After nearly 2 weeks of no wind in the right direction, I was getting pretty desperate so on discovering a barely-reasonable forecast for this afternoon, I headed down to the lake right after work.
Sat on the beach watching ... nothing. No wind at all. My anemometer measured - 2 knots :( in the gusts! :D But the wind was supposed to kick-off around 5 though so I kept waiting; raked up some rubbish to pass the time and make my socks stinky ... mmm sweaty feet.
Dunno exactly when, but the wind eventually arrived 5-ish; I was getting gusts up to 9 knots when I decided to give it a shot and headed back to the car to get gear. Was pretty convinced it was an SA2 day so I got into the wetsuit, picked up the Silberpfeil and the Flydoor and headed over to the beach.
Quick setup and out onto the water (yah foils!) ... nicely powered and happy for about 20 minutes on BUTTER flat water - it was excellent! Then the wind picked up and we got some foot high waves ... and I was over-powered :( I put the advice I read recently into practice - kite low-ish, drop your bum and edge hard which worked fine. Played with load'n'pop, again trying out advice and got some nice big ones :)
Tried to work the kite for some jumps ... man it's a slow old bus. Send the kite, edge up and ... wait for it ... here it comes ... right about ... now! Up you go but not far cos there's not much boost as I've killed it already but flo-oooooat downwind, redirect the kite and whee! off you go. Got a few big jumps in though - muffed one, overflew the kite and splashed down ... the SA just opened up like an arc and floated downwind. I got my head above water and tugged a rear line to get it out of shape and moving in the wind, then body-dragged to my board - no hassles! Great tune by Jim/John at powerzonekitesports.com!
Wind dropped off a little as the sun was going down, so I started doing downloop transitions ... all good fun till the last one, when the kite built so much apparent wind and speed through the power-zone that I went shooting off like a rocket and it took almost an entire tack to get the board, kite and speed under control :D
I was the second to head in and pack up as it started to get dark - I could have kept riding easily in the dropping wind but I wanted a bit of light so I could put the kite down without skewering it on the bamboo rubbish or tangling it in the gardening implements Miyacchi left out ...
Great session! Too much kite (or board) left me wishing I had my Psycho4 or the Flyradical though ... epic wind, crappy riding on my part :D
Also, recently discovered this page of the Japan Meteorological Agency so now instead of my flakey guesses at the wind speed, you can have the official flakey guesses at wind speed.
Today, the wind was listed at 8knots at 5pm, dropping to 7 knots at 7pm. Utter rubbish, it was at least that - I'd say 12 to 14 knots easy cos I read 8knots when the wind first picked up, and it was stronger than that when I got back to the beach. Oh well better than nothing I guess :(
Ha! weather-gpv.info was listing 12 to 14 when I checked just now for the same time period!
What I learned today ...
• Options. You need them - take either 2 kites or 2 boards to the beach, even if you think you got it sussed with your kite choices. I missed getting the 'radical wet today :(
• Timing for the SA is essential - but difficult!
• Sheeting out at the right time is important too but -
• Body position - my problems have been twisting around on the descent of the jump and landing on my heels with the kite behind me, falling over backwards cos I've rotated too far. This CAN be countered by - waving your legs around :D I pushed out my back leg and sorta leaned that way and I corrected the rotation, landed clean ... nice!
• SA2 is a big ol' bus ... the Speed3 loses a bit on the bottom end but if it has better turning ... hmm ...
• Probably should have put sunblock on :(
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