Wind is almost always on Andy Holmes’ mind.
He often thinks about wind when he stares out at Bellingham Bay.
It will even redirect his thoughts when he’s on his computer, turning his attention to a website that updates him about Puget Sound gusts’ speed and direction.
Holmes’ obsession with wind is driven by a sport that literally blew him away 13 years ago.
The power and weightless feeling of his first kiteboarding experience got him so hooked he became a certified instructor while living in the San Francisco Bay Area and started giving lessons.
When he returned to Bellingham in 2007 and recognized the potential for kiteboarding because of the bay’s shallow water and steady winds, he opened up a kiteboarding school and started selling gear in the town where he and his wife Marlys attended college.
The business was embraced by the kite, surf and paddleboarding community and has grown to a surf shop with a large inventory on Locust Beach called Bellingham Kite Surf Paddle.
“Over the next six months, more people will be kiting up here in Bellingham than in Hood River,” Holmes said, referring to the Oregon city in the Columbia River Gorge considered one of the most popular kiteboarding and windsurfing destinations in the world.
The reason, he said, is because of the hardcore resident kiteboarders from Seattle to Bellingham, a group of about 300-400, who trickle into Bellingham Bay even during the harsher, late fall and winter season.
Peak time in Bellingham is May through September, but kiteboarding continues there even during the chillier months when wind and other conditions entice.
A stormy day, Monday was one of those times. Holmes counted 20 kiteboarders on the water.
“Washington locals are pretty hardy and go out most any lousy day,” he said. “When it’s gray and stormy out and blustery, a lot of people will say, ‘What a lousy day.’ Kiteboarders just love those days.”
This is also true on the west side of Whidbey Island, which typically draws kiteboarders in the spring and fall when winds pick up and temperatures are bearable.
Heavy winds from the Strait of Juan de Fuca and strong tides make the beaches along North Whidbey more for the advanced kiteboarder, said Holmes, who has ridden boards all over the island and doesn’t recommend getting near Deception Pass.
“I have a 40-40-40 rule,” said Mark Miller, an experienced kiteboarder from Clinton. “If the air temperature is under 40 (degrees), I don’t go. If the water temperature is under 40, I don’t go. If wind speed is over 40 (mph), I don’t go.”
Double Bluff Beach in South Whidbey is the island’s most popular kiteboarding site, offering the best opportunity at low tide for kiteboarders new to the sport, but it can get tricky because water tends to rise quickly at high tide, according to Holmes.
“For someone learning, it’s very reassuring to be able to put your feet down and touch bottom,” Holmes said, adding that’s part of what makes Bellingham’s waters so attractive.
Miller, who also is a certified instructor, is a fan of Crockett Lake, where surfers can touch bottom but sometimes get stuck in the muck.
Miller keeps a close eye on wind conditions at Crockett Lake this time of year and often gets on the shallow Coupeville lake in October or November when water levels tend to rise.
Wind from nearby Admiralty Inlet commonly blows over the lake, leaving the lake glassy and calm, which is ideal for a surfer’s smooth landing following tricks.
Like traditional surfing and windsurfing, kiteboarders ride a board across water. The main difference with kiteboarding, also called kitesurfing, is a kite is used for pulling power.
Windsurfers typically wear a waist harness attached to a control bar, which they grab and pull on to maneuver the kite and create lift. Lines connect the control bar to the kite.
“If we lived in a consistently windy place and it was potentially a little warmer, Crockett Lake would be a mecca in the kiteboarding world,” Miller said. “People go all over the world to find slicks, which come with moderate to high winds and smooth water.
“What it allows you to do is land your tricks. It’s like going skiing and landing on a mogul or landing on a smooth surface.”
Holmes rates Crockett the third most popular kiteboarding spot on Whidbey, behind Double Bluff Beach and Joseph Whidbey State Park in Oak Harbor.
He knows Crockett Lake well because his wife is from Coupeville and his mother-in-law lives near the lake.
“Crockett is really squishy on the bottom,” he said. “A beginner wouldn’t have a good time going to Crockett Lake.”
A beginner to kiteboarding is strongly advised to get instruction before getting on the water. A one-on-one lesson at Bellingham Kite Paddle Surf costs $300, or $400 for two people.
The Urban Surf Kite Boarding School in Seattle offers spring and summer-time lessons at Jetty Island in Everett, a popular training ground for kiteboarding. A private lesson on land starts at $135 per person, and a kiting course on water is $350.
Serious, and even fatal, accidents that marred the sport, including a kiteboarder’s death on Lake Washington in October of 2007, have dropped significantly since improvements in safety gear about six years ago.
“You can actually pull a strap that takes the power out of the kite,” Miller said. “You didn’t have that ability before.”
Technological advances have aided the sport as well.
Holmes said he peeks at wind graphs on his computer about five times a day, hoping to spot the magical pattern that shows strong, consistent and smooth gusts, not jagged patterns that reveal extremes.
“We want it to be more steady,” Holmes said. “When you have smooth wind, it’s like having a smooth engine. When you have wind up and down constantly, it’s like an engine revving and dropping down a bit. You could drive that car that way, you just have to pay more attention.”
