Went down the lake yesterday. There was going to be some wind but I assumed not much ...
Took my 16m Scorpion down cos I've never flown it! It kind of got over-shadowed by the Synergys and I've spent more time with them than the Scorpions or Phantoms.
Only me and a stranded windsurfer on the beach, and a pair of guys whom I don't recognize with a 2m trainer. Someone has raked up all the reeds that have been cut on the other side of the lake and washed up here, then set little fires to smolder and burn off the trash :/ keep this in mind, comes up later ...
I set up away from them and the newbies. Not enough wind to prefill initially, but it picked up, filled up and launched just fine - less hassle than a Synergy IMO :D
And well, damn, it flew just fine! Straps all 50% and extensions on the pig tails - much less stall prone than the Syn 19 I was using Tuesday and much less jellyfishing in turns. In fact, much tighter over all! Either it's the straps or it's just the way the Scorpion flies. Zoom zoom etc had a bit of a play.
Wind picked up, white caps on the lake so I thought I might try riding after all. Pack up the Scorpion, grab my Speed and get into the air and on the water.
Downwind struggling again. Once or twice I got things just right and got moving nicely but nothing of note ... except the occasion I felt the float'n'glide - must have had the kite in the right spot and the wind was just so or something, but I could feel the board just gliding on the water and my weight was being held by the kite ... magic!
Now for the Ffffff ... uuuuu ....
Jackass, who has all the flash gear and sunnies and was showing off to his even more beginner mate with the trainer, talking all about the wind window and power zone finally get in the water with Miyachi's F-One Bandit and a board. Dude has very poor kite skills IMO so when I'm going downwind I just avoid him like the plague.
Walking back upwind, the wind is cross-onshore and my kite is low over the beach. Just as I get to where Jackass is, he decided to head back to shore and starts flying the kite around. I'm downwind of him still so I stop and park a wing tip on the beach. All he has to do is bring his kite up to 12 so I can walk downwind past him but no, he sends it through the power zone! Now his lines are above mine and - the genius lets the bar go! So his kite turns back into the power zone and he gets dragged out of the water, over the beach, into my lines and through one of the fires! As soon as he let go I started yelling "SAFETY! SAFETY RELEASE!" at him but he didn't, of course.
So he's being dragged over and through my lines and they're tangled around his so I pop MY safety and my Speed drops ... but now his bar is wrapped around mine and the Speed is not flagging properly! Miyachi arrives and gets it under control, I recover my bar and keep the Speed on the ground while things get untangled.
Jackass is wasting time apologizing for what he doesn't know so I ignore him and concentrate on getting my kite out of the weeds and nasty crap it's sitting in.
Meanwhile, uber-newbie-buddy-of-Jackass has been flying his trainer just to our left. Well, he drops that on top of my port control lines and the kite wraps around both brake and power!!! I'm trying to keep the kite stable on the ground but it's off-angle to the wind and wants to shift around ... and get this - uber-newbie is slowly walking down his lines, with one in each hand, keeping them nice and tidy! I growl at him to get that fucking thing off my lines and he finally clicked and unwrapped the kite.
FFS ... sure it all worked out in the end but it came close to me totally dumping my kite into the trees next to the road and then I would have been pissed. And it all could have been avoided!
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