Sunday was an epic day at Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine, FL. The weather was awesome--78F with winds just slightly north of onshore all day
long. The great weather brought lots of beach goers, but a short walk up this non-drive-on beach gives you plenty of room.
I took newby Nick so I could teach him how to buggy. He, like so many people who think kite buggying is cool, used to sail a catamaran. He learned
to fly in G-ville so with the flying and sailing skills in his back pocket we had only the buggy itself to deal with. The conditions were great for
teaching so it didn't take Nick long to get the hang of slowly cruising up and down the beach while I walked or trotted along.
We worked on it for maybe two hours before he left me in the dust. I gave up following him and launched a kite for myself and got in the other bug to
pursue him.
I should have spent more time on crash avoidance and relaunch skills, but it worked out. I had to relaunch him out of the dunes several times, but he
got better at fliying and relaunch during the course of the day and I got better at launching one Arc with another slung behind my back.
Nick logged upwards of ten miles on his first day in the seat. It was far more than I had hoped for. He flew for 6 hours. I taught I taught him on
a depower--he used my 10m Scorpion. The ability to tune the load to his weight and the wind made it easy to give him just enough power, but not too
much. He had a few crazy events in the buggy, but no OOBE. Depower rocks. Arcs rock.
The conditions were not only great for teaching they were great for the experienced flyer. Winds were blowing a solid 10-12 all day. The slight
northerly vector made for easy upwind runs to the north and blazing downwind broad reaches when headed south. As the tide rose the beach conditions
got weird. The sand near the high water line was softer. The incoming water was packing it hard, but it could only pack the low stuff--not the high
stuff. This soft-hard-soft-hard pattern went on for perhaps a 1/4 mile at a time. You'd find your speed dropping to the lower 20's in the soft
stuff, surging to the upper 20's as you hit the hard stuff and then back down again on the soft stuff just a few seconds later. With so much
available power there was no risk of bogging down in the soft stuff.
To keep away from the even softer stuff you wanted to stay near the water line. This worked fine except the occasional big wave would surge into your
path. A quick course correction was required to avoid a soaking, so I rode edge of the foam while my kite fell from the sky. Then the water line cut
back toward the sea and I'd cut way from the kite, tighten the lines, and get the surge of speed from the increased load. All of this was happening
at nearly 30 MPH. It was a rip-roaring good time.
As if all of that wasn't fun enough, we were ran into another buggier from Orlando. Doug brought his family of four and his custom-built buggy and
trailer that held his wife <i>and</i> his two kids. It was a sweet rig that he built himself. Doug's a professional welder and it shows
in his ride. We traded phone numbers in hopes of a future meet up.
Awesome write up Phillip! Save some of those conditions for Fourth of July week when Chris and I come down. Will you be able to get back out to the
park then? Anyone else going to be around that week? Dean? Alex?pbc - 23-6-2012 at 06:22 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by frankiter
Awesome write up Phillip! Save some of those conditions for Fourth of July week when Chris and I come down. Will you be able to get back out to the
park then? Anyone else going to be around that week? Dean? Alex?
Dean's not available that week and I am almost certainly tied up with family stuff. If it were just me I'd be there in a heartbeat, but I've got my
Mom and my son in the mix that week. Sorry, I really wanted to join, but I think I there will be little kiting for me that week.
As for you, there should be lots of kiting. Just head to the park after lunch each day. :-)
