Speed bar upgrade - done!

Ordered an Ozone Megatron chicken loop to replace the OE Flysurfer one that's getting very ratty. It finally arrived today so I installed it with some blue depower line ... should work nice :)

Alas! My poor Door is no more!

Went back to Mie today with the wife ... wind was a little better, more consistently around 14 knots - contrary to the forecast!

I had my Door with me this time and it made all the difference. Into the water, up on the board and riding! Had a good long play in and out to my starting point, although I didn't make much ground upwind ... not a big fan of waves yet! The wind died off a bit so I had a rough time of fighting out through the waves only to be pushed back into shore and being unable to ride out past the waves.

The wind picked up again and I got out riding for a while. Noticed the wife had come back from her walk and was watching so thought I'd show off and throw down a big jump. Going out fast, I carved hard up the face of a wave and popped over the top! Felt like my biggest jump on the water but I bet it was no more than 2 meters from board to water, but I hit with a nice slap! and then another slap! and rode for a few feet before toppling over forwards.

Uh?

Try to get back up, no joy and the board feels mushy. Looks ok, what's going on? Water-start back towards shore, now I can see the back bending ... I've bent the board from edge to edge at the outside bolt hole for the right footpad :(

Bah! Not only have I ruined my favourite board, but ruined the rest of the day cos I didn't bring another board!

And ... when I was packing up, I noticed that the Speed's chicken loop is looking very munted :(

Cost per session for the Door - $14 ... not bad, I guess!

Meh

Went to Mie prefecture cos it's supposed to be pumping southerlies. On the way, thinking about Miyachi telling me about his spot at a place called Machiya that doesn't exist on maps, thought I'd go have a look in the general area I thought it would be ... bingo! The psychic navigation technique pays off yet again - ask me sometime how we got around France and Italy in the rental car :)

Kites in the sky, found the carpark, jumped out had a look. High tide, grassy area above the water line strewn with fire remains and rubbish, trees, reeds and assorted shit at the water line ... sigh, another sucky beach. Tough launch site for foils ...

Felt a bit nervous cos the wind was reading 15 knots but that was totally unfounded - spent what felt like an hour floundering in the surf ... wind was dead on-shore, couldn't body-drag out very far from shore and the bottom dropped off real quick so I couldn't walk out. I'd try to put the board on and by the time I'd got it on my feet, kite diving to pull me up I was right back on the sand again, almost. The wind was also totally up and down, not really enough to do anything much but annoy me.

Finally got up and maybe 20 minutes of riding out and back on a good reach, had fun playing a little but then the wind dropped right off so I packed up. Had a nice chat with a guy from Kyoto ... hope I'll see him again!

So could be a good spot. I took the Sumo out cos it's got more rocker than the Door so was hoping it'd be easier in surf. It is, once you're moving, but it's much harder to get planing :(

So a big 'meh' for today then ... but still better than sitting in front of TV :D

Magic!

Went down the lake at 2:30pm expecting the wind to be up for the forecast 4pm blow ... didn't think it was possible to have ABSOLUTELY no wind, but there was. Or wasn't, if you see what I mean.

Sat under a tree for a while, went for a swim and then sat under the tree some more. Once I'd dried off, I thought I'd unpack my Speed and make sure I hadn't tangled the bridles etc when I had packed hurriedly last time.

I'd finished poncing around when the wind picked up and people started hitting the water. I pulled out my anemometer; although the lake still looked pretty smooth and there were no white-caps, we were getting an honest 12 knots, so I thought - why the hell not?

Launched the kite, grabbed the board and away! For probably 20 minutes the wind was in that 12-15 knots range and the water was super-smooth! Magic! Was easy to make and keep speed too ... then the waves arrived but also a little more wind and again, it was easy to play silly buggers on the waves.

Did some toe-side riding and toe- to heel-side carving turns, some pop'n'load jumps (and one real stonker that had me flying!), some 'surfing' around the waves and had a great time riding upwind! Also dunked myself a few times and trying a jump, I managed to leap one foot out of the straps, sink the other and flip myself over onto my back - splat! Naturally, I did that right in front of a boat full of cool wakeboarders ...

Had a good hour or so then the wind died off and I had to slog back to the beach, then body drag upwind to miss riding into a wall thing ... landed the Speed then sat and waited for the wind to pick up. It didn't pick up over 8-12 knots and although the locals were riding, I called it a night.

Great session though, I enjoyed muchly!

PS. talking to one of my more sensible kite buddies, he informs me that because there are no IKO approved schools in Japan (not correct) then the international sailing/water rules don't apply O_o and it may be chaos here, but at least people are polite ...! So, much like the roads then huh?

Feast Day 3

Oh yeah boy! Best day ever for me :) so far, anyway!

Got to the lake about 3:30pm, asked Miyachi about the weather and he said it wouldn't be as good as yesterday. Humped gear over the road and sat under the tree talking to Soh, who reckoned the wind would pick up. Had the foresight to take my anemometer with me ... when the wind hit 10 knots, he decided to get riding.

I slowly set up the Speed and made sure all my lines and bridles were good ... I packed up badly last time and things were a bit messy. Only took my Door to the lake cos I was so impressed with it the other day. Have new straps on the Square One though, would like to try them but - meh!

First two runs were almost powered downwinders ... almost got it up and going. Slog, walk.

The third run - it all just took off! I worked my way out upwind as hard as I could and spent the next few hours playing right out there in the lake :) spent time trying to control my speed, played with the edge pressure and posture, balance with the kite blah blah.

Also spent some time trying to do load-and-pops with varying degrees of success. Spurred on by borntofli, I worked hard on my sliding turns but then got distracted by trying to ride toe-side and do toe- to heel-side carving turns ... less success but muy fun. Played silly buggers trying to jump, played silly buggers trying to ride waves and slalom ... got dunked a lot too but it was all fun.

Had a few interesting experiences - edged hard right into the face of a wave as I was turning the kite up and got 3/4 of a back roll/loop thing done then face-planted ... sent the kite up too fast when a gust hit and I went zooming downwind, a few inches off the water. Much cackling like a mental patient!

Stopped for a drink when I was starting to feel a bit over-powered and had to trim the kite for depower and checked my wind meter - between 15 and 20 knots ... my epic zone, apparently! Probably spent about 3 hours on the water having fun, then decided to pack it in as the sun set behind the hills and the wind started to fail - I was too tired to slog!

... today was the day I should have had the GoPro on the kite! Doh!

About time!

Went down to the lake again last night. Spent an hour from 4 pm sinking and walking. Then the wind picked up and it was all on! At long last ...! Had a good blast for an hour then had to pack up and head home to get ready for work :( Murphy is a sod.

Oh forgot to add - why are the windsurfers invading our beach? They have their own clubhouse barely 100m down the road? And when they do retarded shit like ride through kiters lines and get tangled up ...!

Fffffff .... uuuuuu .....

Went down the lake yesterday. There was going to be some wind but I assumed not much ...

Took my 16m Scorpion down cos I've never flown it! It kind of got over-shadowed by the Synergys and I've spent more time with them than the Scorpions or Phantoms.

Only me and a stranded windsurfer on the beach, and a pair of guys whom I don't recognize with a 2m trainer. Someone has raked up all the reeds that have been cut on the other side of the lake and washed up here, then set little fires to smolder and burn off the trash :/ keep this in mind, comes up later ...
I set up away from them and the newbies. Not enough wind to prefill initially, but it picked up, filled up and launched just fine - less hassle than a Synergy IMO :D

And well, damn, it flew just fine! Straps all 50% and extensions on the pig tails - much less stall prone than the Syn 19 I was using Tuesday and much less jellyfishing in turns. In fact, much tighter over all! Either it's the straps or it's just the way the Scorpion flies. Zoom zoom etc had a bit of a play.

Wind picked up, white caps on the lake so I thought I might try riding after all. Pack up the Scorpion, grab my Speed and get into the air and on the water.

Downwind struggling again. Once or twice I got things just right and got moving nicely but nothing of note ... except the occasion I felt the float'n'glide - must have had the kite in the right spot and the wind was just so or something, but I could feel the board just gliding on the water and my weight was being held by the kite ... magic!

Now for the Ffffff ... uuuuu ....

Jackass, who has all the flash gear and sunnies and was showing off to his even more beginner mate with the trainer, talking all about the wind window and power zone finally get in the water with Miyachi's F-One Bandit and a board. Dude has very poor kite skills IMO so when I'm going downwind I just avoid him like the plague.

Walking back upwind, the wind is cross-onshore and my kite is low over the beach. Just as I get to where Jackass is, he decided to head back to shore and starts flying the kite around. I'm downwind of him still so I stop and park a wing tip on the beach. All he has to do is bring his kite up to 12 so I can walk downwind past him but no, he sends it through the power zone! Now his lines are above mine and - the genius lets the bar go! So his kite turns back into the power zone and he gets dragged out of the water, over the beach, into my lines and through one of the fires! As soon as he let go I started yelling "SAFETY! SAFETY RELEASE!" at him but he didn't, of course.

So he's being dragged over and through my lines and they're tangled around his so I pop MY safety and my Speed drops ... but now his bar is wrapped around mine and the Speed is not flagging properly! Miyachi arrives and gets it under control, I recover my bar and keep the Speed on the ground while things get untangled.
Jackass is wasting time apologizing for what he doesn't know so I ignore him and concentrate on getting my kite out of the weeds and nasty crap it's sitting in.

Meanwhile, uber-newbie-buddy-of-Jackass has been flying his trainer just to our left. Well, he drops that on top of my port control lines and the kite wraps around both brake and power!!! I'm trying to keep the kite stable on the ground but it's off-angle to the wind and wants to shift around ... and get this - uber-newbie is slowly walking down his lines, with one in each hand, keeping them nice and tidy! I growl at him to get that fucking thing off my lines and he finally clicked and unwrapped the kite.

FFS ... sure it all worked out in the end but it came close to me totally dumping my kite into the trees next to the road and then I would have been pissed. And it all could have been avoided!

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

One hot minute - The Movie!

After hours of editing, this is what it all came down to. Sometimes, I wonder why I bother ...! Editing video that is - kiteboarding is like pizza ... even when it's bad, you can just pick the anchovies out and it's still pretty good!

I split it up into 4 parts because I have like ADD or something and tend to skip through movies on YouTube that are over like 2 minutes so I figured others are the same and perhaps I can suck people in to watching the whole thing ... mwa-ha-HA!

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

One hot minute

Sunday, possibly some ridable wind predicted at this page - http://weather-gpv.info/ - which is the most accurate weather forecast so far ... and no good for you gringos who no speak-ee the Japanese-ee. The only kanji I know on the whole page are the ones in the drop-down menu for this region and the one for wind, which is enough ...

Played on the beach waiting for the wind to pick up around 3pm. Pulled out the GoPro and mounted it on the Kite Hero line mount ... not 100% impressed how the FDS line fits there - hope we don't have to bail! Otherwise it fits good - should be perfect on the 4-line kites eg. Synergy.

Lots of work for little riding. Submarined the board all the way down the beach, or water-started then fell back in. Walked for miles. Feet and ankles got cut up, probably infected by all the dead fish floating around.

Finally!
Got about 30 minutes worth of powered-up, upwind riding in! It sort of all came at once and I was off like a rocket!
Thanks to a video I saw on James' Blog that gave a riders view of timing a sliding turn, I had a crack at that - success! Pretty surprised, the first one was too easy. Fail rate of about 2 in 10 but when I get it right, it was all good!

Had my Spleene Door 154x42 at the beach cos I wanted to compare it as a light-wind board versus my Square One, so while the wind was up I dropped the Airush and grabbed the Spleene.

2005 Airush Square One versus 2007 Spleene Door 154 ...
The Square One floats better when there isn't enough oomph to plane quickly - the Door dives like a sub if I'm not thinking about keeping the nose up.
Need to shoot the leg out a bit more on starts - the Square One has let me get lazy, I guess.
Molded foot-pads on the Door are hard to get into and the straps cut into my foot a bit. They're way new though and probably still stiff. Very comfy for the heels, though.
They seem to get up planing about the same, the Square One a little earlier maybe but once the Door is off, it's f-a-s-t!
Door is the best for going upwind - much easier to do but seems to be more technical to control the speed and harder to edge. Did I say it was fast? Cos it's fast. Real fast.
Less splash in the face from between my legs on the Door.
The Door's ride overall is smoother but I'm betting that's cos of the foot pads - the Square One has nothing! Also feels more like it's on rails when edging. And it's fast.

Then the wind dropped off and I'm back to water-starting my way down the beach and walking again :(

Got home and checked out the GoPro and it seems I ran out of memory card before the wind arrived, so it'll make for a small upload with a LOT of editing! Soon ...
Was interesting that 8Gb SD card was filled before running out of battery - might be worth getting a 16Gb.

So, to sum up ...
Got some footage of me riding and tested the Kite Hero mount. Got to test the Door against the Square One. Taught myself sliding turns ... erm oh was that it?

Flysurfaholic!

Another low wind session with the Speed ... 8 to 12 knots, I'd guess - the water on the lake was white-capping and that means there's ju-uuust enough wind for me to ride with my biggest kite and board.

Lots of hard working of the kite, fighting the lulls and waiting for the gusts. Had some good runs but every single one ended in a WoS of various lengths. I did manage to avoid washing up on the other half of the beach though! I'm at the stage where as long as I get some semi-powered riding in, I'm happy. So erm I'm happy.

As I was packing up, the sky lit up with the most stunning oranges and brilliant reds and startling blues ...

As an aside, my bits to repair the Shockwave and an Ozone Access harness arrived from Kent of awindofchange.com last night - super sweet! Better finish building my cross-over bar for the fixed bridles ...!

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.

More jollies

Skivved off work early to hit the beach.
Went home, got changed, loaded up the car, drove out, parked, humped my gear across the road down the steps on to the beach, unpacked my Synergy - damn, I've brought the 15 instead of the 19!!!

The forecast was for 5m/s falling to 4m/s from 3pm to 9pm. So about 8 to 10 knots.
Hmm ... I had put the Flysurfer Speed 1.5 17m in the car (just in case) so I humped my ickle Synergy back across the road and got stuck into the Speed.

Well. A bit of a finicky monster, in my beginners opinion. Slow turning, twitchy on the trim (I stalled it a lot), real knife-edge of powered or under-powered in these wind conditions but once you get over that hump (12 knots?) and can park and ride - man, what a ride! Boy is that thing fast! And I swear, even my idiot arse going further upwind faster than the little locals. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time trying to work the kite to make some power and going wa-aaay downwind.

Points of interest ...
Tightened the lower harness straps with both hands. This helped stop the harness riding up my bum.
Nearly had said harness yanked off though when I bailed (trying to drag my bum in the water - don't ask why cos I don't know either) and got spun around and I was sorta upside down. Not fun. Thought my pants were going with it.
Mistook my landmark on the shore and ended up further down the beach than I should have been. Couldn't get upwind well and ended up on the "other" beach. Walking back up the shore, I had to jump over a canal-thing to get back to our beach. Oops.
Getting good at riding over the waves - that's fun :)
Many Walks of Shame, a few ride out and returns. Oh well :(
The water gets colder the further out from shore you are. It's a sweet, sweet thing on a hot day!
Nose-dived the kite a few times but reverse launched it no worries! Nice, I like that.
Back-stall landed the kite easily too. Nice, I like that.
Right arm is crippled - the bracioradialis is bloody painful ... not used to the work! Not nice, I don't like that.

So basically I learned that if the regular local riders are doing the WoS then I've got no show of riding. Still better than sitting in front of telly though!

EDIT : just looked at the Yahoo! weather here that also gives the data of what was ... apparently, it was 4m/s to 3m/s ...! 6 to 8 knots! No wonder I was walking :D

A.M, P.M ... I is a addict

Went down to the lake beach this A.M and took my new (used) Flysurfer Speed 1.5 17m with me ... was supposed to be 8 knots but as usual with weather predictions here, there was actually bupkis. I set up, stood around, watched the lake, tried to find north to make a sun shadow compass, gave up & went back to the car for my cell phone cos ... I had to be home to shower and leave for work at 1pm.

A breath of wind started to tickle my fancy around 11:15am so I thought what the hell, let's try to launch.
First attempt was a fail so I reset (dragged the kite downwind and laid it out again) and had another shot. It went up a bit, inflated a bit, I yanked on the center lines a bit and finally, up it went!
Holy shit what a long, thin kite! And holy shit I can't believe it's flying in this sweet FA wind! I'm moving it around constantly but it's turning ok and is actually pulling as it flies across the window! Amazing! I'd guess it'd be about 5 or 6 knots - the long grass is just stirring and the flag is hardly moving ... I keep flying and by about 11:50am the wind has picked up enough (8 knots :D ) that I finally get an idea of the potential of this kite ... astounding! Should be entertaining when it's in it's range!
Back-stall landed it and popped the safety, untangled the bridle and picked all the dead vine out from the twists it had created in the bridle lines grr. Packed up, went home, went to work.

Wind has picked up so I rushed home after work finished at 5pm and grabbed my Synergy 15 and the North Sumo board. I'm looking at the wind and thinking eek, the 15 might be too big when I hit the water at 6:30pm but it ain't :( I'm getting up fine, good blast of speed but I can't keep moving after the first power dive. I get a few runs that are ok and one good one, but just can't get my groove on. Better than going home and sitting in front of telly though!

It's actually my first ride on the water with any Synergy ... quick review.
It turns just fine, much faster than the big LEIs I've used even the 2010 North Rebel that is supposed to be hot poop. Swoops around real nice, very fast kite - I even nose dived it once when I took my eyes off it and left my hands on the bar. I'm betting the 19 will feel more like the 14 - 16 LEIs ...
I didn't like the feel on the bar - couldn't really feel the depower/power point like I like, hard to tell when I was over-trimming the bar, but I can sort that out with the bridle settings. Or maybe the straps.
The bloody safety is a menace - popped off on me when I was flailing around in the water, could only guess it got nudged by my shorts or a roll of fat - so I turned the red hat upside down. Highly recommended and thankfully I could do it at the beach. Like so ...


from Arc Setup FAQ

Could have done with more power so should have used the 19 or fiddled with the center strap, but there wasn't time to land and meddle - sun went down at 7:30pm. The Sumo is only 155x41 or something so I should have taken a bigger board. Was going to take my new Spleenes but sissied out - they're so pretty!
Hoo boy does it jump?! Sending it up to park it at the zenith after a failed start or two (or six) often had me rising out of the water. Before I packed it up, I did some jumping on the beach - bloody epic, without any real effort. Of course, there was no camera :/ Doing that actually gave good feedback through the bar - send kite, sheet in, feel power and POP you're in the sky! Maybe my hands just aren't educated yet?
As with all my arcs, easy to land and launch on my own. Lovely.

So ... what did you do with your day?

A new toy!

Ziz.

Got a tip through the grapevine of some kiteboards up for sale in Japan ... could be a good deal cos I wouldn't have to pay retarded shipping to get some from overseas. Long story short, thanks to a weak Great British Pound and not having to pay ANY shipping, I now own two perfect condition 2007 Spleene boards, the Door 154x42 and the Rip Plus 138x44 which cost me the princely sum of $130 each!



And I even like the colours! Considering what I paid for the ancient boards I have now ... they were a bloody good deal!

Also, my Flysurfer Speed 1.5 17m arrived today too! Looks lovely and was also very very cheap - a good way to find out if I'll actually enjoy what was a US$2,500 kite and whether it's worth considering a Speed 3. If it proves to be a low-wind session saver, should be good.

Whee! I love toyziz!