Windspeed

[yugi]

OK, it's Friday and feeling provocative.  I haven't griped about this as much as I've felt like.

May I suggest we refer to windspeed in knots? Or Beaufort scale.

Two things:

Any seasoned waterman talking wind on water talks windspeed in knots (or Beaufort). It's the age-old standard thing to do before and even since the world went metric. It does have the advantage of having a common reference for wind between watermen living in imperial measured countries and those in metric countries. It just works. Sorry to say but anyone referring to windspeed on water im mph or kph does come across as kind of a landlubber.

Some of the world has moved on to a metric system of measurement. I looked it up. This might be news to some: all but the nations in red on the below map have moved on. Yes Virginia, that's ~ 95% of the world population.




Before watermen tended to use Beaufort scale as it is a great scale for eyeballing it, but now that we have accurate measured windspeeds so readily available  the tendency is to talk in Knots.

[Wetstuff]

Yugi,  We do not need to speak like ship captains. (who seem to have their own language well beyond wind speeds anyway)   My cars all show both Kms and MPH, but I am most comfortable with mph, so that's what I use in my head.  At that, I don't need a number to tell me it's too uncomfortable to paddle today; "It's too windy. I'm not going out." 

Jim

[pdxmike]

People try to make it seem like not converting to metric proves we are ignorant, but the map shows how wrong that is.  You can see that 2 of the biggest and best countries in North America (the USA and Canada) don't use metric.  And over on the right, neither does Japan.   Looks like Europe is a lost cause except for one small country (London?) on the left side.  Granted the map shows that California switched to metric, but no surprise there either.

[Eagle]

pdx we actually do use metric up here in the frozen wilderness.  But imperial was the standard before so still use it a lot ie. mpg ft in lbs etc.  Our kids tho are pretty much all metric.  Personally my preference is still imperial.

[headmount]

Our weather service uses MPH so I do as well.  That way when the paddlers on Maui communicate, we're on the same page.  If I went somewhere else I'd use what they use.

Or you can piss into the wind.  If it gets all over you, it's time to go.

[Luc Benac]

People try to make it seem like not converting to metric proves we are ignorant, but the map shows how wrong that is.  You can see that 2 of the biggest and best countries in North America (the USA and Canada) don't use metric.  And over on the right, neither does Japan.   Looks like Europe is a lost cause except for one small country (London?) on the left side.  Granted the map shows that California switched to metric, but no surprise there either.

Independently of what one choose to use or not, being Canadian, I can safely say that Canada uses the metric system and that Environment Canada reports wind in knots.
I am also not sure that I would qualify Canada and USA as "best countries" over Mexico per say even if I would not live in Mexico or the USA for many reasons.
It is however true that USA being our largest economic partner, a lot of the material and equipment is still shown in Imperial rather than Metric even if legally it should not.

I just hope that there will be enough wind this week-end in MPH or Knots does not matter to have a proper down-wind 

[SlatchJim]

I worked for a spring water bottling company, oh about 20 years ago, and they couldn't figure out why they were losing over 16 percent of the water from the spring borehole to the bottling plant.  Obviously there's a leak in the line.  Let's hire a geophysical surveyor to evaluate the pipeline and find the leak.  It's only 5 miles.

A month later someone looked at the meters.  "What's 'Imp. Gallons?'" they asked.

So, how does this apply to wind. Well, let's just say, I always use a wind sock.

[gone_foiling]

I thought pdx was joking, at least I hope so.

[Eagle]

Well gc is still actually not always consistent.  But because I grew up boating the VHF Marine WX current conditions and forecasts were always stated in kts in these parts -> plus needed to know nautical mile for plotting and navigation.  So am used to that.  But super easy to convert to mph and km/hr anyways.

[Eagle]

I thought pdx was joking, at least I hope so.

pdx never jokes

[nalu-sup]

Hi yugi. Nothing wrong with feeling a little provocative on Friday; I will play one time.
I think that maybe the terms we use have as much to do with our water background, as where we came from. If you come to windsports from a boating background, you are more likely to think in knots. If you come from a surfing background in this part of the world (Hawaii), you will likely think in mph. Most of us SUPers here come from more of a surfing background than a boating background, so mph is just how we think.
As Headmount noted, many of us who participate in windsports here in Hawaii, as well as other windsport areas across the US like The Gorge and San Francisco, whether that be downwind paddling, windsurfing (which I have been doing most days for 35 years), or kitesurfing, use various online wind forecast services such as iWindsurf, or Surf News Network which use mph. Since many of us who use this service are in the ocean surfing, SUPing, downwinding, windsurfing, etc 3 to 8 hours a day on most days, and in cases like Headmount and myself we have been doing this for 40+ years or more, I think that we are getting close to being considered seasoned watermen. I am not sure that is is fair to call us landlubbers, even though we have spent more of our lives on surfboards than we have on sailboats or yachts. If you talk in Beaufort to most hard core watermen here in Hawaii (where at least a few live), most will look at you with an expression of why would you use an obscure European measurement that none of us think in, and many have never heard of even though they spend most of their lives on or in the ocean. Knots makes a little more sense, but is not the one that I commonly use for a couple of reasons. One is that when you quote a high windspeed to someone, they will sometimes think that you are exaggerating. We can simply refer them to iWindsurf going back to any given day, and it will show a wind graph for that day; in mph. That is one reason that I used mph in my post yesterday that I think you were referring to. I was basing the wind report in my post on iWindsurf which showed it in mph. It is also useful for communicating with surfers, weekend wind warriors, or visitors to Hawaii, since mph is the scale that the vast majority can relate to, so it makes for effective communication.
I appreciate your point that mph is not the common measurement for much of the world, but rather than asking us to convert from our common reference for watermen here in Hawaii to what you are more familiar with, maybe it would be easiest for all of us to post in our local language that we use among ourselves, and then everyone is free to convert to what they use in their part of the world. Simple. We won't ask you to post in mph so that hard core surfers here in Hawaii can understand you, if you won't make us post in boating terms.
So, I bit on the provocation. That was fun, but I am done now. Gotta rest up because iWindsurf says that the wind is supposed to be blowing 25 mph again tomorrow!    Sounds like a surf morning, followed by a couple of hours of windsurfing, and finish the day with a good downwinder. Pitty that I am a landlubber and not a waterman. 

[Dwight (DW)]

My first windsport was hang gliding....mph

So it's been mph since 1979 for me.

Lucky for me, it's mph for 90% of the windsurfers and kiters I know

Haha ...to you knoters 😛

[MaineSUP]

My first watersport before SUP was operating my homemade submarine (called the Nautilus) and so I think in terms of leagues per hour (LPH) 

[leecea]

There is approx 15% difference between mph and knots.  A forecast is not 100% accurate and wind speed is not 100% constant.  If you just want to know how windy it is, 15% seems like it doesn't change anything. 

[Badger]

Nautical miles per hour are usually only needed when covering long distances. It has to do with the curvature of the earth.

I've logged a lot of miles cruising sailboats. We use knots when measuring boat speed over long distances for navigational purposes. Boaters measure wind speed in knots just to keep the scale the same. All speeds are in knots. The tradition has trickled down to all types of sail and power boating.

There's nothing wrong with using mph or kph for paddleboarding since most of us aren't covering anywhere near the distances that would make nautical miles useful.

I use mph for windspeed simply because that's what the weather forecasts use.

I never use the marine forecast for paddleboarding because that forecast is for out to twenty miles from shore and has little to do with near shore conditions.

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