Kiting in Sheboygan and LSP...4th of July Weekend

[West]

It's going to be a gorgeous, sunny, windy weekend if you head up to either Sheboygan or LSP. Prob won't be enough wind elsewhere to kite, but you never know. Classic thermal set-up!!!!!

Kite safe and be respectful of others, especially when travelling to out of state beaches!!!! If it is too crowded for your skill level, or just TOO CROWDED period....either get there early, stay late, or decide NOT to throw up your kite. Be smart about it, and please listen to the more experienced kiters at the beach about safety issues!

Today would be better in Sheboygan for any new kiters. Tomorrow they have fireworks at the harbor and the beach will be crowded. The Sherriff will be asking ALL the kiters who are challenged to stay upwind...to please stay off the water SATURDAY. Don't be dissing the sherriff........and check with him about the beach rules!

Up in LSP, it is imperative to stay far upwind of the lighthouse with the other kiters. IF you start going downwind, come in well before the beachgoers at the lighthouse, OR go well downwind, land your kite and walk back up the beach. DO NOT walk with your kite flying through the crowd of people at the lighthouse!!

Enjoy the weekend, please follow the rules and bring some beer and food for the locals!!!! It's always nice to leave a good impression for next time. They will look forward to seeing you show up, instead of being stoked to watch you leave.

Prob heading to Shesablowin' today, and LSP this weekend. Look me up if you want to try a BROKITE board, or if you have an extra coldie!

I post this info all the time for two simple reasons.....I get feedback from the locals at these beaches regularly on the Chicago crew, and I am a sworn-in deputy of the Sherriff's evergrowing posse!!!! SAFETY FIRST, and be a positive representation for the Chicago kiters when travelling elsewhere. Have FUN.

[anderson]

Heading to LSP tonight. We will be crossing the lake by ferry towards Lundigton.

We will be bringing the golden wisconsin vitamins to keep everyone nourished.

C u at the camp site.

[V]

Sitting in the airport headin home from toronto, what's the word? Would like to see pena/sheriff but can't kite today, and sat understand it gonna be crowded.

Gotta decide tonight. Sheriff, is sheboygz gonna be gusty? I haven't looked to see if its going more west on sat yet...

[4w7s]

Kite safe and be respectful of others, especially when travelling to out of state beaches!!!! If it is too crowded for your skill level, or just TOO CROWDED period....either get there early, stay late, or decide NOT to throw up your kite. Be smart about it, and please listen to the more experienced kiters at the beach about safety issues!

Up in LSP, it is imperative to stay far upwind of the lighthouse with the other kiters. IF you start going downwind, come in well before the beachgoers at the lighthouse, OR go well downwind, land your kite and walk back up the beach. DO NOT walk with your kite flying through the crowd of people at the lighthouse!!

SAFETY FIRST, and be a positive representation for the Chicago kiters when travelling elsewhere. Have FUN.

This is a great post and reminder...and it applies to everyone, not just new riders... and at all beaches - public, private, state, etc.

An additional note about LPS:
On a S -SSW wind, if you cannot stay upwind and you get blown past the point you will be in an off-shore wind (same sort of deal applies for BPS & Betsie)...next stop is Escanaba UP MI. Have a look at the charts if you don't understand this. Several experienced watermen have been lost off this point in boats, kayaks, windsurfers, etc. Let's not add kiters to the list. When it blows hard up there it often sends some of the local boys home with their 7m & 9m kites between their legs. It can be very gusty along the shoreline. Don't underestimate the place.

[noabacca]

Thank you West and 4dubya7esses,

Please, everybody who visits L(Point Sable), walk, keep walking, and don't stop walking upwind...

...until you are practically packing in next to the Southern park boundary signs.

Don't be lazy, it is not THAT far, and upwind/distance is everybody's friend.

It is not March anymore, and there will be hoards of people/baby swimmers swarming the lighthouse area.
Stay out of there.

I don't much ride this spot anymore, but I do recall lazy asses, walking about 200 ft and plopping their stuff down.
Please maintain a precedent and amass at the far (South) end of the park, and enjoy yourselves once you get there!

I found myself taking the cross country paths, at the South end of the doh-nut loop, hopping the split rail fence and heading over the crests of the dunes, in order to make it to the (end-of-the-line) top of the heap spot, at LPS.

Have some respect for this precious spot, and just do it.

-NP out

[Northerner]

We had some good times up here today. Wind was pretty nice all day with the best wind from 11 to 1, with 9-13s on the water.

As for tomorrow, all kiters need to get here early to get a spot and ride before things get out of hand. Again like to today the best wind should be in the late morning and early afternoon. Myself and the local crew ask that everyone goes to the very very south end of the beach and I would say by 3-4 the beach will be much to busy to ride.

Good riders only need apply for tomorrow, no room for error.

[West]

Keep 'em in line up there Sherriff......had a blast riding Shesablowin' today.

Noah, I might make it up to Pt. Betsie this wknd. Where you gonna ride?

Enjoy LSP boyz....rip it up IVO, Anderson, Slavi, Jon, and whoever else is lucky enough to make it up there. DUNE MADNESS!!!!

Above all, keep it safe and help others to do the same.

[gbleck]

Driving up to LSP in the morning. Staying the night with the wife. Looks like monday will be T-storms and hiking.

[anderson]

Boarded on the SS Badger Friday at Zero hour. Due to the excitement and cold wind on the deck we couldn't get enough sleep. Got to the point Saturday at 8am and it was already ON but slightly gusty and offshore. As the temperatures rose the wind filled in for everyone's happiness. Sunday it was pretty much the same, 9m-7m weather. Everyone was ripping and behaving nicely on the beach. IVO and crew, thx a lot for setting up the camp site. It was awesome!

I believed everyone else ended up in the point Betsy. How was it? Were the peeling-left-handed ones breaking?

[West]

That's what I'm talking about....my kink of PARTY!!!!

Absolutely on fire up at Point Betsie!!! Killed it with Jimbo, Dave Clark, my buddy Matt Mulligan (1st kiter I met on the Big Lake), and some of his local kiter buddies.

It was cranking when we hit the beach Sat at noon, and didn't let up until we left Sunday at sunset. Blowing 25 to 30 the entire time. Waves over-head the first day and head high and clean as a whistle the second!!!! Sunny and turquoise waters.........Magic happens and then it just borders on pure fantasy!!!

The scenery is just spectacular at Point Betsie. From the water you can see Sleeping Bear Dunes in the distance, the lighthouse up in Frankfort and the picturesque Betsie lighthouse.....WOW!!!!

The TC crew was ripping on twintips and surfboards. There was plenty of hooting and hollering going on, and a few coldies being passed from the big ass cooler of beer, Jimbo and I toted up there.

Did a downwinder from Frankfort along the bottom of a set of dunes several hundred feet high. Waves pumping all the WAY!!!! Went upwind from Betsie the second day, bout 2/3's of the way back to Frankfort, then hit replay and smacked 'em again....all the way back to the Point....Betsie that is!!!! Double-dip when the ice cream truck stops for a while..........

Set up a 132 Hybrid BRO board for Matt. He is the guy who got me on Caution several years back. Nice to ride with him up there and rip up the waves together. He dialed that puppy in right off the beach. Throwing F16's, fronts with a down loop toeside transition, and smacking some lips. I left it up there with him when he asked if it was a loaner. So if in TC, give it a spin. It'll be there till I make it back up that way. AND believe me I will be making it back up there.

It'll go down as one for the firepit....stories that will grow as the embers glow!!! Gotta love that place!!!!!!!!

[jensmadwind]

West you are quite the wordsmith, I can pretty much picture it in my head but it would be better if... ONE OF YOU HAD A CAMERA!!!!!!

sounds like it was incredible. I had the same wind, maybe a little more straight across the lake from you guys. Slightly depressing though was the lack of waves.

[jarch]

Sounds like it was a weekend to remember everywhere. I hit up Sheboygan on Saturday with V. Saw some old friends and met some new ones. Sheriff was laying down the law on and off the water with some sweet moves. Great hospitality from Pena. We fired up the guitars for a little jam session on Saturday night after some pretty solid fireworks in the town of 50,000 people.

Decided to hit the legendary Two Rivers on Sunday and see what West is always talking about. Got a "police escort" all the way there from The Sheriff. We took the long way on route LS right along the lake and the scenery didn't disappoint. When we showed up, I was pretty sure that West needed a beat down...marginal wind. But just as we thought we were defeated, the wind kicked in and it was ON! Waves kicked in as well. Hootin' and hollerin' from everyone. Some of the best riding of the season.

Can't wait to do it again!

[Northerner]

Sounds great West, I'm joining you over there in August sometime. Share some details Jens, I want to hear about you jumping over the Ferry on your six!!

We ended with a total of four days here with no ridable wind yesterday which I was happy about. 4th of july crowd was much smaller than I thought until about 3-4 in the afternoon. All the kiters did a ok job and we out on 9-12s. Wind was really clean and good on the inside in the morning it would switch and become holy and gusty with the good wind being out far at times. All Kiters still need to make the extra effort to walk to the way south of the beach after launching their kite. We did have a few people end up with their kites over and around sunbathers/swimmer when they tried to come in. This was and is totally preventable as all the kiters needed to do was take one more long tack upwind. And don't worry we let them know they were breaking the rules and screwing up.

A high light for everyone was watching Pena self recue not once but twice from over mile out. Wind on the outside of the wind line is not friendly to dropped kites. We think he is a record holder for longest consecutive self rescues on the lake.

Sunday I drove away from 7-8 kiters on 10-12s riding in Sheboygan and headed up north to get better wind. Some other locals stayed around and policed the beach, which was a good thing as I guess a few people show up with zero kite skills and tried to give kiting a shot in super gusty winds. In a friendly Sheboygan way they were prevented from kiting.

ME, Curt from Madison and Jarch got to the spot around 1:30 and found Zero wind but nice chest high waves. We waited for about an hour and Bam 11 meter wind and it was on! we rode till 7:00 with a pair of all stars from Greenbay on surf boards. I had my first real go on the slingshot Celeritis in wave’s strapless and loved it. That board is the board of the Gods!!! For three weeks I was riding that thing in Sheboygan strapless and the practice paid off when game day came.

Hope to get a little wind this week. I need two more sessions and I'll be at 50 days riding locally this year powered on a 13 or smaller. Taking the rest of July off as I heading out west to hike and climb in New Mexico, SW Colorado and then up to the Settle. So in August West, lets ferry on over to Michigan.

[slavman]

Looks like everybody got lots of fun in last 3 days! So did we at LSP. Wind did not disappoint - 8-9 m all the time. No real wave action though, like boys up North had. It was great to meet people from all around! Special thanks to Ivo for organizing the trip, to West for updates on wind and Pier who could not come but was constantly checking the forecast. Teamwork!
Slavi

[Northerner]

Bam just scored session 49 this year as the SW wind switched S to give us a strong wind line here. I rode less then an hour as the water was shockingly cold and the wind on the inside was almost nothing. Wind line was in fog making for some fun jumps when I would pop out into clear sky. Came in sooner then later as I didn't want to push my luck with the freezing water. I mean cold, like March temp cold.

[West]

Sounds like the water turned over there buddy.....what u figure the difference in temp from a couple of days ago?

Unbelievably we were in shorties up at Point Betsie.....shirtless on the beach, it was damn near hot up there. Matt said it was highly abnormal!!!!

Sure as heck glad that there was wind for days just about everywhere. Golden rule for Chicago kiting......gotta drive BRO!!!!!! Sometimes it can be a setback, but like Archie says, you tend to make a few new friends every road trip, so here's to the travellers!!!!