SF trip report

windpower · Since 27 Jul 2010 48 Posts Hood River / Colorado

I was so thrilled with kiting around San Francisco last week, I really wanted to share...

First, as a helmet devotee, I have to relay that almost everyone seems to wear helmets there, including the good people and at all the locations I went to. Smile

Secondly, it was cute that a number of people felt compelled to apologize to me, the visitor, for their crappy wind which they said was too high (30mph) and too gusty (~7mph spread btw lull and gust)! The gorge conditions really give one a different perspective.

Third, bayareakiteboarding forum has an entire section called "kite buddies", which works great for finding people to meet up with or get location recommendations from.

Finally, it would be really great if people didn't flame me for posting this. Thanks.

As a former wind generation developer, this was truly poetic justice to kite alongside a wind farm (very similar to the eastern gorge, yes, but these are closer and constantly in your sightline as you're kiting). This is at Sherman Island, in the Sacramento River near the town of Rio Vista:

NB: If you get directions for the downwinder take-out spot from someone who in retrospect was probably stoned, you may end up unwittingly kiting 2.5 miles beyond said spot, and having to wade in through muck (because nobody else was at the spot to make it visible, because they were all waiting for the "gusty" wind to resolve!).

Hein · Since 08 Mar 2005 1314 Posts Possessed

Glad you had a good trip. What kites did you use? I'm not against wind power
(just the subsidies) but it sure ruined the landscape in the last picture.

windpower · Since 27 Jul 2010 48 Posts Hood River / Colorado

Thanks!

But subsidies for windpower are trivial compared to subsidies for fossil fuels! On an intrinsic per kwh cost basis, new wind dropped lower than new fossil (i.e., gas combined cycle) sometime in the 90s.

Now, that particular installation in the photo includes some older style turbines, which I will admit are not attractive. However, the new ones (such as all the ones in the columbia gorge) are very visually elegant. It's the messy power lines and transmission towers that really scar the landscape... and that's why we have such a crisis in our transmission system. Nobody can get permits to add or upgrade transmission, because of the public outcry regarding aesthetics.

I just used my plain vanilla Best Kahoona 11.5 and 7.5....and a HELMET! Smile

Macaframa · Since 06 Jul 2010 81 Posts California Delta

Can't wait to get back there, Sherman Island is where it all began for me. That stoned guy that gave you the bogus takeout info...he's probably the one who gave me my first kiteboard lessons! No need to name names Wink

As for the windmills near Rio Vista, to me they're a sign of home. Same with Altamont Pass. Appreciate the post, look forward to kiting the Bay with cool helmet wearing folks Smile

Lurk · Since 04 Apr 2009 355 Posts Obsessed

Hein, your right. Windpower is not much use. Most of the wind is not near big population centers. Its mostly in Kansas and other lonely places. Transmission costs are too high to send it where its needed, so windpower will never be a big player compared to oil. As for subsidy, it is small. but the big boondoggle subsidy is Ethanol. Thats a criminal waste of our money. Sort of like the electric car, which really runs on coal.

No combination of technology exist to solve our problem. Except one: conservation and reducing our lifestyle drastically.