DIY crossover bar

Too much time on my hands due to a lack of wind so I made this out of some spare parts ... consists of the Naish bar from my Zero4 bar and line set, Wipika depower line and trim straps on the brakes, Airush chicken loop, Harken 900kg pulleys, Mystic handlepass leash QR and some Q-power leaders that I went a bit mad splicing loops and knots into.

Now for some wind to try it out ... should be interesting cos the power lines on my Rebble are stretched to buggery and I don't want to risk my crisp Core or the insane Ace ...

Flysurfaholic!

Another low wind session with the Speed ... 8 to 12 knots, I'd guess - the water on the lake was white-capping and that means there's ju-uuust enough wind for me to ride with my biggest kite and board.

Lots of hard working of the kite, fighting the lulls and waiting for the gusts. Had some good runs but every single one ended in a WoS of various lengths. I did manage to avoid washing up on the other half of the beach though! I'm at the stage where as long as I get some semi-powered riding in, I'm happy. So erm I'm happy.

As I was packing up, the sky lit up with the most stunning oranges and brilliant reds and startling blues ...

As an aside, my bits to repair the Shockwave and an Ozone Access harness arrived from Kent of awindofchange.com last night - super sweet! Better finish building my cross-over bar for the fixed bridles ...!

No wind at Maisaka - The Movie!

Had the weekend off work so we went to Hamamatsu.

Hoped to catch some sea breezes and get out on the water, but the weather didn't co-operate. Spent some hours on Maisaka beach soaking up the fresh air and playing with my Flysurfer.

It was very borderline to even keep the kite in the air, but for a few minutes the wind picked up just enough to do some silly jumps. Video when it finishes uploading.

Noticed Nick-san had a buggy in his shed beside his shop, big ol' Bigfoot tyres on it ... hoping to rent it off him next time we're there are there's not enough wind to kiteboard. The beach is too soft for an ATB but it'd be a good opportunity to have a go on a buggy.

More jollies

Skivved off work early to hit the beach.
Went home, got changed, loaded up the car, drove out, parked, humped my gear across the road down the steps on to the beach, unpacked my Synergy - damn, I've brought the 15 instead of the 19!!!

The forecast was for 5m/s falling to 4m/s from 3pm to 9pm. So about 8 to 10 knots.
Hmm ... I had put the Flysurfer Speed 1.5 17m in the car (just in case) so I humped my ickle Synergy back across the road and got stuck into the Speed.

Well. A bit of a finicky monster, in my beginners opinion. Slow turning, twitchy on the trim (I stalled it a lot), real knife-edge of powered or under-powered in these wind conditions but once you get over that hump (12 knots?) and can park and ride - man, what a ride! Boy is that thing fast! And I swear, even my idiot arse going further upwind faster than the little locals. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time trying to work the kite to make some power and going wa-aaay downwind.

Points of interest ...
Tightened the lower harness straps with both hands. This helped stop the harness riding up my bum.
Nearly had said harness yanked off though when I bailed (trying to drag my bum in the water - don't ask why cos I don't know either) and got spun around and I was sorta upside down. Not fun. Thought my pants were going with it.
Mistook my landmark on the shore and ended up further down the beach than I should have been. Couldn't get upwind well and ended up on the "other" beach. Walking back up the shore, I had to jump over a canal-thing to get back to our beach. Oops.
Getting good at riding over the waves - that's fun :)
Many Walks of Shame, a few ride out and returns. Oh well :(
The water gets colder the further out from shore you are. It's a sweet, sweet thing on a hot day!
Nose-dived the kite a few times but reverse launched it no worries! Nice, I like that.
Back-stall landed the kite easily too. Nice, I like that.
Right arm is crippled - the bracioradialis is bloody painful ... not used to the work! Not nice, I don't like that.

So basically I learned that if the regular local riders are doing the WoS then I've got no show of riding. Still better than sitting in front of telly though!

EDIT : just looked at the Yahoo! weather here that also gives the data of what was ... apparently, it was 4m/s to 3m/s ...! 6 to 8 knots! No wonder I was walking :D

Kite size vs rider weight

Back to Square One

There was wind again today but rather than heading down to the park for landboarding, I thought I'd toddle down to the beach. Forecast said 10 knots steady, building to 12 well after dark. Not enough for a big session I thought, maybe I'll have a play with the Speed and see how it goes, should be good to get a handle on it in the water.

Got home loaded the car with the Airush Square One (177x49!!!) board, the Speed 1.5 17 and the Synergy 19, just in case. Arrived at the beach and it was cooking! Seems it was more like 15 knots but I couldn't be bothered fishing out my wind meter so I just hit the beach.

Synergy inflated easily but had a bit of a hairy launch; it dumped the sand from the wing tip and slid downwind before going up, giving a good magic carpet scud. Can't figure out why it did that - I probably wasn't at 45º enough.
I had the center strap in about 25%, tips right out and the VPC knots in the second space 'out' or down from the TE pigtail.
Checked the trim ... trimmed right out, being lifted onto tippy-toes - there's plenty of wind! It's cross onshore, from the north east so we'll be heading away from the beach with plenty of room downwind.

Got in the water with the board, dive the kite and ZOOM I'm off! Awesome!
Kite is still trimmed for de-power so I'm trying to grab the trim strap but I end up getting skittled by the waves. Trim the kite out, body-drag to the board and dive ZOOM and head back towards the beach.
Big ol' Walk of Shame, I'm almost at the other end of the beach. Damn but it was warp speed out there!

Back into the water, dive the kite and ZOOM I'm off again.
Paying more attention to course and trying to keep the speed down. Much easier heading into the waves than with them, I seem to end up further upwind although I'm bouncing off the tops of waves and making a few unintentional jumps as I get the timing "wrong" - sending the kite up to 12 as I reach the crest of a wave. All my jumping on the beach seems to have paid off though cos I actually managed to land most of them :D felt great!
Another long Walk of Shame ...

Back out again, really trying to edge hard. I'm still doing the foil thing and hanging onto the bar, tying to power up through that. I put more weight into my harness and lean back ... this time, when I get back to shore there a much smaller Walk of Shame!

And it gets better!

My last few runs as the sun sets after an hour and a half on the water (where did the time go?!?) I'm actually getting right back to my starting point! I'm going upwind!!! Well sort of. But we're getting there and I'm learning to control my speed, work the kite to get board speed when I need and basically having a great time!

Only real problem - bloody harness! For a seat harness, it really thinks it should be an armpit harness :O riding up so far I couldn't reach the trim strap and I thought I might never be able to fish it out of my arsehole. Going to have to REALLY haul those straps in tight, I guess. Not comfy.

Classiest dismount of the day goes to me - coming back to the shore, I sent the kite up fast and when it lifted me, I sheeted in and let my feet come out of the foot-straps and gliding onto the shore for a perfect touchdown :) probably a bit silly but I was psyched and just let rip! Then I noticed my left wrist and the massive scar and didn't do it again :D

Great evening, bit of a surprise cos I didn't think the wind would be so good!

Old dog, new tricks

After looking at the weather, forecasts and wind station data all day and humming and harring, I decided to go home after work, grab the kites and head back out. 10 knots was forecast, wind stations reported abut 4m/s so it should be good ...

... and it was! Well-powered on the Rebble with exciting gusts! Did some toe-side riding, carving (psch!) turns and practiced my slides ... and got my first ever boo-boo on a landboard - all this time riding, all this lack of talent, all the hairy things that have happened but I've yet to actually fall off, let alone hurt myself on a landboard until today - cant' be trying hard enough :D Went for the big slide but hit a very hard, smooth patch of dirt, losing grip under my back foot and I sort of plopped down onto that bum cheek but managed to graze my outside calf on the other leg. Pretty feeble effort : comparing the discomfort of the trifling graze to driving home with stinky socks - the socks are far more unpleasant.

Anyway, it was one of these slides that nearly put me on my bum, I thought "Hey I almost went the whole way around to toe-side ... hmm ..." and whaddya know, I can now slide around to toe-side then carve a turn back to heel-side! Well, kinda ... I imagine it looks like a hippo trying to ballet dance on skateboard but I get around ...

... and I got something else to practice now! Level up!

A.M, P.M ... I is a addict

Went down to the lake beach this A.M and took my new (used) Flysurfer Speed 1.5 17m with me ... was supposed to be 8 knots but as usual with weather predictions here, there was actually bupkis. I set up, stood around, watched the lake, tried to find north to make a sun shadow compass, gave up & went back to the car for my cell phone cos ... I had to be home to shower and leave for work at 1pm.

A breath of wind started to tickle my fancy around 11:15am so I thought what the hell, let's try to launch.
First attempt was a fail so I reset (dragged the kite downwind and laid it out again) and had another shot. It went up a bit, inflated a bit, I yanked on the center lines a bit and finally, up it went!
Holy shit what a long, thin kite! And holy shit I can't believe it's flying in this sweet FA wind! I'm moving it around constantly but it's turning ok and is actually pulling as it flies across the window! Amazing! I'd guess it'd be about 5 or 6 knots - the long grass is just stirring and the flag is hardly moving ... I keep flying and by about 11:50am the wind has picked up enough (8 knots :D ) that I finally get an idea of the potential of this kite ... astounding! Should be entertaining when it's in it's range!
Back-stall landed it and popped the safety, untangled the bridle and picked all the dead vine out from the twists it had created in the bridle lines grr. Packed up, went home, went to work.

Wind has picked up so I rushed home after work finished at 5pm and grabbed my Synergy 15 and the North Sumo board. I'm looking at the wind and thinking eek, the 15 might be too big when I hit the water at 6:30pm but it ain't :( I'm getting up fine, good blast of speed but I can't keep moving after the first power dive. I get a few runs that are ok and one good one, but just can't get my groove on. Better than going home and sitting in front of telly though!

It's actually my first ride on the water with any Synergy ... quick review.
It turns just fine, much faster than the big LEIs I've used even the 2010 North Rebel that is supposed to be hot poop. Swoops around real nice, very fast kite - I even nose dived it once when I took my eyes off it and left my hands on the bar. I'm betting the 19 will feel more like the 14 - 16 LEIs ...
I didn't like the feel on the bar - couldn't really feel the depower/power point like I like, hard to tell when I was over-trimming the bar, but I can sort that out with the bridle settings. Or maybe the straps.
The bloody safety is a menace - popped off on me when I was flailing around in the water, could only guess it got nudged by my shorts or a roll of fat - so I turned the red hat upside down. Highly recommended and thankfully I could do it at the beach. Like so ...


from Arc Setup FAQ

Could have done with more power so should have used the 19 or fiddled with the center strap, but there wasn't time to land and meddle - sun went down at 7:30pm. The Sumo is only 155x41 or something so I should have taken a bigger board. Was going to take my new Spleenes but sissied out - they're so pretty!
Hoo boy does it jump?! Sending it up to park it at the zenith after a failed start or two (or six) often had me rising out of the water. Before I packed it up, I did some jumping on the beach - bloody epic, without any real effort. Of course, there was no camera :/ Doing that actually gave good feedback through the bar - send kite, sheet in, feel power and POP you're in the sky! Maybe my hands just aren't educated yet?
As with all my arcs, easy to land and launch on my own. Lovely.

So ... what did you do with your day?

And it was phun phun phun - The Movie

Wind was up today so we went down to Maisaka Beach after brunch. Forecast was for easterlies at 12 knots which would have meant slightly cross offshore winds. Er, nope - clean cross onshore wind about 12 knots when we got there and over the afternoon it built up to about 17 or so. Nuts, I had left my board and Synergies at home in Shiga cos I thought the weather would be shite.

Unrolled the new (to me) Phantom 12 and Zero 7 bar and lines on the sand for my first flight with it. Lovely, still crispy, bright and bold!



Filled from the center zipper no worries once I closed the deflate zip :D
There's no Launch Assistant tab on the Phantoms so I carefully laid out the downwind lines across the top of the kite and went back to the bar. By now, the wife has her birthday camera running (Sanyo Xacti CG11) so I even got a clip of me launching the Phantom. Textbook, if I do say so myself :D the only reason why I dawdled around with the launch - I was making sure I hadn't crossed the lines. I do that sometimes. Up she goes no worries.



I spent the next 4 hours or so having great fun scudding around and trying to jump. Thought I had some real crackers until I checked the video the wife took and realized - the jumps were lame like a one-legged donkey and the camera adds about a hundred pounds ... poor Phantom having to drag my fat arse around.
Scudding was awesome, and as the wind picked up the kite was giving more lift to the drag downwind and I was flying along with my feet just skimming the sand. No more pumice rubbing my soles - I got sand-blasted beautiful feet now!

Tried to remember the Arc Setup FAQ details about bar settings and backstalling etc so fiddled with that for a bit too. Seems I got it about right though - have moved the front line leader at the bar end to the next knot, shortening the front lines IIRC - and now I can fly with the trim strap right out. Pulling the bar all the way in and holding it there stalls the kite when it's at the zenith but gives a mighty blast of speed and power when flying through the window WOOHOO.



Landing the kite, I didn't feel I could attempt Carl's method safely so I made up my own :D
Flew the Phantom out to the edge of the wind window on the LHS, then pulled the bar right in and let it fly backstalling to as far downwind as it would go, say 5 o'clock, just off then ground then popped the safety. Kite went down, I walked forward and it flagged beautifully. I then made the mistake of trying to fun downwind to sand the edge, but it went flapping away. Hmm, will have to work on that. Got the wife to hold the self landing handle while I sorted it out.

Great phun with the Fantom!

Thou shalt relax

Had today (Saturday) off work so wife determined it to be a family holiday. Well it is her birthday on the 1st so I guess that's fair ;)
Started the day looking at a pair of possible houses - think we found one but it's much further from the lake than where we live now - maybe a 40 minute drive instead of 10 minutes ... but it's a nice big house in a very peaceful area. Should be good.
After that we jumped on the highway to Hamamatsu, Shizuoka for a micro-break at the beach and Belle Grave - the Cadillac of love hotels! Arrived here (am now typing from the hotel) about 2pm so we headed to the Lake Hamana flower park, site of so many groovy kite adventures ...

Wind was southerly and for that park, really smooth (usually a good blow is gusty as hell) so I unpacked the Rebble and jumped on Kava. The park is all sorta hard-pack but long, thick grass so it was a bit of a workout for the fingers, hands and arms but it is SO much nice to ride on something that won't take my skin off like a cheese grater, unlike my regular park back home! There was a concert going on in the grounds but I had a strip right across the park where I could ride unimpeded and had some really good, nicely powered runs ... good to be back in the saddle again - too much rain & no wind days recently :(

The gusts were picking up though, and I made the mistake of finishing one blast by carving around for a toeside run ... I was on a good reach and thinking about carving back to heelside when just as the grass started to run out, I got hit by a gust and got all powered up and went shooting off the grassed area and into the carpark!

The options were jump off board and risk a broken ankle and a fall on asphalt/concrete with no pads at speed or ride it out ... I thought I could ride it out, wash off the speed slowly but the speed I gained on the downward slope into the carpark translated into more kite speed, the lower friction of the 'crete added to the kite speed even more and suddenly, I'm going way, WAY too fast - still riding toeside, all twisted up with the kite powering up behind me ...

And now I've got speed wobbles!

3 seconds of terror and I'm thinking about letting the kite go to the killers but as the small hedge/big hedge/river looms up large in front of me, I sucked it up and turned downwind at what is, for me, mad speed. Kite falls out of the sky, misses the small hedge and I end up riding in a circle around it as it falls to the ground, rolling to a stop right back upwind of it.

Relax sphincter. Relaunch kite. Act cool. Get back on board and ride back to the grass like you meant to do that all along so that the carpark attendent with his eyes out on stalks doesn't get the idea that I nearly filled my pants :D

Few more runs - on the grass - but the crowds and gusts are picking up so I pack it up and get out the Rev 1.5 while the wife looks at the flowers. Had a nice time playing with that - getting close to being able to do inverted hovers - and my no-snag handle mods worked fine.

And so, in retrospect, it was a rather nice way to spend an afternoon. Very relaxing - even the tense bits!

A new toy!

Ziz.

Got a tip through the grapevine of some kiteboards up for sale in Japan ... could be a good deal cos I wouldn't have to pay retarded shipping to get some from overseas. Long story short, thanks to a weak Great British Pound and not having to pay ANY shipping, I now own two perfect condition 2007 Spleene boards, the Door 154x42 and the Rip Plus 138x44 which cost me the princely sum of $130 each!



And I even like the colours! Considering what I paid for the ancient boards I have now ... they were a bloody good deal!

Also, my Flysurfer Speed 1.5 17m arrived today too! Looks lovely and was also very very cheap - a good way to find out if I'll actually enjoy what was a US$2,500 kite and whether it's worth considering a Speed 3. If it proves to be a low-wind session saver, should be good.

Whee! I love toyziz!

You can't always get what you want

When faced with the choice of going home and getting on the exercycle or going to the park in iffy wind, there really is no choice at all. Went to the park to enjoy the forecast 12 knots. Camped out on the riverbank and launched the Rebble, waiting for the grounds keepers to leave so I could use their precious fields.

Wind was good, but I was feeling lazy and although I initially wanted a spanking session on the board, I ended up lying in the fresh cut grass with the kite riding at the zenith, the cool breeze washing over me and the chatter of birds in the trees. It was all very peaceful and rather relaxing.

The keepers finally left and I think they took the wind with them to spite me. I had a few thundering good runs to begin with, which were made rather entertaining by the hard-caked mud in the soccer pitch that had been trampled by booted players and dried all lumpy ... then the wind dropped till I was working the kite like a mad thing, lines pumping up and down between the gazebo, the goal posts, the golf flags and random fences trying to keep the board moving - even riding the board across the concrete. I should have pulled out the Core but I was actually enjoying just cruising around, playing with the board and taking it easy.

Spent probably 2 and a half hour at the park. Didn't get the epic session I thought I wanted ... but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.

Trying to test new No Snag handles but ...

... there's been no wind for the last several days!

My first attempt at No Snag handles for the Revolution 1.5 SLE was the fairly common use of wall plugs and screws. Went together ok but after a few flights, one handle had the top mount pop right out. Revs don't fly on 3 lines :( Decided that the handles are probably Imperial measurement and the plugs here are metric - either just too small or just too big :D

After wandering around the hardware store and thinking about options, I thought about putting a solid plastic plug in then drilling out the original steel triangle clip holes and just threading the leader lines for the handles through the hole - hopefully, and rough edges would be removed or covered by the plug. Once the plugs were in though, they wouldn't come out without a battle ... then had a brain wave!

Got a bunch of pens and mechanical pencils that were half-empty and checked the size of the ink tube ... the mechanical pencil was the right size for the hole in the handle and it's internal diameter was the largest. So I pushed a short piece of that into the handle holes; just long enough so that when the vinyl cap was put on, the pencil tube was just flush with the cap. Threaded the leader through, some fresh knots and it's ready for a test!

No luck with the wind for 4 days though :D Bit of a puff there today so had a play ... the handles seem good and the leaders show no sign of wear - which is hardly surprising! I notice the rings aren't there - apparently I used to tuck my index fingers under them when flying so now it feels a little odd! But no loss of control due to looping a line under the triangle.

Also notice that I'm lazy and only really turn by pulling the right brake. When concentrating on symmetrical turns at both edges of the wind window, I seem to favour the one direction of rotation. When I forced myself to go the other way, noticed that the wrist was stiff and it felt awkward. Another no surprise cos it's the one I broke late last year. Good therapy, the Rev!

Uber light wind sessions

Took my mother down to the beach to get some handle time on a 4-liner (Cult) is sweet F.A. wind. She got about an hour in before it died to almost nothing. I was flying the Ace 12m at the same time and finally there wasn't even enough for that. Packed up, went home.

After work, went down to the Biwako Museum park with the Shockwave for a quiet fly ... the wind that had picked up during the afternoon died just about the time I walked out of the office - great timing! The Shockwave is so light though it'll fly in a gnats fart. And there was tons of gnats around and I guess they were into the bean curry stew so I had it up in the air for a good while.

Got sunburnt too - summer must be knocking on the door!

A small session

Went out for a quick blast on the board today ... gusty southerly at the other park meant really crappy winds but a ride was had and that's better than sitting in front of telly ...

Shock to the system

Mother is here for 2 weeks but that didn't stop me taking out my new Revolution Shockwave for a blast!
Man, what a twitchy wee devil! Reminds me of the first time I got on my 1.5 SLE and had it skittering all over the sky ... but the Shockwave is so much more! Actually managed to get it flying backwards across the whole window, which I can't do with the 1.5 SLE.

Gave Mum a go with the Vibe, which she enjoyed a lot and I had a play with my Core just for kicks but then it started raining so we packed it in. Hopefully the weather will fine up so I can take out my new 12m Phantom soon :D

The wind has ADHD

Forecast yesterday was promising 16 knots from the north so I was looking forward to a good evenings play time. Had to wait for the grounds keeper to clear off so I launched the Cult from the riverbank to see if it would be enough for the wind that was/wasn't there. Well ...

I must have been a sight to see - parked kite at the zenith, arms were jerking up and down like a puppet on a string. Like rap dancer waving their hands in the air cos they just don't care. Like Scotty flicking the "engine on/off" switch to get back at Kirk for sleeping with Uhura ... you get the picture. So I do some stunting to pass the time ...

Ok Mr Dingleberry the park nazi has finally gone, so I pull the board out of the boot (trunk for our Yankee brethren) and move myself onto the soccer dirt strip.
Whee what fun - it's gusting from like 0 to 30 knots and the wind is all over the place, northeast at one end, northwest at the other. Doing the herky-jerky to get rolling then running totally out of steam in the middle, working it through then get mad power roll in right as I'm heading straight at the open door of the porta-potty on one side or the power lines on the other. The Cult is stalling all through the power zone and going completely flat like a sheet of paper then powering up like it's a JATO rocket.

Despite all that, I had a bit of fun.

And guess what? You CAN jump with a 3.5m kite! Send the kite up from just above 9 or 3 as fast as you can and yes, even my fat arse goes sailing through the air! I thought that was all very amusing and laughed heartily until the Cult lifted me and the board right off the ground - when the kite was at zenith! That's when I knew it was time to pack up ...

Cor(e) Blimey!

Took the newly arrived Core 6.7 out tonight, ostensibly to set it up and parapack it nicely ... but despite the Crappy wind, it flew real nice and pulled good so I got the board out of the car and got some riding in!

Big surprise; I'd say there was maybe 3-6 knots and I know I would've been walking the Rebble backwards to keep it in the air. So despite the Crappy wind, it flew real nice and pulled good so I got the board out of the car and got some riding in! Mixed bag of carving turns; some half-hearted others powered - my timing needs a little work! Good fun slides, even in the Chicken Gravy wind!

The Core is a lower aspect ratio kite, sorta short and fat like the Vibe and unlike the longer, thinner Rebble.
I'm using Peter Lynn long handles and 20m 200/100kg lines. In that light wind, it flew slow but steady and reacted well to pull turns and brake only turns. Turns as good as the Rebble even though it's bigger and probably holds more speed through the turn too.
Good solid pull through the window, kind of reminded me of the Ace with it's non-stop steady power supply; the Rebble is sorta jerky as it comes into the power and takes off in comparison.
I stalled it several times trying to jump with it, which I put down to lack of wind and me sending it too far to the edge of the window ... we'll see how it goes in a little more wind.

Compared to the Blade III 6.6 I had, it's a lot less of a handful in the lighter winds; launches easy with a little backwards walking and fills quickly, going up to zenith and sitting there quite happily. Unlike the Blade, which in the same or slightly stronger winds, had to be yanked off the ground and turned to one side to trick it into launching then kept on the move or it'd stall when it got to zenith. That may well have something to do with just how light the Core is, compared to the Blade; newer, lighter materials maybe.

Anyway, it's a bloody good kite and looks like it'll turn a session of Crap into Chicken Gravy.

Pansh ... it's Chinese for "Drawn and Quartered"

... or maybe just "Pull your arms from body or throw you into sky, your choice suckah"

Had a few sessions with this monster so far, this being about the fourth.
My little beach at club Locus had good clean onshore winds that would be Crappy on any other kite but were Gravy for the Ace this afternoon, so I thought I'd see how my DIY pulley handles worked. And maybe have a setup and test flight for the Core 6.7 that just arrived!

The Ace flies much better on a back-strap (and no doubt, a harness) so you can take all the power through your body and then use the brakes by hauling on the bottom of the handles. This is, not surprisingly, much more effective than trying to fly it like a regular fixed bridle kite on handles.
The pull is just so relentless through the power zone as the kite moves slowly from one side of the window to the other ... massive long scuds downwind! You've got to keep an eye on it though cos it'll race to the edge of the window and collapse if you don't stop it, resulting in at best a near total collapse or at worst, a bow-tie. Thankfully, the small amount of wind needed to fly the Ace means you can just drop the handles and sort the kite out without worries of it flying away ... have to watch it rushing to the zenith too; didn't like it for pendulum jumps cos it's so slow to turn and unless I got it right, would collapse at the end of the jump too. Keep it moving though and you're rewarded with monumental pull.

The DIY pulley handles work nice.
I modified my old Rebble 5m handles, which were strangely an inch longer than the Ace 12m handles. Had no idea about leader line lengths so gave it a generous amount for the brake leader through the pulley. Again, they work best with the harness as you take the power through the back-strap and just steer with the brakes, hands at the bottom of the handles. It'll turn on a wing tip quite crisply, or very near to it.

Thoughts on the pulley handles ...
The closer the knot is to the handles, the less throw you seem to get on the brakes but it's easier to pull.
The kite seems less fussy about the relative lengths of the brake lines but they need to be longer or the pull on the brakes is reduced.
The pulleys seem to limit the amount you can actually pull the brakes too: unlike on regular handles, you can't stall the wing tip by hauling the brakes all the way back. The way the pulleys seem to work, when you've used up all the travel in the brake leader but keep pulling on the handle, it actually pulls the power line too, like you're doing a pull turn with a good dollop of brakes on. So far, this is a good thing; and you can still back-stall the kite fine ...

We'll see if the pulley handles are actually the best option, need to do more testing versus regular handles.

Didn't even get the Core out of the bag, got distracted by the monster Ace! Probably just as well, cos the Core looks brand-spanking new (thanks Ripsession Kites!) and the beach is somehow very dusty so kites, shoes, pants etc end up filthy.

Time flies when you're having fun

Went to my park last night - forecast was for 8m/s and there was certainly wind, but unfortunately the grounds-keeper was still in his little hut till 5pm so I had to wait about 50 minutes before I could set up. Hummed and harred the whole time whether or not I should actually get out of the car cos it was cold, I was tired and didn't have my pads.

The wind was crappy gusting to gravy for my 3.5m Cult so I packed it up and pulled out the Rebble. That shifted the wind range into gravy gusting to stupid, but mostly epic.

For once though, the gusts were treated to an attitude of patient disdain rather than my usual fear and trembling, as they try to rip my arms from their sockets and stretch my fingers. For the extended gusts, I even threw caution to the wind and tried some jumps ... had some real good ones too, sort of hovering and hanging in the air.

Has some nice riding too although the park was soggy and I had to keep an eye on the kite to stop it collapsing in the silly gusts. Did some carving turns and a bit of upwind riding toe-side. Only once got gusted to over-powered on the board and was heading for a park bench, but didn't panic and even made a nice power-slide to stop, if I do say so myself!

So I'm glad I got out of the car and got nearly 2 hours kiting in! I'm sore today though ...