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.

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!

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.

Ooh, lucky

Nothing at all was forecast but the wind came up so I hit the beach. Thought I might be able to try some surfing, but not enough for the 10m and the Vanguard-clone is still a slippery despite the awesome wax job by the ASP guy. Swapped it all out for the 15 and the Limited.

After a shit launch, I got rolling nicely powered and had a little boosting fun for the rest of this four hour session.

Got tired, got lazy, dropped the kite at the shore, let it get tangled... called it a day. A good day, that is.

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.

I hate wax

Hmm, lost some days here. Sure I went out on the last two days but then what happened to Thursday?

Low tide early afternoon so I head to the beach rather than the estuary... No messing about, straight out with the Speed and Spud.

Bah. So close to being able to go upwind well, but I can't so I ride, carve a turn, ride back, jump off and wade out upwind...

After an hour or so, I give up and ogle the blonde in the bikini as I pack up.

Head to the estuary cos I think I can get some riding in. Same set up; works just ok, I'm getting upwind a tad so I switch to the smaller Axis prototype Vanguard clone.

Oh myyy! What a stunning thing to ride... only 5' 4" but bloody hell, it cranks upwind, handles chop, and carves a turn better than the Spud. Which is bigger and wider. Wow! Shame the wax is such a shit of a thing!

Give up when the wind dies away.

Right. Plan D.

Home to drink beer.

Waste of time, wind wasn't picking up. Fucking frustrating.

Oh please... please...

Same as yesterday, except less wind. The most exciting things that happened was the topless hippy chick sunbathing in the dunes, the hottie jiggling sorry jogging in a bikini, and the accidental dog fight.

Sigh...

Weather was reported as 20kph at 18˚C.
Wind felt like way underpowered to just riding. Yawn.

What I learned today...

• 3m extensions on the Flite actually make a difference, but the bottom end isn't improved by much. Definite must have in the kite though... now, where to buy.
• I need help with my addiction.

Other end of the scale

Desperate for a ride, I went to South Beach and set up the Nitro3 to test the low end.

Was interesting, but wasn't a lot of fun. Put in 3 hours of riding the flattest water between the widest breaks in the waves, then walking out a bit, then riding again.

Now, if I can just get the Nitro out in the wind it was designed for...

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Weather was reported as 18kph.
Wind felt like underpowered (duh) to almost powered in the "gusts".

What I learned today...

• Shortening the rear lines on the Nitro by an inch improved the feel at the bar and got some grunt into it, without losing the upwind ability. Don't forget to remove that knot!
• Really responds well to being worked and building the apparent wind... shame the water isn't co-operating...
• Popped a few jumps - pretty impressed how well up it goes despite the lack of wind, and how easy it is to time the redirects. Good jumping kite... wonder if it would have gone absolutely mental with the tuned line at Waikuku.