Hamamatsu... why do I even bother.

Wife wanted to go to Hamamatsu for the long weekend so off we went. I was hoping to get onto the water with the surfboard...

Sunday, there was no wind. Monday we had good cross-on wind but those waves look gnarly. Glad I brought my old Flydoor... hmm, wind feels good - XB13. By the time I finished pumping, I wonder if it shouldn't be the 10... launch, no I'm ok - out we go.

Water is odd... very shallow for a ways, then with 1m+ breakers - get over them easy. The next set are over 2m :o I run at them, thinking I'll just boost over them but the pull from the kite is inconsistent and I get slammed and tumbled by the wave. Reset, try again... same result. Hmm, what's going on with the wind? I had a hard time walking upwind to the water... go canny this time, trying to time it so I can get out over the wave before it breaks.

Manage that, only to discover the even bigger waves just beyond...

I finally get all the way out! Damn, that's a lot of swell on the waves! The sea is rising and falling 3 or 4 meters in hill-sized swells around me... water is choppy too. Take my time to get used to it and go a l-o-n-g way out...

Coming back in, I come in too far and have to fight out through the breakers again - doh! Hitting the white water, my board sinks then gets grabbed and I get tumbled again... this time, my board goes through my lines, at the bar leaders :o I fight to keep the kite in the air with one hand and clear the board, but I can't do it. Kite ends up in the waves and I drag the board clear with two hands - now fighting the pull in the surf :-/

Back out, and from now on I avoid going all the way in. Jumps aren't up to much as the crests aren't sharp, but are wide and choppy. Waves out there are hard to ride, as they're going in different directions. Cruising around...

Looking at the shore - when I can see it! - wondering how I'll get back in past the mountainous, violent dumping breakers... eventually, my legs are giving out so I make a run in, timing it to ride the waves a little then use the speed to build more speed and blast through the danger. Only just works...

Give up the several hundred meters upwind I gained by doing heel-to-toe-to-heel carves in the shallow and flat water between breakers... that was nice!

Crikey, what a session! :(

---

Moment of the day was the final carve-fest.
Mood of the session was AAAAAARGHH!

It sucks when you put your board through your lines - twice.

Weather was mental - over- to under-powered on the 13 - mostly just-powered when I need to be over-powered :-/ but the weather station reckoned 7 knots with gusts to 24 LOL

What I learned today...

• what a "chicken gybe" is...
• if you had a shit of a time getting out, don't come all the way back in! Idiot.
• riding down the back of those huge swells was like snowboarding! Had to be careful not to outrun the kite :o
• what my limits with waves are at this time!

A GULP of the Kool-Aid this time

Long weekend off; that is, we don't have to work Saturday :-/ so we're up in Hamamatsu. I should really know better, I never get much joy from the beach here... anyway here's the story.

Wind was up-ish, waves were down; thought it might be worth breaking out the Infinity... I'll get to see what it's like up the top-end anyway. Cross-off is a bit of a worry though but nothing ventured and all that. Will try out my new Mako 150 too happy joy! Thanks Buzz!!!

Pumped the kite up and set up, easy self-launch. Hmm bit twitchy - probably the wind shadow. And the direction changes. And the gusts. Oh well - nut up. Got in the water - not too cold, good ol' Hyperflexx! Up and riding easily, that's good. Depower some - oh a bit gusty. Yes gusty. OH SHIT GUSTY! yoink off you go down-wind then, as fast as you can... rode the shocks out but aren't having fun. A few half-assed jumps but it's survival mode out here...

And aren't going upwind either :-/ give up, land the kite, pack up the bar and walk back up the beach... I was out on the water for over an hour but it felt like 5 minutes :o

Lucky I got off the water when I did too - the walk up the beach was made worse by an epic headwind... damn Hamamatsu! :(

More thoughts on the Infinity... (relative to today and the usual caveats apply)
• Good pull when it was being worked but I didn't have a lot of joy parking and riding it... tide, current and wind (and new board?) working against me though so we'll see on the lake...
• Vicious bastard when it's over-powered - certainly not as much of a buffer out the top-end as the SLE kites eg. my Xbows; I have never felt so dangerously and uncontrollably over-powered for a very long time indeed! It was a real handful trying to land too and the DISASTER of a QR didn't help.
What I'm talking about is how punchy it got when over-powered but still pulled a lot... Cab's IDS may be for "learners" or "old men in golf pants" but it works to take a battering but not haul on you - I know when I absolutely have to change out my Xbow for a smaller size because the kite is twitchy and jerking when totally depowered... but isn't pulling me off the water :o
Twitchy and rough in the gusts and shifts, lots of flapping and stalling - I'm guessing it's the three-strut design... lots of 'canvas' to flap about. Compared with 7 on the Xbow - I'm beginning to see a pattern here, and why Dimitri says 20 knots is the top end limit! So 30 knots NOT good :D
• Definite rear-line flyer - needs the tension there to keep it under control and on the boil. Feedback is handy (not dropping out of the sky) but it's not taxing - although I was wearing thick gloves, I didn't get the forearm pump I've had from the 16m Xbow.
• Landing from the safety - easy! I was worried cos I've never done it before (except on the FSr) It dropped down onto the LE then sat up on the wing tip at the edge of the window. I reached up and pulled the upper flying line and it gradually came back into the window then down onto the LE and sat there... in 30 knots :o

Weather was a nightmare - here's why... cross-offshore to cross-onshore; I got readings of 10 to 20 knots with average around 14 at the water's edge, JMA read 12 to 14 with gusts to 30!!!

Moment of the Day was getting out on the new board. Oh and not dying. Always good, that.

What I learned today...
• Epic Infinity v2 likes 8psi. I know cos I measured :D
• Mako will be awesome when I get used to it!
• New kite and board make a tough combination for riding in rough weather :-/
• Just cos the waves aren't breaking doesn't mean they aren't towering over your head doesn't mean they're not powerful. And big...! Did I say big? Cos they were big.
• Season has started! Wetsuit FTW! Maybe I need a 5mm this year... push the envelope! Roger that, milli vanilli chilly willy!
• That quick release has got to go - when I tried to land, I couldn't release it with my left hand at all and only just managed with the right - What. The. Fuck.
• Walking sucks.

Sorry Boss can't work cos (insert excuse)

Got up, got ready to go to work but there was a good stiff breeze out there ... I thought about the impending heavy workload today - after 3 days solid of heavy work loads with no air-con in 35-degree-C classrooms - and then I thought "The hell with that!" I got a Starbucks coffee, called the boss and supplied my pre-suggested excuse. "I gotta go to the Immigration office - just like I warned I might need to last week."

Went home, hit the interweb and looked for the best wind. Looked like Hamamatsu so I loaded up the K-wagon and hit the highway ...

Got to Maisaka about 12:30pm and was glad to see other kites in the sky. Good wind blowing and I got a burst of butterflies as I got out of the car ... checked the wind with anemometer and it was reading 12-18 knots cross on-shore. Checked what the locals were riding - 9's to 12's - so I decided on the 13m Crossbow and my big board cos the surf looked a bit big.

Set up on the beach near the carpark and then walked to the water. Excellent beach, miles of space! There were about 6 or 7 other kiters there, a couple of windsurfers and a few surfers.

The waves ... they are big. Oh crap. There's about 5m of very shallow water to the first breaker, maybe a half meter, that floods the shallow bit ... I put board on feet just after the breaker washes through, dive the kite and ride out through the waves. Oh wow that was easy I must've gotten the hang of dealing with waves, thinks I.

Head out through the breakers and WOW the swells are big too! I'm disappearing down the troughs and then riding up the faces of swells that are over my head :o big fun is popping off the top and floating downwind :D

Man what a battering I'm taking ... I'll never complain about chop on the lake again! The kite feels like I should be over-powered but I'm having to sine the kite just to get some board speed - then the chop kills it all. Having an impossible time setting up jumps so they all suck :( there's no flat water and the waves are at the wrong angle to boost off good. I throw some weakness into the air but it isn't cool ... load'n'pops result in large-ish jumps and long floats downwind, so there must be some power in the kite! Frustrating.

I'm holding ground and going upwind though, which is a first for Maisaka. In fact, everyone else seems to be going downwind ...??? I've got the ocean to myself. Mostly - have to take care the windsurfers aren't in my way before I try jumping ...

Flydoor works good in the "gusty" conditions and kind of surfs down the waves too :D

Wind drops off, I head back in to the beach before I'm too underpowered to get back without walking ... and I need a drink. Take some water, chat to the guy who used to live in Kyoto and we decide that the wind is going to pick up when that there front comes in and the total lack of wind now is temporary. He sets up his 14, I set up my 16.

I launch and to try it out. I'm guessing 8 knots at best. At the water's edge, I get the beat-down by the waves and have a hell of a time getting the board on my feet and out from the breakers ... would've made a good film but the wife was working fnar fnar! I'm out on "flat" water but there's no wind to be had so I turn back in ... finally get a burst of board speed and ride in for a few minutes and it's just when I look back and around me that I realize I've been riding in on a wave! Awesome!

OMG it's the shore - whaddoIdo? WhaddoIdo? Ah, fall over, ditch the board and struggle to get on my feet, chase the board as it floats down the in the rip tide ... then walk back to carpark base camp.

Stand around with the kite up and wait for the NEXT front to roll in. It brings white-caps with it, this one does. Neat-o. Starting to feel the wind now so I head back out.

Again, I get smacked around, spun around trying to get the board on. Get up and moving but Lassie the Freestyler has decided she'll enter the water 10m downwind of me so I've got to be careful getting biffed around by waves so I don't wrap my lines around hers ... FFS I'd be trying to get board on for 5 minutes - did she not notice me thrashing around?
"Safety in Japan - it's ok, everyone else is looking out for me."

Finally get rolling - the waves are bigger, the swells are bigger holy fuck! The wind is the same gusty punchy crap though ... I'm holding ground though so I work hard on the big purple monster. The heavy bar pressure is a drag ... hmm time for a Zephyr? Still can't get the jumps right ... do a lot of low long floats downwind. Play with riding waves - what fun! Go in to shore too far and have to do some fancy (for me) riding to avoid being sloshed by the breakers - what fun! Legs are starting to burn - what fu... no, time to call it a day - got a 3 hour drive if there're no traffic jams on the way home ...

Head in, pack it up, start the drive home about 4:45 and get home about 7:45. Great day! Much better than working :D

What I learned today ...
• Riding in the ocean - much harder than on the lake!
• Need to be more powered on the ocean. Bollocks to float, it doesn't help at all.
• Surface conditions (massive swells) meant there was no wind low down - better to gently sine the kite near the top of the window.
• Chop. It's not what we have on the lake!
• There's no real point in driving all the way to Maisaka unless you're desperate - it's not that good really.
• If I went to the ocean more, I'd get a directional or a Mako. I won't so I can now forget about the Mako :D
• Don't forget to take your own fresh water for washing stuff :-/ that's why you bought the 20L tank innit?

Yo turbo'd my Core man!

No work this weekend so we trotted down to Hamamatsu. Forecast was ass but I took a full load of kite gear and lobbed my Core 6.7 and new Ozone Turbo bar in the boot too ...

Arrived at Maisaka Beach about 4pm with a touch of wind, so I unpacked the Core and Ozone and had a play while the wife went walkies.

There was hardly any wind so set up was no problem - walked the lines out of the bag, had a quick fly so I remembered what flying on handles was like (it's been a few months!) then landed and swapped to the Turbo bar ...

Compared to my homemade thing, it's much smaller and nicer :D the amount of "depower" throw is much less, as is the trim and the leader lines are much shorter. Something to work on for the rest DIY version ...

Launched and had some play time ...
Works real nice! Strangely enough :D
Brake input is enough for turning but a bit limited for actually stopping the kite but you can trim in more.
Kite turns lovely - tight enough to turn almost on a wingtip yet not lose too much speed - and is super-stable, easily recoverable in the light winds when it luffed - quick tug on the center lines.
Tested the various safety releases ... red hat above the bar is the best without a doubt, but I'd need to train my instincts for that one. Chicken loop release with a leash to the landing handle is probably easier to do but the leash doesn't spin with the bar and that lead to tangles.
Also played unhooked and the bar could be trimmed to fly nicely like that but DAMN the whole point is to take the strain through the harness!
Compared to my Version 1.0 DIY crossober bar, I had too much depower and the leaders were too long, but they handled pretty much the same ... although being able to stall the kite with the bar on my version was handy. Probably unnecessary too :)

So I think in the end, the landboarders will love it but the buggy guys will probably stick with handles. There's a little loss of fine control that you have with handles but you gain more consistent power and a much longer ride!

Hopeless in Hamamatsu

Not enough room in the car to take a board but forecast for no wind anyway so that was fine ...

I did, however, take my new Navigator bar that arrived from Ricardo of ripsessionkites.com like, 10 minutes before we were due to leave - perfect timing! - and also took the Synergy 19 & 12. Just in case.

Friday was crap. Saturday had some wind though ... and MASSIVE waves that had been whipped up by the passing typhoon - thank god I didn't have a board or I might have tried to get out there :D unpacked the 19 and set up with the Navigator bar ...

Coming from weeks of LEI flying, at first I found the bar pressure heavy and the turning slow ... until I got back into Arc Mode - a little sheeting in and pulling the bar will whip the kite around nicely. Get some speed into it to keep it lively. Don't sheet in too far for too long ... ah yes, know I remember! Soon had the Syn 19 whipping around nicely! Some great scuds and jumps but really, the wind was still too light ... maybe 12 knots at most. Good to test the light wind annoying habits of the arc on the Nav bar though ;) spent about 2 hours noodling around.

Landing the kite by trimming for power, flying slow as I could to the edge of the window and stalling the kite, then letting it power up a tiny bit and bouncing back until it was directly downwind, the unhooked and dropped the bar ... perfect flagged landing, no twisting!

To review the Navigator ...
• Well designed bar; nice attention to little details, like the recessing the line tidy bungy loops & being able to change the bar size.
• Safety through the center of the chicken loop - awesome!
• The Ozone Megatron-esque safety - awesome! Although looking at the leash that has the Zero7 red hat, I'm wondering if the Zero7 bars couldn't be modded like that ...
• Double depower line, spinning head and cam cleat trim - very nice, works well and should be bullet proof, although I'm a little worried about the result of long term stress on the spinning heads erm spinning parts - we'll see. A mile of depower.
• Bar foam felt weird - too smooth ... I like the rougher Zero7 foam better ... and the foam around the depower line's metal runner through the bar seems poorly trimmed - like a bit of an afterthought. I'm betting it'll get mangled pretty soon and be a moot point though. I preferred the bolder colours of the Zero7 too ... the curved line through the foam is not just a design element; it's harder than the other foam and gives you a good feeling for where you park your hands. Meh, I know what I mean ;)
• Power lines have the V some way up the lines, with the front line safety kind of like the Zero4 ... seems to work nice - the kite flattened out a lot less in moments of low airspeed and held a stable shape much better in turns etc. Perhaps a bit more responsive to turning inputs when not moving compared with the Zero7. Kite can still invert though, when I intentionally flew it fast past the edge of the window at about 11 o'clock (I was trying to get the kite as out of shape as possible to see how much of a difference the bar made) ... the kite sank down and inverted to land LE down and I depowered then walked toward the kite to flip it over - no problem. Also, just once, the kite went to the RHS of the window and stalled and the safety line fell through the metal ring and the kite REALLY started to get out of shape ... as it was out over the breakers (beach was narrow today) I jerked the center line to recover it. So I think it's a good thing.
• Line extensions ... hmm, not sure. By that I mean, not sure if I'd notice a difference :D
• Adjustable stopper is pretty good but I'm wondering how much utility it'll actually provide ...
• Didn't like : heat shrink = LOL ... nuff said!
• Didn't like : the big ugly knot that's hidden under the neoprene booty that covers whatever is going on behind the cam cleat ... nasty! Spoils the smooth lines :)
• Didn't like : like I said, the wishy-washy colours ... FIRE TRUCK red and BOTTOMLESS PIT black please!

Great bar, looking forward to piling the hours on it ... again, massive thanks to Ricardo at ripsessionkites.com (yes I'm pimping!) for the excellent service and taking care of me!

PS. Wife called the courier and they just delivered my Speed 2.5 19 Silver Arrow! Now to unwrap ... OMG it's Christmas!

Aaah, let-down, melt-down, crack-down - you're busted!

Let-down : 2. To fail to meet the expectations of;

Wind was supposed to be pumping in Hamamatsu so I thought I'd take advantage of the wife still being at work to sneak down to the beach and enjoy a day by myself, listening to what I wanted in the car and not having to make nice chat.

Cross-onshore at Maisaka, limited surf for a change - maybe 1 to 2m breakers and a 3 to 6 foot swell near shore. Whitecaps out there but anemometer only reading 9 knots. Still it's supposed to get to 20 by 2pm - here's hoping. Out comes the Synergy 19 - it pre-fills ok but not as fast as I'd like, meaning the wind is weak :( Take a test run but I'm going nowhere fast ... walk back to the kite's bag and have a cool drink and wait.

Melt-down : 3. An emotional breakdown;

Wind picked up noticeably enough that another kitesurfer has appeared, with a 12m Cult and a directional ... I'm beginning to understand why everyone here has at least one directional! Head into the water again and as I'm on my way out, the damned red hat safety pops and I lose the kite onto the shore at the water's edge - WTH I turned it upside down to avoid this problem!!! Much fighting with twisted lines (How?!?) and struggling with relaunch then try again.

Still limited joy, the Synergy just doesn't have the grunt for this little wind. Working it like a mad thing but really, I'm just drifting downwind. Walk back upwind, have a drink (2L of water at the shore is my best idea yet!) and get back in the water. Drift downwind on a half-sunk board.

Coming back into shore the board gets washed into me by a wave and trips the safety again! FFS!!! Everything is a mess and I spend what feels like an hour running around trying to untangle lines then trying to launch, only to have the kite bow-tie, invert and retwisting all the lines. Sort that, re-launch and oh FFFFS there's a bloody plastic bag wrapped around the pulley! Land, untangle all the lines, relaunch ... insert temper tantrum.
And I still have to walk back up the beach!

Have another drink, breath in, breath out ... goosfraba ...

Try again. Oh come on that little prick with the Cult is riding upwind and I'm STILL not! So in a fit of pique I loop the Synergy right back through the middle of the power zone and ZOO-oom! off and away ... for a few more seconds than normal, anyway!

Loop ZOO-oom! Loop ZOO-oom! Loop ZOO-splat! Tee hee!

This is getting me downwind like a rocket but it's like doing wheelies in a carpark - totally pointless but totally amusing! Looping up and backwards into the power zone is easy enough although it needs 2 hands on the bar ... looping forwards and down is difficult and less rewarding and results in the odd crash into the water.

So I get to try my first water re-launch of an arc. First one was a bit of a struggle - couldn't get the kite to taco, it just wanted to stay on the leading edge. Floated nicely though even in the 3 - 6 foot swell. Finally get it over and sort out the right line to pull and get it into roughly the right position and - here's the trick - the wind pops open the leading edge a little, so rather than lying flat on itself the center of the kite has opened up. Yank on the center lines and up she goes! The second time I dunk the kite, I'd try to loop it too low and the tip had dragged itself into the water. It landed in the taco though and with just a little bit of tugging on the bottom rear line, it opened up and I yanked on the center lines and up she goes! Not bad.

Walk back up the beach and decide on one last run. Loop ZOO-oom etc and I've gone a whole lot further than I meant to ... crap there's the hotel again, that means I'm about 3 kilometers down the beach! It's going to be a lo-ooong walk. And it was.

Crack-down : 1. severely repressive actions;

Walk walk walk ... pack up and head back to the car to wash my gear, wash me and change into dry clothes. Ah, cool sweet fresh water! I just stand under the hose for a while ...

...

... finally stop playing with the hose and load the car, head home. Buy about 20 ice-blocks cos I'm dying of thirst! 3 hours on the highway home but for once no traffic jam. Get home and start to take stock of today's punishment.

Grazed nipple (?!?) where the depower line rubbed against it when the kite would auto-zenith when I'm trying to walk down the beach ... not always a good thing that auto-zenith, I've decided.
Right leg, inner thigh rubbed raw by walking up the beach with the kite to the right. I can live with that.
Taken off a few layers of skin where the leg straps go. Usually happens, no big deal.
Rashed inner left elbow from carrying the board. Hopefully I'll get over that if I ever get riding upwind!
3 x 2 inch patch of sunburn on the back of my right knee, where it folds.

WTH?

Dunno what sunblock I'm using - whatever was sold at 7-11 in the SPF 50 range - is bloody good stuff though. Kind of thin liquid that doesn't spread very well and leaves a white stain but boy howdy does it stop sunburn! I go mad with the stuff and do several coats on face, neck and ears cos they hurt the worst when burnt. I usually make sure I've spread it all over but I guess that like mosquito repellent, the square millimeter you miss is the bit the gets nailed :/

I better make sure I make certain to really lather myself up in future. Perhaps I should buy stocks in the company cos I go through the stuff like I go through erm money ...!

You're busted!

Was hoping to get home before the wife and pretend I'd gone to a local beach ... no such luck. Damned Prius drivers!

In summary ...
I really dig the Synergy, I love not having to pump and I love how fast it turns, how easy it is to loop and make power that way but I'm hating the lack of torque, I'm nonplussed with the relaunch but I detest the Zero7 bar!!! Thinking of selling both mine and getting a Navigator ...
Need a directional.
Must cover self from head to toe in sunblock.
A 2L bottle of water on the beach is awesome. A 2L bottle of frozen water would be heaven.
Walking sucks. Now I know why there are no fat people pro-kiteboarders and why gear is always sized so small - when you're learning, you spend so much time walking that you either lose weight and fit their weenie harnesses or you have a massive heart attack and die.

Wind, waves but a wash-out - The Movie!

Waves, wind but a wash-out

No work today so we drove down and across to Hamamatsu - like usual!

I had my first time out on the ocean with waves involved - 6 foot breakers to get through! The waves braking on the shore were waist high, but the next two rows were well over my head ...! In the past, I've been lucky enough to kite on salt water with lagoons and stuff next to the shore ...

Wind was almost enough. I measured it at around 8 knots and it picked up a bit from time to time but ... a lot of working the Speed and a lot of water-starts that seemed promising then a lot of nothing happening then a lot of walking - and I mean A LOT according to the car's GPS I walked the 2km downwind about 3 or 4 times ...!

Got a few powered runs in but the wind was laughing at me! Dragging me around in the water but not enough somehow to keep riding - I expect it's a lack of talent on my part!

Some upwind riding but a lot of waves washing over the tip of my board and sinking it then me or a wave washing into the back of my knee and knocking me down ... everyone else was on surfboards or directionals and I can see why ...

Tried a couple jumps up and over a wave face but I couldn't land them and lost the board badly - it went shooting away on the tide so I gave up that idea and tried to concentrate on going upwind.

Should have brought my Square One with me ... I missed it's floatiness - the Door sinks a lot and whoever said "Oh the ocean is so much easier you float so much better" was a liar - I love my lake! And the water tastes like shit here ... I needed several beers to wash away the taste.

But man is the Door a smooth ride! Something about it feels wrong on my feet though ... too comfortable I guess!!!

Met two Canucks, Sean (Shawn?) and Patrick riding an old C-kite and doing ok too. Nice to see some gringos around. Also nice to see mad old guy standing knee deep in the surf in straw boater drinking beer :D

Still ... it's play in the surf, walk up and down the beach a bit, a little flying or stay home and listen to the neighbors brats scream at each other while I wrestle with video editing software ... I'd rather be here, eh!

Video taken by Olivia ... sort of LOL

No wind at Maisaka - The Movie!

Had the weekend off work so we went to Hamamatsu.

Hoped to catch some sea breezes and get out on the water, but the weather didn't co-operate. Spent some hours on Maisaka beach soaking up the fresh air and playing with my Flysurfer.

It was very borderline to even keep the kite in the air, but for a few minutes the wind picked up just enough to do some silly jumps. Video when it finishes uploading.

Noticed Nick-san had a buggy in his shed beside his shop, big ol' Bigfoot tyres on it ... hoping to rent it off him next time we're there are there's not enough wind to kiteboard. The beach is too soft for an ATB but it'd be a good opportunity to have a go on a buggy.

And it was phun phun phun - The Movie

Wind was up today so we went down to Maisaka Beach after brunch. Forecast was for easterlies at 12 knots which would have meant slightly cross offshore winds. Er, nope - clean cross onshore wind about 12 knots when we got there and over the afternoon it built up to about 17 or so. Nuts, I had left my board and Synergies at home in Shiga cos I thought the weather would be shite.

Unrolled the new (to me) Phantom 12 and Zero 7 bar and lines on the sand for my first flight with it. Lovely, still crispy, bright and bold!



Filled from the center zipper no worries once I closed the deflate zip :D
There's no Launch Assistant tab on the Phantoms so I carefully laid out the downwind lines across the top of the kite and went back to the bar. By now, the wife has her birthday camera running (Sanyo Xacti CG11) so I even got a clip of me launching the Phantom. Textbook, if I do say so myself :D the only reason why I dawdled around with the launch - I was making sure I hadn't crossed the lines. I do that sometimes. Up she goes no worries.



I spent the next 4 hours or so having great fun scudding around and trying to jump. Thought I had some real crackers until I checked the video the wife took and realized - the jumps were lame like a one-legged donkey and the camera adds about a hundred pounds ... poor Phantom having to drag my fat arse around.
Scudding was awesome, and as the wind picked up the kite was giving more lift to the drag downwind and I was flying along with my feet just skimming the sand. No more pumice rubbing my soles - I got sand-blasted beautiful feet now!

Tried to remember the Arc Setup FAQ details about bar settings and backstalling etc so fiddled with that for a bit too. Seems I got it about right though - have moved the front line leader at the bar end to the next knot, shortening the front lines IIRC - and now I can fly with the trim strap right out. Pulling the bar all the way in and holding it there stalls the kite when it's at the zenith but gives a mighty blast of speed and power when flying through the window WOOHOO.



Landing the kite, I didn't feel I could attempt Carl's method safely so I made up my own :D
Flew the Phantom out to the edge of the wind window on the LHS, then pulled the bar right in and let it fly backstalling to as far downwind as it would go, say 5 o'clock, just off then ground then popped the safety. Kite went down, I walked forward and it flagged beautifully. I then made the mistake of trying to fun downwind to sand the edge, but it went flapping away. Hmm, will have to work on that. Got the wife to hold the self landing handle while I sorted it out.

Great phun with the Fantom!

Thou shalt relax

Had today (Saturday) off work so wife determined it to be a family holiday. Well it is her birthday on the 1st so I guess that's fair ;)
Started the day looking at a pair of possible houses - think we found one but it's much further from the lake than where we live now - maybe a 40 minute drive instead of 10 minutes ... but it's a nice big house in a very peaceful area. Should be good.
After that we jumped on the highway to Hamamatsu, Shizuoka for a micro-break at the beach and Belle Grave - the Cadillac of love hotels! Arrived here (am now typing from the hotel) about 2pm so we headed to the Lake Hamana flower park, site of so many groovy kite adventures ...

Wind was southerly and for that park, really smooth (usually a good blow is gusty as hell) so I unpacked the Rebble and jumped on Kava. The park is all sorta hard-pack but long, thick grass so it was a bit of a workout for the fingers, hands and arms but it is SO much nice to ride on something that won't take my skin off like a cheese grater, unlike my regular park back home! There was a concert going on in the grounds but I had a strip right across the park where I could ride unimpeded and had some really good, nicely powered runs ... good to be back in the saddle again - too much rain & no wind days recently :(

The gusts were picking up though, and I made the mistake of finishing one blast by carving around for a toeside run ... I was on a good reach and thinking about carving back to heelside when just as the grass started to run out, I got hit by a gust and got all powered up and went shooting off the grassed area and into the carpark!

The options were jump off board and risk a broken ankle and a fall on asphalt/concrete with no pads at speed or ride it out ... I thought I could ride it out, wash off the speed slowly but the speed I gained on the downward slope into the carpark translated into more kite speed, the lower friction of the 'crete added to the kite speed even more and suddenly, I'm going way, WAY too fast - still riding toeside, all twisted up with the kite powering up behind me ...

And now I've got speed wobbles!

3 seconds of terror and I'm thinking about letting the kite go to the killers but as the small hedge/big hedge/river looms up large in front of me, I sucked it up and turned downwind at what is, for me, mad speed. Kite falls out of the sky, misses the small hedge and I end up riding in a circle around it as it falls to the ground, rolling to a stop right back upwind of it.

Relax sphincter. Relaunch kite. Act cool. Get back on board and ride back to the grass like you meant to do that all along so that the carpark attendent with his eyes out on stalks doesn't get the idea that I nearly filled my pants :D

Few more runs - on the grass - but the crowds and gusts are picking up so I pack it up and get out the Rev 1.5 while the wife looks at the flowers. Had a nice time playing with that - getting close to being able to do inverted hovers - and my no-snag handle mods worked fine.

And so, in retrospect, it was a rather nice way to spend an afternoon. Very relaxing - even the tense bits!

This is ...

... kitesurfing. AKA kiteboarding etc.
Big kite that floats, a bar, a harness and a wakeboard erm board. Or a surfboard for that matter. Oh of course, and wind and water. Fresh water is always better when you getting launched face first into it ...

Say hello to ...

... the Kitewing.
Think of a symmetric windsurfing sail. Now you need something to roll on, and an assload of wind ... 5m/s or more, depending on the surface and vehicle. Less wind and skates on concrete will work but more wind is more fun. Yes.

Not as easy as it looks.



See?



A few minutes, later I did a Superman and took the skin of my elbows and mangled my shoulder again. The camera was off at the time though ...

Introducing ...

... kiteblading.
For this recipe you will need, a power kite, inline skates and an imbecile. Here's a 5.0m Peter Lynn Rebble and a pair of well-abused Mission Proto Vi skates I prepared earlier.