hi, I spent sun./mon up at budle bay, sunday was the busyest i've seen budle with many new faces, newbies, and the old guard (sorry lez)! weather was fine and sunny hi tide was 1745ish, wind was ? I guess 20knts W gusting may b 25 then down to 15! nothing unusual there, typical budle conditions!
What was unusual was the array of kites and sizes! long gone are the days when everyone was out on 15/16 'c' kites then the wind picks up and everyone drops down to 10/or 12's! Here are just some of the kites I noticed that were out at the same time :
7m halo bow
8m airush C
9/12/14/ and 16 waroo's bow
11 fuel C
11 sonic bow
13 strike C
13venom lynn foil
3x13 ozone inst. bow's
14 north C
16 venom lynn foil

It was noticable how confusing this was for some learners, and confirmed to me what iv'e thought for a while budle is a 'bow kite location'! I no there were C kiters out there goin well ( I dont no how you managed to hold them down, well done!) but with lots of kiters and the deminishing 'beach area' I think it mite be an idea to clear the 'beach area' asap! there was masses of flat 2ft deep water on the far side! it was however a bank holl weekend so maybe wont be that busy again.
there was a couple of moments when someone lost there kite, and a few 'sketchy' launch/landings! but nowt to worry about and all in all a good weekend!
cheers
dodge

ps I met a lad learning called tony who taught me and ned how to snowboard at silksworth more than 10 years ago! if any one knows of him it would be great to get back in touch, pm me!!

That was also the busiest I'd ever seen Budle Bay.

I definately agree with Dodgyflyer. To give everyone as much space as possible it would be good if all competent flyers went to sail from the middle to the far side of the bay. This would give all the less confident riders more space to make mistakes near the launch spot.

I think I compounded the issue with teaching but there were couple of very near misses with kites that just weren't really necessary. I found conditions pretty testing even with bow kites. I had no idea it was going to be that busy. I ended up teaching down at Redcar on the Monday to avoid the Budle crowds (something I never thought would happen) and to my amazement, Redcar was even busier!!!! Must have been 20-25 kites out.

I guess that Northumberland is just getting more popular with kitesurfing and we were all spoilt a year or 2 a go. At least everyone is still super friendly and willing to help (great kite rescue on Sunday by Paul - good effort). This not always the case in with surfing around Tynemouth etc. Long may it continue.

James

P.s Roll on winter - that might quieten things down a bit!!!

Im still gonna be surfing close in on a beach ! 2foot or 2inches! what ever floats your boat!


Dan

dan you big gay boy, hope its nice and freezin back in uk. Still warm here but a bit colder on the water of late, think i may be going the way of a wetsuit soon! Not even contemplating the thought of ksurfing back in the uk this xmas, whats that all about?!?!?