It's heating up!

It's heating up!!

No joke, I just spent 6 months putting out fires caused by the tremendous increase in traffic on Let's Kite. Let's Kite has become a reference over the years, and month after month, we see kiters coming from farther and farther away. We also see kite addicts searching for the best wind conditions on the map, and since the significant improvement in forecasts, we've seen a big increase in traffic.

And??? That's super cool! A big thank you to everyone for your loyalty and for making Let's Kite my pride.

Side effects

The increase in website traffic has had some consequences: it's not uncommon for the server's processor to go up to 100%, the server's hard drive to be full, and the server to experience some interruptions.

Initially, I mainly started optimizing the code to be less resource-consuming. A lot of work has been done. But it's not even close to being finished, and it's definitely an ongoing task!

I also had the not-so-good surprise of realizing that I was exceeding the free quota for Mapbox's map tiles every month. So I ended up having to spend money each month to display the maps on Let's Kite, and since there are maps on almost every page, I quickly changed my code! Now, by default, I display an OpenStreetMap. It's not as nice-looking, but it's free (for now). I kept the option to customize the map (only for the main map on the homepage).

The other surprise came this summer. The weather service I use, Open Meteo, limited the number of requests to their server to 10,000 calls per 24 hours. But we have now surpassed 5,000 spots, and for coastal spots, we also need to import wave and tide data. So, quickly, I no longer had the ability to update the forecasts twice a day, and the new spots had no forecasts at all. Not cool!

New server, freedom!

After making ChatGPT run hot to optimize wherever I could, at the end of July, the solution suddenly appeared to me as if by magic: I needed to change servers! It may seem obvious to you, but not only is it something I had never done before, but it's also a huge job because Let's Kite is not just one site, it's multiple sites, a multitude of ancillary services, in short... And something I never talk about, it also involves increased costs, but as my aunt says, "To hell with stinginess."

Let's get to work!

So, I reserved a new server with OVH: 6 cores, 64GB of memory, 540GB of SSD, and I started testing. In the new project, if I want to solve the weather server issues, I will have to run my own weather forecast service. A service that will download raw forecasts from different weather services 6 times a day (except for Meteo Suisse, which is not open source), and then convert and store all of that data in a database. I struggled almost throughout my vacation to set up the weather server, and there, it's a disappointment... Oops, it consumes resources and almost fills up the entire hard drive. So, I'll need an even bigger one...

Bigger server, bigger!

I write to OVH, they're cool, I can cancel the rental of my new server and switch to an 8-core, 64GB, 1TB SSD. It's more expensive, of course, but if that's what it takes... I redo all the configuration of the new server, and now we're in a different universe. Open Meteo at full throttle takes up 15% of the processor (without Let's Kite and the satellite sites), we're good! And now begins the long process of transferring all the sites in the Let's Kite universe, the configuration problems, and other bugs that I'm still discovering today! But I finally have peace of mind, and I'll be able to continue developing new features and stop playing the code firefighter :-)

(CPU usage of the new server, the spikes are the big weather updates, and the rest of the time is the normal consumption of Let's Kite)

Next steps?

This six-month journey, filled with technical challenges and constant adaptations, testifies to the dynamic evolution of Let's Kite and its rise in the world of kitesurfing. Faced with an unprecedented influx of visitors and growing demand, I had to navigate the tumultuous waters of technology to ensure the best possible user experience. But thanks to your loyalty, perseverance, and a good dose of innovation, we are finally equipped to face the strongest winds.

This is an opportunity to thank each member of our community. Your passion for kitesurfing and your trust in Let's Kite have been the true driving force behind these changes. Keep following the wind, exploring new spots, and sharing your experiences. Together, we make Let's Kite the ultimate reference for all kiters.

On the horizon, new projects and features are coming. Stay tuned!

See you soon on Let's Kite, and may the winds be in your favor!

Fred

Spots

Stations