... in which a kite gets away and creates "havoc" on the road

Another light session that picked up to just under epic conditions. Had fun til late, then...

Tether landing a Speed. It's possible, although not for the faint of heart. My technique relied on keeping the kite flying with the upper steering line until the last moment, then letting it mosey to the ground while I dashed forward and grabbed the tip. Like the sky diver said, "So far, so good".

Today, the kite surged in a gust just as it got within grabbing range, slipped through my fingers, collapsed, opened and flew up, over the zenith and nose-dived on the other side of the window. I jogged over to sort it out, but the kite had bounced the kite up and it was headed back to the other side again, fully loaded and...

... SPROING!

Something snapped (CL it turns out) and the kite shot off downwind. I got a smack from the bar on the way through. Wind pushed it up over the trees, across the road and the bar snagged on the trees. Yikes...

Kite stuck in the trees on the other side of the road, lines strung taught across road. Got the lowest ones off ASAP despite complaints from the road users - sorry, didn't mean to keep you waiting a whole 60 seconds, wankers.

Top lines are high enough to let trucks under, and keep them out of my reach. New kiter with a Merc van helps me out. He gets a ladder, I climb it and hook the bridle with a leaf rake. Cut the pig tails just before a truck with exceedingly tall stuff on the back rounds the corner.

Now to get the kite out of the tree. Wont be jiggled or pulled out so I gotta climb the tree. Naturally, the bridle is wrapped around the highest point, so eventually my helper comes back with a saw blade (no handle) and I get to hacking. Got it down and balled up - no obvious damage.

Bar is still stuck up the tree. Won't be pulled out so up the ladder I go again. Lines disconnected at the bar (yah Flysurfer) and pulled back out through the trees.

Back at the club house, I do a quick untangle and lay out. Bridle sorted in about 10 minutes, no obvious damage again! Wrapped up nice and packed.

A nice balance of good and bad luck, I reckon.

EDIT : checked it out today - no more damage than it went into the trees with (a hole and 2 split seams) and I can't find the bridle line I thought I hacked into with the saw... huh. CL is stuffed though.

... in which I have a good time

Gloves Man was at the beach when I arrived, despite little wind and a crappy forecast. I was hoping for afternoon thermals...

Started off really light and picked up nicely, we had fun.

I nailed foot-outs. I nailed multiple, phat rotations. I nailed foot-out rotations. Oh yes.

... in which I just can't choose the right kite

Gusty. Couldn't get the timing right for which kite to have in the air, for all but a short time.

Nitro just isn't working for me. Lovely, smooth and stable in its actual wind zone - but I'm underpowered, but too twitchy and hot when it's overpowered and I can park n' ride. Shame, cos it's an awesome bit o' kit.

How Stella got her groove back

Never seen the movie, no idea what the title means, but I'm stealing it.

Decided that my sessions have been sucky because I've been going out trying to use the smallest kite I can. Went out today with the 21 and the Ol' Faithful the Flydoor... and the Fusion seat harness. Last time on the Star, I wasn't comfy being over-powered so it kinda sucked.

Today rocked. Rotations, grabbed, foot-outs... even with the smaller Limited. And some great hucking boosts. I got my technique back, even though it is technically wrong for what I want to do but it seems to work for me.

Started out ok-light, then died off... then came back and was good enough to switch to the Limited and rock on out 'til dark.

... could I have gotten away with the S3 15?

Wind was reported as 10 to 16 knots, gusts to 20. Woo!

Buyers remorse?

Think I missed a session post from a Saturday back...

So, I bought a Switch Nitro4 14m last week. It arrived last night and the wind looked good enough to at least give it a run on the beach today...

Hmm. Well, it's different. And different to what I remember of the Nitro3 14 too - more aggressive is how I would sum it up. Light wind relaunch was tricky and left me on the marina beach and a long walk.

Really hard to judge though as the wind was actually pretty shit - I swapped it out for the S3 21 and had trouble getting upwind at times too...

No work, not much wind

Not working Saturday for a change, and the wind arrived which was nice.

Can't remember the details so well, but I do remember it being light but enough to satisfy...