Maybe the last hurrah

Wind never picked up, maybe 12 to 15 knots, but I got to play with the Sonic2 and the TT at high tide  on the estuary . . .

Having a hard time getting the timing right for the kite, as it's as big and slow as the 21 some times and is as easy to stall as the 12. Not 100% sure I like it for "freeride" as it proved impossible to do any tricks that needed a loop to complete or power them.

Hmm. Still stayed out for 4 hours though :D

Magic foil and waves

Sucked so bad on the 18 and TT that I gave up early and went back to the park to pack up. Alec arrived before I'd finished, and offered his Double Agent so I went out on that . . . and had a jolly good time.

The DA really is very slow, but was well suited for noodling around in the waves, and the Sonic drifted nicely as the wind picked up. Actually got some wave riding done, between circuits from south of South Beach up to the pier :o

Foil fail-ish

Tried to foil at the beach. Fail. Too light . . . got up for a handful of tacks but not enough with the get upwind, and impossible to ride waves or gybe. So that's the limit for the SB. And I think it's too slow :o

Went to look at the estuary and the guy with the foil from last year, with the 16m XB, was out so I got tooled up again and headed out to keep him company at high tide.

Started out just fine, got my courage up and did some downloop gybes. Dropped the kite once, and it was interesting reverse launching it. The higher AR shows . . . got going again, then as the sun went down the wind dropped a little and I chickened out and heading back to shore.

So the LF still works, eh.

Back again

Gah, wind never arrived. Probably just as well, an easy easing back into it to test the tender bits.

Tried to ride the Sonic and the TT but the wind kept falling. Waited for the tide to come in then tried the foil, but it was just too shallow out there. Or my mast is still too long (!) despite all the bits I've cut off...

Riding with ol' Murphy

Forecast let me down. Got to the beach about 3, launched the 12 but it was naff. Did one tack to the surf life club then halfway back. Gave up and went back to the launch park. Stood around a bit and it didn't seem like it was going to pick up, so I went for the Sonic2 18.

Set up down on the beach, much fiddling with bridles, lines on the new bar. Easy prefill--it was almost filling without help, good old batons. Got it into the air but the tips wouldn't open out. Hmm...ended up waggling the bar and that did the job.

So out on the water and Murphy's Law, wind has picked up. Crikey!

Bit hairy, but as I get used to it, I start to push it some. Narrow bar setting and line extensions slow it down too much in the surf, and it's so high AR it's not suited to sheet n go, so it was difficult but goddamn the hang time! Need to work on the technique to get the height. Drifts ok, cos it's so light, and I recovered an overfly too.

Couldn't sack up enough to land it on the beach by myself, so went over the dunes to the park and got a hand so that worked well. Long bridles, crikey!