We had more light wind days this winter but one of the best years for the surface to set up some smooth hard pack. It's been melting the last few days and most surfaces are re-frozen slush - I'm hoping it'll smooth out nicely to get an end of season chance to use the blades on the buggy before it disappears - going to miss this winter.
a couple of weeks ago a friend's venom 16 was feeling a bit sluggish for him so I was following him around for a while with my kite de-powered so I wouldn't overrun him (all his internal straps were set tight, we got it sorted). Here is a video from cruising around with the Charger 22.5 on a sunny day and playing with the kite shadow.
http://vimeo.com/89591133

that looks like it was a beautiful day

It was one of those days that feel hot with the sun glare and didn't need heavy gloves etc - felt the sunburn after that day. It was a light spotty wind around edges of the lake but mid lake had a nice trough of wind so i did get a couple low 40mph runs with that big kite. What was nice was the stability parking the kites at the zenith that day - I have video switching my kite with Tom to check out his venom and I unhook the 22.5 and hold the loop in one hand and take his 16 and pass the 22.5 to him and then follow each other again. There was the other thread about a Charger over flying and I've seen it too but on those days my friends with Venoms and Vortex also had them going way over head so it's more about wind conditions and adding some rear tension to pull them back a bit. The day on the video they were sky hooks that would park straight up - it was a beautiful day.

That looked like a fun day! Awesome playground too. That Venom did look contorted early in the video. I was impressed with the downturns with a 22.5m kite.

Yeah Markite, I was the one that made the post about my Charger II overflying. I chalked it up to dirty wind after all. I have had sessions since with wind from the right direction that made my kite feel like a tree swing. I launched my kite, it parked itself at zenith with zero input from me while I took my time putting on my sunglasses and gloves and getting my buggy ready. I pretty much ignored the kite until I started riding. I hold my kite by the chicken loop all the time in clean wind. Me and Itay play musical kites on a regular basis. Swapping kites in the air.

Beautiful day on the lake for sure I relish those long sunny spring days:D Looks like a fast turner for a 22.5m arc:o Thanks for sharing the vid! Gets me pumped to head out this weekend.

Generally a nice video with enough texture in snow to give a feel for speed as you move by their features/shadows. POV video that also is a 2nd person shot video that captures kiter in front and follows perfectly with constant distance/closeness..... capturing the kite and terrain you are moving over.

There's a bit too much shaking of image at times. I wonder if uploading video to Youtube and using their image stabilizing feature would correct some of this shakiness:puzzled:

Yeah..going to miss winter.

Skim I checked out the image stabilization and all it does is make the entire image distort badly if you can see your helmet in the shot. Have you ever watched an fpv video on YouTube that was wavy and distorted? That is the image stabilization. It isn't very good yet. It also makes your helmet look like it is violently shaking you to death when you use it. Just too janky looking to me. Personally I like a bit of shake from a helmet cam. It gives you a sense of speed and terrain. Leave the pretty smoother shots to the tripods and gimbles!