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| Kite Beach, Jekyll Island, Georgia | Cooling off in a tidal pool. They are always deeper than you think. Photo: Mel George |
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What, When & Where
The JIBE is Jekyll Island's first, and the Southeastern US's only annual kite buggy rally. It is planned as a loosely organized, informal get-together for kite-buggy pilots, but ATB/ landboarders, Blokarts and all traction and power kite fliers are welcome. A Portion of proceeds from the event will benefit the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, located on Jekyll Island.
For 2012 We will again start on a Wednesday so that we have three weekdays with fewer other people on the beach. Jekyll beach is never crowded anyway and this is still pre-season, so we will have a better shot at extended distance runs. During JIBE 2011, some of our best days were on weekdays with clear beaches allowing four-mile-plus runs. Most of the picutrees here depict typical weekday beach scenes during JIBE. Sunday is reserved as a travel day.
Dates
Wednesday, May 16th, noon, through end of day Saturday the 19th. On Saturday morning there will be a Triatholon on the island that will use part of the beach, but it will be done and cleared out long before the beach is usable for us at low tide in the afternoon.
Location
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The event staging area will be located on a stretch of beach we have come to call "Kite Beach", located in front of "Fins on the Beach" Restaurant (formally known as Blackbeard's), just a half-mile north of the main island entry point. The stretch of beach is favored by power kiters and kitesurfers since it offers a wide area at low tide and is relatively crowd-free. (Jekyll Beaches don't get too crowded in the first place). When the few crowds do clear in the late afternoons, a 4+ mile stretch is available for buggy runs with the right winds (east to southeast is best, west winds are second best). For 2012, there will be some restrictions as to how far south we can travel (no runs to the "shipwreck") in order to keep clear of established wildlife habitats. Veteran JIBE riders have already commented that this is not a siginificant restriction, since the sand down there can be soft.
Jekyll Island is a unique venue. From the 1860's through the first part of the twentieth century, the island was the home of the Jekyll Island Club, owned by America's elite and wealthy industrialists, including names like Astor, Rockefeller and Carnegie. In 1947 it was turned into a state park and to this day, development remains highly restricted, leaving over half of its area and all the beaches as a public wildlife preserve. The Island is home to all kinds of wildlife including alligators and American Bald Eagles.
The island is also a nesting ground for Loggerhead and other species of sea turtles, whose lives, health and nesting areas are now under the care and study of the new Georgia Sea Turtle Center located on the island. The Center is unique and includes medical and rehabilitation facilities as well as a public education program. JIBE attendees may attend a private group tour of the facility during the weekend (during high tide).
I have a JIBE Guide PDF that you can download. It has directions, maps, checklist, schedule, registration and waiver forms for faxing.
If you just want to download the Waiver and fax it to me (number is on the form) prior to the event then you have more time to buggy. You must sign and submit the waiver and put a helmet on before you do anything with wheels and a kite on the beach.
Schedule of Events (preliminary and subject to change)
Wednesday, May 16th
Low tide: 12:21 pm, Sundown: 8:15 pm
12 noon - 1:00 pm
Dinner on your own
Thursday, May 17th
Low tide: 1:05 pm, Sundown: 8:16 pm
12:00 pm - 6:45 pm...
Dinner on your own
Friday, May 20th
Low tide: 1:48 pm, Sundown: 8:16 pm
12:00 pm 6:45 pm
Saturday, May 19th
Low tide: 2:29 pm, Sundown: 8:17 pm
11:00 am Guided Tour of Georgia Sea Turtle Center (Pending)
12:00 pm - 6:45 pm
NOTE: There will be no buggying after dusk at this event due to the possibility of hatchling sea turtles making their way from nests in the dunes to the water.
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| In this video I am heading south past the convention center watching out for people at the surfline, when a young kid darts in from the dunes on the right, heading right for my path, forcing me into a quick jibe. Loose dogs and young kids with no situational awareness present one of the biggest safety risks for buggy riders here. | After the quick 180 and getting set up on a northbound tack, the camera comes back on for the trip back to camp. Kite is a Phantom 18m in 7-9 mph winds yeilding a 23+ mph run up the beach. This is March 10 at half tide. Sure there will be more people on the beach in May, but not as many as you'd think, especially weekdays. |
Registration is now open...
Purchase event registration here.
Click here to go direct to the secure registration purchase page This window will stay open so you can come back and brouse the information page some more.
Event Registration will be required for all who buggy on the beach, including land boards/ ATB's & Blokarts (most welcome).
I have a JIBE Guide PDF that you can download. It has directions, maps, checklist, schedule, registration and waiver forms for faxing.
If you just want to download the Waiver and fax it to me (number is on the form) prior to the event then you have more time to buggy. You must sign and submit the waiver and put a helmet on before you do anything with wheels and a kite on the beach.
Full Registration ($20) will include...
Georgia Sea Turtle Center tour ($10)...
Purchase event registration here.
NOTE: There is a $5 per day parking fee collected at the kiosk when you drive on to the island. This gets you lots of convenient parking, clean restrooms and open-air showers. If you think you will be making return trips to Jekyll, the $45 annual pass decal is a real bargain and very convenient (you drive through a special lane with no waiting in line).
Click here to go the secure registration purchase page This window will stay open so you can come back and brouse the information page some more.
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| Rider Chris Rieke catches a lot of flies in his mouth because he cannot wipe the wide grin off his face while riding the coastal winds of Jekyll Island. | Team Rider Chad Golden stacked two Peter Lynn Venom kites one year at JIBE and had a real handfull. Great to see so much ripstop Nylon in the sky at once, though! |
Getting There
How do we get to Jekyll Island?
It's easy. You will need a car, as there is no local public transportation. Just take I-95 to exit 29 or 38 in Brunswick, Georgia. Jekyll Island about is 15 or 20 minutes from either one. (Exit numbers in Georgia are referenced by their mileage from the Florida border). Brunswick is a little over an hour south of Savannah and about an hour north of Jacksonville.
Flying
The Brunswick / Golden Isles Region is convenient to three airports:
From Savannah and points north
Once on the island, you will find ample beach parking, clean public restrooms, water, outdoor showers and easy beach access.
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| The Cuaseway to Jekyll Island is easy to spot off of Route 17 / 25. | From here it is 6 miles over the salt marshes to Jekyll Island. |
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| The striking Sidney Lanier Bridge on Route 17 / 25, next to the Jekyll Island Causeway entrance. | The Jekyll Island Convention Center reconstruction is nearing completion and will be finished by the time of JIBE 2012. The shopping center is still temporarily re-located one mile north of the Center while the new shopping village is under construction. |
There is still major construction going on on the island, but the Jekyll Island Convention Center will be complete in May, with detours removed and a new traffic plan and roundabout in place. See the map below. Navigate the roundabout exiting to the north (towards your left up the beach) then go about 1/2 mile and you will see Fins on the Beach Restaurant (formally Blackbeard's) on the right, with a parking lot overlooking the beach. Pull in there and you will see the ramp with stairs going down to the beach. If you have a big, heavy buggy you may want to use the ramp to the beach at Great Dunes Park. It is just 800 feet south of the JIBE staging area.
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There is more information about the Jekyll Island Revitalization Project here
The ramp to the beach is about 6' wide. It has stairs, about twenty steps, going down to the beach. It is easy to get a light or moderate weight buggy down by putting a tow leash on the foot pegs and letting the buggy down backwards. I did this all the time with my 75 lb Bigfoot loaded with gear. Going up is not as bad as it sounds. There is also a wider handicap ramp at the new Great Dunes Park 800' to the south.
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| Bring a rope leash to lower your buggy down the stairs backwards. It's easier than you'd think, even with smaller 16" wheels. | Getting your buggy up the stairs is not as hard as it looks, even with lots of gear in it. Turn the front wheel to the side, rest it on your thigh, and go up one step at a time. This way the weight and strain is on your legs and not your back. It works with 16" wheels just as well, too. |
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| The new Great Dunes Park and deck pavilion, immediately to the south of the Blackbeards parking lot. It features outdoor showers and bathrooms with private changing rooms. The wheelchair ramp up to the deck is narrow for a lot of bugs, so you will have drag big buggies up the three or four steps to get access to the ramp to the beach. | The handicap ramp on the beach side of the pavilion is 7 1/2' wide, plenty for even the big Ivanpah buggy. The ramp is about 800' south of the Jibe staging area. |
There are public restrooms in the lot just to the south, in the brand new Great Dunes Park, and they feature private changing rooms and outdoor showers nearby. Fins on the Beach restaurant is state-owned and managed, so restrooms and all facilities are public. You can usually get in to use them in the late morning while they are setting up before lunch.
"Kite Beach" is the 1/4 mile stretch of beach from the access stairs at Fins's up to the Jekyll Island Club Pavilion, the next building up the beach. Because it is between public access ramps, it is not crowded with a lot of sunbathers. There is a sand bar here at low tide that makes it an ideal spot for kiteboarders and kitesurfers, too.
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| Jekyll Island & major landmarks. The heavy beige line represents beach sections accessable for buggy runs, about 4 miles. From Kite Beach it is 2 miles down to the southern water tower. The area south of the southern water tower is now off limits to buggies and other wind-powered vehicles due to sensitive nesting and wildlife habitats on the south end of the island. Going north from kite Beach and the sand bar, you can go about 2 miles before you run out of room as the beach narrows (low tide only for the north end). |  |
Wind & Weather
Perfect winds for Jekyll Island buggying is east-southeast, with anything a few degrees off one way or another still just fine. The beach runs south-southwest to north-northeast. Right at Kite Beach, there is a bend in the beach right at the sand bar that favors a northeast component to the north, and a southeast component to the south.
Anything can happen, but unless we are influenced by a major frontal system, we can expect good buggy weather for early May. This time of the year, we are under the influence of the default patterns that put a high pressure system off the Carolinas with the clockwise rotation bringing northeast or east-southeast winds onto the South Georgia and North Florida shores. It is normally warm enough that the sea-breaze effect kicks in as the island heats up in the afternoon, drawing the wind right off the water for a decent on-shore breeze. If we do not get the sea-breeze, and end up with northeast or east winds, the we can still work extended runs but with up-wind slogs in one direction and fast deep broad reaches the other way.
If we do get a frontal system moving in from the west, all is not lost, but we might end up with lumpy west winds coming over land.
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| The new WeatherFlow station near the southeast corner of the parking lot overlooking Kite Beach provides near real-time wind data and is accessible on iKiteSurf.com. |
Wind velocity is normally forecast at 10-15 knots, but 7-12 is almost as common, with 15+ less common but often enough for the kiteboarders to get excited. Mornings can start with light winds, building in the afternoon, usually. For this weekend, low tide and maximum buggy space is in the afternoon. We now have a WeatherFlow station installed right over the dunes at Kite Beach, providing wind data in near real time. You can access it at iKiteSurf.com.
Temperatures in the Georgia summer can be hot and humid, but early May tends to keep the edge off, with average temperature ranges listed as 67-81 F, rather than the 90's or higher that can prevail in July and August.
Of course, there is no guarantee!
Things to do for the Whole Family
The "Golden Isles" region of Brunswick, Jekyll, and St. Simons Islands has much to offer for any family members not into kite flying. Some possibilities are...
Contact: Angus Campbell, Coastal Wind Sports, Inc.
Last updated 1/09/2012
Copyright 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Coastal Wind Sports, Inc.