Outside @ Pleasure Bay

I just wanted to make a quick post, as i have seen a bunch of people posting lately about kiting the outside of PB.

The outside of Pleasure Bay is a bit dicey at best. Here are a few things to ponder before you launch:

1.) How skilled are you at launching your kite and walking with it?
The beach is normally full of beach goers making th launching both tight and full of immediate risk to yourself and bystanders. The walk to the water at mid to low tide is dangerous as you need to cross a large section of barnacled rocks as well as move around people on the beach. Combine that with a tricky wind shadow on the beach.

2.) How skilled are you at piloting your kite and staying upwind?
After launching you need to fly your way out through as mixture of power boats and sailboats (with 30-40ft masts) while trying to get out off the beach in onshore winds. Remember you need to go upwind, through boats, dodge masts, and still handle weaving through other kiters.

3.) How experienced are you with gutsy winds, currents, and chop?
Outside the boat line, the obstacles are replaced by wind coming over the buildings at UMB. This creates gusts and lulls at different heights off the water. The water moves quickly in/out of the harbor, so the chop and current can be erratic at times.

4.) How experienced are you with self-rescuing?
If something breaks or the wind dies and you can't hold ground upwind or relaunch a kite, and you are being pushed past the tip of PB and into the harbor channel. You may need to self-rescue and/or body drag fairly close to the wind to get back to shore safely or else you will end up floating into the channel (which is home to some very large boats - freighters, cruise ships, ferries).

I don't want this to come off as a "stay off the local beach". these are things I evaluate every time I think about launching on the outside at PB. One bad incident could carry the cost of a kiting ban at PB, and I don't want that to be because of me. If everyone thinks before they kite, it goes a long way to keeping things open for all of us.

PS - Wear booties!