7/26 13m Crissy Field and Golden Gate Bridge

[BradHuber]

I had been thinking about riding Crissy Field for a little bit and I finally bit the bullet and went out for a ride of Friday. I went out on a 13m (w/ twin tip) which turned out to be a good size for me but I was lit once I was well away from the beach. I rode a little over two miles upwind to cross under the bridge. It was really amazing riding up underneath the bridge and cruising near the north tower of the Golden Gate. Riding among the huge boats was a bit dicey. I could not believe how big of a wake the container ships put out. Somehow riding underneath the bridge was quite surreal and it felt like my kite was going to scrape the bottom of the bridge if I jumped a little (I know it was no where near). I had a pretty close look at Kirby beach and actually thought it looked like a decent place to land but I didn't know anything about it so I headed back to Crissy Field.

Coming back in I dropped my kite in the wind shadow (right inside the navigation light / wind meter) by the kite launch. I couldn't get a successful relaunch and so I ended up having to swim the kite in. Although it was a very short swim and I was out at near slack tide I could notice myself drifting out of the bay. I was downwind of the meter post and then quickly I was upwind of the post which meant that the tide was pulling me even though I was attached to my kite with it sitting on top of the water. I probably had a 5-10 minute swim to get in.

All in all an awesome place to kite and it kind of fulfilled a dream. A super dicey place where tons of things can go wrong- I thought Sherman Island was bad enough last week but this place felt much worse. Given the risk factors I don't know if I will ever kite there again (we shall see) but now I've "been there done that".

Cheers