Event Site "safe" zone

[CGW2]

Hi Windsurfers-

The Event Site has become a mixed user site for windsurfers, kiters, SUP's, families, and dogs (on leashes, right?).

To make it safer for everyone, please launch from the beach and then SAIL UPWIND of the west jetty. The area directly off the beach is not a safe place to jibe, jump, spin, or sail fast. It is intended as a 5mph zone for everyone. Please do not show off hero jibes or jump jibes or mega speed in this area- one person out of line can ruin it for everybody else trying to launch or come in.

We are working with the kite community to make sure this information is shared with all windsport enthusiasts.

Please help us make this area as safe as possible for everyone!

Thanks, and have fun on the water.

-Katie

Katie Crafts
Executive Director
www.CGWA.net

[Doozier]

Thank you Katie! Let's hope people will comply with your logical and reasonable requests, especially the ones currently jibing inside the west jetty's protected area and anyone working on their high speed freestyle tricks. And Good Luck with the kiters!

[ericandholly]

This is NOT pointing fingers. Often times kiters will come in closer--South--because new windsurfers get washed in North of the yellow marker which is a "Kiter Zone."

I think most of this boils down to common sense, which is not always common. I think 95% of the wind enthusiasts 'get it' and work it out.

There is, and will always be 5%, however...
Eric

[pahtoe]

Thanks for the post and your awesome work, CGWA. You'll keep getting my money for a long time.

I think part of the problem, as the very presence of this post attests, is awareness: a lot of seasonal visitors to the Event Site don't notice, don't see, or don't bother to read the sign posted above the drinking fountain. And they don't monitor this forum. I think they comprise the majority at the Event Site during the summer months.

I'd like to say that I always heed the safe zone--and I do when it comes to jibing (or, most often for me, trying to)--but I have to admit that I haven't when it comes to planing. I'm a law abiding guy, and a conscientious, respectful character on the water. So I'm asking myself: Why is this? Why have I chosen to be "one of those?"

Well...it has to do with that "majority" problem. Once the critical mass of sailors is speeding, which is nearly always the case, the prospect of deliberately shlogging a sinker through the atomic collider of speeding sailors, some of whom are clearly on the edge of control, seems like signing up to be a sitting duck. It actually frightens me when I think about some of the stuff I've seen in the safe zone. Not only is a schlogging board a lot more slow to react and difficult to control, but I just do the math: figuring I'll spend about an extra 3-5 minutes (if I come from a northerly aspect, and depending on the wind) in the kill zone, which can seem like a white-knuckle eternity, especially at the end of a long AM session up to The Hatch and back.

If the majority of people were shlogging, it would be a lot different. It would also make it easier to self-police...the fast sailors would be a minority, easy to single out, pull aside and say, "Perhaps you didn't read the sign?" Which is often greeted now with, "What sign?"

So a suggestion: Let's post a warning sign smack dab in the middle of the beach, on the water's edge of the grass, and maybe another by the trees where the kiters wade to the sandbar, maybe even every 100 ft. or so: "No jibing, fast sailing, or kiting in the safe zone between buoys." Or something similar and simple (I've seen a lot of people puzzling over the sign by the bathrooms). Make them low to the grass, no higher than a couple feet, like a no pooping sign, so people can walk sails over them.

I wonder also what it would take to add the weight of a "Violators will be prosecuted," to the sign. That is, get a law passed at the municipal or HR County level to deal with the five-percenters.

For my part, after reflecting on this, I'll take on the challenge now of shlogging through the kill zone until it becomes, truly, the safe zone. I'm not looking forward to it, but if I'm not willing to do it and lead by example, fact is I should be sailing somewhere else.

On another note: Who made the call to reorient the sail restraint cables perpendicular to the prevailing wind and why? It was much easier to secure sails in the former, horizontal configuration, and the sails were actually much more secure. Does anybody disagree? Seems I've seen a lot of sails poorly oriented and in need of rescue since that change (my own included, and I'm no stranger to high-wind gear management). Any way to get them changed back?

[WMP]

I NEVER get closer than 5,000,000 yards of that particular beach when I do my violently wicked pole-poking laydown jibes, honest. But wow, I just now have learned that there's a "Kiter Zone" (KZ) on the north side of the river? Perhaps this might be the sandbar, but I'd certainly like to know where this so-called KZ is located so I don't accidently go poking my pole (PMP) into some unknown KZ, after all I'm a PPP (peaceful pole person) except when attacked by a massive swarm of lawnmowers (MSL).

Maybe a good map of the area would help here?

- WMP

[billgfc]

There is a map posted at the restroom at the event site

[windoggi]

[WMP]

[Bret]

Hi,

The Eventsite is no longer an Event. It's a growing sandbar. It's a problem that will be tried to be solved when it's to late for everyone from a Kite-boarder to a James River Tug boat. This is going to be a problem!

Truth it's real simple to fix! Dinamite! BOOM!

or this

[Spencier]