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Post by rider1200 on Aug 16, 2011 12:12:52 GMT -5
My wife rented a cottage at the southeast end of Seneca Lake for the week (Burdett I think?). Its with her old college roommates so I'm bringing my gear! I feel like I've heard good things about Sampson & Lodi State Parks in the past but I've never been to either and would love some company.
I have a decent quiver, can stay upwind and can launch & land by myself if I need to but if a local would be up for showing me around I'd sure appreciate it. If the wind comes up and I can tag along my number is 585-733-2440. Call or text, either way. I'm also not against newbies, I was one not so long ago!
Brent
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Post by flashpipe on Aug 18, 2011 12:37:06 GMT -5
If there's any wind Sunday, I'd definitely come down, but wouldn't have any area beta for you.  Thanks, and good luck! Brian |
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Post by rider1200 on Aug 21, 2011 16:32:08 GMT -5
Thoughts on the park in the southeast end? In Watkins Glen? Water looked shallow for a while & we're suppsed to get a good NW blow tomorrow.
I am a little desparate but if I'm not working & I can't boat I'll take a bad kiting day & call it a win!
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Post by rider1200 on Aug 25, 2011 14:50:22 GMT -5
Monday I'd put in enough family time to sneak off around 5:00 so I headed to the park on the SE end of Seneca Lake in Watkins Glen. It'd been blowing hard N & NW all day so I figured I had a shot. In unfamiliar territory I chose my smallest kite for safety, put my giant corkscrew in the ground in a grassy field all the way E in the park, got 'er up easily but had to manuever it over a few small trees to get to the water. There was also a 3 foot breakwall covered in 12 inch diameter unfriendly rocks that I had to get over so I found a decent spot with lots of growth covering the rocks & dragged a 5 foot piece of driftwood over to walk down (prior to launching kite of course). It worked, the water was nice & shallow and the bottom was inch deep muck a long way out. In fact it was knee deep for a couple hundred yards so I walked out till it got to my waste which gave me a nice buffer to get on track.
My 11 turned out to be too small so I blew up my 13 just about the time the wind shifted back N from NW making it considerably stronger...I was a little over so spent some time getting as far away from shore as I could. I got out a little more than double the distance of the shallow water buoys (maybe a mile?) just in time for the wind to die! I'm not sure if it really died or shifted back NW but either way I was a lot further than I wanted to swim & I still had enough to get back so I zig zagged downwind back to safety.
By then it was after 7 & I knew the wind was supposed to die that night so I decided to pack up. The wind decided to make fun of me by blowing beautifully as I walked off to my car shaking my head.
Probably not a good spot to launch a kite for the 1st time but I wouldn't hesitate to go there as a beginner, walk until you couldn't touch, ride back in & repeat. Just make sure you give yourself enough room in case a gust comes. The police had a speed trap within yelling distance from my launch area & they didn't bother me so I'm guessing its not a problem though a wndsurfer told me he'd never seen anyone kite there before. Then he told me he had slack in his sail when he did something I've never heard of & asked if that was normal; and I was forcedto admit I'm a purebred kiter...he told me I wouldn't know and said 'most got their water wings windsurfing!'
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Post by kelshipman on Aug 27, 2011 10:59:59 GMT -5
We have scouted Sampson a few times, and have not found a kite friendly place to launch. Certainly can be done, but probably not the best place until a kiter has a couple of years under the belt.
Having said that, we are dying to do a down winder from Sampson to either North End or to South End.
Talking to David L about maybe going Sampson to Watkins tomorrow (8/28) sometime.
I will open a new thread on that.
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