Quote: Originally posted by jeepersjoey  | Today was definitely epic. I loaded up with a 2.6m and took off at 12. 1.6m later I was finally able to stop. Up to and sustained 38mph for the
entire 1.6 miles to the road.
I rode all the way back with the kite high and my spirits low.
A lot too much a little too quick.
Flew for a while on 1.8m. It was good until i was stuck in the goopy stuff. It took a long time to get back home.
Good rides on a 4.7m later in the day.
At one point there were 5-6 of us sticking together and just going back and forth. The lead person turned and we all turned. For 2 hrs straight!
Then, three of us were sitting at the highway waiting for the sun to exit behind the clouds. Then, it was a full on race to get back to camp.
Classic. Remarkable. Legendary. Memorable. Priceless.
Paul |
Very nicely put! I loved sharing the stoke with you and the gang in the back and forth you described, that was the highlight so far! The 4.7 RAGE
was a beauty to see slide on by while I was strong arming my 3.2 NS3. I could slowly pass Mark with his 2.8 and even keep up with John on your land
sailor, but then you'd come through like a shark in the water with that big black kite and it was like watching the dorsal fin slice by above the
water.
I too had a harrowing start to the day. While I should have stuck with my 3.8m LS2 I foolishly put my 6m P3 in the sky and shot out like a rocket. I
didn't have a way of measuring speed but I'm sure I too was in the high 30s ripping across the playa fully sheeted out and still going like hell.
Here's the fun (and STUPID) part. I didn't know how to use the kite bar's pull-pull trim system so I was stuck at full power the whole way. The
system has a red strap that has a + on it and a black strap with a - on it. I was thinking + meant increase trim to decrease power and not the other
way around. Red - of course (I now know) means decrease power to the kite but I just didn't figure that out going at the top speed of my life. Go
figure. Speed increase way beyond comfort leads to IQ decrease.
I did come to a stop on the way out by going up wind until I finally came to a stop. I thought I've got to get back to camp now miles away. I turned
around and started to haul ass to camp. I was going even faster on the way back. About half way back I came to the decision that I valued my body
more than my kite and said "screw it" to myself and popped the chicken loop at about 40 mph. Well it worked. Of course now I've got a ball on the
end of the kite lines and I'm still going 40 mph so I circled the wagons and ended up totally circling the kite to try to keep it from getting dragged
to much. I can safely say that I've field tested to reef line system and it deploys as advertised. The kite is a little buffed up but really is in
surprisingly good shape. Those things I can buy again; me? Not so much.
Here's the fun part: Mark followed me out and he had a tow system on his buggy that he had personally fabricated but never used. We hooked it up and
we tandom-buggied all the way back to camp. Worked great! It is good to have good friends on the playa.
Man, what a day! I too had a lot of fun with some great, great people. To top off the day a bunch of us watched the space station fly overhead in
the early evening darkness (super, super cool by the way) and then stayed out as the stars exploded in the sky.
What will today bring? |
