It all started so well...
Wind was forecast to be a bit on the light side then die off as the evening wore on. I got to the lake around 4:30 and everyone was setting up big kites... well, big kites for them - 12m and 14m kites :o
I thought it'd be a good session on the 21 so I hauled that out (been a while!) and got out onto the water with the Flyradical...
Oh yeah! I would have to say that I'm perfectly powered! Absolutely in the sweet spot - lots of power for speed, big floaty jumps and easy rotations but not so much that I can't edge up and load'n'pop perfectly! Loving the flat water too - best it's been in M-O-N-T-H-S!!! I'm happy! For maybe 30 minutes...
Then... coming out of a front roll, the lines are of course twisted but I look up and see a ball on the steering line is wedged in under guidance block and the kite is diving to right, picking up speed... I struggle with the line, pulling and yanking but it won't release the ball. In the second before the kite slams into the water I decide the smart thing to do is to pull the safety. Kite releases fine but flaps around in the air... hmm.
I swim up the fifth line and reassemble the QR (easy) and hook back in, but by this time the kite has managed to invert itself, bowtie and wrap a bridle through the middle of the bow-tie, effectively sealing the bow-tie in place. I struggle with the kite for a bit but I can't get even a tip up into the air and it looks like I'm pumping water into the inverted LE.
I think about swimming to the kite and manually untangling but it looks like I would drift into the marina wall. So I decide to self-rescue. Wind up the lines, swim to the kite (yup, pumped water into a tip) and begin my swim to the marina beach.
Oh so I wasn't actually that close to the beach :( I finally arrive after an epic cross-current swim, struggle to drain the water out of the kite then struggle with the tangled lines I've created by badly wrapping them around the bar. I think about relaunching it from the marina beach, but it's not big enough to lay out the whole kite - even though it was big enough and clear enough of junk to get onto safely. Actually pretty lucky where I ended up...
So I hump it back up to beach Locus. Phew, weighs a ton wet and sandy . . . lay it out, untangle the bridle - all this actually takes less time than it took to swim in :-/ shake the sand off and relaunch - takes a while to get air into it, but it flies ok and everything looks fine . . . will check it thoroughly in the daylight.
In the mean time - my board has dissapeared. We are not amused.
UPDATE 19/4: Mr Miyachi took the boat out today for an hour and found the board! Ahoy!
Moment of the Day was realizing I was perfectly powered and this was going to be a totally epic session. O cruel fates!
Mood was stoked baffled annoyed.
Weather was reported as 13 knots (16°C at 62%) falling and gusts of 20 just as I got on the water. I could believe 13, but not the gusts...
Wind felt like I was 100% perfectly powered!
What I learned today...
• The guidance block has GOT to go.
• Pulling the QR is not a good solution.
• People who worry about dangling bridles and getting tangled up underwater are wrong.
• The fifth line, on the other hand... tricky bugger.
• Even full of water, the kite floats.
• Wet and sandy, it weighs a ton.
• When self-rescuing, wrap the lines properly - don't figure-8 them over the bar. That leads to the bar putting itself through the bridles etc and compounding the mess.
• I've learned a great deal of patience in this sport - I didn't swear and curse or throw a tantrum at all.
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