Drag to Many, Wind Gives Kites a Lift

High winds ripped through Ventura County on Thursday, keeping many people behind closed doors while sending hard-core kite fliers and kite surfers flocking to largely empty beaches.

“Big air, man!” 19-year-old Anton Selzer of Santa Barbara exclaimed as he set up the surf kite that would soon hoist him over the water. “If the kite is in the air, you can fly.”

The surfers hooked themselves to huge kites, strapped boards to their feet and let the wind fly them over the turquoise waves off Surfers Point in Ventura.

Die-hard wind surfer Al Marasse, 33, was in the ocean by 7:30 a.m. and back again in the afternoon. The Air Force master sergeant from Port Hueneme said he left Guam seven months ago searching for a place with lots of wind and water.

“This place is great,” he said. “Anywhere you go, seven or eight miles up the coast, you have great wind.”

Gusts of up to 41 mph tore through Camarillo, while Oxnard saw winds of 38 mph and Ventura Harbor had 5-foot rolling seas.

A travel advisory was in effect for the day in the mountains of Ventura and Los Angeles counties and along California 126. The California Highway Patrol warned motorcyclists, truck drivers and those towing other vehicles to exercise caution to avoid being blown over.

Forecasters from the National Weather Service said the Santa Ana winds began swirling about 9 a.m. Thursday and gusted late into the afternoon. They are expected to die down by today. Temperatures will drop from the mid-80s to the 70s.

The winds stirred up pollen and other allergens, sending some folks to doctors for relief.

Dr. Sanjiv Verma, an allergist with offices in Ventura and Oxnard, said it isn’t just pollen that makes noses run. The atmospheric pressure changes during high winds can irritate sensitive noses and bronchial tubes, he said.

“People with allergies can sometimes tell in advance that the winds are coming because they get itchy noses and sneezes,” Verma said. “We get more people on a day like today. Sometimes they come in a day in advance.”

His advice to allergy sufferers is to stay indoors when it’s windy.

The high winds gave kite designer Gary Dromgold of Van Nuys a chance to test his latest creation--the Mach 1.

Dromgold, 54, flew his fiberglass creation on a desolate beach near Ventura Harbor. It was a good day to find out if it could handle high winds.

The kite exceeded expectations, he said.

At Harbor Kite & Toy in Ventura Harbor Village, high winds spell big business. Store owner Buz Wilburn said the area is one of Earth’s prime wind locations.

The gusts were strongest in mountain passes in both Ventura and Los Angeles counties. In Orange County, winds caused planes at John Wayne Airport to take off and land in the opposite direction to what they normally do.

By early afternoon, 18,060 homes and businesses throughout Orange County had lost electricity because of downed power lines. Southern California Edison had all but 554 customers back up by the time the winds started dying down in midafternoon, spokesman Paul Klein said.