Landboard, Buggy, Kitesurf - land/water

So, I've given them all a bash now and admittedly the kitesurf was only a brief introduction.

After considering dropping 1 of them so I can focus I've got the following thoughts.

Land based events usually take place in large areas so you can get a good run on, inland areas need to be quite large and devoid of obstacles that block the wind from all directions. Most good inland sites have some directions in which is the wind is unblocked and about as clean as it's going to get inland. The blocked directions make the site unusable when the wind is coming from that direction.
Ignoring the inland wind conditions, inland locations by their nature have size & shape constraints so sooner or later you're going to crave for a bigger playing area.
The next choice is a coastal beach site, which naturally gives a bigger area to play on - if nothing else they're typically long in one direction ( the coast line). Onshore winds tend to be super clean and make for some amazing kiting, they're as bad as inland sites when the wind is offshore.
A reasonably obvious statement to make for inland sites is that having any kind of accident *is* going to hurt.

So, the only other surface is water for kitesurfing. Coastal water is obviously massive but can be marred by hidden sand bars and tidal conditions. Either of these can effect the suitability of a location.

Pretty much everywhere you think of is restricted by local by-laws so always check the local conditions and *don't* spoil it for everyone else by going where the hell you please without checking.

For me the 2 land disciplines of landboard & buggying are complementary and both add enjoyable aspects to the sport.
Landboard is good for vertical kiting, what I mean by that is there's a tendancy to keep the kite vertically above you so you travel slower but you have the intention of jumping. You're typically looking for consistent winds for this to avoid being dumped.

Buggying is good for horizontal kiting, as you're typically looking to stay *in* the buggy and hold down some power. Speed is the order of the day so to do this you need to keep the kite down in the powerzone, just above the horizon and hold on tight! It's easier to deal with gusty conditions as it just affects your speed.

So, should I drop anything? At the moment I'm enjoying all aspects and if anything I'd probably drop buggying as the scope is fairly limited to just going fast. I really don't like the idea of buggy freestyle - it just looks like a world of pain and I'm pretty convinced all of those hard landings are going to wreak having on your spine.

Waroo @ Ponte

I popped out to Pontefract Park yesterday to roll out my newly acquired 14m Waroo, it was forecast 8mph and a bit of rain so I didn't hold out much hope. I was intending just to give it a test flight and maybe have a bomb about on my trampa.

When I arrived the winds were in the region of 7mph-9mph so marginal for flying an SLE but I decided to continue and just check out the kite, lines & bar.

I set it all up and it looks very nice & clean so that's all good, I'd already test inflated it at home so no worries there. I had it sent on the 1st rear knot (longest lines) and max depower trim.

The winds turned up a couple of notches so it was time for a static fly although, to be honest, I thought it would be a bit much. Paul commented "thats a big f**ker!", which is true and that also got me worried.

So, with some trepedation up it went and to my surprise it was brilliantly behaved and incredibly controllable. It was also easy to cope with the gusts with the massive depower range available and this inspired confidence to take on such a big kite. The safety of 100% depower when letting the bar go was initially a stumbling point for me as you can read in my previous but, again, it added to my confidence in taking on such a large kite.

I built up enough confidence to jump on the trampa and I had a few runs up & down the field with my trampa and I'm very pleased with it. It's great to get upwind with too.

[new] waroo 14m

My new 14m Waroo arrived yesterday, pumped it up, checked it over, looks good.


I've got all the kit now: 14m Waroo, 9m Atom, O'Neill Evo wetsuit, Custom Kiteboard 146x40, impact vest, waistharness and oceanus reel leash.

Faffing with the atom

Well, I went out this evening for my first twilight fly at Herringthorpe. The wind looked pretty good from my window so I plumped for the 9m Atom and intended to do a bit of boarding too. If nothing else I'd get some time to learn the kite including relaunch some more before heading out on the water. I also wanted to double check it held it's pressure for a long period under normal flying conditions.

Herringthore Playing Fields
The inland wind conditions were suffering from the usual huge swings in direction and gusts. It's the norm really so it wasn't a blocker. The site looked clear and it was a nice warm evening.

Launch
After setting up the kite I tried really hard to self-launch but it was frustrating to see it spin around and do everything *except* launch. It made more infuriating after I tried the techniques I'd learned for the Ozone Light during my kitesurf lessons. It simply wouldn't launch and I thought something was wrong.

After much rushing about it eventually launched but it wasn't right. Sluggish turns, unresponsive, falling out of the sky, etc. Not happy really, especially when it came down in a lull and wouldn't go back up. It would only fly on max power trimming and fell out of the sky on slight bar pressure.

Tweak
I eventually downed the kite and decided to tighten the back lines a bit to instill some more responsiveness. I tied an extra knot on the pigtail, reattached the back lines and tried it all again.

The Atom was now more like the Instinct - it launched much easier, handled better, etc. etc. I'm now much happier with it. Relaunching was now a doddle too so it was mission accomplished!

It's a shame the wind was so shite!

Summer Games
Just as things were going well a load of people turned up and proceeded to setup 3 cricket matches that basically consumed the whole of the playing field. I guess it was some kind of local match/league but my safe flying zone was not unusable so I was forced to pack up. It didn't help that people were driving their cars around the playing fields. :(

kite surf lesson

Well, I'm back home after my first kitesurf lesson. First thing is that it's a changeable feast due to the varying weather conditions. My first day was cancelled due to zero wind, the second day was better but still not brilliant for wind. In hindsight it's obvious but you rarely get 2 consecutive days of good wind so it's therefore rare to get 2 adjacent days training.

The days wind


Start the day with a splash!
I've already got a relatively large amount of experience so I was keen to get in the water ASAP. The instructor bumped me up to day 2 status so I joined a guy who'd already done his 1st day.
The wind was 10mph at best, bang onshore and the tide was coming in so it wasn't ideal but it was enough for what we wanted to do.

We were suited up and headed up out with a couple of 9m Ozone Instinct Light kites.


We setup the kites on the beach and went through the safety systems, quickly got the kite in the air and wandered down to the water for some body dragging.





New Kite
I struggled for quite a while as I had to unlearn the characteristics of the kites I'm used to as I was too aggressive with the kite and it kept flying out of the window. The winds were light and my kites are faster on the turn. So, I spent most of my time water relaunching the kite. Relaunching is hard enough, relaunching when the kite is swallowed by waves and your being bounced around yourself is hard work. This in itself was frustrating but valuable lessons in how to water relaunch in various situations - the upshot was at all costs keep the kite flying!

Body Dragging
Once I'd got the kite sussed I quickly got into body dragging downwind, rapidly followed by a lesson in body dragging upwind. The upwind drag involved being a lot deeper in the water so I swallowed quite a bit of nasty sea water. Still, I got the principal pretty quickly and moved on.

The most tiring bit was repeatedly walking out into deep water with the kite - wind pulling me inshore, an incoming tide trying to push me into shore and a floatation vest preventing me from going anything deeper than chest height. All in all it took a lifetime to walk out, then about 10 seconds to body drag back in!

After a spot of lunch and some theory our instructor let us use his 13m Ozone Instict Sport to generate more power so we could get on the board.

On the board
This was the interesting bit and what I'd come for. Trying to fly the kite 1 handed, get your feet in the straps, get everything lined up avoiding spinning round+slipping feet+moving kite, dive the kite to get power (in light winds), weight over, plane away, keep the kite moving in low winds and battle with the waves was extremely challenging.



It took quite a lot of effort and a lot of trial & error but I eventually got up on the board for about 2m! This was an accomplishment after a solid day of working and it was good to do. I understand the prinicpal of what I should be doing and I think I'll get it with some practice.

We debriefed and it would have been easier to do if there had been more wind that would have meant I could focus on board skills rather than trying to do that *and* keep the kite in the air by moving it around a lot.

In the end, it was a great day and definetly worth going on the training course to progress a lot faster than I would have done on my own. Plus, most importantly, it was safer working with trained instructors and having the backup of lifeguards around.

Technorati Tags:kite, kitesurf, kiting, kites

Kite surfing

As I write I'm currently camping a little outside of Ainsdale waiting for the wind to pickup before I venture out for my first kite surfing lesson with West Coast Kitesurf School at Ainsdale.

My 2 day lesson was supposed to start today but it was post-poned due to a complete lack of wind, it was at best 10 mph. Never mind, at least there's always tommorrow where the wind forecast is a little better.

I'm hoping to at least come out of this with the basics of water specific skills nailed so I can venture out on my own with more confidence. I'm hoping my general kite, landboard & buggying skills will at least give me a head start.

More wheeling & dealing

I've sold a few of my kites now leaving me with a better quiver.
==SOLD==
16m Venom II
9m Guerilla II
4.9m U-Turn Nitro

       0 2 5 7 9 12 15 18 22 25 29 32 36 39 43 46 50  mph

V13     --------XXXXXXXXXXXXXX-----------------------

V10     -------------XXXXXXXXXXXXXX------------------

AT-9    ---------XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-------------

V13 - 13m Venom (I)
V10 - 10m Venom (I)
AT-9 - 9m Atom

Bolton-Le-Sands - RK Meet - 17&19 May 2008

This weekend was the RaceKites.com meet at Bolton-Le-Sands.

Journey
Saturday started with a few of us, Bibbler+Suicide+Antler+myself, meeting up at the service station on the M62 ready to continue to voyage at 6am. It's been quite a long time since I've been active at that time in a morning but the motorways were clear and we made good progress.

We arrived at Red Bank Farm at around 7:30 to find some RK veterans were already there as they'd stayed through Friday night. We pitched the tents and generally prepared for the day ahead.

The campsite was on a hillside overlooking the bay and it made for a spectacular sight across the expansive sands we were to be on later.

There was very little wind at this point and the forecast hadn't predicted much more so it was a bit of a long shot.

Also, local info told us that we needed to get down on the beach early as our access route with the buggies through dry sea channels would be blocked once the tide started coming in.

It was an excellent turn out and I got to meet old & new friends.

Kiting
Paul and I setup on the beach and we were off pretty quick as the winds were good and the beach was amazing.

I was flying my 13m Venom and Paul was on his 10m Access, both of us were in our RS Buggies.

It was a great day on Saturday and we both got speed personal bests of 30.0mph for Paul and 34.9mph for myself. Although for the most part we were pretty well matched for speed.

Slight downwind runs were definetly the fastest elements, and there was a turbo boost when travelling through the wind tunnel caused by the offshore winds running down a small valley and onto the beach. I also learned that cloud cover compresses the wind and accelerates it so it's something to watch out for.

It was really good to be going so fast and my venom 13m and atom 9m did me proud, with the latter just gaining an edge as it's faster at turning and pulling the bar in really is like pressing an accelerator - amazing! It's definetly opened my eyes to the power & versatility of SLEs, never mind the fact they're a damned site easier to relaunch than an arc.

Sunday was on the brink of a wash out as the winds struggled to come through, there were many cases where people just got stuck out on the beach when the wind just vanished. It was a strange site to see all those buggies and kites just parked, waiting in anticipation for the wind to return enough so they could get home.

I too got caught out there once when the wind disappeared, in the end I got fed up of waiting as it was lunchtime and my sandwiches were only a short walk away. Why sit baking in the sun when a short walk will get you some long earned food? So, I packed up my kite and dragged the buggy back to base.

My GPS told me I covered about 40miles on the Saturday and I dare say Paul covered about the same.

Sadly there aren't many pictures or video as we spent most of our time out flying!

It was a truly excellent weekend of buggying and I have the bruises to prove it. :)



And the evening was certainly lit up!

1st time out in a while

After 7 weeks out of the saddle due to a broken wrist I took the chance to go out today for a fly. My wrist has been hurting like hell since the cast was taken off just over a week ago and I can only assume it's the muscles that have frozen due to inaction for 6 weeks. It's been immensely painful if I accidently flex my wrist but the pain isn't where the break was. It just hurts. :(

I bought myself a sports wrist brace that's been helping me gain confidence in doing more adventurous things in the knowledge that it will prevent my wrist from flexing should I fall on it again.

The weather forecast was hot, hot, hot! But, typically there was no visible wind at all. Despite the forcasted poor winds I popped over to Pontefract park to chance my arm thinking that light winds would be a nice re-introduction to kiting while recovering and I'd get to see some friends over there for a chat if nothing else. Even a light 5mph would do me.

The light (or no) winds meant the only thing in my quiver that would fly was the U-Turn Nitro 4.9m on handles as my Arcs need about 10mph+. The nitro went up and it was good to have a nice static fly around to ease me back in.

The wind started to pickup a tiny bit so I borrowed Paul's 10m Access and had a play with that and managed to board about 100m before the wind dropped again. It was good while it last and left me wanting more.

All-in-all it was a soft re-intro and no sign of any pain. I'm very happy and looking forward to next weeks big outing to Bolton-Le-Sands with the RaceKites crew. :)

down but not out

It's been a while since my last post, mainly due to no news on the kiting from due to my broken wrist. Hopefully this will end in early May.

Antler (paul) has been kind enough to look after my newer kites with the occasional test flight up at ponty.

I've collected some photos of the Atom & Venom 13 in their early maiden flights.

Here's antler trying out the Atom:

video:



Here's antler taking the v13 for spin with a bit of a rush on!

video:

sabre => venoms

I swapped the Sabre for a pair of 10m & 13m Venoms and they've just arrived. Sadly, I can't fly them yet. :(

      0 2 5 7 9 12 15 18 22 25 29 32 36 39 43 46 50  mph
V2-16 -------XXXXXXXXXX----------------------------
V13   --------XXXXXXXXXXXXXX-----------------------
V10   -------------XXXXXXXXXXXXXX------------------
AT-9  --------------XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-------------
G2-9  -----------------XXXXXXXXXXXXX---------------

V2-16 - 16m Venom II
V13 - 13m Venom (I)
V10 - 10m Venom (I)
AT-9 - 9m Atom
G2-9 - 9m Guerilla II

New baby

My new kite arrived today, a Flexifoil Atom 9m signed by Mark Berry, David Ursell and Lewis Wilby! How cool is that!

This makes my quiver: 16m Venom II, 9m Guerilla II, 9m Atom, 9.5m Sabre, 5m Frenzy

      0 2 5 7 9 12 15 18 22 25 29 32 36 39 43 46 50  mph
V2-16 -------XXXXXXXXXX----------------------------
SB-9  -------XXXXXXXXXXXXX-------------------------
AT-9  ---------------XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-------------
G2-9  -----------------XXXXXXXXXXXXX---------------
FZ-5  ---------------------XXXXXXXXX---------------

G2-9 - 9m Guerilla II
V2-16 - 16m Venom II
AT-9 - 9m Atom
SB-9 - 9.5m Sabre
FZ-5 - 5m Frenzy

psycho => Sabre

I swapped the Psycho for a Flexifoil 9.5m Sabre (1), wont' be able to try it for a few weeks now. Looks almost brand new & crispy, should be sweet.

owww!!!

Bad OBE (Out of Buggy Experience) yesterday. smashed helmet & broken wrist whilst avoiding a rogue dog at Cleethorpes.

To be fair to the owners they were a long way away and the collie didn't halve move fast. The dog was barking as they went past walking north so it must've taken it's chance coming back south about 30mins later. This time it was sure to head in disaster for me or the mad dog, I chose me

Smashed helmet rather than smashed head! that's a temp cast on my hand, i'm neither hairy or snow white!

I always take safety first wearing walking boots for ankle support, upper body armour (661 pressure suit), helmet (now got a moto-x full face helmet to replace the protec) & knee pads (661 kyle strait). For those that know me, i'm even thinner in real life! :)

btw - my head doesn't hurt thanks to helmet although I did get a 'flash' on impact.

cast on now - xray shows i've chipped a 50p size piece of bone off and it's currently in place but may move. got to go back for regular xrays to make sure it stays put. no sneaky kiting for me.

Here's my GPS run before it all went pear shaped showing at top speed of 26mph:

Peter Lynn : Venom II review

Used for landboard & buggy. I'm not currently at the stage of jumps and mostly go for speed in the buggy. I bought my first pair of Guerilla II arcs after being recommended them for their gust munching ability. I started with a 9m and 13m. After struggling through the pain barrier of learning how to launch them and getting them back down again I was hooked. I quickly bought a used 16m Venom II expecting it to be massively over-powerful but quickly found it to be a joy to fly. Compared to the GIIs the wind range is massive and completely swamped the 13m GII, resulting in it's sale. It will launch from 7mph upwards and is flyable up to about 15mph. Once it's up though it can handle near 0 mph winds as long as you keep it moving. The trim strap is better than the cleats you find on other models, it's solid and feels like it's locked into exactly where you want it. Trimmed in - it's a big fluffy pussy cat, always friendly and a breeze to control. Trimmed out - it's a roaring tiger ready to rip you off the ground! Power++. There are some internal adjustments you can make by pulling a strap in the centre then a matched pair at the wing tips. These allow you to tune turning speed and overall power - I have mine set to mid-power and fastest turning speed and I love it! Setting up is easier than the older PLs as the inflation zips are at either end meaning you just open the upwind zip and let it inflate. No more partial inflation of the old PLs with the middle zip and trying to manually push air about, it's a doddle. While solo launching takes some getting used to it's much easier with the velco 'launch assist' tabs to keep those downwind lines on top of the kite. Once the kite is up it's very difficult to get down, it's super stable and any mistakes are easily recovered. I've had the kite come down a few times due to my mistake, usually if I've got the kite turning and it's headed towards the floor at the time I bail. This mostly results in the kite bouncing off the floor or rolling around and going back up again. Should you bail the kite will merrily make it's way back to the zenith on it's own. It is true that you can just hook in and let go, the kite sits above you waiting for commands. This stability is handy in another way as you can park the kite at the zenith to make adjustments to your equipment or even just walk about! Brilliant! On the settings I have it turns quickly and is very controllable. Bar pressure is medium I'd say, it's easy to fly long sessions without getting tired. Build quality is brilliant, handling brilliant, setup is a bit of a nightmare initially but very much worth it. I'm writing this review after a couple of recent amazing sessions with the Venom II and other PL kites. In most instances I was able to fly for longer and in more varied conditions than anyone else out there on board & buggy. Everyone should fly one of these babies! :)

sweet arcs

Today at Ponty was great boarding on my trampa & 16m Venom II; again pretty much the only one out all the time thanks to it's fantastic gust munching ability. I increased the turning speed by changing the settings at the tips and it's pretty damned fast now, centre strap was set to mid-power.

I tend to fly mostly trimmed in on the 'wimp' settings, these allow me to fly the kite with less power but it's enough for my skill level. Trimming out to 'max power' resulted in pure power throughout the window, I don't think I'm quite ready for this.

I had 2 long sessions throughout the day while others with Access, Frenzy, Blades, Beamers and Firebees all couldn't cope with the constantly changing conditions. VII kept me going all day with a smile.

Despite the fact they're a pig to launch solo they're fantastic kites.

Trampa
I also had the first proper blast on my Trampa kite deck, which is *way* better than my previous board. Carves nicely, bindings are good, super bouncy to soak up those bumps and the matrix lite trucks mean for great stability at speed. Another great item.
I also managed a bit of toe-side riding, not very far and not very fast but still I tried.

GPS
I used a GPS to clock the 2nd session and I managed a peak of 18.7mph on the board (not bad in the light winds with a 16m arc) and covered a distance of 3.9 miles.
The image below shows the run @ ponty, you can see the red bits where I stopped/fell off and the yellow bits are usually me walking about.

[buy] something special

I've bought something special, it should arrive next week when all will be revealed. :)

Psycho not for me

I popped out this luncthime for a static fly with the Psycho II.

I think I'd mentally resigned to the fact that I wouldn't like it and flying it didn't "wow" me at all but I think it would have taken something amazing to impress me today. Not sure quite what it is about it but it's not for me. Maybe I'm lamenting my Access II.

I've decided to swap the PII for something else and let someone else get the best out of it.

RaceKites.com meet - Mablethorpe 23rd Feb 2008

Today was the day of the RaceKites meet at Mablethorpe where lots of members had vowed to turn up for a weekend of fun. The weather & tide were set for some great sessions over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The winds were stupidly high yesterday so there was a chance that the wind would persist and we wouldn't be able to get out at all.
I packed everything kite related into the car and set off east for the coast, watching all the tree tops on the way.

There is a wind farm close to the site and as I approached the blades were whizzing around at stupid speeds so I was still worried. It started to rain too. :(

Paul and I got setup between AlliDelta and Rushmore + Friday Girls. The beach slowly filled up with plenty of other people making for a fantastic day.

The wind was gusting 16-35mph offshore, so only the brave went out. The only high wind kite I'd brought was the 9m Guerilla II, which looked way too big compared to the 2.5m kites everyone else was getting out including Paul's Rage 2.5m. There was no way he was getting his new 10m Access out!
mrmawalker went out with his 13m Venom but he soon came back, this wasn't looking good. Turned out later things just didn't work out for him on that day.

Anyway, I launched the GII and stood for a while pondering what was ahead. I got static lifted a few times, which felt good but aluded to what may happen in the buggy. Time to dive in a get going as it's what we'd come for.

I set off in the buggy to join the others on the sandbank and soon got whizzing up & down, the wind out on the bank was even stronger as we'd been sat in the leeward side of the dunes.

The bank was great for buggying with some patches of wet-hard, wet-soft, dry-hard, dry-soft and water channels to keep things interesting.

On on of my upwind legs I was aiming for a water channel that looked pretty deep and the wind had picked up so I aimed upwind with the buggy to go around it, things were going well till I dropped into the wind shadow of the dunes and decided to transition. I lifted the kite for the turn and of course it went above the wind shadow, powered up, lofted me and dumped me face down in the water channel I'd skillfully avoided earlier! The buggy trundled off without me towards the sea. I eventually managed to get back into the buggy completely soaked from head-to-toe but with a smile.
I had 1 more controlled OBE but that was it for the day.

Going upwind meant trying to keep the kite powered up and I had to control the kite with my left hand while hanging onto the buggy with my right hand to keep everything together. Even with the 1.5m back axle I got briefly put onto 2 wheels, maybe I was aiming a bit too much upwind with the kite too far back.

The downwind legs felt amazingly fast and the kite & buggy handled them well. I even managed to overtake a few others. ;)

As the day progressed it hit upon something that was obvious in hindsight. With the kite low down the bar effectively controls speed, push out (depower) to fly faster and therefore further towards the edge of the wind window, pull in (power up) and the kite drops back into the centre of the wind window. The trick is moving the bar to keep the kite just far enough forward to maintain speed but back far enough to generate power. Obvious when you think about it. :)

The 9m Guerilla II did me proud today and it kept me going in a wide variety of conditions. It may not be the fastest kite on the block but anything is better than sitting down watching from the sidelines doing 0mph.

Paul and I had a fantastic day and met lots of new friends. We were the last ones to leave the beach as we hung back to try out Paul's 10m Access after the winds dropped to more managable speeds. It looked good as the kite went through the sunlight cast over dunes and was almost illuminous.

Paul (Antler) & I spent quite a bit of the day capturing footage that you can see below on YouTube. me @ intro, 2:33, 3:55 & 6:42

8m Access II => 13m Psycho II

Well, I've done it. Gone and swapped my beloved 8m Access II for a 13m Psycho II. I'm regretting this already but I'll see how it pans out. :(

The intention was to get a low wind depower kite to sit below the range of my 16m VII and there was a swap on offer on the Flexi forums that matched up with my AII.

I got home to find the bridle in a complete mess and I had it wrapped around the lights & picture frames in the front room to try and make some sense of it all. In the end it took 4hrs to unravel the monster but I've done it now.

I'm really regretting swapping my AII, I'll see how this thing flies.

I hope I've not been stupid as my AII has always been faithful and the one kite I could pretty much rely on for a good session in the board or buggy.

This is right before the RaceKites meeting at Mablethorpe that's coming up, I'm worried I'll turn up without anything to fly now.