In between opening Crimbo pressies and Xmas dinner, went to the beach to take advantage of low tide ... well that was the only time I could get out of the house and the tide was out and the estuary is closed so well, what can you do?
There was a bit of wind and I know that the sea breezes pick up later so I went for the Crossbow 16 and Flydoor. Pumped up on the grass area at the North Beach Surf Club and then locked the car and dragged it all down the beach.
Wind was a bit light, bit tough doing anything but holding ground for a long time; riding the flat water between waves and then trying hard to get upwind.
Then I dumped the kite in the surf and had to walk in to shore cos it had inverted then folded in half and refused to pop back into shape ... could've recovered that easy if it was a foil!
Took the opportunity to change the settings on the bridle - moved it to the 'faster steering' setting ... I like it. A tad faster steering, a little more bar pressure for turning but less for sheeting in.
Wind has picked up so I'm having more fun, jumping, crashing, splashing around ... nice day!
Bumped into the guy with the hair from Groundswell, who tried to have a windsurf - no good for him as the wind was all 'up' above wave height ...
Moment of the Day was discovering the different bridle settings were worth landing the kite for.
Weather was guessing again ... I would have said it was about 15 knots when I got there and got up to about 20 when I got off, but the guy with the hair said it was more like 10 to 15 at most ... I got the feeling that there was quite a gradient though!
What I learned today...
• Steering settings are better on "light" ... so far.
• Ocean is a whole other kettle of fish here - wind drives up much bigger waves than Machiya - more like Hamamatsu but they break further from shore.
• Seems that the Xbow likes to be turned as fast as possible and the dived up or down the whipped back around. Medium speed turns just bleed power but very slow sines are ok. How about that then.
• One application of sunblock is not enough :(
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