couple of tips here on how to get the right conditions to kite in Hobart. After years of burning around the south of the state looking for wind, and learning a bit about it all, I thought i'd do some sharing. More to come...

#1 Seabreezes are the best. Avoid the fronts and temperature extremes.
A clear blue sky from lunchtime onwards and a warm day is your friend. A sea breeze will give you smooth wind. If the temperature is getting crazy high around the state, or a frontal system is coming through, best to hold the video camera for someone else cos things are going to get insanely gusty.

#2 Look for High Pressure systems
If one is sitting over top of us, the chances for getting a sea breeze and good kiting times is high

#3 Watch the wind trend
Save this site on your phone. Look at what the wind did 24hrs before. It updates roughly 5mins past the hour and is every 30mins. Stations to watch are Hobart Airport, Hobart, Maria island, Dunalley, Tasman Island, Cape Bruny

www.bom.gov.au/tas/observations/coastal.shtml

Droughty Hill is awesome guide when it is working. Major recent technical difficulties have been plaguing it:

www.marine.csiro.au/~lband/wind/

#4 Watch the inland temperature trend
Campania is a good guide. If the temperature is shooting through the roof from teens to high 20's over 2-4hours, then we're in for some heavy wind. Higher temperatures inland can lead to a stronger sea breeze. And sometimes when we have a hot weather pattern (mid to high 20's plus), the northerly wind stream can dominate everything. This is bad because its all offshore wind, and very very gusty and unpredictable.
Save this site into your phone/computer/wind checking device
www.bom.gov.au/tas/observations/hobart.shtml

#5 Fly a smaller kite than you think you normally would. Especially if you regularly kite on the Mainland
Being further south, the wind here is more dense. That means more power for the same size kite you'd use in Queensland. Don't go NUTS: Never Underestimate Tassie Strength (wind and waves)

#6 Westerly wind sucks
Its all come directly over some pretty big mountains. And the fetch to all the hobart beaches is quite short. 1300m odd high summit for Mt Wellington means a wind shadow of approx 10km. This affects most of the places we kite. Any Westerly to a wind direction will make it gusty and unpredictable.

#7 Understand the wind chart & gusts
A 22knot wind average and 31knot max means 9 knot gusts both OVER and UNDER the average. Its an average after all. So flying a kite in a 13knot lull and working it to try and make it through the lull could result in you being hit by a 18knot gust. BOOM!

#8 Town is different to the Arm
The wind you feel walking around Hobart Town will be different to what its like on South Arm. Mt Wellington gets in the way, and the wind funnels down between the buildings along the streets. Watch the angle on the yachts out in the harbor. And get the binoculars/telescopes out towards the Iron Pot/mouth of the river

There are more tips specific to the various kite spots. Feel free to send to me any wind effects you've noticed at them, there will be more info on them up soon.

Epic, all newbies and tourists take note!
Good one JK

That's great info - Thanks - look forward to the next installment

Three weeks ago I kited south arm in perfect cross shore surf. NE wind 20-25kts 7m kite. Hobart, just around the corner, had a 12 knot Southerly and cremorne was a 15 knot easterly.

A week later it was 25-30 kts NE at Marion bay and almost still in Hobart.

So many local wind effects!

^ This is the best for northwest too.

Guide looks great everyone.

Just a minor caution - the information about picking days to go out is VERY Hobart specific. It is the sort of stuff that takes a long time to learn, and is very different for the Northwest.

Ask a local if you go somewhere else

skinduptruk said...

eg. a good day could be

10 min of 19 kts
1 min of 30 kts

average is 20 kts
gust is 30 kts

Spot on champ. Frontal stuff is more likely to look something like 10mins of 17knots + 5mins of 45knots = average wind of 20something knots.... its all in the stats.

Winter kiting is a different story to summer kiting btw i'll post something else up when it gets closer. My focus here was ONLY on Summer wind and ONLY in Hobart, as Brady pointed out.

the 4 day synoptic chart is also good if you like seeing the whole picture.

Voitek's wind chart is also wicked. Keep clicking to zoom in on Hobart.

Forecasting wind is a different story to observing the wind for a session right NOW. The site I use to guide me is here:

www.bom.gov.au/tas/forecasts/map.shtml?ref=hdr

Click on the South East Inshore chart to get an idea. As BOM say, their predictions can be inaccurate by up to 40% or more so always go with the observation charts I directed you to in original post.

One of the windsurfers put this website together in collaboration with like minded others. This guide is continually updated whenever new spots are sailed or exsisting data requires updating, you guys need something like this..

www.thespotguide.com.au

Surely a spot guide on the Tksa website similar to the one the poleys have made would be easy and a more efficient way to do it. And if anyone want advise they can just be referred to it from this forum. Bang! Done!

Yep whoops probably me, i think the email is [email protected] been having a life lately and not serving the interests of kiters properly. Anyone want to be tksa pres? I'll give you the website passwords and you can do it all, I can't be assed with it anymore.

I personally don't like telling everyone, on the Internet, where my favourite spots are and what conditions to go out in, we've done it in the past and all sorts of tools have turned up, and ultimately got in the feking way, or tried to kill themselves, or were just plain rude and demanding.

I still think kiting is a journey of discovery too, look at maps, read weather charts, go for a drive, suss joints out, talk to people, that's how we all learnt.

Anyway Hobart is Hobart and JK s idea works, because of the high turnover of tourists who have no idea.

Are you a member of tksa?

I started tksa, I set up the ducks to get crew together, I just don't believe in putting spots on a map. I didn't "sign up". Tksa is about getting kiters together for gatherings, where they can discuss spots and providing insurance for its members.
I checked my email and there was nothing from you there, I've been travelling for six months anyway.

Fact is tksa and kiting crew are completely different in tas to any other state, we get on famously together with no attitude or heros, so I'm not too sure about your comment regarding the kiting community.

Coughing up spots to demanding little people is something I've learnt not to do as there are hundreds, many with tide, space, wind, rocks and other issues that are just as complicated as the abilities of the people your are trying to tell.

The club actually agreed to not publish spots for this reason, as many can only accommodate a few riders who like to keep it that way. If you rock up on the day then cool as bro, that's sweet, that's surfing, but it's so uncool if seven learners/tourists have swamped a spot, pissed of local non kiters and then left. See the point?

You kite in the sea, this is an island, it's not that hard to figure out. Using jks concepts above and the basics of kiting CLEAR etc will guide you well.

I've added them to the tksa.org.au site.

Leigh I think you are a few steps ahead of me here, my next posts will be about leading to a good 'safe' hobart beginning spot and forecasting for it. Trouble is, once we start naming locations and hazards etc then there's a legal liability so I am using my creative genius and legal team to come up with some ideas on how to do this appropriately. And I think that the TKSA policy on this is a good one. Come along, meet the locals, hang out with them and find out where to go.

Samio (KiteDevil) is totally right, kiting in Tasmania is a journey. All the work he's done for us here has been to support us no matter what our stage is along that journey. What we have going on here is pretty cool, open to all, and largely thanks to Samio's efforts so come along to a Ducks and see.

But I truly think that because of the nature of the weather Tassie is not a place for 101 style beginners. And I think my original post highlights this. We can't just launch a kite for someone at a beach with 'you'll be right' and no understanding of weather or listening/learning from personal interaction with locals. I must have launched/caught/watched kites on the beach for 3 months (backed up with a couple years experience on windsurfers) before getting my own gear and getting out there all those years ago.

I like the Poley's spot guide. And I can see how it would work for them. My argument is they can do that because a windsurfer has little chance of ending up in power lines or snagged on a passing truck (no offense to the wave sailors who can jump crazy high, they have more chance of breaking themselves on their gear in the water than on anyone else on land).

Like I said, stay tuned there's more to come to help the local beginners in Hobart.

I totally agree again but unless this is made clearly obvious... e.g. within a simple spot guide (not including your favorite spots) Just with a few places for a novice or intermediate riders visiting the state along with a tasmanian condition warning, even with a statement about 101 beginners your average beginner... Sound like you are on the right track and look forward to seeing it:-)

without the understanding we are talking about could be forgiven for thinking some unsuitable locations are safe:-) Trust me I am all for searching for spots and have found several since I have been here, but thinking back a few years searching for new spots without the understanding I now have from 3 years of kitesurfing I seriously probably would have got myself in some serious trouble or pissed of some locals. Also this can be a frustrating process for someone visiting for two weeks and make the likely hood of going out in an area not suited to them more likely.. Do you get my point guys..

Its obvious there are quite a few people whom take up kitesurfing on the mainland or overseas and may not have the knowledge or what we perceive as common sense to ride safely in this state or in this states condition or are here on holiday..... so simply provide them with some basic information and some average safe spots for all our best interests along with the sports sound ike you are on the right track there is an email in my post above to a direct contact at sea breeze whom is happy to help with this....

I must withdraw my comment about the community without the proper insight however I was disappointed after not hearing back and that fueled my misinformed/miss understood comment.. I believe the e-mail must have been swallowed by the spam muncher as my e-mail is an overseas account and there was not a huge amount of content in it:-( But without the response I have planned and booked the last week of my holiday to meet with a Danish KiteBoarding group of 40 riders in Egypt on the 25th dec instead of staying in Tas the extra week

Once again guys hope to see you on the water and have a great session anyone heading to scandinavia anytime in the near future let us know we will hook you up with a great crew:-)

Leigh