Old movie I thought I'd uploaded from March, 2010.
End of winter ride in the park on the ol' landboard, earlier this year, filmed with a helmet mounted GoPro.
You'll notice around 3:28 the very, very good reason for wearing kite killers! Also note that the back strap in no way affected my ability to ditch the kite when the gust hit ...
Friday, November 26, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Learning to Fly - The Movie!
a.k.a. 37 going on 13. Usually it's years old, not degrees Celsius although the parallel is striking! Between summer and today. Ok not so interesting, shutting up ...
Forecast looked kickin' and it coincided with a holiday! Awesome :) so despite it being 13°C I headed out to the lake at 10-ish with my Crossbows and Synergy 19 in the boot.
Pumped up the new 2011 13 cos I wanted to get some GoPro of big jumps before the end of this season :D on reflection, I probably would have had more fun on the Synergy. Oh well.
Got on the water about 11 and while it was a bit of a cold shock to the body, it wasn't that bad. I started out the Rip Plus but I just wasn't feeling it in the chop (waves!) so went and got my trusty Flydoor from the beach. Much better!
The 13 'bow is a bit twitchy ... really gotta keep the speed in it and the board to get a constant pull - not as tractor-tastic as the 16, strangely enough. Took a bit to get used to but I got it after a while. So with the camera rolling I got stuck in ...
Wind was muy gusty ... was a touch over-powered in the gusts, just powered in the lulls (didn't lose much ground downwind) and generally was just about right. Had a great time trying to go as big as I could and got slammed good many times - obviously I'm trying then according to Law of Carl :D
Had a great 3 hours or so on the water but my thighs were started to give up - literally - so I headed back into shore in the next lull. My emergence from the water was greeted with guffaws from those standing watching - they're all in full length wetsuits and I'm in t-shirt (and rash guard) and shorts; but I wasn't cold until I got off the water and was just standing around trying to pack up!
What I learned today ...
• Don't spit into the wind.
• Miyachi said, point your board downwind more when you land the big jumps!
• Still got a few degrees C more to go until it's too cold :D
• The line mount on the GoPro - don't push the camera back against the base, it points too far down. And I really need a 16Gb-er. The Rain-Xing worked good though.
• I need more time on the Rip Plus but it's hard to invest that time when the Flydoor is so much easier to ride!
• Don't breathe out on the way down, underwater ... sometimes, you don't float back up so good.
• You can (and should) direct your body by turning and looking where you want to go - you can drive your body around much easier.
• When in doubt - stomp on the rear foot!
And here's the footage ...
Probably the only one worth watching so far. Artist merit - zero. Skillful tricks - zero. Big splashes - many. I like making the big splashes.
Learning to Fly from Kevin Henry on Vimeo.
Forecast looked kickin' and it coincided with a holiday! Awesome :) so despite it being 13°C I headed out to the lake at 10-ish with my Crossbows and Synergy 19 in the boot.
Pumped up the new 2011 13 cos I wanted to get some GoPro of big jumps before the end of this season :D on reflection, I probably would have had more fun on the Synergy. Oh well.
Got on the water about 11 and while it was a bit of a cold shock to the body, it wasn't that bad. I started out the Rip Plus but I just wasn't feeling it in the chop (waves!) so went and got my trusty Flydoor from the beach. Much better!
The 13 'bow is a bit twitchy ... really gotta keep the speed in it and the board to get a constant pull - not as tractor-tastic as the 16, strangely enough. Took a bit to get used to but I got it after a while. So with the camera rolling I got stuck in ...
Wind was muy gusty ... was a touch over-powered in the gusts, just powered in the lulls (didn't lose much ground downwind) and generally was just about right. Had a great time trying to go as big as I could and got slammed good many times - obviously I'm trying then according to Law of Carl :D
Had a great 3 hours or so on the water but my thighs were started to give up - literally - so I headed back into shore in the next lull. My emergence from the water was greeted with guffaws from those standing watching - they're all in full length wetsuits and I'm in t-shirt (and rash guard) and shorts; but I wasn't cold until I got off the water and was just standing around trying to pack up!
What I learned today ...
• Don't spit into the wind.
• Miyachi said, point your board downwind more when you land the big jumps!
• Still got a few degrees C more to go until it's too cold :D
• The line mount on the GoPro - don't push the camera back against the base, it points too far down. And I really need a 16Gb-er. The Rain-Xing worked good though.
• I need more time on the Rip Plus but it's hard to invest that time when the Flydoor is so much easier to ride!
• Don't breathe out on the way down, underwater ... sometimes, you don't float back up so good.
• You can (and should) direct your body by turning and looking where you want to go - you can drive your body around much easier.
• When in doubt - stomp on the rear foot!
And here's the footage ...
Probably the only one worth watching so far. Artist merit - zero. Skillful tricks - zero. Big splashes - many. I like making the big splashes.
Learning to Fly from Kevin Henry on Vimeo.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Some pics!
Finally we have a yard big enough to lay out a kite in flat and still be able to walk around it! This yard is bigger than our last house, and THAT yard was considered frivolously enormous! It was the largest in the neighborhood by a long shot ... ah, Japan - better to build your house right out to the borders of your tiny bit of land than it is to have a bit o' lawn you can dig your toes in, keeping you away from getting intimate with the audio track of the neighbor's bodily functions :o
Click for big ones :)
My 2010 Cabrinha Crossbow 16 ... plenty of room to spare!
Synergy 19 ... the Sea Blue actually looks much nicer in the flesh - the Synergy's are truly pretty kites! Which makes it equally hard to shift to Chargers ...!
Synergy 15 has little use but also is a beautiful colour!
A completely unused Synergy 12 ... still so brand new it hurts :( just don't have the wind for it here!
Click for big ones :)
My 2010 Cabrinha Crossbow 16 ... plenty of room to spare!
Synergy 19 ... the Sea Blue actually looks much nicer in the flesh - the Synergy's are truly pretty kites! Which makes it equally hard to shift to Chargers ...!
Synergy 15 has little use but also is a beautiful colour!
A completely unused Synergy 12 ... still so brand new it hurts :( just don't have the wind for it here!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Night kiting
... by Feyd a.k.a Hardwater Kiter. Just in case he doesn't upload anything to his blog (har!) here's a pic of his night rig in a Charger.
Quote from PKF ...
"Changed my lighting system. Put the Million in and Superflashes on tips.
I'm so gonna get arrested for causing a disturbance.
...
All lights together weigh less than a pound. Gonna have to call the authorities before I go out to give them a heads up :D"
The last, was a comment about how people have called the cops after seeing night-lighted kites and mistaking them for UFOs :/
If I can get more details or pics, I'll add them at a later date.
Quote from PKF ...
"Changed my lighting system. Put the Million in and Superflashes on tips.
I'm so gonna get arrested for causing a disturbance.
...
All lights together weigh less than a pound. Gonna have to call the authorities before I go out to give them a heads up :D"
The last, was a comment about how people have called the cops after seeing night-lighted kites and mistaking them for UFOs :/
If I can get more details or pics, I'll add them at a later date.
Monday, November 15, 2010
No joy
Went to the lake. The wind wasn't really there. Got in the water, got on the water for a bit, splashed around, got out, went home. Tits.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Yo turbo'd my Core man!
No work this weekend so we trotted down to Hamamatsu. Forecast was ass but I took a full load of kite gear and lobbed my Core 6.7 and new Ozone Turbo bar in the boot too ...
Arrived at Maisaka Beach about 4pm with a touch of wind, so I unpacked the Core and Ozone and had a play while the wife went walkies.
There was hardly any wind so set up was no problem - walked the lines out of the bag, had a quick fly so I remembered what flying on handles was like (it's been a few months!) then landed and swapped to the Turbo bar ...
Compared to my homemade thing, it's much smaller and nicer :D the amount of "depower" throw is much less, as is the trim and the leader lines are much shorter. Something to work on for the rest DIY version ...
Launched and had some play time ...
Works real nice! Strangely enough :D
Brake input is enough for turning but a bit limited for actually stopping the kite but you can trim in more.
Kite turns lovely - tight enough to turn almost on a wingtip yet not lose too much speed - and is super-stable, easily recoverable in the light winds when it luffed - quick tug on the center lines.
Tested the various safety releases ... red hat above the bar is the best without a doubt, but I'd need to train my instincts for that one. Chicken loop release with a leash to the landing handle is probably easier to do but the leash doesn't spin with the bar and that lead to tangles.
Also played unhooked and the bar could be trimmed to fly nicely like that but DAMN the whole point is to take the strain through the harness!
Compared to my Version 1.0 DIY crossober bar, I had too much depower and the leaders were too long, but they handled pretty much the same ... although being able to stall the kite with the bar on my version was handy. Probably unnecessary too :)
So I think in the end, the landboarders will love it but the buggy guys will probably stick with handles. There's a little loss of fine control that you have with handles but you gain more consistent power and a much longer ride!
Arrived at Maisaka Beach about 4pm with a touch of wind, so I unpacked the Core and Ozone and had a play while the wife went walkies.
There was hardly any wind so set up was no problem - walked the lines out of the bag, had a quick fly so I remembered what flying on handles was like (it's been a few months!) then landed and swapped to the Turbo bar ...
Compared to my homemade thing, it's much smaller and nicer :D the amount of "depower" throw is much less, as is the trim and the leader lines are much shorter. Something to work on for the rest DIY version ...
Launched and had some play time ...
Works real nice! Strangely enough :D
Brake input is enough for turning but a bit limited for actually stopping the kite but you can trim in more.
Kite turns lovely - tight enough to turn almost on a wingtip yet not lose too much speed - and is super-stable, easily recoverable in the light winds when it luffed - quick tug on the center lines.
Tested the various safety releases ... red hat above the bar is the best without a doubt, but I'd need to train my instincts for that one. Chicken loop release with a leash to the landing handle is probably easier to do but the leash doesn't spin with the bar and that lead to tangles.
Also played unhooked and the bar could be trimmed to fly nicely like that but DAMN the whole point is to take the strain through the harness!
Compared to my Version 1.0 DIY crossober bar, I had too much depower and the leaders were too long, but they handled pretty much the same ... although being able to stall the kite with the bar on my version was handy. Probably unnecessary too :)
So I think in the end, the landboarders will love it but the buggy guys will probably stick with handles. There's a little loss of fine control that you have with handles but you gain more consistent power and a much longer ride!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Brass monkeys come to mind ...
Didn't sleep well last night cos the wife was thrashing around like a spastic and talking in her sleep, waking me up non-stop and when I finally woke up, my guts were griping so I stayed home and sat on the crapper for a while.
Got bored so drove to the lake to check the wind. It was ridable but was offshore - westerly and a little southerly - so I drove over to the Pacific coast and checked out a beach there, called Rinku Beach. Maybe - it might also be called Centrair Artificial Beach. Westerly was driving onshore around 40 knots I reckon :o I had to lean into the wind, the car was bouncing around in the carpark like an elephant was humping its leg and opening my mouth made those "blowing over the top of a bottle" noises ...! Nice little beach though, enclosed by water breaks but you could get outside them easy enough and there's enough sand and grass to setup and launch foils or arcs. Headed back to Shiga and went to Locus again. Had a chat with Miyachi and impressed him with my splicing skills then the wind kicked up and a couple of the uncles were going to the lake so I changed and charged over too ...
Dead-on cross-shore wind, a first for me at Locus or indeed anywhere - must be coming in exactly west. Bit worried about fucking up and drifting off up the lake! Wind isn't up to much by the looks of the whitecaps - I really want to use my new 13m Crossbow (in the limited edition Color 001 :D ) but decide on the 16. Yahoo! weather informs me it was 12 knots ...! Don't believe it.
Launch the Crossbow and jump on the water ... whee! bit fresh :o Noticeably cold but not take your breath away ...
Blast out, blast back it's ok, I'm making ground upwind just fine. Throw down a few jumps, get some nice floaty ones. The uncles are watching, haven't launched their kites yet ... the wind is just enough then after 10 minutes it dies right off ... the 'bow Hindenburgs on me just at the shore and I actually catch it and carry it ashore, wrap the lines up to get them out of the water then lay it all out again.
We wait a bit, and the wind picks up good again and the horizon promises more, so I launch and hit the water. Bit iffy but I'm riding and holding ground. Uncles finally launch their kites and the wind picks up more! It's a touch off-shore (eep!) and it's creating a bit of a hole nearer the shore, with a strong band way out but I don't want to get stuck all the way out there ... gradually, I dip further and further into the jet stream. It comes and goes but I keep riding for another 90 minutes till about 5pm.
Nicely powered, a little too much in the gusts but that just makes the jumps more fun :D I'm loving the Recoil upgrade to the Cab bar, doing some nice hop/toe-heel carving turns with a downloop and then unspinning the bar like a cool guy :D Also love sheeting right out or dropping the bar and then not having a tangle of balls and trim ropes! Definite must for 2010 Cab bars and freeriders!
What I learned today ...
• Recoil is the shit!
• I'm fine ON the water, warm up IN the water but once the sun goes under the horizon and I'm OFF the water, I'm freezing my nuts off. Better to change out of wet clothes and THEN pack up the kite!
• Downloop on the carve toe to heelside is sweet!
• Cross-shore is a bit scary, especially when it shifts to cross-off :o I'm less inclined to play silly buggers when I'm faced with a 3-hour walk if I get blown off downwind ...!
Got bored so drove to the lake to check the wind. It was ridable but was offshore - westerly and a little southerly - so I drove over to the Pacific coast and checked out a beach there, called Rinku Beach. Maybe - it might also be called Centrair Artificial Beach. Westerly was driving onshore around 40 knots I reckon :o I had to lean into the wind, the car was bouncing around in the carpark like an elephant was humping its leg and opening my mouth made those "blowing over the top of a bottle" noises ...! Nice little beach though, enclosed by water breaks but you could get outside them easy enough and there's enough sand and grass to setup and launch foils or arcs. Headed back to Shiga and went to Locus again. Had a chat with Miyachi and impressed him with my splicing skills then the wind kicked up and a couple of the uncles were going to the lake so I changed and charged over too ...
Dead-on cross-shore wind, a first for me at Locus or indeed anywhere - must be coming in exactly west. Bit worried about fucking up and drifting off up the lake! Wind isn't up to much by the looks of the whitecaps - I really want to use my new 13m Crossbow (in the limited edition Color 001 :D ) but decide on the 16. Yahoo! weather informs me it was 12 knots ...! Don't believe it.
Launch the Crossbow and jump on the water ... whee! bit fresh :o Noticeably cold but not take your breath away ...
Blast out, blast back it's ok, I'm making ground upwind just fine. Throw down a few jumps, get some nice floaty ones. The uncles are watching, haven't launched their kites yet ... the wind is just enough then after 10 minutes it dies right off ... the 'bow Hindenburgs on me just at the shore and I actually catch it and carry it ashore, wrap the lines up to get them out of the water then lay it all out again.
We wait a bit, and the wind picks up good again and the horizon promises more, so I launch and hit the water. Bit iffy but I'm riding and holding ground. Uncles finally launch their kites and the wind picks up more! It's a touch off-shore (eep!) and it's creating a bit of a hole nearer the shore, with a strong band way out but I don't want to get stuck all the way out there ... gradually, I dip further and further into the jet stream. It comes and goes but I keep riding for another 90 minutes till about 5pm.
Nicely powered, a little too much in the gusts but that just makes the jumps more fun :D I'm loving the Recoil upgrade to the Cab bar, doing some nice hop/toe-heel carving turns with a downloop and then unspinning the bar like a cool guy :D Also love sheeting right out or dropping the bar and then not having a tangle of balls and trim ropes! Definite must for 2010 Cab bars and freeriders!
What I learned today ...
• Recoil is the shit!
• I'm fine ON the water, warm up IN the water but once the sun goes under the horizon and I'm OFF the water, I'm freezing my nuts off. Better to change out of wet clothes and THEN pack up the kite!
• Downloop on the carve toe to heelside is sweet!
• Cross-shore is a bit scary, especially when it shifts to cross-off :o I'm less inclined to play silly buggers when I'm faced with a 3-hour walk if I get blown off downwind ...!
Friday, November 5, 2010
I'm the man! - The Movie!
At long bloody last! OMG I'm not wasting any more time meddling with that damned Sony Vegas again, trying to straighten out horizons frame by frame!
This was one of my first sessions of actually riding around, doing stuff and having fun like a REAL kiteboarder ... instead of just trying to stay on the board or battling to go upwind.
I was feeling rather impressed with myself so yes I'm trying to be tongue-in-cheek with the title ...!
Get more details of the original event here ...
This was one of my first sessions of actually riding around, doing stuff and having fun like a REAL kiteboarder ... instead of just trying to stay on the board or battling to go upwind.
I was feeling rather impressed with myself so yes I'm trying to be tongue-in-cheek with the title ...!
Get more details of the original event here ...
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
2 kites, 1 session - no cups!
Careful observation of the weather witchcraft website gpv-weather.info lead me down to the lake at 11am. Started out nicely powered on the Crossbow, but soon was wa-aaay overpowered - 8m/s was forecast but it felt like 10+. Packed it up, went back to the car and got my 15m Synergy.
Man, I'm glad I did! Had an epic session of hard riding, hard landings and a few big jumps though not as many as I'd have liked. Was much more in tune with the little arc and had a great ol' time throwing it around and going easy on the bar :)
I was the only person on the lake for about 90 minutes! The wind dropped of as others were starting to show up - I guessed they'd turned up for the afternoon blow that I guessed wasn't coming - so I slogged into shore and self-landed.
Waited around for the wind and it didn't seem to be coming. Picked up a bit, so I unpacked and re-pumped the 'bow ... faaaark!
Got about 30 minutes of noodling around before I muffed a jump and the kite inverted WTF!!! How about that, the LEI inverted and the arc didn't. Horseshit. Recovered the inverted LEI with arc technique but the right steering line was wrapped around the power lines. Unhooked and sorted that out then spent about 10 minutes body dragging around trying to find my board ... found it then noticed the wind had died so I slogged into shore again ...
The rest of the afternoon was spent telling people "No seriously I'm not cold at all in my shorts and t-shirt/rash guard. Yes I know you're wearing a full-length semi-dry suit but I'm still not cold!" and waiting for the wind. There was a gust around 4pm that got us all excited but it didn't pan out so I called it a day ... apparently the wind picked up as I left the beach but by then I was actually starting to feel cold. And very hungry!
What I learned today ...
• An LEI can invert. It sucks.
• Stopper ball on the Navigator bar is the best idea ever!
• Landings seemed much harsher today, maybe it was the smaller kite. Certainly need to send the kite more to launch.
• The wind in winter is a fickle bitch, but when it's on - it's ALL on! Should have taken the smaller board with me too!
• I need more constant wind so I can start trying aerial transitions etc again ...
• Lazy turns (big radius) up the top, tight turns down the bottom keeps the kite speed and pull constant.
• I'm becoming an expert at packing the very large Crossbow in to the very small Cabrinha bag ... deflate, lay out, roll wingtips into center in flat folds, fold the kite LE to TE in thirds and here's the important bit : put the end with the wing tips into the bottom of the bag and pull the bag edges up over the kite, then zip the flap up and stuff the folded end into the bag ... it should almost fit perfectly.
Man, I'm glad I did! Had an epic session of hard riding, hard landings and a few big jumps though not as many as I'd have liked. Was much more in tune with the little arc and had a great ol' time throwing it around and going easy on the bar :)
I was the only person on the lake for about 90 minutes! The wind dropped of as others were starting to show up - I guessed they'd turned up for the afternoon blow that I guessed wasn't coming - so I slogged into shore and self-landed.
Waited around for the wind and it didn't seem to be coming. Picked up a bit, so I unpacked and re-pumped the 'bow ... faaaark!
Got about 30 minutes of noodling around before I muffed a jump and the kite inverted WTF!!! How about that, the LEI inverted and the arc didn't. Horseshit. Recovered the inverted LEI with arc technique but the right steering line was wrapped around the power lines. Unhooked and sorted that out then spent about 10 minutes body dragging around trying to find my board ... found it then noticed the wind had died so I slogged into shore again ...
The rest of the afternoon was spent telling people "No seriously I'm not cold at all in my shorts and t-shirt/rash guard. Yes I know you're wearing a full-length semi-dry suit but I'm still not cold!" and waiting for the wind. There was a gust around 4pm that got us all excited but it didn't pan out so I called it a day ... apparently the wind picked up as I left the beach but by then I was actually starting to feel cold. And very hungry!
What I learned today ...
• An LEI can invert. It sucks.
• Stopper ball on the Navigator bar is the best idea ever!
• Landings seemed much harsher today, maybe it was the smaller kite. Certainly need to send the kite more to launch.
• The wind in winter is a fickle bitch, but when it's on - it's ALL on! Should have taken the smaller board with me too!
• I need more constant wind so I can start trying aerial transitions etc again ...
• Lazy turns (big radius) up the top, tight turns down the bottom keeps the kite speed and pull constant.
• I'm becoming an expert at packing the very large Crossbow in to the very small Cabrinha bag ... deflate, lay out, roll wingtips into center in flat folds, fold the kite LE to TE in thirds and here's the important bit : put the end with the wing tips into the bottom of the bag and pull the bag edges up over the kite, then zip the flap up and stuff the folded end into the bag ... it should almost fit perfectly.
Monday, November 1, 2010
This is ...
... snowkiting! A classic moive! Hoping to get me a piece of that action this year too ...
snowkite "the way" 2010 from simoneborgi on Vimeo.
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