We present results from several simulations of equal mass black holes with spin. The spin magnitudes are $S/m^2=0.8$ in all cases, but we vary the spin orientations arbitrarily, inside and outside the orbital plane. We find that in all but one case the final merged black hole acquires a kick of more than $1000\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}$, indicating that kicks of this magnitude are likely to be generic and should be expected for mergers with general spin orientations. The maximum kick velocity we find is $2500\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}$ and occurs for initial spins which are antialigned in the initial orbital plane.

• Received 14 March 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.76.061502