, but with the addition of a landbaord, I am hoping to cover every inch of sand from the Wiamak to the Pier.... Keep your eyes out for an old guy with a big grin....

Spig,

I've been to the Waimak and back to the pier on the dirtsurfer, it's a good tour. Anything above 10 knots though on the dirtsurfer under a 15 m kite gets pretty exciting! I crashed big a couple of weeks ago when I was leaned over so far the upwind rail unweighted the front wheel... It hurts alot more to crash on the sand than in the surf or estuary! It's amazing how far a powered up kite will drag you...

I've also been the estuary mouth and back to the pier from South Beach. That's a good tour as well.

I'm an old guy too, about to celebrate my 45th and only 6 mo. experience or so kiting and surfing. It good to keep us old dogs learning new tricks!

Not too far behind you Greg, age wise, with 2 months flying experience to date...

I got hold of a 7m foil and had a great couple of hours on the beach in the nice steady 5-6 knots on Sunday. Loads of power in the low winds, just wish I could match it with control. Still plenty to learn...

Right now www.HowIsIt.co.nz is showing 'B' indexes at Brighton & Ellesmere, and an 'A' at the Estuary..... Just a shame I have to work this afternoon....