Moby Dick gets me moving

Another afternoon off... same plan as yesterday, without the having-to-go-to-work at the end of it...

Yeah, it's light. Time for the Moby Dick to come out and play again. Try the Limited - not much joy. Try the Flydoor - better. Wind drops, I take a break and bring the Dialer back.

Wind picks up, have some fun on the Flydoor... harness bugs me though and while I'm enjoying the stunting, I wish I had the seat harness on.

Pick up the Dialer to change it up and head out... I can ride it, but I'm not carving anything - kite too slow! Play with changing footing and stuff... pretty good fun actually.

Get off the water and head home... pretty good day, actually!

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Weather was reported as 6 to 12 knots; gusts no more than 18 at 10am; 19 degrees C at 64%.
Wind felt like more powered than was comfortable with the waist harness...

What I learned today...

• Back/Front rolls - the S3 21 just lifts you way the hell up in the sky and you dangle around looking upwind for ages :)
• Need a seat harness for that mad power of the 21.
• ... maybe the 15 would have been better...

Republican Jesus* back in the game.

Got the afternoon off, the forecast looked ok so I headed to the lake. Took the S3 21, with the supplies to get it back in the air, just in case the wind wasn't happening.

It wasn't, so I replaced the broken bridle lines and replaced the pulleys. Determined to test fly it, I changed and went over the beach.

Spent another half-hour maybe sorting out the bridle - clearly, when the Z-line broke it looped through the B and C bridles and then I did knotted the two broken bits together when I packed it up... slow and steady sorts it out.

Inflates and launches fine, everything seems to work. A few crappy tacks then I have to go work...

Find a shop with blue Monster and orange juice ice on the way, so I'm double-happy ;)

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Weather was reported as 14 falling to 8 knots... it was mostly unridable by the time I got the gear out though :-/

What I learned today...

• Still a few kinks to work out of the S3 21... notably, the too-short mini-5th.
• Sunblock time.
• Found another lose thread on the Switch wetsuit... between that and the hole in the Hyperflex, I'm a bit frustrated. Might have to brave the cold water in the short john.

* Big, fat, white, slow and saves! sessions.

Directional practice was good...

Hmm. It seems we're not past the gusty lame season yet...

Got an hours fun on the Dialer, but the rest of it was crap. Gusts too much for the 13 but in-between, not enough for the 13. Set the 10 up cos I thought I would be able to use it but... only on the Dialer.

Sigh.

Tried some kite loop preparation OMG what a waste of time with the 13... forgot the 60cm bar and it just doesn't work on the 48cm.

Weather was reported as 13 to 10 knots, gusts to 22; 20˚C at 54%.
Wind felt like crap. Uncontrolled in the gusts, just enough some of the time and not enough the rest.

What I learned today...

• Fuckin' making an LEI go upwind is a lot more work than the Speed3, especially the additional bar pressure. I'm unfit, again.
• Dialer turns better with more aggressive weight shifts, front and rear...

Gusty but crappy.

There's the full gamut.

Tsu again. Forecast was good and the wind arrived; it was just late - as in, when I was packing up.

So I went out on the Speed3 12 at 2pm but wasn't having joy. At 3 I changed to the Pscyho4 19... better. But over-powered in the gusts and being blown downwind, yet I can't really jump properly. So it was a bit crappy...

Got lazy on the landing, just thought I'd pull the safety but I misjudged the distance to a log and ripped the kite :( the old "I've decided to sell this kite" curse strikes again. Not a biggee but damn annoying...

Weather was reported as 12 to 14 knots, gusts to 22. 22˚C at 41%.
Wind felt like a little overpowered in the gusts and underpowered at the other end.

What I learned today...

• Choose your landing spots and methods more carefully.
• Choose your kite more carefully - 13m XB would have been better.
• Might be time to dig out the t-shirt and short john suit.

Gusty but scary. And fun. But scary. And fun.

Was out about lunchtime and noticed the wind was up. Huh, should've paid closer attention to the forecast. Run around organizing stuff.

Get to the lake just after 2. Wind looks ok, JMA seems to say it'll drop later so I'll go with the S3 12 and take the XB 10 just in case.

Head out with the 12... ah, this should be fun!

And so it was...! Some rather big boosts - I could see the whole of the roof at the club house, and that's a 3 story building :o about 2m up over the road too.

With the wind though came the gusts... poor kite took a beating in the punchy shifts. Yikes...

Get dropped a few times when the wind just dies at the top of a jump. Get lobbed a few times when rotations go screwy... after a particularly big lobbing, I must have unhooked myself cos a few minutes later the bar goes flying out of my hands and the kite ends up in a mess... kinda fly it back to shore, dump it and recover.

Head back out, a little less sure. Wind has dropped a little and is a little more stable, but now I'm screwing up jumps to port, like the bad old days - nearly rotating backwards without meaning too... bad combination of kicker and wind angle?

Dunno. I'm starting to fade so call it a day... and what a day!

Weather was reported as 20 falling to 8 knots, gusts to 28; 18˚C at 58%.
Wind felt like a moment of "Imma gunna die", lotsa moments of AWWW YEAH and a few moments of woohaa.

What I learned today...

• Kite handles real funny when wet.
• Elevator rides are fun but scary. Especially when the lift stops.
• So-ooo out of practice! But at least my fitness isn't as bad as it was.

Gusty but epic!

Good looking forecast today for the afternoon... hit the lake after lunch.

Take the 12m Speed3 to the lake and the Flite. But the wind is good! Too good for the 12m and the waist harness so I go back for the seat and 10m XB, just in case.

Nope don't need the 10, the 12 is boosting epic! So that's nice. Wind is a bit gusty... some nasty moments with the kite but if I keep on top of it, it's all good. Lots of great jumps and some nice rotations, although I did balls up a front spin transition and tip tangle the kite... lucky.

3 and half hours! Bloody good effort on my part... I'm going to pay for it tomorrow though.

Moment of the day was boosting off a wave, down-looping the transition and carving down the wave, running out in front of it then carving back up to boost out the top of the same wave! What fun!

Weather was reported as 10 to 14 knots, gusts to 22; 18˚C at 40%.
Wind felt like more than that! 20 to 25 I thought, in the good bits.

What I learned today...

• Don't eat lunch so soon before putting on a harness.
• Need drain holes in the legs of the Cyclone2.
• Adjust the straps on the Limited.

Gusty but good!

Forecast was iffy at Tsu but I was going anyway... the other problem was it's Golden Week holidays so the roads and beach will be packed.

Yup, the morons are digging clams out of the sand all along the beach - thousands of people in the middle of the beach. Thankfully, it's a big beach.

The wind looks good enough for another Speed3 12 day, and the water looks really flat. Huh.

One tack, two tacks, tangle a tip once, twice and... floating in. Gah, it's really gusty out here. Struggle after relaunching the kite to get back moving at all, but I guess it's just wet cos eventually I get it sorted.

Actually, despite the gusts, it's a pretty good session. Some nice jumps, fun in the waves etc. Even the kite stalling in a lull in the middle while I was standing on the beach wasn't too much of an issue. I had a great 3 hours straight on the water... and didn't get burned :)

Weather was reported as 9-16-15-12 knots, gusts to 26 at 3pm. 18˚C at 62% and... no rain!
Wind felt like never over-powered, and a little under-powered most of the time. Jumps meant I had to work to get back upwind and I spent a lot of time "downwind" in the pier corner.

What I learned today...

• Tsu can be gusty too :(
• New Hyperflex wetsuit is lovely but that gusset at the back will piss me off when I'm the only one around.
• The leaders on the kite need replacing too - I can imagine those buggers snapping as well. Sigh.

Damn working. Just... damn it.

Rush after work to get to the beach for the fading light, and the forecast fading wind. Was still pretty good when I arrived, so I took the XB10 and the S3 12 across to the lake after the fasting wet suiting up in history.

Hmm, I think I could risk the 12 and be ok and maybe get a longer ride when the wind drops but... dang, I grabbed the P4 19 instead! So I set up the 10m...

Well, it was ok for about a half hour, then it sucked. So I went back across the road for the 12... it was ok for about an hour then it sucked.

But altogether it was better than nothing.

Weather was reported as 12 to 13 knots, gusts no more than 28 which was at 12 so that's irrelevant. 15˚C at 55%.
Wind felt like ok powered falling to having to walk. Maybe, 15 knots with peaks to 20 at the start

What I learned today...

• Some stitching has come undone on my Switch wetsuit :(
• I love the S3 12 - it's the only Flysurfer that's never disappointed me in some way, usually by something breaking and the resultant mess putting holes or tears in the canopy.