Good forecast today, better than yesterday's was ... I take an hour off work and head to the lake early.
Wind is up ... dunno what to use. Not the 21 that's for sure and not the 12. 13 &16m Xbow, Flydoor and Rip Plus go over to the lake. Soh put up his 14m Havoc and looks happy ... I decide on the 16.
A good enough choice ... but as the evening draws on and the difference in average wind speed between the gusts drops and the time the wind is off increases, it's getting sucky. I pack up before sunset in disgust but not before ...
I forget how, but I've dropped the kite right in the middle of the underwater weed garden. Usually it's not a problem but today the 'bow refuses to relaunch and - joy of joys! - flops onto its trailing edge. A wave washes a bunch of water over the kite and now it's stuck to the surface ... this is something the LEI-whores don't mention when they compare the "ease" of relaunch of LEIs versus foils! >:( struggle struggle swear swear ... after all sorts of retarded behavior (flying upsidedown, TE towards me - really?) I finally get the kite into the air - but now there's a bunch (literally) of weeds wrapped around the Y and the RH steering line. I fly the kite to shore, land, swear, pull the weeds off ...
I'm trying to get back onto the water ... working the kite to get moving but heading right at me and obviously intending to go between the shore and me - about 3m - is Taki :o
I park the kite at the zenith and try to avoid his - we're mere millimeters away from a very big mess and he obviously thinks it's no problem! He moves off to my right then drops it in the water. Now I got Uncle Pyro coming at me from the left and I'm sandwiched between the 2 worst kite-handlers on the beach. Uncle just stands in the water waiting for the wind so I can't move my kite left. Taki is trying to relaunch but he's so close if he loses control (like he usually does) he's going to wrap me up in the hurt-locker. Praise the lord! nothing happens as I walk backwards out into the lake and get riding again. Thinking back, I thought I was just being paranoid but Soh comes up to me later and is like "Dude WTF were those two thinking?" and so, I rename Taki as "Dennis the Menace."
Keep flying but there's no joy in it - no jumps, no rotations ... no power in the wind. And so I give up ...
Moments of the Day was the monster jump that started off as a regular jump but the gust yoinked me good ... I even rode away ;) the pendulum backrolls were pretty cool too.
Wind speed was recorded as 12 to 14 knots (ho ho ho!) with gusts to 24. Obvious to me now that that is average wind speed ... there were times when I was worried the 'bow was going to fall out of the sky. Oh wait - it did.
What I learned today ...
• The intersection of the seasons produces gusty shit wind.
• October & November are the best wind months at Biwako. According to Soh ...
• Bar pressure on the 16m 'bow is killing me ... I need a different mid-wind kite.
• And to that end, including the gusts, I'm putting the arcs back in the boot of the car!
• Oh yeah tried the Rip Plus again ... not my cup of tea. I like the Flyradical better so it's up for sale ... and sold!
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