Was watching the weather data all morning and early PM... 1 knot, 2 knots, 1 knot, 3 knots... didn't hold out much hope for the heaps of wind GPV was predicting, so I went out for a ride on the Duke around 2pm. On the way home, there seemed to be a bunch of wind so I bundled up the gear and jumped in the car, making it out to Locus at about 4:45pm.
Well, there's some wind after all. Not much, cos all the kites are barage-ballooning at the shore. Even the mighty Turbine... hmm.
Not having a lot of faith, I take ONLY the S3 21 and the Flydoor over to the beach. Set up, get on the water - nicely powered! Whee massive jumps! Oh that'll be cos the wind has picked up... yikes REALLY picked up; that'll be the thermal then :-/
Depower totally and it's doable... just. I'd be having more fun on a smaller board or kite or both.
Interesting coming back to the 21 after the 15 and the smaller Xbow... getting the timings better and am more aware of what I'm doing with the kite. More successes with the bigger jumps and longer hang-times, but with the wind up the chop is pretty gnarly so there's a lot of bork.
Ride until just approaching sunset, then reverse land the kite. It's not so bad in the higher winds with a good technique... but what to do with it afterwards can be interesting. I usually walk up the line hand-over-hand but WagonR Guy wants to help, so I get him to hold the steering leaders as I joggle down to the kite...
Good session, despite being over-powered but it could have been better. Mind you, it could have been worse too. Got probably 90 minutes again.
Moment of the Day was the first ten minutes of lovely perfect powered moves.
Weather data was recorded as... I forget now, but I think it was 13knots at 6°C 60% with gusts to 24 or so. I reckon it was over 15 consistently although the wind was very smooth so it was easier to cope with than the other day!!!
What I (re)learned today...
• OPTIONS! Take at least another board!
• Actively fly the kite through the jump, don't just hang on and hope!
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