GPV forecast a change of weather around 5pm today, so I played the odds and headed down to the lake from work... at least I'd get an idea of how long it takes. 20-25 minutes, by the way.
Standing on the beach talking to Miyachi, he reckoned nothing would happen. I agreed and was about to head home when the wind started to shift. Thought I'd give it another 5 minutes... and spotted white caps rolling in. Decided to wait around and see if the wind is going to stick around. It did so I hauled ass back to the car to gear up. Looked about right for the S3 15 and the Flyradical... fingers crossed!
Quick set up so I'm first on the water :) after a few tacks, the wind has a fit and gets all nasty... got me a bit worried but it settles down so I go back to jumping like a nutter :D ooh good ones today! Several "Yeehah!" moments!
Now I encounter a new problem... I'm having problems timing and controlling the redirects and landings. Not cos I'm useless, but cos they're so high I'm swinging around and dragging the kite in front of me before I really want it over there! So I use some downloops to control it (otherwise the kite just tacos) but that's freaky cos the kite is going right back into the powerzone. Simply sheeting in and holding it doesn't seem to work consistently either... I might have to learn how to helicopter loop properly :o
Anyway, the jumps were great fun! We rode until dark - could hardly see the waves by the time we gave up and came in. Thankfully, Miyachi was there to land my kite for me; the wind had picked up and it would have been an interesting landing if I had to do it solo!
Awesome session, despite the nasty herka-jerk moments; sometimes it pays to wait another few minutes, eh! Only a short session - 90 minutes max! - but I packed in as much air-time as I could :D
Moment of the day was watching as the wind changed direction by 180˚ and the front rolled on in :)
Mood of the session was oh ooh yargh!
Weather was reported as 14 to 18 knots, gusts to 25 :D 11˚C at 70%.
Wind felt like 15 to 20 knots with gusts to 25. How about that for a coincidence? Unstable but perfectly powered... when it wasn't trying to rattle my teeth out.
What I learned today...
• Redirects on big jumps... tricky. Needs work.
• Taco'd the kite a few times too, mostly recovered them though. Seemed to be when it went too far upwind (cos I'd gone downwind under it) and I sheeted right out and I rode at the kite on landing. The problem being that if you keep the bar sheeted in during the jump... well I forget now but it didn't work. But if you sheet out at all, the kite zooms across the window and taco. Annoying.
• At least the relaunches were easy, despite some attempts by the kite to bowtie. Good.
• I think I did a backloop transition by accident! Trying to wiggle the kite back when still way up there and just kept pulling. It was a bit messy but I didn't slam... hmm.
• Sometimes, if you sheet out on the way down, you drop like a rock (nice negative Gs!) but can catch the kite as it whips across but before it slams into the edge of the window... and land light as a feather. Whee!
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