And it was phun phun phun - The Movie

Wind was up today so we went down to Maisaka Beach after brunch. Forecast was for easterlies at 12 knots which would have meant slightly cross offshore winds. Er, nope - clean cross onshore wind about 12 knots when we got there and over the afternoon it built up to about 17 or so. Nuts, I had left my board and Synergies at home in Shiga cos I thought the weather would be shite.

Unrolled the new (to me) Phantom 12 and Zero 7 bar and lines on the sand for my first flight with it. Lovely, still crispy, bright and bold!



Filled from the center zipper no worries once I closed the deflate zip :D
There's no Launch Assistant tab on the Phantoms so I carefully laid out the downwind lines across the top of the kite and went back to the bar. By now, the wife has her birthday camera running (Sanyo Xacti CG11) so I even got a clip of me launching the Phantom. Textbook, if I do say so myself :D the only reason why I dawdled around with the launch - I was making sure I hadn't crossed the lines. I do that sometimes. Up she goes no worries.



I spent the next 4 hours or so having great fun scudding around and trying to jump. Thought I had some real crackers until I checked the video the wife took and realized - the jumps were lame like a one-legged donkey and the camera adds about a hundred pounds ... poor Phantom having to drag my fat arse around.
Scudding was awesome, and as the wind picked up the kite was giving more lift to the drag downwind and I was flying along with my feet just skimming the sand. No more pumice rubbing my soles - I got sand-blasted beautiful feet now!

Tried to remember the Arc Setup FAQ details about bar settings and backstalling etc so fiddled with that for a bit too. Seems I got it about right though - have moved the front line leader at the bar end to the next knot, shortening the front lines IIRC - and now I can fly with the trim strap right out. Pulling the bar all the way in and holding it there stalls the kite when it's at the zenith but gives a mighty blast of speed and power when flying through the window WOOHOO.



Landing the kite, I didn't feel I could attempt Carl's method safely so I made up my own :D
Flew the Phantom out to the edge of the wind window on the LHS, then pulled the bar right in and let it fly backstalling to as far downwind as it would go, say 5 o'clock, just off then ground then popped the safety. Kite went down, I walked forward and it flagged beautifully. I then made the mistake of trying to fun downwind to sand the edge, but it went flapping away. Hmm, will have to work on that. Got the wife to hold the self landing handle while I sorted it out.

Great phun with the Fantom!

Thou shalt relax

Had today (Saturday) off work so wife determined it to be a family holiday. Well it is her birthday on the 1st so I guess that's fair ;)
Started the day looking at a pair of possible houses - think we found one but it's much further from the lake than where we live now - maybe a 40 minute drive instead of 10 minutes ... but it's a nice big house in a very peaceful area. Should be good.
After that we jumped on the highway to Hamamatsu, Shizuoka for a micro-break at the beach and Belle Grave - the Cadillac of love hotels! Arrived here (am now typing from the hotel) about 2pm so we headed to the Lake Hamana flower park, site of so many groovy kite adventures ...

Wind was southerly and for that park, really smooth (usually a good blow is gusty as hell) so I unpacked the Rebble and jumped on Kava. The park is all sorta hard-pack but long, thick grass so it was a bit of a workout for the fingers, hands and arms but it is SO much nice to ride on something that won't take my skin off like a cheese grater, unlike my regular park back home! There was a concert going on in the grounds but I had a strip right across the park where I could ride unimpeded and had some really good, nicely powered runs ... good to be back in the saddle again - too much rain & no wind days recently :(

The gusts were picking up though, and I made the mistake of finishing one blast by carving around for a toeside run ... I was on a good reach and thinking about carving back to heelside when just as the grass started to run out, I got hit by a gust and got all powered up and went shooting off the grassed area and into the carpark!

The options were jump off board and risk a broken ankle and a fall on asphalt/concrete with no pads at speed or ride it out ... I thought I could ride it out, wash off the speed slowly but the speed I gained on the downward slope into the carpark translated into more kite speed, the lower friction of the 'crete added to the kite speed even more and suddenly, I'm going way, WAY too fast - still riding toeside, all twisted up with the kite powering up behind me ...

And now I've got speed wobbles!

3 seconds of terror and I'm thinking about letting the kite go to the killers but as the small hedge/big hedge/river looms up large in front of me, I sucked it up and turned downwind at what is, for me, mad speed. Kite falls out of the sky, misses the small hedge and I end up riding in a circle around it as it falls to the ground, rolling to a stop right back upwind of it.

Relax sphincter. Relaunch kite. Act cool. Get back on board and ride back to the grass like you meant to do that all along so that the carpark attendent with his eyes out on stalks doesn't get the idea that I nearly filled my pants :D

Few more runs - on the grass - but the crowds and gusts are picking up so I pack it up and get out the Rev 1.5 while the wife looks at the flowers. Had a nice time playing with that - getting close to being able to do inverted hovers - and my no-snag handle mods worked fine.

And so, in retrospect, it was a rather nice way to spend an afternoon. Very relaxing - even the tense bits!

A new toy!

Ziz.

Got a tip through the grapevine of some kiteboards up for sale in Japan ... could be a good deal cos I wouldn't have to pay retarded shipping to get some from overseas. Long story short, thanks to a weak Great British Pound and not having to pay ANY shipping, I now own two perfect condition 2007 Spleene boards, the Door 154x42 and the Rip Plus 138x44 which cost me the princely sum of $130 each!



And I even like the colours! Considering what I paid for the ancient boards I have now ... they were a bloody good deal!

Also, my Flysurfer Speed 1.5 17m arrived today too! Looks lovely and was also very very cheap - a good way to find out if I'll actually enjoy what was a US$2,500 kite and whether it's worth considering a Speed 3. If it proves to be a low-wind session saver, should be good.

Whee! I love toyziz!

You can't always get what you want

When faced with the choice of going home and getting on the exercycle or going to the park in iffy wind, there really is no choice at all. Went to the park to enjoy the forecast 12 knots. Camped out on the riverbank and launched the Rebble, waiting for the grounds keepers to leave so I could use their precious fields.

Wind was good, but I was feeling lazy and although I initially wanted a spanking session on the board, I ended up lying in the fresh cut grass with the kite riding at the zenith, the cool breeze washing over me and the chatter of birds in the trees. It was all very peaceful and rather relaxing.

The keepers finally left and I think they took the wind with them to spite me. I had a few thundering good runs to begin with, which were made rather entertaining by the hard-caked mud in the soccer pitch that had been trampled by booted players and dried all lumpy ... then the wind dropped till I was working the kite like a mad thing, lines pumping up and down between the gazebo, the goal posts, the golf flags and random fences trying to keep the board moving - even riding the board across the concrete. I should have pulled out the Core but I was actually enjoying just cruising around, playing with the board and taking it easy.

Spent probably 2 and a half hour at the park. Didn't get the epic session I thought I wanted ... but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.

Trying to test new No Snag handles but ...

... there's been no wind for the last several days!

My first attempt at No Snag handles for the Revolution 1.5 SLE was the fairly common use of wall plugs and screws. Went together ok but after a few flights, one handle had the top mount pop right out. Revs don't fly on 3 lines :( Decided that the handles are probably Imperial measurement and the plugs here are metric - either just too small or just too big :D

After wandering around the hardware store and thinking about options, I thought about putting a solid plastic plug in then drilling out the original steel triangle clip holes and just threading the leader lines for the handles through the hole - hopefully, and rough edges would be removed or covered by the plug. Once the plugs were in though, they wouldn't come out without a battle ... then had a brain wave!

Got a bunch of pens and mechanical pencils that were half-empty and checked the size of the ink tube ... the mechanical pencil was the right size for the hole in the handle and it's internal diameter was the largest. So I pushed a short piece of that into the handle holes; just long enough so that when the vinyl cap was put on, the pencil tube was just flush with the cap. Threaded the leader through, some fresh knots and it's ready for a test!

No luck with the wind for 4 days though :D Bit of a puff there today so had a play ... the handles seem good and the leaders show no sign of wear - which is hardly surprising! I notice the rings aren't there - apparently I used to tuck my index fingers under them when flying so now it feels a little odd! But no loss of control due to looping a line under the triangle.

Also notice that I'm lazy and only really turn by pulling the right brake. When concentrating on symmetrical turns at both edges of the wind window, I seem to favour the one direction of rotation. When I forced myself to go the other way, noticed that the wrist was stiff and it felt awkward. Another no surprise cos it's the one I broke late last year. Good therapy, the Rev!

Uber light wind sessions

Took my mother down to the beach to get some handle time on a 4-liner (Cult) is sweet F.A. wind. She got about an hour in before it died to almost nothing. I was flying the Ace 12m at the same time and finally there wasn't even enough for that. Packed up, went home.

After work, went down to the Biwako Museum park with the Shockwave for a quiet fly ... the wind that had picked up during the afternoon died just about the time I walked out of the office - great timing! The Shockwave is so light though it'll fly in a gnats fart. And there was tons of gnats around and I guess they were into the bean curry stew so I had it up in the air for a good while.

Got sunburnt too - summer must be knocking on the door!

A small session

Went out for a quick blast on the board today ... gusty southerly at the other park meant really crappy winds but a ride was had and that's better than sitting in front of telly ...

Shock to the system

Mother is here for 2 weeks but that didn't stop me taking out my new Revolution Shockwave for a blast!
Man, what a twitchy wee devil! Reminds me of the first time I got on my 1.5 SLE and had it skittering all over the sky ... but the Shockwave is so much more! Actually managed to get it flying backwards across the whole window, which I can't do with the 1.5 SLE.

Gave Mum a go with the Vibe, which she enjoyed a lot and I had a play with my Core just for kicks but then it started raining so we packed it in. Hopefully the weather will fine up so I can take out my new 12m Phantom soon :D