Someone on the Facebook reckoned it was a good day for the foiling, so I trotted on down to coincide with a build up to peak wind.
He was already on the water, looking powered, but as I set up I watched him begin to struggle with falling wind. Hmm.
Got a tack or two on the water before it dropped too far, Buddy dropped his kite and swam in. We nattered for a bit and the wind picked up some. He went out and was ok so I joined him.
Nice mellow session resulted, right at the bottom end of power though. I caught a few good waves . . . but it looks like to surf them, they'll need to be chest-high at least.
Spotted a pair of Hector's Dolphins cruising past in the deep end of the pool. Nice!
Showing posts with label north beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label north beach. Show all posts
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Xmas on the ocean
In between opening Crimbo pressies and Xmas dinner, went to the beach to take advantage of low tide ... well that was the only time I could get out of the house and the tide was out and the estuary is closed so well, what can you do?
There was a bit of wind and I know that the sea breezes pick up later so I went for the Crossbow 16 and Flydoor. Pumped up on the grass area at the North Beach Surf Club and then locked the car and dragged it all down the beach.
Wind was a bit light, bit tough doing anything but holding ground for a long time; riding the flat water between waves and then trying hard to get upwind.
Then I dumped the kite in the surf and had to walk in to shore cos it had inverted then folded in half and refused to pop back into shape ... could've recovered that easy if it was a foil!
Took the opportunity to change the settings on the bridle - moved it to the 'faster steering' setting ... I like it. A tad faster steering, a little more bar pressure for turning but less for sheeting in.
Wind has picked up so I'm having more fun, jumping, crashing, splashing around ... nice day!
Bumped into the guy with the hair from Groundswell, who tried to have a windsurf - no good for him as the wind was all 'up' above wave height ...
Moment of the Day was discovering the different bridle settings were worth landing the kite for.
Weather was guessing again ... I would have said it was about 15 knots when I got there and got up to about 20 when I got off, but the guy with the hair said it was more like 10 to 15 at most ... I got the feeling that there was quite a gradient though!
What I learned today...
• Steering settings are better on "light" ... so far.
• Ocean is a whole other kettle of fish here - wind drives up much bigger waves than Machiya - more like Hamamatsu but they break further from shore.
• Seems that the Xbow likes to be turned as fast as possible and the dived up or down the whipped back around. Medium speed turns just bleed power but very slow sines are ok. How about that then.
• One application of sunblock is not enough :(
There was a bit of wind and I know that the sea breezes pick up later so I went for the Crossbow 16 and Flydoor. Pumped up on the grass area at the North Beach Surf Club and then locked the car and dragged it all down the beach.
Wind was a bit light, bit tough doing anything but holding ground for a long time; riding the flat water between waves and then trying hard to get upwind.
Then I dumped the kite in the surf and had to walk in to shore cos it had inverted then folded in half and refused to pop back into shape ... could've recovered that easy if it was a foil!
Took the opportunity to change the settings on the bridle - moved it to the 'faster steering' setting ... I like it. A tad faster steering, a little more bar pressure for turning but less for sheeting in.
Wind has picked up so I'm having more fun, jumping, crashing, splashing around ... nice day!
Bumped into the guy with the hair from Groundswell, who tried to have a windsurf - no good for him as the wind was all 'up' above wave height ...
Moment of the Day was discovering the different bridle settings were worth landing the kite for.
Weather was guessing again ... I would have said it was about 15 knots when I got there and got up to about 20 when I got off, but the guy with the hair said it was more like 10 to 15 at most ... I got the feeling that there was quite a gradient though!
What I learned today...
• Steering settings are better on "light" ... so far.
• Ocean is a whole other kettle of fish here - wind drives up much bigger waves than Machiya - more like Hamamatsu but they break further from shore.
• Seems that the Xbow likes to be turned as fast as possible and the dived up or down the whipped back around. Medium speed turns just bleed power but very slow sines are ok. How about that then.
• One application of sunblock is not enough :(
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