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!
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