Hi All,
I have just recently moved to the bay area and have now sorted myself out with a kite. It seems to be that ocean beach is a good spot in the bay area and I was wondering if there was any local unwritten rules for kiters there.

So I am seeking your local knowledge on kite flying at ocean beach so I dont go down there and annoy the local park rangers or something and ruin it for everybody

Thanks
Phil

Welcome to the forum. I don't live in the bay but I go down to Ocean Beach any chance I can get (I might be down there this Sunday). The unwritten and written rules are this:

If you have limited experience kiting or buggying - pick a weekday when there are few to no people around and get your basics in tact before trying to kite around people or worse dogs. This is for the general publics safety along with the responsibility to fellow kiters - I don't know of an incidents with crashes or accidents involving non-kiters - I would like to keep it that way - I try and be as careful as possible - watch out for kids, they are very unpredictable.

If the temperature is above 67 degrees on the weekends there will most likely be a lot of people down at the beach - this is one of the main concerns the park rangers have with us - they may ask you to stop and pack it up if there are too many people - or ask you to stay away from highly populated areas. Just follow their recommendations and pack it up - you live closer than me so you can pick it up the next day.

There are written signs stating that there are designated areas for the Snowy Plovers' nesting areas - these areas are the bluffs that begin at the edge of the northern part of the beach and heading south (where the south end of the parking lot ends) - I have ridden in these areas with the Rangers present and have had no problems - there has been a woman spotted with an orange vest talking to rangers about kiters which resulted in a fellow kiter being respectfully asked to kite further north on the beach. Again if the Rangers ask you to move along - be respectful and move along - they are trying to work with us and keep us as members of the beach community.

Other than that there are no real restrictions as to kiting on the northern end of the beach - the buggiers general park in the south end of the parking lot and and set up next to what I have nicknamed "the bunker" - it's a cement observation point right near the begining of the bluffs.

The winds are great right now - consistent sw 15 - 20 every day. lucky b@$%$&d! See you soon.

I only go to OB during early morning lowtide on weekends when the wind is decent. You can start on the northern most end by the rocks and buggy as far south as you can with no restriction. The dudes that patrol the beach are nice once they get to know you... just leave the birds alone and stay away from the sand when it is sunny and nice.

There is also a group of people that fly and buggy at Shoreline. Just wanted to give you more opions

Dakitez, are you bitter about ocean beach? It hasn't treated you well I know, but you still gotta give it a chance - that one day that conditions are right and you have your buggy with you will turn you around. Here's a vid of shoreline (the wind wasn't very strong that day) -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I5YXzTq9f-o

and a vid of ocean beach -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bWogX83en0M

no.. not bitter . I just wanted to let him know of another location. I also didn't know if maybe shoreline might be closer. At shoreline the only obsticle will be wind or no wind .... not need wind, need low tide, need no people, need no plovers like OB.
Ok maybe I am alittle bitter

One of these days I will get a run in at OB.

I would like to check out shoreline one of these days - but alas I don't have a connection there - I know Elton from Ocean Beach flys there (I believe he's the one in the video that I posted earlier) but I only see him every once in a while down at Ocean Beach. If anyone knows of a hookup out at Shoreline do me and everyone intersted a solid and give us a heads up. Thanks

elkiter
12get12

I know for sure are frequent shoreliners

It blows every day there. I'm jealous.

The "mayor" of Shoreline says you're welcome anytime to come join us. I just need to make sure no concert scheduled before you make the trip.

e

Thanks - appreciate the heads up.

Thanks for the advice all, my new kite arrives tomorrow so should be down there soon. Where is shoreline exactly and can it be accessed by public transport as sadly I have no wheels here?

what kite are you getting?

After flying fixed bridle kites for a year and a half now, I'm moving over to depower and in a fit of madness I bought a manta II as they are currently on sale from cosmic kites. I have the feeling this kite may be beyond my abilities right now so it may be in the for sale section in a few weeks time as I buy an ozone access instead.

What size Manta is it? All I know of these kites is that they were the flagship for Ozone's line of snowkites a couple of years ago. They were promo'd by Chasta who uses them to the extreme of that sport - flying up and off of mountains with them.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xRslBE5I12k&feature=PlayLi...

I got the 10m one, so its not too big and I weigh around 200lbs so I'm hoping it will be fine, but to start with I think a few light wind days are in order

That's a good size kite - good idea on the low wind days to begin with - when you get used to it it'll be a mad ride!