Props to John at powerzonekitesports.com for a great priced and speedy repair that looks good too!
Hourly updates were looking awesome right up until the time I got to the lake :( not a good sign when everyone is sitting over at the club having a chin-wag. I checked the tune of the S3 21's new bar & lines - close enough - then hauled ass over to the beach. Bit of fiddling to get the bridles untangled but we got there in the end... inflated and launched just fine... my bridle mods look fine, but the very tips look pulled. Gah! Test pull on the bar... big loft 'n' float! Whee!
Onto the water... with the Flydoor3 cos I know it's light. Easy upwind on a single stroke... DAYUM that's a slow kite! Balls up a few turns and jumps cos it's... so... s-l-o-w but get the hang of it quickly enough and it's the good ol' Great White Beast again.
Not really enough wind for the big boosts, although the hang time is just endless :D a few near calls as I drift towards the beach, and even one occasion when I run aground and have to jump off the board :o
And so I go for the rotation thing again. Roll rate has to be slowed right down - a moment of over-enthusiasm sees me almost making a double but swinging under the kite and it falling... to be caught before it hits the water :)
I even manage to do the front-roll down-loop transition thing... although they take FOREVAH!
Got some foot-outs down, with the masses of hang-time they are pretty easy.
So I keep riding until the sun sets and although I'm not over-powered, I had another great session!
Moment of the day was boosting an air nearer the beach than I meant to be, but watching the rubber-neckers who were coming to the shore for a gawk stop, then back off LOLz
Mood of the session was smug ow smug.
It sucks when you really wish you still had your Flyradical.
Weather was reported as 15 to 16 knots; 11˚C at 65%. Gusts 26 but that was 6 hours before I got there.
Wind felt like 10 to 15 knots, gusts to 15.1 knots... consistently more gutless than yesterday.
What I learned today...
• The very tips of the bridles are now too short... le sigh.
• So much hang time from the Cable Park in a Bag!
• Cos things happen so slowly and you have so much hang-time, it's kind of easy to do stuff.
• Very hard to time jumps now... been spoiled by the Flite!
• Noticeably more difficult to do front-rolls on the left. Nuts.
• Down-loops need to be planned and began early in advance! Like, 3 weeks before :o
• Gotta recheck the lines etc...
• The Flydoor3, when landing with the board across the wind and power in the kite just stops man, it just STOPS.
• Don't need a lot of redirection to get enough pull in the new direction... noticed that the kite was still almost at zenith when it was most effective.
• Now I remember - back-loop transition... I was doing a half, then redirecting the kite while still facing backwards - it was pulling me out and off on the new tack nicely :)
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