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 ...!
No comments:
Post a Comment