So....what do you do when you're ripping so hard that you're barely touching down enough to keep a line let alone hold an edge or keep upwind and the kite is already trimmed fully in and at zenith yanking you skyward (hence making it hard to keep contact with the ground to hold said line)?

Overpowered?

GREAT day! :wee:

Yea, sounds like a good session

Maybe time to hit the next step down in your quiver, or just go big!

Video?

Well know that I'm a safety nut so take it from that point of view...yep, I would definitely think you were overpowered...some people really like it...I don't...I would much rather stay in the middle...I would have seriously thought about pulling the QR and then downsized...

Quote:

Originally posted by macboy So....what do you do when you're ripping so hard that you're barely touching down enough to keep a line let alone hold an edge or keep upwind and the kite is already trimmed fully in and at zenith yanking you skyward (hence making it hard to keep contact with the ground to hold said line)?

What do I do? Go for "Just one more run" and break a wrist
What were you flying and where is the video?

I was in a rush, had a VERY narrow window of time but since our season is closing on us I grabbed and ran out the door. No camera, no alternate kite, nor time to launch an alternate if I wanted to. I was happy it was an Arc (P15) as I knew I could just keep one arm in the center of the bar praying for it to let up at zenith but man alive was it lifting like mad! I think only because of the forward speed I had I guess? (GPS measured a max of only 46km/h)

Anyway. I knew if I held out I'd come to a stop or the power would subside a bit. I think in retrospect I must have just found one of those wind channels that lake is so famous for but good grief it's crazy skipping along the surface like that.....I can't imagine what all you speed demons must experience!

40 minutes and plenty of airtime - most planned, some not...and oddly it was the unplanned ones that gave me the confidence to go for the planned ones. I'm glad I went out but yes, felt a bit hairy at times. Having a flying buddy helps tons. I've progressed quite a bit this winter just because I've had someone else around to call 911 if needed.

Good day. And a good reminder of respect for the wind. I'm glad I only had a short time to play....the day ended a little rough for the guy I went out to meet up with. He's OK, just said he got dropped a couple times pretty hard.

Phanny 15 a.k.a The Wrist Breaker
I need a bigger area and a flying buddy to egg me on to try things ... that's how it worked when we were skating ...

Sounds pretty ballistic. Glad everything went alright, and it sounds like a pretty epic session.

When it's like that you want to get the kite LOW and with the Phannies they fly at a good high angle out front. It goes against the panic you feel in a gust to bring the kite low but if it's high you'll get the lifts and bobbles in the gusts and as you take the kite high you flatten out your skis or board and loose your edge and then you get lifted as well and skip sideways. With the kite lower you are really biting an edge and if it's down on the deck and you edge hard you'll find that you start to angle at an even higher angle upwind and actually will decrease all that nasty yanking and the kite runs smooth etc.
Take a hand off the bar and turn your body facing upwind more as well and you can really lean over and shoot upwind - same thing on the water.
The other plus about having the kite low is if you need to bail for any reason if it's that intense the kite is close to turn into the ground and release - just don't send it up fast.

We had an absolutely bonus day sunday, 11ºC sunny and still about 6 inches of great snow and steady wind. There was 1 Syn 19, 2 Venom 19s, 2 Charger 15s, 1 Syn 15, 1 Venom 16, 1 Scorp 16 all out playing around on what is looking like the end of our snow season.

Wow. Makes perfect sense but yes - WAYYYYYYY counter-intuitive. So eventually you'll power out because you'll have turned straight upwind and the kite will wind up at the window's edge, down low?

I've been taking the "let the kite fly itself, concentrate on your feet and it'll all subside eventually" to this point. Never had such lift from a "neutral" kite before ; )