Foils foil Murphy

The forecast was for light wind but looked like it'd be consistent, so I went to the lake. What a surprise, I went with the foil.

Took the 21 and 12 to the lake, and I thought there'd be enough wind for a ride with the 12. Waddle out, try to ride...not happening. Back to the beach. As I'm setting up the 21 I'm betting Murphy will turn up the wind in a few minutes after I get out on the water...

Yup. Back to the beach, pack up the 21 and go back out on the 12. Very light, but I have a nice time for over an hour.

Still miles away from making a tack but I'm not sure I want to go strapless...

One hit wonder

Should have been cracking, but it was gusty crap. Tried the TT but gave up and built the foil. That was a bit weak too, but a rain front came through and I got 5 minutes of great boosts--totally way over-powered but it didn't last. Sigh.

Git yer Dukes up!

Took the Duke to the beach because I wanted a change, and am determined to give it a good run.

Wind was up, but it was gusty as hell, and the wind was so shit that everyone buggered off and left the lake all to me alone. Then it picked up and I had 2 good hours of blasting around on the Duke.

So, ride it off the back foot, with power, and it's sweet. Like, really good. I got to thinking and treated it like a Vanguard and it was gravy. Needs more body English to carve well but when you do, it rewards. Jumps nice too and I managed gybes and tacks easily, so it must be the straps ruining my style on the Foil :D

Still want a bigger one though. With channels...Adrian?

Maybe good, maybe bad...

Whoops, forgot to fill this out so my memory is a bit vague, but I remember it was light and I didn't want to risk the 21, so I went with the 15 to see what it's bottom end was with the foil. Not bad, but the problem is the kite isn't swift enough to work to build speed. Seems like the 12 is the limit for that, and if it's lighter then go for the 21 and change early...

Look where you're going. Early...

Carefully timed my trip over to Tsu, narrowly avoided a traffic jam on the highway, but it looked like I'd missed the wind. It'd dropped from 10 knots to 00.2m/s... o_0

Checked the radar forecast again, and thought I'd wait it out till 3, as there's a dark line on the horizon where the wind should be... It pays off, as the wind comes in and ripples the water, and I can see some white-caps out there. I gear up, build the board, strap myself into the harness...and dither about which kite to use. Not supposed to pick up, but I don't want to be over-powered on the foil.

Went with the 12. Couldn't get up on the board at first (3 to 6 knots according to the club weather station), took a break for a few minutes, then tried again as the wind picked up a little. Better.

Wind gradually picked up to the point I thought about getting the TT but then dropped again till it died about 5pm. So, 8 to 12 knots, gusts to 20 apparently.

Tried the fuselage on the shorter setting. I spent less time bouncing right out of the water and more time having fun. Like, tack after tack of going heel to toe, then back to heel...without falling :o so that was pretty rad. Had a LOT of fun riding the swell. I KNOW I'm riding the swell, cos if I'm not on the ball of my balance, I wobble badly as I lose pull from the kite. And bouncing off the swell is neat-o.

Even managed a surface foot switch...took like 20 seconds to shuffle around the board and straps, but I got there in the end.

Speaking of straps, I think it's time to lose at least the back one. Fell over and tweaked my ankles--both of them. The tried to heel-to-toe on my goofy side and screwed the balance; the board fell downwind, I fell upwind and...ouch.

Speaking of falling and ouch, finally fell on the fins. Wasn't going fast enough and not enough power in the kite to get over them. Wing in the ribs, stabilizer into my calf. The latter is very painful still...

Speaking of latter, that's not the time to get your head around. SO much smoother and easier whipping the head around and waiting for the body to follow.

No more, I promise.

Always seem to on about the foil

REALLY wanted to get out on the Duke and see if I can make it work, but the wind just didn't co-operate. Ended up back on the foil...again.

Wind was all up and down, gusty and rough so I didn't really have a lot of fun. Lots of porpoising up and down, no good carves. Sigh...I think the longer fuse is the problem.

In remembrance of Dialer

Wind again today, started light and built a little.

Had the mast cut down (again) and the bottom squared off, holes recapped, as the previous incarnation was . . . borked. Used the new, longer fuselage.

So far so good--no collisions with the bottom and it's still straight.

As for the feel . . . well, there "skating over stones" feeling is gone, it's slower to respond but more reactive to swells that cause it to pitch, tracks a little straighter, faster and smoother, needs more speed to plane but lifts more . . . didn't notice the difference in the length of mast.

That was nice. The wind picked up and I wanted to ride the nice waves properly, so I ditched the foil and rode the Fish. Gawd it's horrible . . . slippery, twitchy, won't go upwind, spray every where all up the legs. Sigh, I miss my Dialer.

Brr

Really cold, couldn't find my flow. Still better than sitting at home feeling crook.

Mo' riding mo' video

Ugh, so sick but...must...ride...foil...must...be competent...before...summer...

Take the 15 and the 12 to the beach, but opt for the 12 as it's supposed to be pick up...it does, and it also dies right off, but in between and after I have a good time riding and hamming it up for the ROAM2. Expect video after the .dmg for Final Cut takes 6 months to mount and install.

Weather report said 5 to 15 knots, gusts to 20. But that was 20km north in Hikone; I think we had 8 to 16, dropping to 3 or 4 in that big lull...

Pride Goeth

Good forecast in the morning, dying off in the p.m... I bum-rushed the ocean beach at Tsu when the wife finished her horsing around in the morning. Got there about 1, set the board up as the other guys were leaving. Decided on the 12m Speed3 because...well, James inspired me and I wanted to check it's range.

Mmm, might be a bit much. Whee! boing test has a lot of pop...suck it up bitch!

Turns out to be good, but oh my! the turbulence in the ocean is more aggressive than the lake swell; I get bounced around and have a hard time foiling out.

Struggle out, get away from the waves and have a nice time for about an hour. I make barely any gybes though, and I feel very out of sorts...

Decide on a break to mount the camera (says GoPro in the tags, but is actually the ROAM2), as I figure I've gathered all the mojo I'm going to.

Oh shit, the wind has dropped and continues to drop until I'm floundering and swearing...not a good look. Give up in disgust.

Weather report says 15 falling to 8 knots; the station at the yacht club was saying 14 when I arrived and SFA when I left. Range on the 12 is good, but it needs extensions.

Enjoy the vid... No audio because iMovie iSucks.

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I am a practitioner of the dark arts!

Well, a novitiate anyway. Foil boards are the voodoo black magic of the kite world. 

The forecast looked weak, but was supposed to pick up from 3. It didn't, but I got onto the water anyway cos I wanted to push the bottom end of the foil board and see just how low you can go.

Well...

If the weather report is to be believed, it was 3.2 building to 8.2 knots, gusts to 12.4.  I think we got a lot more steady wind closer to sunset, as it picked up some and Hiro came to play.

So, pretty freakin' low.

When the 21 would sit at the zenith ok, and I could body drag slowly, that meant I would be up riding :o When the kite would luff and drop back in the window, I could get up on the board but had to work the kite (ho ho ho) to get moving, but usually meant it was tough getting up on a foil. It was the point when the kite wouldn't stall in a loop that it was all on like donkey kong...

Still, there wasn't a white cap in sight and I was going upwind a little more with each tack... Black magic, I tell you! Amazing feeling, gliding over the almost flat water.

So I'm guessing that 5 knots is the easy bottom end, and the apparent wind built up mad; easier riding the apparent wind than over-powered. I dunno if the 21 is necessary, as its slowness was troublesome and I got over-powered at 12 knots (!)--it was almost impossible to keep a constant height foil, power was on and off too much. By the time I packed up, I might have been ok on a TT...maybe.

In the middle of all that, I managed several times to do some total foiling gybes, ride toe-side the whole tack then carve back the other way! Woohoo! Didn't expect to be doing that for a while yet. Tried some jumps, but very half-assed due to fear of luffing the kite and totally crap timing...

Naturally, I had the camera, had it charged, but didn't think it worth putting on the lines. How wrong I was!

Abracadabra, bitches!