windsurfing is good with the cold fronts. very gusty, unpredictably gusty. I rig for the gusts. A lot of fun. Very cold during the middle of the season (jan, feb). I use long johns top and bottom and wet suit farmer john and a dry suit on the outside,amazingly i can still move, but iI stay very comfortably warm.Plus the booties and gloves.
It took me a while to be able to respond to this tread.
I am Emilio, one of the local kiters in Lanier. We have 1 1/2 years of experience in Lanier, kiting successfully. Prior to January 2006 we were very unsuccessful due to the gusty nature of the wind in Lanier. It wasn't until the come of age of Bow Kites late on 2005 (DEC 2005) that we were able to kite on Gusty Lanier, actually sailing up wind and returning to departing spot. After that, it's all history.
The more enjoyable time of the year to kite is Fall, where 10-20mph are not that uncommon(maybe once every week, once every 2 weeks) and temp is still in the 60s?... The best wind in my experience has been in Jan-March timeframe. Surprisingly this year's Feb and March was not so cold (45-60F). I personally don't mind the cold when is windy. It will be better to have the wind on summer, but I take any windy day whenever we can have one. The majority of us (kiters) use dry-suits (some still use thick neoprene like 5-6mm) plus globes, hoodies and booties in the coldest days.
I went through my records of sailed days. I have been keeping a tally-book with all times I have been to Lanier since Feb 2006. So you can see when it is more feasible (at least this and last year) to be windy. You will notice some crazy temp too... Las November and this Feb were "hot!!!!"
Wind speed (as seen bellow) mean base speed of wind and its gust, so for example, 10 G20mph will be 10mph base wind speed (+/-) and Gusting to 20mph (+/-). I have to say, that some days that would seem to be epic were really shitty (for example on 4-27-07 wind as reported below was 13 G28mph, but I have in my tally that it was so gusty, that everybody's kite was in the water on multiple occasions, and that we had multiple waverunner pickups support, meaning the wind will literally dye for some time, and then pick up again like crazy....so take the reading some times with a grain of salt).
Lastly, I am 200lbs and the kite I most frequently use are the 17m Sonic bow kite, or the 16m Vegas "C" but very depowerable kites. When is on...its on, and in those days I may use an 11m.
Choosing the "right" size kite in Lanier (my theory at least is) depends on your experience and willingness to accept chances (I know I don't use the safer logic here).....I size my kites paying attention to the LULL windspeed (off course also observe the Gusts....) but I try to have a kite that will remain with power even on the Lulls, otherwise you sink on the lulls. To do this, you really need to be confortable when overpowered on the gusts, be able to dump all additional power when it gust... plus able to apply all techniques (A-to-Z) to remain in control during the gust. Sometime I have gotten into trouble by using this sizing "Technique". It pays to know your emergency releases systems very well. Big board also helps on the Lulls. I normally have used big boards in Lanier (ligthwave 169cm 60% of the time, Ocean Rodeo 142cm-20% of the time, and Lightwave 137cm-20%).
My style of kite sizing is not recommendable to inexperience kiters. If you are new to Lanier always use the smaller kite you can get away with (will help you to have smaller kite on the Gust, specially on the crazy days) and the biggest board you have on your quiver (to help you palin on the Lulls). If you can't ride up wind, don't even try Lanier, much less in a windy day... Most people use 14m and boards range from 137-145. At least those are my advices.
windsurfing is good with the cold fronts. very gusty, unpredictably gusty. I rig for the gusts. A lot of fun. Very cold during the middle of the season (jan, feb). I use long johns top and bottom and wet suit farmer john and a dry suit on the outside,amazingly i can still move, but iI stay very comfortably warm.Plus the booties and gloves.
It took me a while to be able to respond to this tread.
I am Emilio, one of the local kiters in Lanier. We have 1 1/2 years of experience in Lanier, kiting successfully. Prior to January 2006 we were very unsuccessful due to the gusty nature of the wind in Lanier. It wasn't until the come of age of Bow Kites late on 2005 (DEC 2005) that we were able to kite on Gusty Lanier, actually sailing up wind and returning to departing spot. After that, it's all history.
The more enjoyable time of the year to kite is Fall, where 10-20mph are not that uncommon(maybe once every week, once every 2 weeks) and temp is still in the 60s?... The best wind in my experience has been in Jan-March timeframe. Surprisingly this year's Feb and March was not so cold (45-60F). I personally don't mind the cold when is windy. It will be better to have the wind on summer, but I take any windy day whenever we can have one. The majority of us (kiters) use dry-suits (some still use thick neoprene like 5-6mm) plus globes, hoodies and booties in the coldest days.
I went through my records of sailed days. I have been keeping a tally-book with all times I have been to Lanier since Feb 2006. So you can see when it is more feasible (at least this and last year) to be windy. You will notice some crazy temp too... Las November and this Feb were "hot!!!!"
Wind speed (as seen bellow) mean base speed of wind and its gust, so for example, 10 G20mph will be 10mph base wind speed (+/-) and Gusting to 20mph (+/-). I have to say, that some days that would seem to be epic were really shitty (for example on 4-27-07 wind as reported below was 13 G28mph, but I have in my tally that it was so gusty, that everybody's kite was in the water on multiple occasions, and that we had multiple waverunner pickups support, meaning the wind will literally dye for some time, and then pick up again like crazy....so take the reading some times with a grain of salt).
Lastly, I am 200lbs and the kite I most frequently use are the 17m Sonic bow kite, or the 16m Vegas "C" but very depowerable kites. When is on...its on, and in those days I may use an 11m.
Choosing the "right" size kite in Lanier (my theory at least is) depends on your experience and willingness to accept chances (I know I don't use the safer logic here).....I size my kites paying attention to the LULL windspeed (off course also observe the Gusts....) but I try to have a kite that will remain with power even on the Lulls, otherwise you sink on the lulls. To do this, you really need to be confortable when overpowered on the gusts, be able to dump all additional power when it gust... plus able to apply all techniques (A-to-Z) to remain in control during the gust. Sometime I have gotten into trouble by using this sizing "Technique". It pays to know your emergency releases systems very well. Big board also helps on the Lulls. I normally have used big boards in Lanier (ligthwave 169cm 60% of the time, Ocean Rodeo 142cm-20% of the time, and Lightwave 137cm-20%).
My style of kite sizing is not recommendable to inexperience kiters. If you are new to Lanier always use the smaller kite you can get away with (will help you to have smaller kite on the Gust, specially on the crazy days) and the biggest board you have on your quiver (to help you palin on the Lulls). If you can't ride up wind, don't even try Lanier, much less in a windy day... Most people use 14m and boards range from 137-145. At least those are my advices.
Date Wind Speed mph) Temp
4-Feb-06 25 40
14-Feb-06 25 G32 38
8-Nov-06 15 G20 59
11-Nov-06 15 G24 53
12-Nov-06 12 G20 55
16-Nov-06 17 G25 43
19-Nov-06 16 G 22 53
1-Dec-06 15 G24 53
7-Dec-06 20 G27 45
20-Dec-06 17 G23 52
26-Dec-06 13 G25 41
1-Jan-07 17 G 23 54
25-Jan-07 18 G23 47
28-Jan-07 21 G30 39
3-Feb-07 20 G30 60
4-Feb-07 14 G21 60
14-Feb-07 20 G25 36
18-Feb-07 18 G25 41
22-Feb-07 19 G25 68
25-Feb-07 16 G24 66
2-Mar-07 12 G24 59
3-Mar-07 20 G30 57
4-Mar-07 14 G24 45
16-Mar-07 20 G30 57 to 45
17-Mar-07 17 G 26 48
18-Mar-07 10 G17 53
4/4/2007 17 G26 66
4/7/2007 15 G28 42
4/15/2007 20 G35 44
4/17/2007 14 G23 75
4/19/2007 17 G26 66
4/27/2007 13 G28 42
4/28/2007 12 G20 73
5/24/2007 12 G20 75
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