Both sites are giving very different forcasts for this weekend Marine weather says SW 20/16 knots for Sat and Sunday. Their nice Isobar application gives a good visual of this. However, Windiguru states South East. I guess the truth will be known on the morrow, but it creates a problem in my predictive planning. What do you think?:

i use wind finder and find it fairly accuarate one to two days out.

www.windfinder.com/forecasts/wind_new_zealand_akt.htm

ill call it and say its going to be SE.

Talking of SE i attempted a session today in gusty cross off shore conditions. it was gusting literally 0-30 knots. Very nasty. went from kite falling out of sky to super powered in a heart beat. i lasted 30 mins before i though stuff this and pulled pin.

I really like Marine Weather and hope that they are right as they have lots of good visual stuff and most usually are right. I think it's something to do with realeasing weather ballons every day.

I'm a "Windfinder" user myself. Have found them to be dead on nearly all of the time!

Windfinder base their predictions on the GFS-model of the American Weather Service NOAA, and other sites use the CMC (Canadian Meteorological Centre) system. Marine weather adds some live buoy info to this, but they are all just numerical models trying to predict the unknown.
If there was a perfect system, I wouldn't have gone swimming today with all of my gear, hoping that the forecast of >15 knots using both models was correct, but knowing that it was stupid to go out anyway in <8 knots

Just go out anyway - the worst that can happen is you get skunked on the beach - its where I have made most of my friends

i use surf-forcast and would call a southeasterly.but the weather isobar looks like a southewsterly, i recon itl change from a southwesterly to a south easterly as the front moves northeast during the day...

i go outside and see if its windy mostly, that way im always exited,both about going out side and to see if its windy and it actualy bieng windy.its the depression that follows stillness that hurts the most.
never let the weather man cramp your day dude.they are bad people.

Well look at that 6,30am and their is no wind

so they are all wrong

maybe it's the SW and the SE having a shoot out,
so the wind is go straight up over me

Hmmm is that the making of a good kiting day or what

www.metvuw.com/nzweather/index.php?type=wind

OK, SE wins and building

but it's SSE

so it's moose only or kite day

I'm still in for a good moosing

I don't trust any of them. I have wind guru on my browser. Its right sometimes but not often enough. I don't look at it much anymore.

I have been kiting my whole life and have been disappointed too many times by poor forecasts. About 10 years ago I just gave up on them. The reality of kiting is sometimes you are going to go flying and there will be no wind. Its a shame if you have traveled along way, given up something else or you have an event with oodles of people. Sometimes the wind just does not come even if a forecaster told you it will.
Sometimes the weather people can't even tell what is happening in real time. When I was a mailman I would hear the radio weather report say its a beautiful sunny day and I would have the wipers on in a down pour, other times they would say its raining all over the Waikato and I would be in brilliant sunshine.

I look at the maps and the satellite photos and the rain radar but as for forecasting I just don't believe anything they say.

Its a simple thing. If the wind is blowing I can fly. If its not I can't. Not that hard. When it comes to picking a date for an event. Its all about the tide at the right time. There are often few options. I am not about to juggle about on the word of a forecaster several months out.

Yes I am a grumpy old man.

Well i have various activities to do at any given time.

play with kids
do chores for the missis
go mountain biking with buddies or
londboard skating or
kitesurfing or
kite landboarding or
surfing or
work dammit.

I usually have to select the activity a few days in advance for what ever reason. So i relie on the forecasts to make the decision for the activity i do.

Most of the time the forecast 1-2 days out is good for appoximate wind direction and speed +/- 10 knots.

Sometimes its wrong and i end up doing the wrong activity for the conditions. but most of the time i'm smiling.

In generall i'm pleased with the predictions and end up optimising my time which is a whole lot better than no predictions at all.

Both right and both wrong. At South Head, we initially got SE but it then turned SW either way it was shite at about 6/10knots - inconsistant (Sob Sob).

6-10 knots sw is workable.. 1 can do 40kph on the landboard in 10knots!....
jimmy will tell you ha can to 56kph in 5 knots.

the seasoned pro's with whom I had the privilage of kiting with struggled with the wind - you guys must rock !

i have settled on wind guru for murs and orewa 95% good as far as i have seen BUT if in doubt i take 2 sizes either side of the kite i think im going to fly, and yes i would have topped 50 kmph i todays winds in a buggy. the kite day rocked , we made the news as usual , and some documentary guy asked if he could film me for a while, i think because all the other kites were single line at the time.

Jimmy22 wrote:


So you leave kites at home? You do have faith. I feel like such an infidel.

with a grand total of 4 kites 1 landboard and 1 kitesurf board i take all my equipment to the beach each time.

but then its not a question of what do i take to the beach for me its do i go to the beach at all.

I have 9. Technically 13 but 5 of them are stacked together.
I always take 7 of them to the beach and 9 when I go to events. I will take my 2 extreme wind kites if it is really windy but I hardly use them. The sort of wind they need does not normally come out of nowhere and my 1.6 or 2.5 usually does the job.

guys, you got nothing....i bought a van with the soul objective that a have the ability to take EVERYTHING to the beach...how you can leave kites behind and have that much faith in the weather is beyond me..i admit i cannot read the weather well,this could be my problem.....i take roughly 10..sometimes 12, but the 10 all fit in one carry bag so its just like one big one

5/10 knots sucks,if i could go 10times the windspeed i would be very happy ...i find it only good for tuning kites and static flying..yeaterday i was happier to drink light beer instead of flying in thoes winds..the only kite i feel is fun to fly in thoes wind speeds is the 7.something yakuza because it still handles well.

i enjoy the efficiancy of the large kites but its SO BORING.....this may be why i have 3x 2.2 kites and not one over 6.6m.... i have my large arcs but they kina refuse to race, they dont like it, old ladies that they are.thats my excuse.

"5/10 knots sucks,if i could go 10times the windspeed i would be very happy ...i find it only good for tuning kites and static flying"

I strongly agree!

DeanoBeano wrote:


Wanna swap? I'm stuck in Wellington and have been waiting for the wind to drop below 15-20 knots so I can learn how to fly my kite without getting thrashed!

LOL - the wind is a fickle thing and the predictions are hot air!

hohoho , we should start a corney joke thread ?

15/20knots is pretty strong for learning in...but poor old deano here had to struggle just as much in the light winds we had,
light winds are just fustrating and strong winds are skary, but in strong winds you actualy move and learn how to go up wind and scrub power off, and its learnig to scrub the power that makes you safer....you could turndle around for weeks in light winds learning it all but as soon as strong wind comes you have no idea what to do.

i recomend making yourself as heavy as possible (sand in a rucksak, tie weights to the buggy) anything...just load it up so you have more bully on the kite than it does on you and going out on your 15knot days and soon you will have a good confidence and the ability to actualy slowdown and stop the buggy at will nomater how fast you going...this is probably the most important thing you need to know as a buggier...other that not going out in a 30knot offshore

yes i do trust wind guru with in 5 knots the only time i have had the wrong kite was when 2m was not small enough and i owned nothing smaller and my 6m was not big enough and i borrowed petes 7.3m for the raglan race, i got used to it by the end of the race

currently i have 2.5, 3.0 3.4 4.0 5.0 6.0 10.0 12.0

if guru said 15 knots id take 3-5.0 and 10m

guru says 5 knots id take 6 10 12

guru at 20 kts id take 4 3 2


going moosing i tend to take more kites as the moose has a mind of its own and can be 5 knots in the am and 25 in the pm

the more i use guru and then see what happens in practice the less kites i need to take.

Fat Old Whimp wrote:


what are they? im facinated.....like minature kites?

I have a single super speedwing that I have had since 1997. except for the odd fun flight I have used that 3 times with a buggy. Once it was too small. Once it was OK and once it was the correct choice. Its less than 1m triangle, carbon frame, 2 line. Shed water well and has relatively low power but high speed. If you fly it right it will pull a buggy long just fine in very strong wind.

I also have a stack of 5 6' Stacker Flexifoil power kites. The ones with the spar in the leading edge. They are about 1m each. I have 5 and use as many as needed at the time. I found that 3 is about the limit for speed. 4 or 5 will have more power but also more drag. Paul Crafar I have been flying these since 1979 and have no intention of stopping. I last used mine in January the day before the race. You may have seen Ted's stack of 6 8 and 10 being used at the Moose. That is a lovely stack. Real fun to fly and easy to get around in a buggy. Not bad speed when you throw a few loops and head on a broad reach. The 6' are not as good in a buggy as the super 10 but providing there is plenty of wind they tow a buggy OK and can be quite fast in big winds. The first bit of dune riding I ever did was with 2 6' on Barrow tyres. They pulled us really well.

Stunt kites are definitely not as efficient as purpose built traction kites but they do have something going for them. Flexis, speedwing's and sport kites are fast and they generate pull from that speed. They don't point as high and don't have power on tap and the all around handling that modern traction kites have but if they had the development of foils it may be a different story.