Forecast and webcam looked promising so I headed down the lake about 12:30. 8-9m/s were promised so I took the 13m Crossbow over and pumped it up. Seemed a bit light, but the wind was supposed to pick up after 1 so I crossed my fingers ... the glove-giving ex-windsurfer newbie was on his 15m Cult and I was thinking maybe I should have brought the SA2 over ...
... but I must have gotten onto the water just as the wind turned on, cos I was away and laughing! For about the next 90 minutes I was nicely powered, boosting some "big" jumps and am starting to get the handle on landing them too :D so it was all very fun ... tried to ride my North Sumo but it was fail ...
... the lull/gust started to do its thing again later, as it seems to do in spring here. Got really sucky so I landed the 'bow. Sat around waiting for the wind to pick up but it didn't and I thought I might chance the SA2 for one last ride so I dragged it out.
That was a mistake; I should have known it wouldn't like the gusty conditions :( got up and riding ok but it just wasn't stable, dropped out of the sky, relaunched it then dropped it again and looped a bridle line over itself that I couldn't recover. The waves turned it into a soggy mess and I had to tide it up on shore. Not fun, not impressed - guess I'll be putting the FSers away until I get decent stable wind :(
Lo-ooong time to pack up, as I waited for the Silberpfeil to dry out and shed the sand ...
What I learned today ...
• Don't even think about chancing gusty winds with the Speed2.5!
• I don't like the Sumo, I think I want a Flyradical XL :D need to try out the Rip + again though.
• Pay more attention to your kite and those around you! I nearly got taken out when the Mistress of Disaster turned without fucking looking as usual (if the silly bitch didn't do her "tricks" within a line length of the shore it wouldn't be such a problem!) and while I was feeling all haughty, I nearly sent my kite across the window into someone else's ...
• I *think* the trick with landing big jumps is not to move the kite around too much up there ... across to 1 or 11, then hold it until you're on the way down. Maybe.
No comments:
Post a Comment