Now that's more like it! Wind looked good all day so I headed home at lunchtime to grab my mostly dry gear. Ripped down to the lake after work... and it's blowing fine! Take the S3 21 and 15 over to the lake, with the Flydoor and the Mako.
I'm a bit dubious about the wind but it was warm this morning so I'm guessing a thermal is due soon... up goes the 15. Jump into the water with the Flydoor and I'm rocking so it's all good! Nice board speed, nice big jumps...
Feeling more powered now so I swap to the Mako. Oof, bouncy-bouncy! Can't get a good balance of speed and edge control; bit tough adapting after the easy riding of the 'door. Got the power though so settle down into it... having fun, doing rotations and of course, jumping!Jumps aren't as monster as they were with the bigger, faster board. Hmm...
Ride it out til the sun has sunk below the hills... last one on the lake again! Packing up in the dark... great session!
Moment of the Day was getting up and powered with the 15, feeling the pull through the harness without having to work the kite. Just a nice feeling :D
Weather was 10 to 12 knots at 7.8°C 44% with gusts no more than 26 knots. Hmm, I reckon it was closer to 15 fairly consistently... but smooth!
What I learned today...
• Perhaps some kites and boards don't work well together... I'm thinking that the S3 points too far upwind for the Mako to build and hold speed, and pushing it back into the wind makes too much speed and the board skips around. So the flatter boards like my Flydoor and Flyradical work well with the Speed, and the Mako goes better with kites that sit back in the window more like the Xbow. Hmm...
• Over-sending the kite is too easy with a faster kite, but then so it correcting it ;) sometimes!
• And the swinging left and right under the kite is fun - so long as you time it right and don't get slammed.
• Putting your hand out before hitting the water doesn't do much... please break that habit!
• Properly bearing off and load'n'popping is the key to really good, controlled jumps.
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