Forecast looked crankin' for today but you never can tell, so I loaded the car up with the Flydoor, Rip Plus and my 16, 13 and 10m Crossbows. Got to Locus and the wind was good so I hauled the 13 and 10 'bow and the 2 boards over the road ...
... tough decision. Dithered around for a bit and decided to go with the 13 and the Rip Plus cos I need to get used to a small board. Started off with ol' Faithful though and was muy powered! Boosted some MONSTER jumps - seriously, they were massive and I just hung around under them for ages - but it was clear that the 13 was too much kite.
Pumped up the 10 and got back on the water ... weird being under such a small kite but I was easily powered, as the locals swapped down to the 7, 6, and 5m kites :o the big board had to go, so I jumped on the Rip Plus.
I'm determined to get used to a small board cos there'll be a Flyradical L in the mail soon hopefully - thanks Ricardo again! - so I persisted through the first few? many? minutes of nose dives and wipe-outs then I was riding and moaning to myself about the footpads not being as nice as the FS ones then I was just riding! I guess it's pretty easy to do when you're overpowered on a 10m kite :D
Spent a lot of the tack just standing on the fins, cos any edging at all sent me rocketing upwind miles away from the beach. Had a good amount of space to myself so busted some more monster jumps ... until I fucked them up several times in a row, looping the kite and slammed but myself good, at which point I came in for a break.
As I was sitting down having a drink, the Mistress of Disaster decided to launch her kite - this time, without checking that someone else hadn't laid their lines across hers. So up goes her kite with a bar wrapped around them and the kite attached to it starts to head skyward ... thankfully she got yanked into a nose dive and let go the bar and her kite depowered.
Seriously, what is wrong with people? If you're not flying the kite, wrap your line up don't leave them strung out over the beach! Common fucking sense and the only people who do it seem to be me, So and Hironobu ...
When I went to launch at the start of the day, I had to untangle the Master of Disaster's lines from mine first - he SAW me laying out my lines but landed his kite and just left his lines there, right over the top of mine. Wanker. He blew the LE on his brand new 8m Park so that'll learn him.
Anyway. I packed up my 13m before something happened to it.
Back out onto the water with the 10m and the Rip. Trying to control my jumps and land them rather than crashing or splashing down. Apparently the wife turned up for a while and she got some video, which I'll trim and upload. Not really exciting though cos like I said, was trying to do controlled jumps - not "how high can you fly?". Did a lot of jumps from the flat water behind the waves, rather than boosting off the face of the wave (although I still did them too) in the search for the elevator jumps. Did a lot of toe-side riding too ... for what that was worth :D
Sun was touching the hills, daylight is running out and I was spent. Great day, epic gusting to stupid but was muy bien! When I got back to the car, wife had left a choccie bar and drink for me too - lovely!
Finally edited the movie. After spending hours making it nicely sync with the audio track, fuckin' YouTube disabled it. Lame. Music from the '70's gets the ban-hammer but more recent tunes don't? That's a bit mad! So this is a place-holder until I get home and can upload to Vimeo ...
One step back, two forwards? from Kevin Henry on Vimeo.
What I learned today ...
• I might even need a 7m :o
• Riding a small board - possible! Starting needs more aggressive power strokes but I can cope with the short nose if I adjust my brain.
• 10m kite is crazy fast. Accidental kiteloops ... hurt.
• Small jumps I'm okay with - can redirect at the right time and ride away but going big results in splashdowns :( I still think it's timing of the redirection.
• Failed jump? Keep the kite behind you for a soft splash down.
• AERIAL TRANSITIONS! Little more than clearing the fins from the water, but I did a whole bunch in a row WOO HOO!!! At first they were lucky accidents but I did a number on purpose :)
• Don't need wetsuit boots anymore.
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