Cabrinha demo day

Again the forecast didn't promise much but the lake delivered much better. Headed down about 2pm I think, jumped onto the water with the Silberpfeil ... not much wind, fighting to hold my ground and doing even a single roll lost too much downwind for a while. Eventually, the wind picked up to the point where the SA was too much.

Packed it up and stood around hoping to get out with the Cabrinha kites. The 'salesmen' weren't too friendly, and didn't seem interested in talking to people off their own bat - I thought if you're trying to sell a couple grands worth of fabric, you'd be kissing customer ass, not trying to get them to kiss yours ...? Also, note to Cabrinha - you should probably employ people who know the difference between front and rear lines or are at least smart enough to keep their mouths shut instead of trying to be the BMOC around my Flysurfer. Especially, when they can't even relaunch their own kites :o

Thanks to Miyachi and the wife hassling them, I finally got a go on the 2012 Switchblade 14. And then the Crossbow 13 LightWind and finally, the Vector 12 ... here are some thoughts.

• Like the new bar - looks tight. Didn't bother playing with the QR cos daylight was fading ...
• I don't get why everyone at our beach & almost every other kiter with Cabs has Switchblades, except for a few Converts and Nomads and that one other guy in Mie with the Xbow ... the sheeting bar-pressure was as bad as my Xbow 16 (which isn't as bad as the Speed2 19 ...?!? ) and it wasn't that powerful. Didn't really improve much when it was worked. It did turn about it's own axis though, and relaunched the same off the water - dead easy.
• The XB 13 LW on the other hand was lovely - just like mine ;) maybe felt a tad smoother but that might have been just coming from the SB. Much easier to get bigger and longer jumps ...
• the Vector 12 was a surprise - very fast kite ... like, once you let it accelerate in a given direction, it was off like a freakin' rocket! Bit of canopy flutter when redirecting jumps ... the whole thing reminded me of a Charger with less bar pressure. Nice kite, I liked it.

Pretty good, the wind picked up nicely and despite having to chase some guy out from under where I was trying to land the SA2 when over-powered, it was fun. I'm going to be wrecked tomorrow though, my arms are already killing me! The wife had even come down to watch for a while too ...

Got back to the car ... huh, the door is locked I could swear I left my keys in there. Searched the beach, the lake ... nothing. Called the wife, she came back after she'd finished work at 8pm and guess what - she'd left a chocolate goodie on the seat and then locked my door with her keys - sealing mine inside. Doh.

Moment of the Day was busting front and back rolls with no problems at all! Success rate now up to 75% :D

Wind speed was recorded as 8 to 12 knots with a peak of 15 ... hmm, seemed like more than that! I would have guess 20knots in the afternoon ...!

What I learned today ...
• You really gotta explode off the back foot for front rolls - and keep your foot in the strap >_O a few times, the board went whipping around only attached to one foot. Not fun.
• The faster turning foils are ... interesting ... for rotations. I had less success with them in general, but more success with riding away from the good ones as the kite redirects much quicker. There was one time that I pendulumed under the kite as it went from one side of the wind to the other - I like that fine when I'm trying to do BFJ but when I'm spinning under the kite - yikes!