EDIT: I forgot to add - the dead dog floating at the shoreline that I nearly stumbled over may have given me a day's fun with vomiting and diarrhea too. Whee.
Having to work Saturday PM seems to be a recipe for great winds... determined not to miss another session, I decided to try the beach in the morning...
Got down there about 9.30am to discover an odd collection of cars in the carpark and - on the beach :o Miyachi informs me that someone is filming a TV drama (either called "Akai Kaze" or "Atsui Kaze" meaning "Red Wind" or "Hot Wind" but both are equally stupid names for a show filmed on a freezing cold lake shore) on the beach "but only for a half-day". Naturally, it's the half-day I want to use the beach :-/ Miyachi said, so long as I stay out of the shots, they don't mind. Well that's nice of them... but I won't go into that rant here.
Thought it might be a good day for a Xbow 13/Mako combo... geared up and tried to ignore all the film-crew standing around staring at me like dogs that have been shown a card-trick. Miyachi launched me and I jumped in the water.
Dead on-shore wind, big chop and it's tough to work it out away from the shore. I try a few tentative moves but I'm not feeling it... slowly warm up into the groove...
The wind is up and then down. And then up. I swap boards a couple of times (getting to used to switching from the Caddie to the Lotus) and make the most of it. I've got my launches sorted to the jumps are big, but I'm not landing and riding away from many :( Having fun though, that's the main thing!
Wind drops off again, and as I'm floating around in the shallows waiting for it to pick and trying to decide if I've had enough, Miyachi waves me off to the other end of the beach - I guess, after 2 hours setup, they're finally ready to film... I decide I've had enough and leave the water, getting Miyachi to land me. It's only after I've packed up that they actually start filming - all 20 seconds worth :o
Moment of the Day was, you guessed it, the monster air! That one moment when board speed, gusts, kite sending and launch timing all came together for the height and float that makes you go "Ahoy!" Well, it does me anyway...
Weather supplied 8.5°C 66% and 6.7m/s to 7.7 with gusts to 14!*
What I learned today...
• Yes the Mako really can jump!
• Mako is so much less inclined to spray in the face and really does slice through chop better.
• It does, however, seem to need a tad more speed to plane... sorta stop'n'start in the big chop as you bounce over waves. That may just be down to my familiarity with it - or skill level. As in, lack of.
• You CAN have a great session in the morning!
* Now a while back, I questioned a Professional Expert National-level Inter-discipline Sponsored kiter over his smarts of putting a hi-performance foil in the hands of a "new kiter" in winds with a delta V of 20 knots - basically, questioning his premise that cos the newbie got scared by the foil in wild wind, the foil obviously is a crap kite...
I mention this because a 20-knot differential is basically what we had today... and so it was on my mind.
Even the rock solid and stable with 7 struts Crossbow was a wild ride in the gusts... I could cope with it fine cos I'm used to it and was mostly underpowered, but if it had been a foil and it was last year and the average wind was 10 knots higher, then I doubt the newbie would have enjoyed himself.
Does that mean the kite is crap? Obviously not. Despite what my narcissistic and scholastically-challenged insisted...
But then... I'm not an expert.
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