Can someone quantify the winds in Kona for me? I always hear talk about how strong they are. Are they sustained at 30mph with 40mph gusts? Or sustained at 15 with 20mph gusts? or are they generally swirling?
Thanks,
-C
That the fun part. You never know what you’re gonna get here…kj
tough to say, on account of every year for the past 10 or something they’ve been saying “it’s the windiest Kona ever!”
-mike
.
After college (1984) I took some time off to sail to Mexico and then over to the islands. I specifically remember sitting in Kawaihae Harbor for three days waiting for the Kona winds to subside enough to make for a more comfortable passage to Maui. I had never seen such strong sustained wind like that. The gusts easily hit 40+ knots.
I used to go run down the Queen K just out of boredom and remember how friggin windy and hot it was. At the time I had no clue what IM was all about but I still remember the winds there. By the way…it blows even harder in the channels. Kind of a venturi effect I guess.
Mike
I did Kona last year and it was brutal. I thought the winds were very, very tough. The first 20 miles thru town is NO biggie, but once you get onto the Queen K the winds (headwinds) were sustained 25 mph. The hike up to Hawi and to the turnaround were about the same, 25 mph sustained and 30 mph cross winds. We were all just crawling up to Hawi.
Once you turn around at Hawi - you get a short (very short - 5 miles) reprieve of a nice downhill, but then the crosswinds come right back and stronger - I was riding on the side of the road and the crosswinds would push me into the middle yellow line and I would ride back to the side. Gusts were at least 50mph, including the 25 mph headwind.
After 112 miles you get used to it – so it is managable, but I was sure glad to get off my bike! But, it is Hawaii !!! Honestly, I already forgot how tough the bike was. The marathon was a piece of cake after the bike last year.
I cannot really quantify the magnitide of the sustained winds or gusts, but they are very VARIABLE and often going up/coming down from Hawi are CROSS WINDS. Then when you back to the Queen K from Kawaiihae you often get HEAD WINDS for the last 35 miles. Those last 30+ miles can make it a real long day (and evening!).
If you shave your legs, you will cut some time as the inevitable winds will just flow right over your smooth, clean shaven limbs as opposed to getting tangled up in all that hairy mess… (sorry, couldn’t resist from the other thread)
Seriously, others have answered pretty well. It will be windy. There will be headwinds. There will be crosswinds. There will be quartering winds. There will be gusts that have you white-knuckling your bars. There will be that all-too-brief period of tailwind coming down from Hawi. And it might let up for the last 20 miles, though it did not last year.
Tough to quantify—just imagine heavy, sustained wind being with you for most of the bike and you’ll be okay. Or not. If I recall, there have been a few years where the winds were relatively----key word being “relatively”----calm, and those are the years with the record breaking times.
Otherwise…count on the wind being your friend for a few hours on October 16.
Sweet! If I ever make it to Kona (hopefully someday…) it will be no sweat! I’ll be coming from central Illinois, where we routinely have winds at 30 gusting to 40mph! So I don’t even need to worry about the leg hair! 
-C
I’m sure someone someday will invent the Endless Pool counterpart for the bike, “Endless Wind”, where you pedal in place in front of a giant fan to simulate winds; with handlebar mounted controls you can then alter the course of the wind to be a cross wind or a quartering wind, and then just like wearing fins in the pool you can have a tail wind, just to see what it’s like to ride at 35+ mph on the flats with little or no effort.
That’s what Kona felt like last October----“Endless Wind”. Sing it to the tune of “Endless Love”.
Yeah, real punchy today—my stupid jokes aren’t even funny to me!
The winds at Kona can be strong, slack and anything in between and can start at anytime from any direction.
In '83 - when I first did the race, we had strong (I don’t know the sustained winds), with headwinds gusting to over 60 mph while we were going up the hill to the turn around. On the way down it shifted somewhat to the side and pushed us across the road. My strangest memory is being on my drops (pre-aero bars) in a 42/24 and doing 3 mph.
In 84 they were a quartering head wind that hit us in the face going out and coming back. combined with the heat it was miserable.
In '85 we had the best winds. Relatively light, overcast conditions and even a little rain.
One thing I have learned over the many years is get out of the swim as son as you can. A few minutes save there will pay big benefits on the bike. You can get out there before the wind really builds.
Whatever happens though, count on a nasty wind, high heat and terrible humidity. If it doesn’t happen, your prayers to Madame Pele were answered.
Good luck.
Rob
This will give you an idea of the winds at Kona. I’ve done 19 IM races and my bike split usually averages 5:20-5:35, depending on the course. I’ve done IM Hawaii 5 times and my bike split there averaged 5:35-5:47, depending on how strong the winds are. If your in that range, you can expect roughly a 10-20min slowdown.