One homepage said the wind would be good till 3 p.m., the other said it'd be crap. The window showed no wind at all, not even moving the steam clouds from the factories. So we went to lunch at Stagione in Yasu and enjoyed great Italian food - as always.
About 12 I saw the leaves twitch. And flags flap. And grass fields sway... so I dumped the wife at home and headed down to the lake.
My plan was to play with the Ocean Rodeo Flite 17.5 but I had a nagging suspicion that they have their pigtail "back to front"... so I took it outa the bag - beautiful! but the pig tails ARE back the front. I toy with the idea of putting the pigtails on my Cabrinha bar back-to-front but they're really jammed in there and now the wind is up. I give up on it and drag the 16m Xbow over to the lake and set up...
Wriggle into the whale scrot. Choose the thinner gloves cos it's not that cold and the sun is out... stand around on the beach waiting for the wind.
It comes and goes. We get a bit of a ride then we wait some. It'd be good if it stayed around for more then 5 minutes. Then we get a good session... starting to feel a bit over-powered after a half hour or so, so I swap for the Flyradical and whaddyaknow? The wind dies...
Wait around a bit while everyone else packs up... once they've left though, the wind really picks up and we (me and skinny directional guy with the Park) have a really good hours play till what must be about 5 p.m. Wind was good and consistent - got some nice jumps with good grabs, phat back-rolls, neato jump and back-roll transitions and even throw down some front rolls!
Nice session, should keep the psychosis at bay for a while.
Moment of the Day was landing 2 very sweet front rolls!
Mood of the session was amused annoyed satisfied.
It sucks when your kite falls outa the sky and wraps around driftwood on the shore then turns itself upside and floats up into the sky.
Weather was reported as 10 to 15 knots, gusts no more than 26 knots (which was at 2 a.m.); 6°C at 54%.
Wind felt like 15 knots gusting to 20 but I couldn't get on the 'radical :(
What I learned today...
• You can't ride along with one foot out of the straps on the front of the board then put it back in after it falls out when jumping. You fall over. Which is a shame, cos it looks stylish.
• The Cab bar could do with a stopper. If you hold the bar carefully and keep the kite constantly turning it makes nice power... sheeting out during turns really kills the power.
• Grabs (that could be foot-outs) can be flown single-handed if you redirect gently pretty much the whole time after you get the board grabbed.
• Front-rolls need more power and less kite-sending... for now. Except the redirect for landing.
• I WANT MY Ocean Rodeo BAR fucking Chinese factory...
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