Tuesday, May 30, 2006

00164 Almost forgot the meteor thingy

How could I forget to post this up. It was from 3rd May, second outing with the Maxi Dopero. Almost crashed the rig with the kite pulling to the right. It's sorted now, mind.
Quite like this one, I'll be investigating this avenue some more.

00163 Low scores and reasonable air with a doodle

In a week of weddings and hangovers, I managed to get a whole load of experience in the fullbore department. A score of 40-2 out of a possible 50 at 300 yards showed me that I needed to sort something out. My coach, Sylvia, suggested that I hunker down a bit further - it was really windy and we were trying allsorts to lessen the impact of the wind. The elevation on the 300 yd score was really good, so I knew it had to be something to do with the wind buffeting the rifle. I tightened the sling and wore a jumper, which made it almost painfully tight and almost difficult to hold the rifle. But it did the job and I hit a 47-3 and a 47-5 at 500 and 600 yards respectively. So it looks like that worked, then. Pity I had to find out the hard way. To make things easier, I was put in the reserve squad (there were two of us), so my score had no impact on the team. Still, I was very pleased with the elevation on all the ranges and it bodes very well for the future.

Kitesurfing session at Ladies bay, with griff going upwind over to the Northern end of the bay by going around the big rock island in front of the sand bar and downwind into the Northern bay. As the tide came up he was watching it until it just came over the sand bar and then shot across it declaring "The bar is open!". And so it was. Good session, good conditions (if a bit choppy) and a few decent airs, especially when I used Dan's advice - popping off the chop or the swell. It really works, but I've got to get out more to practice it as often as possible in the hope of really cracking it.

I also got to do a quick ten minute doodle on the sand at Grand Roques, but forgot the kite line. Doh!

00162 Backgammon board

I've recently found Google's free 3D design tool sketchup and it's renewed my enthusiasm for making a backgammon board.
I've been looking at several ways to make the backgammon design on the board itself and although I might make several, I'll probably do the first one as a decoupage project, if only because I want to try it out.

Monday, May 22, 2006

00161 Photo dessert

The lack of images of hobbies and the like indicates that I've been doing nothing imaginative recently.

I'm waiting for a burst of motivation to finish the Dopero by making a nice new bag for it - a bit like a "topping out" thing.

Went out kitesurfing last Thursday in very gusty high winds - won't be doing that again. My 11 meter lofted me and dragged me towards the rocks. Had my hand on the release all the time, no problem. So after a brief attempt to get going I packed it in and borrowed Mike's 9 meter. Now I know I have to get some new kites. It was really nippy and easy to jump with, not to mention the gust handling ability - just superb.

In the shooting, it looks like I might be selected for the team to shoot against the NRA (the British national rifle assoc.). I'm feeling a bit guilty about this, as there are people whose experience tops mine. So the agreement is that if the weather is good, then I might go along. Well see. Fortunately the even t allows me to be coached. Hopefully Pete Jory will help with the windage.

In other news, my Mum has suggested that I give her the details of my rakeart set to give to the people at the Coach House Gallery in order to see if they want to host an exhibition. Where the money will come from to get the prints done I don't know, but I definitely need to go out and do some new stuff. Oh well, at least it's free.

Friday, May 12, 2006

00159 Grande Roque battery

Well my excuse is that the computer's been broken, what's yours?

I've been out KAPing at Grande Roques and had a blistering session on Mike's Cabrinah Switchblade (12m) - man I've got to get hold of one of those.

The shooting's going well - I even won a spoon. How crazy is that. Not very. But in the meantime I managed to get on theteam to go to Jersey. There's only 8 of us going, so not bad really - and, yes, there were more than 8 people competing. And, no, there weren't 9. Or 10. Look just leave it.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

00158 Katchup

So it's come down to this, a look back at the week. I thought I'd be able to avoid this, but hey.

This image and a couple of others were taken from an impromptu session with the Maxi Dopero (first KAP sesh) when we went to Portelet with Caroline, Steve and the kids. Iwas just showing them how it worked and it seemed a little pointless to miss an opportunity to KAP on a blue-sky day.

The kitesurfing was not so hot. Underpowered at the South and then the North ends of Vazon (I think it was Tuesday and then Sunday). The first outing at the South end of Vazon was quite a revelation. As usual I was suffering from the lack of low-end grunt from my 15 (because of the 5th line, as far as I know), and Mike lent me his 12 meter Cabrinah Switchblade. What a thing that was!. Powered up fully in 9 knots of admittedly constant wind. I'll be trying it out when he moves down a size to check out the high wind ability. If that's good, then I'll sell the Flexis (with a tear in my eye) and buy just the one 12m Bow. Man, that was a real moment.

Shooting was good. Coached again (by Peter Jory). Got a 73-10 followed by a 73-11 at 500 and 600 respectively. Would've won the B class trophy for the day had it not been for the lack of membership to the club (and perhaps the coaching). Shucks.