Straight jackin' the air

Everyone was heading out for the weekend, so I loaded up the car with family and we made a day of it, at Lake Coleridge.

Dead calm in the city, and there was a puff before the hills, but when we arrived at the lake . . . bloody hell!

Was very well-lit on the 10m. Had butterflies before the launch on the narrow and rocky beach. The gusts were a touch brutal but goddamn we got some good air!

Low tide goodness

Good session getting to know the SB, at the beach this time cos the tide is out. Waves make the great kickers, and it's good to note the kite drifts excellently. In fact, the light wind bump n jump is groovy too, surprisingly good height and hang. It's just not exciting...so far. Doesn't have that rip off the water that's exciting...

Wind was supposedly just over 20 knots...wanted more.

Fall squalls

Good boosting session for a half hour or so, then light cruising on the AS. Nice. Started off on the SB 14 but it showed a lack of class when the wind picked up, buckling in jumps . . . it's gotta go.

3 boards, much joy

So-so forecast, so-so wind reports . . . great session!

Started out playing silly buggers on the TT, which was nice.

Had been out a while when I spotted Hironobu wading out with Grandad's ugly old surfboard that he bolted on the shop Naish foil. I had promised to test it for them but hadn't wanted to spend the good wind fooling around . . . so I swapped boards with him and dragged out to deeper water.

My first time strapless on a foil, on Grandad's dodgy board. Hmm. After a mis-start and a crash into the bottom, we were under way! Foil felt much the same as mine, just a bit slower and more stable. Or more resistant to being wiggled around. Board was horrid, really noticed how long it was.

Too much wind, to close to being horribly over-powered, so after some gybes and water starts, I rode back to shore. I suggested Grandad move the mast forward about 200mm, cut the tail where he planned and cut the front about 100mm ahead of his line. We'll see :D

Went across and had a drink of water, then swapped for the Duke and had a nice time for a change. Rode it out till dark. . . .

Nailed it! Railed it!

Rate this an epic session, not because of huge phat airs and wicked tricks, but because I had such a great time on the foil. Really hooked up some fabulous, razor-sharp carving gybes and generally felt very impressed with myself . . .

S3 15 is still out of whack though, I'm going to have to go full retard on the fiddling . . . at least I know where to start.

What a difference a day makes

Bloody awesome. Good wind, got to try a new kite that didn't suck, got some good riding in and even got some jumps. Good long session too!

Drifter was great. Good bar pressure, probably slightly less than the Crossbow. Fast, responsive, stable when overpowered and predictable: I'd put it between the Park and the Pivot for bar pressure, performance and feel but would choose it over either of them, cos although I prefer the performance of the Pivot, it's just too twitchy--and it's clearly ahead of the Park. Even jumped ok which was a surprise, though the landing weren't floaty gentle and I had to redirect well to avoid a thump.

20 to 25 knots in the good bit, 34 knots in the great. So I need to look at an 11 or 12 . . .

I love the D

Over the hills and far away.

Jun had just finished his morning session; he was out on the foil. I was hoping for the Duke ride and got lucky--the wind picked up and I had a rocking good session on the D for two hours, hackin' and slashin'.

Took a break, thinking I'd have a little fun on the 15 and the TT but the wind died away and it sucked so I packed up and came home.

Another great one

There wasn't really supposed to be any wind, and there wasn't much in truth either--6 knots the webpage said, but I think it was more like a steady 8, maybe 10. The 15 stayed in the air but only just; had to trim the heck out of it to stop it stalling, and thank god I didn't put it in the drink.

But I had an excellent session, cruising on the foil, riding the swell. Managed a few feet changes and nailed some downloop gybes which are really nice to do.

Brilliant.

Well that was fabulous

Probably best day ever riding a directional. Good ol' Mako, I think I got the hang of it. Finally. Still want a decent surf kite though . . . and maybe a bigger board :D

What a surprise

In a good way this time. Slight puff of wind, hoped to ride the foil . . . but the wind suddenly picked up and stuck around. Huh. Laid out the 15 and went out on the TT for a jumping good time. Apparently I'm a bit rusty.

Wind dropped a little so I went out on the foil and had some of the most perfect rides, until I fell and landed on my face. Felt like someone kicked me in the face. Gave up and went home before they could do it again.

Duking it out

12 to 16 knots, gusts to 24. So apparently that is what makes a great session in the Duke and the adequate Park 10. Had a good 3 hours bombing around, "surfing" the swell and carving around. Good foot changes, with the foil in mind.

Park is better than the Pivot regarding the gust handling, but is less reactive to inputs and inclined to go out of control if you sheet right out and it accelerates a la the old GT. Maybe the rear lines were too long. . . . So I'd have one if it were free, but I wouldn't pay for it. Still searching for a wave kite.

Whoa, where did that come from?

Crappy forecast, but it turned out pretty good.

I'd set up the foil, but didn't need it. Went out with the 14 to make sure I had power, as I really wanted to ride the Duke.

Got my wish. Picked up to the point where I almost thought about getting a smaller kite or board, but depowered fully and just hung on. It was good. Tack and jibes were fine, which is nice. Board is a hack n' slash machine, might need more fins cos I'm lazy and aren't loading up the back end in turns, and it's getting loose. Or maybe that's a good thing...

So anyway, was fun.

First it sucks, then it blows

Forecast was supposed to be good, but it really sucked.

I went out with the S3 15 and the foil, but it was so light the kite was just staying in the air. I could ride though so that was nice.

Getting really bloody sick of being unable to transition without falling in the water first :( or having to ride topside. Even if I can do it for miles . . .

Wind started to pick up, so I went out on the TT but it sucked worse. Came back in, landed the kite and thought about packing up. Then one of the guys came over and set up, and it looked like the wind was really coming so I went back out . . .

And had a great little boostathon for what must have been an hour, cos I was late to pick the boy up :o

Look where you're going. Early...

Carefully timed my trip over to Tsu, narrowly avoided a traffic jam on the highway, but it looked like I'd missed the wind. It'd dropped from 10 knots to 00.2m/s... o_0

Checked the radar forecast again, and thought I'd wait it out till 3, as there's a dark line on the horizon where the wind should be... It pays off, as the wind comes in and ripples the water, and I can see some white-caps out there. I gear up, build the board, strap myself into the harness...and dither about which kite to use. Not supposed to pick up, but I don't want to be over-powered on the foil.

Went with the 12. Couldn't get up on the board at first (3 to 6 knots according to the club weather station), took a break for a few minutes, then tried again as the wind picked up a little. Better.

Wind gradually picked up to the point I thought about getting the TT but then dropped again till it died about 5pm. So, 8 to 12 knots, gusts to 20 apparently.

Tried the fuselage on the shorter setting. I spent less time bouncing right out of the water and more time having fun. Like, tack after tack of going heel to toe, then back to heel...without falling :o so that was pretty rad. Had a LOT of fun riding the swell. I KNOW I'm riding the swell, cos if I'm not on the ball of my balance, I wobble badly as I lose pull from the kite. And bouncing off the swell is neat-o.

Even managed a surface foot switch...took like 20 seconds to shuffle around the board and straps, but I got there in the end.

Speaking of straps, I think it's time to lose at least the back one. Fell over and tweaked my ankles--both of them. The tried to heel-to-toe on my goofy side and screwed the balance; the board fell downwind, I fell upwind and...ouch.

Speaking of falling and ouch, finally fell on the fins. Wasn't going fast enough and not enough power in the kite to get over them. Wing in the ribs, stabilizer into my calf. The latter is very painful still...

Speaking of latter, that's not the time to get your head around. SO much smoother and easier whipping the head around and waiting for the body to follow.

No more, I promise.

Mo' riding mo' video

Ugh, so sick but...must...ride...foil...must...be competent...before...summer...

Take the 15 and the 12 to the beach, but opt for the 12 as it's supposed to be pick up...it does, and it also dies right off, but in between and after I have a good time riding and hamming it up for the ROAM2. Expect video after the .dmg for Final Cut takes 6 months to mount and install.

Weather report said 5 to 15 knots, gusts to 20. But that was 20km north in Hikone; I think we had 8 to 16, dropping to 3 or 4 in that big lull...

I am a practitioner of the dark arts!

Well, a novitiate anyway. Foil boards are the voodoo black magic of the kite world. 

The forecast looked weak, but was supposed to pick up from 3. It didn't, but I got onto the water anyway cos I wanted to push the bottom end of the foil board and see just how low you can go.

Well...

If the weather report is to be believed, it was 3.2 building to 8.2 knots, gusts to 12.4.  I think we got a lot more steady wind closer to sunset, as it picked up some and Hiro came to play.

So, pretty freakin' low.

When the 21 would sit at the zenith ok, and I could body drag slowly, that meant I would be up riding :o When the kite would luff and drop back in the window, I could get up on the board but had to work the kite (ho ho ho) to get moving, but usually meant it was tough getting up on a foil. It was the point when the kite wouldn't stall in a loop that it was all on like donkey kong...

Still, there wasn't a white cap in sight and I was going upwind a little more with each tack... Black magic, I tell you! Amazing feeling, gliding over the almost flat water.

So I'm guessing that 5 knots is the easy bottom end, and the apparent wind built up mad; easier riding the apparent wind than over-powered. I dunno if the 21 is necessary, as its slowness was troublesome and I got over-powered at 12 knots (!)--it was almost impossible to keep a constant height foil, power was on and off too much. By the time I packed up, I might have been ok on a TT...maybe.

In the middle of all that, I managed several times to do some total foiling gybes, ride toe-side the whole tack then carve back the other way! Woohoo! Didn't expect to be doing that for a while yet. Tried some jumps, but very half-assed due to fear of luffing the kite and totally crap timing...

Naturally, I had the camera, had it charged, but didn't think it worth putting on the lines. How wrong I was!

Abracadabra, bitches!

Suddenly clicked

Got some long tacks running off upwind, with some very long runs flying the foil, standing tall and steady. Woohoo! Goofy feels horrible, out of control and twitchy, but actually getting longer runs on the foil that side. Had a play with transitions and did some accidental S-turns. Good day!

Not sure I like the SB with the foil . . . the XBs are better.

Have I told you already? I hate wax

It's the devil!

Good wind forecast and it delivered. Tide is low until very late so I went for a look at the beach, thinking I'd do a little on the surfboard then head off to the estuary...

Goddamn wax! I'd redone it but I still slipped off the front of the board every time I tried to swap my feet. Real shame cos I was having fun.

So back to the car for the TT. Zoom zoom!

Ermagerd! KICKERZ!

Good air play. Found a nice section of the beach with long period waves and flat water between the foot high kickers. Boom! Splash down depth was a bit hinkey though... thanfulky though I only ballsed it up once big time, hitting the lip of a breaking wave and jumping out of a strap, spinning around and splashing down not so badly, in front of the rubber-necker.

Repeat for 3 hours til the tide changed the water into mountainous chop and I was tired of the anal probing from the Dakine Proctologist harness. Started carving around and a wind-down but that lasted an hour...

Finally came off the water around 6:30. I love daylight saving time!

... have sunburned knees where the harness pulled my shorts up over the tanned zone :-/ stupid country. So cold out IN SUMMER you need a sweater, but you get burned in minutes.

Ooh

Average forecast was better than expected. Good boosting, good stunting, great carving, nice surfboard riding... let's say nothing about the out of town assholes who take 15 minute showers whole people are waiting, cos that would spoil the buzz.

Oh, got new brown lenses for the Shark v1s... the shizzle! Glad the web store is up and running, well worth the money: 720-armour

Come fly with me

Good forecast turned fucking epic.

Started on the Dialer, underpowered weirdly but riding ok. Then the wind picked up a little and the riding got tentative so I got on the TT and went for a fly.

Goddam, big jumps. Couple of old duck with cameras too, might get some photos...

Nearly a disaster at landing, gust collapsed the kite and Miyachi missed it so I went to safety and it wiggled across the window, narrowly missing all the kites on the beach and the camera lady.

No harm no foul. It were all-ll good.