Bitch-slapped

Miyachi's BBS entry reads "Extremely heavy Kevin is riding easily on his 16"... cheeky bugger!

This is being written on Sunday night; we went to Hamamatsu Saturday night and didn't have time to enter Saturday morning's ride report.

Went to the lake in the morning. Forecast looked ok and it was going to crank in the afternoon but I had to work though :-/ dragged myself out of bed at 9:30, got to the lake slightly after 10. Suited up - with gloves this time - and headed over to the lake with the Flyboards and the XB 16. Measured 9 knots on the shoreline :(

Pumped up the 16 and launched... wind isn't up to much, might be able to ride though. Head out with  the Flydoor... riding upwind ok. Certainly, it's much easier than the Fly; better low-end with more upwind, easier to park'n'ride, but the jumps are slower to initiate and turns are noticeably vague, and makes less power in loops and turns.

Noodle around some... about 10:30 the wind starts to pick up and gets punchy with it - I'm fully trimmed - and when I get high-speed lobbed a few times, I decide to get my Flyradical strapped on.

For the next hour, I'm well- to over-powered and mostly enjoying it. Some good, high, floaty jumps, nice rotations and transitions too. Wind is punchy (said that already) so it's hard to get it timed. Mostly I'm pretty timid with the 'technical' stuff but go full-out at the jumps...

Then this one time, I set up for a jump and bounce off a wave's lip and lose the edge before I was ready and I launched with no board on my feet, way off balance and spinning like a top...  I went up, I came down, ass up head down and SLAMMED into the water, right on my side! Head and ribs took the full brunt of it - went OOF damn ouch! when I hit - and I managed to knock my leg around too. Head still hurts today (Sunday) too... it should be bruised so I can get some sympathy!

My Sharks even got ripped off my face too... I ended up downwind of them and my board, so I thought I'd lost ANOTHER pair of sunglasses to Biwako... but as I body-dragged back upwind to my board, I found the sunglasses bobbing in the water :) sweet!

Ride it out till the wind throttled a bit at 11:30 and I could go back to full power trim. Pack it up at 12 and rush home for a hot shower and clean duds for work!

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Moment of the day was hard to choose cos nothing really spectacular happened... it was just good to get out again in strong wind!
Mood of the session was cold ouchie happy.
It sucks when you would have had more fun if you'd pumped up two kites :-/
Song stuck in my head was "Running Bear"... WT actual F?

Weather was reported as 9 to 15 knots, gusts to 26; 12˚C at 45%!!!
Wind felt like 20% just powered, 30% nicely powered, 40% woohoo and 10% holy crap!

What I learned today...
• Water's cold, air's cold - time for gloves! My thin ones did ok and my hands were cold but not debilitating. Soh was complaining about stiff hands cos of the cold...
• Wind chill is tough... time for the 6/5/4 :o or the Ghetto drysuit.
• I seem to be able to get away with smaller kites, and need them when the wind picks up. Winter, huh.
• Like my Xbows but I feel like I need something else - more turning speed and power in the turns... more than just a racing machine.
• Believe it or not, the Speeds are good for that! But I like the non-bridal twistingness of LEIs sometimes.
• Getting slapped like a bitch hurts... I need an emergency plan for brutal impacts!