The craziness is underway in Cape Town

[Hugh2]

Decider, I mostly use a combination of Windy for the big picture, WindGuru, and WindAlert. Remember that none of them can take into account local effects, what they are seeing is the large scale effects, which in the case of the SEaster is the strength and closeness of the St. Helena high in the South Atlantic generating anti-clockwise winds that impinge on Cape Town. The effect of the mountain, the Cape Flats, and inland heating north of Cape Town are local effects they cannot include, and these contribute to the generally 10 knot higher winds at Kite Beach than forecast.

[jw009]

This would be so awesome for KOTA! Hope this comes true


Any update on the livestream?!

[robclaisse]

Livestream is on all day - will start properly from 10:30 local time / 8:30 GMT
https://www.redbull.com/int-en/events/r ... 2020-day-1

[Hugh2]

It was indeed an awesome day! We launched 9m around 9AM and quickly realized that was too much for us, so down to 7m and we (my US friends Ken and Tim) did a downwinder from Kite Beach to Holbaai, getting back at the end of Round 1 around 12:30. Which was cool because we still got to see every competitor strut their stuff in Rounds 2 and 3. Kudos to the organizers for keeping the heats running one after another, and to all the competitors for a great show. It's a pity Kevin messed up at the end of his heat, but that allowed Jesse to go on to win deservedly, with an amazing variety of jumps. And massive credit to Lewis Crathern, who had the worst crash of the day and still came back to continue doing the best commentary ever. We thoroughly enjoyed it and have the burnt faces to prove it. And immediately after it ended around 5:45 Tim and I pumped up 5 and 7m kites and had Kite Beach almost to ourselves for a while, getting some nice big jumps (by my standards, of course). It is not often the SEaster literally blows all day, see below, as forecast, so even though not as intense as some days this season, it was pretty good for the KOTA.

[Blackened]

Was definitely a great day yesterday. We got out for a session at 7.30 to be at the comp site by 9am. Got back on the water at 7ish until the sun went down, then went straight to bed. Exhausting day. Looks like some wind popping up unexpectedly this avo as well. Hopefully headed out in an hour or so. Went down to Misty Cliffs this morning as the forecast had it pumping, but we didn't even bother setting up. Watched kites falling out of the sky, then launching their riders out of the water for about 30min before coming back home. Didn't look entertaining at all.

[Hugh2]

Sorry to hear Witsand was no good, Blackened, we had a similar experience a week or so ago.

Today was very good for us. My friend Tim had brought his foil so we got to Dolphin around 9 and he rode there on a variety of Kauber kites he got delivered here from Germany. While others were out on 11 and 12m kites, he was able to foil with a 5m. After that Tim on 9m and surfboard and Ken on 11m and TT did a little downwinder to Kite Beach, followed by lunch and a kite shop crawl. Around 3 we set off on a downwinder from Kite beach, me added on 9m and surfboard. We hit a light patch around Eerstesteen beach and had to wait it out, and another further along, but eventually made it to Holbaai. Along the way we had some cool animal encounters, including a pack of a dozen seals in Big Bay who were very curious about us, and later a massive feeding frenzy of dolphins and seals some way out. I rode out to them, joined by another guy on a pink Fone, I think Bandit, who then proceeded to ride all the way over to Robben Island. I could barely make out his kite at the end, I'm just glad he did not have an incident, because he would have died out there, but he finally rode back in to Haakgat. I'm a little surprised at the wind direction shown below, it felt unusual in being far more south than usual. When we got back around 6:30 Bloubergstrand was alive with kites, but we were too worn out for a final sunset session.

[Blackened]

Sorry to hear Witsand was no good, Blackened, we had a similar experience a week or so ago.

Today was very good for us. My friend Tim had brought his foil so we got to Dolphin around 9 and he rode there on a variety of Kauber kites he got delivered here from Germany. While others were out on 11 and 12m kites, he was able to foil with a 5m. After that Tim on 9m and surfboard and Ken on 11m and TT did a little downwinder to Kite Beach, followed by lunch and a kite shop crawl. Around 3 we set off on a downwinder from Kite beach, me added on 9m and surfboard. We hit a light patch around Eerstesteen beach and had to wait it out, and another further along, but eventually made it to Holbaai. Along the way we had some cool animal encounters, including a pack of a dozen seals in Big Bay who were very curious about us, and later a massive feeding frenzy of dolphins and seals some way out. I rode out to them, joined by another guy on a pink Fone, I think Bandit, who then proceeded to ride all the way over to Robben Island. I could barely make out his kite at the end, I'm just glad he did not have an incident, because he would have died out there, but he finally rode back in to Haakgat. I'm a little surprised at the wind direction shown below, it felt unusual in being far more south than usual. When we got back around 6:30 Bloubergstrand was alive with kites, but we were too worn out for a final sunset session.

That's awesome. The stuff you guys can do/see on foils is pretty incredible. Hope that guy made it back - Robben is miles out there.

Judging from Woo scores, looks like Misty did go off, but it was hellishly gusty. While I'm used to riding in gusty stuff in NZ, I'm extremely spoiled by kite beach and can't be bothered with gusty crap . We tried to go out in Big Bay about 4.30, but it was just too light. Came back to kite beach and got out for a couple hours in the crowds. Couple foilers were around, which oddly made jumping much harder. One second you're completely clear, the next there's a silent foil speeding in from no where, cruising around you like you're standing still. Made it a little more precarious to jump as you never knew when a foiler would suddenly have his kite above yours or magically going through your landing area.

Also hilarious got called a "twipper" yesterday. That was highly entertaining. A less skilled older guy had just fallen off his surf board 30m out from the beach. I dutifully kept my kite low to go underneath and gave him about 15m space to get up. He didn't look, dove his kite, saw me and went over the front. The twipper and a couple other comments were shouted in my direction, which made me laugh.

[Hugh2]

Today the forecast was almost zero for kite beach, but something down south, so we chose to do a Cape Point day, stopping to see the penguins at Simonstown on the way and enjoying the walk up to Cape Point and around to Cape of Good Hope. Then we headed to Platboom where we were the first three out on 9 and 11m kites and had a great session. It's such a beautiful place with icy cold and crystal clear water over sand. Pretty soon a whole gang of Germans came out on Core kites plus a few more and with 14 kites in the air it got a bit busy, but as they and we were leaving, down came the whole Naish gang from the KOTA. Returning via Witsand there seemed to be nothing there, and we came home via Chapman's Peak drive and a walk up Lion's Head for the full moon. A full day! When we got back to Milnerton the SEaster had finally arrived, so we are hoping it will blow all day Sunday.

[Blackened]

It's epic out there now. I've been out all day. Headed out for a sunset session in the 30-40kn winds .

[Hugh2]

Us too, Blackened, but we were too tired for a sunset session. We started out around 10 with a demo session on the Appletree surfboards that were available at Kite Beach. I really liked them, but they are on the expensive side. Then Ken and me on 9m Pivots and TT, and Tim on 7m Slingshot SST and surfboard did our usual downwinder to Haakgat, but taking our time and getting a lot of good jumps and rides in. Even the section from Big Bay to Haakgat had quite a few other kiters along it, and the waves were great. Back for lunch around 2:30 Ken and Tim opted for a "digestion" siesta, but I headed out again at 4PM on 7m Pivot and surfboard for a fast and rather overpowered downwinder again. Ken and Tim finally got out on 7m around 5PM at the peak and struggled with the intensity, so quit and watched the pros, including Airton Cozzolino, put on a show along Kite Beach. It was not as intense as the 40-50 knot day a while ago, but still pretty impressive. A good solid SEaster, the kind the locals hate and the kiting visitors love. Lasse Walker and Kevin Langaree were out for only about 30 minutes, just north of Kite Beach. Interestingly, I saw three other riders on Reedin kites north of Big Bay, and a fourth around Dolphin, so the kites are now apparently available, at least to some.