Been a famine for a while, but for the past 3 days we had northerlies onto the lake.
Friday was not enough to ride upwind for me but I had fun slogging and walking.
Saturday, I could have used more wind but got some riding in. There's be a vid soon.
Today - #@%$#!ing E-P-I-C!
When I got onto the water about 4:30, we had 10 to 15 knots and when I came off for a drink about 5:30 I checked my anemometer and it was 15 to 20
knots. I was starting to trim the kite for depower cos I was making some mad speed out there
With enough wind, I can just park my Speed and ride ... played with all the technical things I could bring to mind like posture, heel pressure, speed
control, kite control etc etc then just started playing silly buggers.
Spurred on by borntofli's progress, I tried some "slide to toe-side, carve to heel-side" turns - riding toe-side in a seat harness is the suck but the turns worked ... more or less :D
Did lots of load-and-pop things I saw on Kiteboarding 101 video ... whee! what fun! Nearly did a back roll by accident - carved hard up the face of a
wave - but landed on my head :D assorted poor kite control had me flying at times but I loved it ALL!
... today is the day I should have bothered with the camera - far more entertaining, it would have been! I am, officially, stoked!
nice.....................its all coming together for you..................................Speeds are awesome machines.................sounds like a
vid is in order...................
Damn you!!!! LOL just kidding man that is awesome riding. I SO HOPE that I can get up and riding this year. If not for just one park n ride session
where I don't get constant luffs. Think that once I can just get it where I get a decent wind in the right direction, I'll get going in no time, but
the winds here are really lacking on the clean part, and when they are high enough to go out the gusts are too hooj for my liking while learning.
Keep it up man your determination is a big confidence booster for me. If you can do it and survive with all the crazies out there then I can do it at
my tiny lake with only my buddy out in the middle of the lake. great
camera work too. Love how the picture moves around like that but the orientation still stays the same.
Good work
Shaggs
P.S. The Floyd was an awesome choice can't believe I never thought of them. Cheers
what I fly/ride:
19m Flysurfer Speed 2 SA
12m Flysurfer Speed2
6m Ozone access xt
1.5m Ozone imp trainer
144cm Airush Switch
152cm lib tech skate banana
MBS Pro 90
Jereme Leafe Pro 95
Wind was the big factor for me ... not enough is the suck and I need so much more than the mini-men who haunt the beach here like anorexic
Oompa-loompas ...
kami,
nice vids, that camera veiw really gives you the tool to see what works and what doesn't,what i'm confused about, with no arc experience, is this
autozenith thing you guy's are always talking about. all my instructors have told me to never ever leave your kite at zenith and a few times that i
have i have been lofted backwards, one time at a 45 degree angle that resulted in a hard hit on my shoulder from an upside down position. so is there
something that keeps these arcs from doing that?
Good question auto-zenith is a keep your kite off the water tool ... when on
the beach or walking, I keep it low like I would an LEI. I'm sure it comes with all the attendant risks of parking a kite at the zenith ... but it's
nice to be able to take your hands off the kite and not worry about dropping it while you drink, meddle etc ...