I went to Southwick Beach on Friday afternoon. The wind was predicted 10-15 from the west, I think the top recorded windspeed for the day was 12 mph from the west. I had to walk about 3/4 mile to the south into the Lakeview WMA before the crowd thinned out, but the beach was wider than it has been all summer so far. In about 4 hrs of moving time I covered just over 30 miles with a top speed of 18.9 mph.(using the 7M NPW9 on 35' lines) I made it all the way to the "Tiki Bar" which is a bohemian type structure built from driftwood almost at "The Cut", which is where Sandy Creek dumps into Lake Ontario. I wish I had my camera with me to show that. The place was just a little hut last time I was there, now it looks like one of the beach "cabanas" over in Spain.
I talked to several interested spectators throughout the day, and also ran into a forum newbie,(sorry, my feeble mind cannot recall his screen name) who spent the day static flying his new Prism Tensor 4.2M (I think). He was doing O.K., but was kind of frustrated by the beach width, which is still too narrow for standard length lines.(I think his were 20M) He had the kite set up in the bar-mode, and had to stand up to his knees in the water to launch. He was practicing fine control, but with the bar set-up, could not get the control he needed at the edge of the window, which caused his kite to drop in the lake a few times. Gotta give him credit for not giving up, though.
My last run I was coming back up the beach from the south when my front tire went flat about 1/2 mile from my set-up. I had hit many chunks of driftwood throughout the day, and suspect that one hit must have pushed the bead enough to let the tube get pinched between the tire and rim. I worked the kite like mad for about 1/8 mile, but it's no fun with a flat. Did the walk of shame, and called it a day.
Sorry for the book, no pic's hence the thousand words. :frog:

Fixed the flat on front. It seems I ran over something sharp, there was a small puncture through the tire and tube, probably a nail in some driftwood. I used a "scab" patch made by the makers of"Slime". Quick and easy, seems to be holding well, so far.

Good read. Is that close to what the 7 meter tops out at before you slip sideways? Tensor on a bar does not sound that fun. You should have demanded he separated into handles immediately.

I asked if he had tried it on handles, but he said no, and was nervous about it, mostly due to the close proximity of the trees. I think this was his major problem, as he could not fly directly down wind due to line length-he would have been in the trees. I thought about handing him my 7M on short lines, but with no handle experience, I thought it might be too much for him. He did sit in both buggies, though, and it was like I could see the little gears turning inside his head... Feel free to chime in if you're out there, I remember you are from Ithaca.(feeble I am) EDIT: I think it might have been shearpin !
Yeah, the side pull is pretty hard, with the bigger size NPW's, and I usually max out around 20mph with the 7M in onshore wind at 10-15mph. with 15-20mph wind I'm usually on the 4.8M, and can hit 25mph easily, above 20mph wind and I'm on either the 3.4 or 2.4, and I topped out at 29.2 with the 3.4M and the wind gusting over 25mph. This was all in the Comp Std. buggy. I haven't used the Bigfoot too often at the beach, as the turn radius is greater, and I already fly my kites right up near the trees. I've hit 24 or so in the BF at the fairgrounds parking lot, towing the (empty) Std. bug behind me, with the 7.6M on 17.5M lines, in janky 15+/-mph wind. There's plenty of room to turn there, but not so much for building speed, so I was squealing like a kid the whole time!