KiteRacing stats (opportunity/days for Van area)

[TeabagVic]

Currently arguing with someone on KiteForum about the amount of days kiteable in Vancouver.

Need opinion from local riders, I might be wrong, I might be right. But I want to know.

1: Did any of you have been to Tsawassen yesterday to kiteboard?
Wind was 10-13 kts all day (12mph-15mph). If so what kite size did u use and how much do u weight?

2: Jericho Beach reached 8-9 kts around noon yesterday (10-11mph), did any of you went there to kiteboard for like half an hour? Jericho Beach is actually 8 kts (10mph) right now , any of u can get there with a 21m and a Race Board? (Chris are u at Airtime right now? Do you think you could get a session in?)

3: Any of you logging their sessions? If so that would resolve everything. (please share the amount u did last year and this year)

Mark, Chris, Andy???

AJ (if u read that) u leave by the ferry terminal, do u see kiters more than half of the times there? 3-4 times a week, every week? If none for a week or two youll see them everyday for two weeks or a month.

150 session a year (without going to Squamish) is impossible... (thats almost kiting every second day...)

Any local want to comment on that?

(the person I argue with thinks that because there is 171 days near Tsawassen that have 15mph (13kts) or higher, it means that u can kiteboard 150 times of these days a year... I am pretty sure that there is more than 21 of these days where that "more than 15mph" happens for only an hour, or during night etc...

5: Basically: Is there/do you know a kiteboarder guy/girl that kiteboard every chance they get (lightwind race board setup included) in Vancouver? Would it be true that this person get 150 session a year?

This is more than 3 per week. You skip one week, wind better be good next week to remain in the quota.

Thanks for any info, Ian

P.S Phil in Victoria manage ~170 sesh in 2011, he spent almost a year in Maui and kiteboarded every chance he got (yes he does have a 15m Edge as well) He log his session everytime.

If this is true, why going to Maui when u can stay in Vancouver and get your 150 kiteboarding days a year!!! (yes many of these days will be light).

[coop]

I read that. Heavy hype. Vancouver is not a wind destination in the fall/winter/spring.

Are you the guy that tries to body drag around in the shallows though? come clean, thats a troll post no ?

[TeabagVic]

Yeah that was a joke post obviously, cant believe so many people believed it though!

[Kyle]

I have no idea what you are arguing about, but I would believe that you could easily get 150+days around van and area. I stop counting my sessions after 3 though. I counted to 4 once, but that was a big deal.

As for the light wind Q's, for reference I am about 245 lbs and can kite around in about 6knots with a 17m and race board (they actually start us racing in 6knots). Riding is fine, but racing in that sucks for me since others are much more powered.

As for whether you can get exactly whatever-many days without going to squam or not - the correct answer is "who cares?".

[coop]

Kyles right Vic, this discussion forum isn't really the place to discuss stuff.

[Kyle]

"Who cares" because you should be going to squamish.

[AndyW]

I live in Tsawwassen and can't really see any benefit of staying local vs driving to Squamish.

1. There are no weeds.
2. There is no sand.
3. The wind is better.
4. Coop will save your life (so long as your lines are wound up).

[bluevelvet]

17.5 stone ?

[TeabagVic]

For everyone: The reason I want to exclude Squamish is to know the # of kiting days a year in Van area (walking distance and/or up to 30-45 minutes car drive)

Kyle: To answer the "Who Cares", you are totally right, who f### cares!
Unfortunately the "who cares" this time might influence a couple life for a whole year; "Hey honey, lets move to Vancouver, we are going to get 150 kiteboarding days a year, thanks to the Canadian guy who answered our post!!!" This is why I care.

After my scepticism post, James explain his statement by mentioning wind stats: 171 days above 15mph (13 kts) @ sand bank. By removing ~21 days for night wind or for days when only a short amount of time you get this 15mph+, one should expect to get 150 days of "kiting days" if he was to live in Vancouver and drive to Tsawassen/Sand Bank when need be. (if he had a race board and a big kite) So since explanations were done (race board/big kite/light wind stats from Sand Bank&Hayden Park), statistically he is right, I should let it go and who cares really.

Unfortunately, now with you both of you guys saying that you can get 250 days of kiteboarding a year (not including Squamish), wow, I really, really need to know if this is real, because that would be insanely greeeeaaaatttt!!!!. 250 days= 5 times every weeks!!! (with 2 weeks of "only 4 kiteable days", these 2 weeks must be hard on the moral)

So, based on you guys requirement for racing, it means that today, someone could have kiteboarded Jericho Beach from 09h00 till 14h00, 8-9 kts all day? Was there anyone there? If it was the weekend, do you think you would see people kiteboarding there at 8-9kts?

Since the last 5 years I have been looking once in a while at people session log (mine included) on the local website in Victoria, to know approximately how many session we can get a year. And rarely one go above 100, if they do it will be ~110-120 (but once again, extremely rare. Would be different if they spent a whole summer at Nitinaht Lake though, as oppose to only 4-6 weeks). To top it all, often when windy in Victoria/Gordon Beach/Columbia Beach/Comox, there is not much in Jericho/Tsawassen. Often there is, I agree. But often not, and tonight was another example-> http://www.bigwavedave.ca/latest.php?di ... le=SiteMap Actually I can see Tsawassen @ 9 kts right now, I guess we could add this as another "kiting day" to the statistics.
Just weird that here, nobody kiteboard under 13kts (extremely rare anyway, usually end of session the wind died down!!!). Even 13-15 kts, it is just too boring.

I would not include these 10-15 kts days as "kiteable days" to someone looking to move in Canada for a year, asking for info on different city. "Hey, I like Victoria, we get 150 kiteable days a year!!!"
I wish that it would have been someone in Victoria saying that we get 150 kiting days a year. It would have been a lot easier for me to prove him wrong so the Australian guy would have a better knowledge on the available choices to him and his wife.

I do not live in Vancouver so I am not aware of the wind condition there, other than: I did work during the Olympic for ~75 days Jan-Mar 2010, evening shift mainly and lots of days off. Had two session @ Jericho on light wind with 15m Speed3 and Spleene Door, no other kiter was present, probably too light wind which made the session extremely boring (13-16kts/15-18.4 mph). I did miss two wicked 25kts-35kts Tsawassen day but unfortunately was working day that time:( 4 days out of 75....

I guess I am missing something here. The wind stations reading from Jericho and Tsawassen on BigWaveDave must be wrong, and they have been wrong since the last 10 years. 250 kiteable days a year, wow, I will ask for a transfer on the mainland!!!

Hopefully you enjoyed your 5 sessions last week, and the week before, and the one before, and please enjoy your 5 sessions next week, and the one after, and after.... I envy you!!! I wish I could get 5 session a week.

Anybody else than coop agree that this 150 days kiteboarding days a year (lets not talk about 250 days!!!) is kind of exaggerated? (walking distance or 30-45 minutes drive from Van downtown)

I want to know since apparently I live not far from a place where I could kiteboard 5 times a week.

Thanks again for the info, Ian

[Kyle]

my point was that instead of trying to make it work in Van, that one should instead go to squamish on most any day it's working.

I never said anything about 250 days.

but you seem pretty passionate about this. I'd agree, in general Victoria probably has better year-round wind, with the exception of nearby squamish summer (which is a big exception).

Neither Van nor Vic are particularly good kiting cities though.

[TeabagVic]

You are right about never said 250 days, I miss read with the 245lbs (quick read)
I was being childish yesterday . I guess men can get their period to!!!

[Colinkiteboarding]

Quality not Quantity
One killer session is 20 lame sessions.
I logged 170 something days in 2006 but that included a couple of trips and Squamish.
That was the last year I counted.
Make some software for people to log in.