Winter kiting at Home Valley, WA

LapDog · Since 19 Dec 2008 66 Posts White Salmon

Had my chicken loop pop off the hook while kiting at Home Valley today. Almost had it all back together twice but the kite powered up before re-hooking and had to start over. After third try failed, I set kite free and started the long swim.

Wondering if maybe kite made it all the way to Stevenson and if so maybe did someone tow it in??

Thanks!
Matt Wheeler
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dangler · Since 26 Feb 2006 1744 Posts WINDY SPOTS XTreme Poster

Too bad you didn't kite Stevie, two pro level guys out all afternoon. Cold water sesh the more the merrier. Hope you get your kite back!

Curious why you didn't stay attached to safety, any more info on what you might have done differently. Not deadly cold water yet, but the big swim is something to avoid in winter fo sho.

LapDog · Since 19 Dec 2008 66 Posts White Salmon

Searched the shoreline from Home Valley to BOTG with a jetski this morning. Didn't find the kite.

I was hoping to kite at Stevie that day, but chose HV because drift launch is easy there. Others must have showed up at Stevie just after I checked the kite cam at about 1pm. Should have waited. Prolly too late in the year for solo sessions.

I turned the kite loose because it powered up violently and ripped the bar away (nuclear gusts) three times while trying to get the hook back on and lines run out. Guess I got freaked out by the possibility of getting something wrapped in a line and having the kite blast off, so I released the kite. Looking back, I should have tried longer to wrap the lines and taco the kite to sail to shore.

That swim sucked!! Thanks to J.D. the kayaker who kept me company while I plodded in.

Lessons Learned:
-both finger and mental dexterity are reduced in the cold, don't rush, be deliberate
-don't wear anything which blocks visual inspection of the hook
-swimming speed is reduced by about 1/2 with a drysuit on, plan for that
-wearing a wetsuit under my drysuit worked great, will continue to do so
-the widening shoreline and the Wind River confluence/current make swimming to the WA side hard (in E wind), swimming to OR might have been faster

All's well that ends well. I gained some more experience with cold weather kiting, which is what I was hoping for yesterday.

Cheers,
Matt Wheeler

LapDog · Since 19 Dec 2008 66 Posts White Salmon

Here is an image of the GPS path which I searched for the kite this morning. Given the wind direction and the bend in the river, I really thought I might find it. No luck.

- Matt

Makani · Since 19 Aug 2014 15 Posts

well last year we lost a kite. All 4 lines broke just after launch and off it went. Out of site for maybe 20 min... and it was gone. Went back to find it hoping it was just tapping the shore somewhere.

It didn't get far, but the poor thing.
Warning photo isn't for the faint of heart...