Feast Day 3

Oh yeah boy! Best day ever for me :) so far, anyway!

Got to the lake about 3:30pm, asked Miyachi about the weather and he said it wouldn't be as good as yesterday. Humped gear over the road and sat under the tree talking to Soh, who reckoned the wind would pick up. Had the foresight to take my anemometer with me ... when the wind hit 10 knots, he decided to get riding.

I slowly set up the Speed and made sure all my lines and bridles were good ... I packed up badly last time and things were a bit messy. Only took my Door to the lake cos I was so impressed with it the other day. Have new straps on the Square One though, would like to try them but - meh!

First two runs were almost powered downwinders ... almost got it up and going. Slog, walk.

The third run - it all just took off! I worked my way out upwind as hard as I could and spent the next few hours playing right out there in the lake :) spent time trying to control my speed, played with the edge pressure and posture, balance with the kite blah blah.

Also spent some time trying to do load-and-pops with varying degrees of success. Spurred on by borntofli, I worked hard on my sliding turns but then got distracted by trying to ride toe-side and do toe- to heel-side carving turns ... less success but muy fun. Played silly buggers trying to jump, played silly buggers trying to ride waves and slalom ... got dunked a lot too but it was all fun.

Had a few interesting experiences - edged hard right into the face of a wave as I was turning the kite up and got 3/4 of a back roll/loop thing done then face-planted ... sent the kite up too fast when a gust hit and I went zooming downwind, a few inches off the water. Much cackling like a mental patient!

Stopped for a drink when I was starting to feel a bit over-powered and had to trim the kite for depower and checked my wind meter - between 15 and 20 knots ... my epic zone, apparently! Probably spent about 3 hours on the water having fun, then decided to pack it in as the sun set behind the hills and the wind started to fail - I was too tired to slog!

... today was the day I should have had the GoPro on the kite! Doh!