Well, the forecast was promising for the whole day but when I arrived at 1:30pm there was SFA wind at Locus. I spent some time tuning all my bars - yes ALL. I'd even taken the Core 7 to Locus cos the wind looked so nukin'. Just as I was finishing the last bar, the wind picked up...
Soh is setting up his biggest kite, so is Taki... Junkie Sensei is out with his 9m. Hmm, wonder what I should use? Speed3 15 bitches!!! Although Soh says he's getting HIS 9m too - maybe I should have brought the 12m over with me... ah nuts.
I'm first into the water again, despite being the last to set my kite up :D nicely powered on the Flyradical, easily going upwind. Whoa Bessie, it's gusty as a bastard out here! Go through stages of "WTF where is the wind?" to "WTF wish I had the 12!" Yeah, it's mental...
Warm up with a few small jumps... feeling pretty good. Get into the groove and start chasing the big one... good power, nice kicker coming, bear off a tad, edge and up-tiddly-up-up! Holy shit that's a big jump! I'm looking downwind at the top of Soh's head! And... yessss, a perfect landing and ride away!
Repeat ad nauseam... wind is up, wind is down, jumps are big, jumps are small. But it's all good! Even the water co-operates - we're getting long flat areas behind the waves...
Even getting a few elevator jumps! Manage to land a total dead-stop forwards/up only jump - first one! Pretty neat feeling :D
Get spanked once or twice - over-rotation or lazy take-off sees me spinning around and getting slammed.
Then, after an hour or so, down the marina end, I set up for a jump which went fine, though the wind was in a lull when I went up, it had gusted as I landed and the redirect was a bit too deep... I went shooting off downwind, trying to ride out the super-sonic exit but couldn't hold it, got pulled over the front of the board... SLAMMED head first into the water, submarined and got folded in half the wrong way! Popped up out of the water and the kite is on the surface. Whee!
Get the kite relaunched but now I can't see my board... drag back and forth, use the kite to pop up but just can't see it. Head into the shore and stand around looking - then finally spot it. Walk out and body drag to it, keep on riding...
Taking out back to the river, I notice a couple of bridle lines dangling. Head back in and replace the LCLs but find that one of the green leaders has knotted or something and the sheath is cut through... nuts! Minor gear failure...!
That's the end of the day for me... didn't have the 16m Xbow with me and I don't think there's enough wind for the 13 or the S3 12 and there's only another hour or so of daylight left.
So a bit of a mixed bag today - that slam tweaked my shoulder I think - but still left with a huge smile on my face... and The Master of Disaster - who is known for his big air - came over and said "Wow big air!" so that was icing on the cake!
Moment of the Day was looking DOWN on Soh's kite... and landing it perfectly and riding away! I CAN FLY!!!
Weather was reported as 12°C 67%, 11 to 14 knots from 2 to 5pm, with gusts to 22. Wot-evah...
What I learned today...
• Watch how you redirect the kite when it's gusty, you numpty!
• Get that helmet on. It might just be a dead dog, but you don't want to head-butt it.
• Especially not with your mouth open.
• S3 15 is pretty well behaved up it's top-end... still a bit twitchy, not as stable as a Xbow but still has a huge range.
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