f0rgiv3n's Near-Death Experience

So I had been looking forward to yesterday for a long time. The wind was supposed to be around 17mph and it was PERFECT temperature of about 80 degrees. I had yet to have a good fly with my new scorpion. So at lunch time i prepared for the late afternoon session and reconfigured my knots on the chicken line, etc... It looked great. I ended up getting off work early so i was TOTALLY stoked to get out there. We got out there to one field that woulda been perfect, but ended up getting kicked off cuz it's now "government property" and it has to do with "insurance and stuff". But whatever. So we had to go to the next best thing that was closest (a soccer field complex type place). This place fits about 4-5 soccer fields and is surrounded on 3 sides by houses. The good news was is the wind was blowing from the side that there were no houses so it was pretty constant when it comes to wind. We get out there (tbone has a 15m phantom and I the 16m scorp).

I set up, and launch. this kite is AWESOME, great speed and excellent depower. I do notice that it doesn't absorb gusts as much as the venom, but never-the-less it still does great! As I'm flyin' on the board i get some SWEET jumps and land nice and soft. Meanwhile the wind is picking up, and because of the wind direction when I'm going back the opposite direction i go faster than the other way. So anyways here's where I made my noobie mistake... I still am shaking my head at this.

Problem #1: The only tires i have on my board are slicks (no traction)
Problem #2: The field had half of it covered with soccer goals so we could only fly in half of what we usually do, so pushing us closer to the parking long (which was downwind of us :o).
Problem #3: half of the field was wet from the sprinklers just being on not long ago.
Problem #4*: I had not nearly enough downwind room, I was maybe 100 yards at the beginning upwind from the parking lot.
Problem #5: Wind is picking up(more so than what I should be flying this in, especially with my limited experience with the scorp)

SO adding all these up, here's what happened. I crashed a few times, of course... but my last run I was bookin'. I was comin back from my run and I gained a HUGE amount of speed, which is not good on wet grass, and slick tires. I could NOT powerslide! All i was doing was sliding when i would powerslide. So here I am, out of control, the board is bouncing all over the place and I can't slow down. Next step: if the board can't slow you down by powersliding, slowly bring kite up to top and you'll be good right? Well, here's the problem... I was moving so fast and the scorp had so much apparent wind that it was almost impossible to bring it up slowly. BUT i had no choice!

I make some small input to bring it slowly to the top (meanwhile I'm now directly upwind of the parkinglot) and as I get picked up and just jump off the board cuz I had no other way of stopping. 3 feet off the ground now, still going the same sideways speed as I was on the board I receive yet ANOTHER gust, just as I got the kite to the top... ok now 7-8 feet in the air and goin fast. (at this point I'm like, ok, i can handle this) All goes great with landing, i keep it above me, and actually power up the kite when i land so it was perfect landing. However; I have no tractino so I'm still getting pulled towards the parking lot on my feet. Knowing I couldn't get it under control in time for the parking lot I pull my e-release. Kite flags out and here' show close i was to the parking lot: The kite flags over the TOP of one of the handicap parking signs. ... I see it going for that sign an I start sprinting backwards trying to save the kite from landing on this metal sign!

To no avail and it landed right over the top of it. Believe it or not I didn't get any cuts or tears in the kite! WOW! Oh, and then after I was trying to untangle the kite from the sign, etc... the sprinklers went on I got a bit wet, and so did the kite

So there ya go, I was a total dumbass and didn't think straight. I was "blinded by the wind" and didn't think about downwind room, wet grass, smooth tires, or a parking lot! Just thought I'd share that with you so hopefully others can benefit from my almost disaster .

In case you were wondering... Later last night (4 hours later) I went back out and flew it statically. Had to make sure I wasn't scared of the kite

hahahahahahahahahahaha that's so awesome! I'm glad the kite didn't tear. I told you that kite was powerful. the scorpion seems like the child of the venom2 and phantom lol. I'm glad you finally got to try the scorp. I love the story

awesome save on you and the kite--------Scorps do power up quickly............................:duh::duh:

Quote:

Originally posted by ikemiester For future notice, pull the safety release BEFORE ur in that much trouble. :bouncy:

Hmmm good point

most of us have done a few really stupid things while kiting--as long as you learned from it--then its a cool deal........ BTW-love your avatar