Wind looked good all the way out the other side of the city so I dutifully waited for about the right time for the tide then headed off ... looks like a 13m day! Out comes the mid-sized Crossbow but what board? Dunno, take both ...
For a while it's just me on the water and maybe a few other guys ... started out on the Flyradical but the wind dropped so I went back to the Flydoor. Picks up again and it's rocking on the Flyradical! So I stay out for as long as I can but the legs are giving out on me ... but it's too much fun - I don't want to stop!
Had a great time and really felt in 'the zone' busting out front- and back-spins, jump and spin rotations ... awesome! Also got some big ol' jumps too which is also fun :D getting much better at setting up, executing and - more importantly - landing them! Even when I have to disco dance to get my feet under me and facing the right way :D
Front-spins still require concentration and focus though ... got spanked a few times and it was trying to do them.
As I got off the water, I counted 20 kiters out there! Brendan had arrived too and he went upwind like a little rocket, miles away from the shore - good for him!
Moment of the Day is pretty hard to pick - lets just say the whole freakin' day! Getting really smooth with the back-spin transitions, getting a bit of air on them too ...
Weather was epic. Awesome wind and flat water I mean, what more could you ask for?
What I learned today ...
• Faster kite means things have to happen faster - or slower. I can't do a back-spin transition to a simple dive turn on the smaller kite - goes over the zenith too fast and shoots out to the edge of the window, so I have to loop it ...
• Jump transitions - I need to do more work on them ... I think the key is holding the kite at the zenith until you reach the peak of your jump then dive it hard on the way down ...
• Ok this is important ... foot straps and mounting positions aka stance width.
I used to have the Flyradical on the widest cos hey, that's how I like my Flydoor. Turns out I actually like the 'radical better with the normal stance - requires less squatting over the back foot, seems to rail better and jumps the same.
Now compare that with the Flydoor ... I liked the widest stance; the board was easy to ride, went upwind fine and didn't feel like a big board under my feet. Today, I went back to the normal width stance and OMFG why is there a log on my feet!?!? Horrid, totally different board - felt like it weighed a ton, wouldn't pop at all and just felt like a giant boat under me, no fun at all ... went upwind a little better though. Not enough to prevent me from going back to wide stance ...
• The Relationship Between Depower and Jumping
(Or how I learned not to get pulled off my edge when 'powered'.)
Once the wind picked up at the end of my part of the session, I was having problems keeping the board loaded until I wanted to jump. It wasn't until I talked to Sam that I realized that what I was doing when I was doing it correctly ( :D ) was sheeting out more as I sent the kite. When I kept the bar in, I couldn't hold the power and would pop off early ... so, when more is more, then less is more.
Now that's in the front of my mind, I should like, totally rock, dude! ;)
• Tide times on www.swellmap.com, which are for Lyttleton, are off by about an hour or so ...
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