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!
Showing posts with label racekites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racekites. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 May 2008
Saturday, 23 February 2008
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
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
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