00198 Kitesurfing at Ladies again

Jump
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

But this time with images. Grandma looked after Cara which meant that I could drag Meriel down to the beach. She donned her wetsuit and got in the water to take piccies. She even got a ride - mike got her to hold on and dragged her through the ware with the kite - not too fast considering their combined weight is 19 stone.

Not only that, but here's the videos. First the backloop:



Then a little jump:



And finally just cruising up and down:

00187 GPS

I got this nifty Garmin Geko 201 waterproof GPS for Christmas and I've just discovered how to do an altitude profile with it - just waiting for a windy day to get some air. Why do I get the feeling that I'll find out that I'll be getting about 5 foot?

00180 Back on

Kites in Poole

After moving into the house, I'm back online and I'll be out posting up again.

Had a couple of sessions on the 11 meter - it's so well behaved - one at Poole harbour on the way back from holiday and one at Ladies. I'll have the jump timing nailed soon. Wish I'd bought a 13, but with the Flexi 15 I though I'd get away with it. Truth be told, I'm going nowhere near a 'C' kite as long as I can avoid it.

00179 Rips

Rips

Ripped me bloney kite. Fixed it with spinaker tape, wonderful stuff.

00175 Instinct flying

Went out yesterday in wind that Mike could only just get going in on his 14m Halo. I got out the 11m and managed to get going with a big board and alot of kite movement. And apart from a relaunch problem, which I put down to loads of seaweed on the lines and very low winds, it was a great success. Sunday promises more wind. I really want to see what it does in a hooley.

00174 Wake up

Mike's Jetski

After a full day doing the PTA thing and waiting for wind that never comes, Mike very kindly took us out wakeboarding again. Both of us got a go and the conditions were perfect. I even managed to Ollie after jumping to line up for the jump in the opposite direction and vice versa a few times - can't be botheres to make it any clearer than that.

00173 Ozone Instinct

Ozone Instinct

My new kite arrived on Thursday and its inaugural month will no doubt be heralded by a total lack of wind.
Still, it is beautifully made and the attention to detail and build quality is superb, which is a miracle because it's usually all hype.
Although it is a bow kite, it doesn't have a bridle per se. Intead it has a fifth line that splits near the kite, with lines running out to the leading edge, center strut and the two wing tips. Allegedly it will never inver, a problem that bow kite suffer from at times.
I just cant wait for a challenging and gusty day. Bring it on.

00166 New kite and scope

My gear

So I'm now nearing the end of my quest for shooting equipment and all I'm missing is the rifle - but I'm really not into getting one of those right now (I wouldn't want to keep it in the house anyway). Dave Jory sold me an old bashed up scope for spotting and it does the job very nicely. I shot last Saturday and came up with a 46-2 and a 47-4. I've got one more week before we go to Jersey, so I think improvement would be a good thing.
On the other hand I'm selling my Strike 2s and hopefully getting an 11 meter Ozone Instinct. It's anew bow kite and so far it's been raved about. Now I just have to hope that Ebay comes up trumps on the selling front.

00163 Low scores and reasonable air with a doodle

Three balls and tentacles

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!

00142 Ooooh, it's so craaaaaazy

From the MAKE: Blog: Optical Illusions blog

Kitesurfing today - wind too strong, skill very low, spanking recieved. Stop.

00134 Look! I got a picture of the Rasta one!

Kitesurfing at Grande Roques

And what's more, it's me flying it. Pity the wind didn't stay good fro long before a squall blew in and took away the wind. Still not a bad session. That was Saturday, I think.
Now yesterday had the same weather thing going on, but this time I got in around an hour of really good surfing before the squall which nearly took me off my feet (on land! without the kite!). Helmet kept the hail off my head - that's why you need protection.
Back in the dry, went off to the range and got one card in - a 97. Good day all in all. I'll be ordering my jacket soon.

00130 On the Grand Roques

Kitesurfin' - what am I doing rigging up the 15 on a squally, low wind-high wind day? Dunno. Set it up the first time, then spent an hour hanging round by the car dodging rainstorms. Then Dan comes along with his "might go out might not", while I stand about dressed in rubber in a carpark adjacent to the main road. What have I become? Still, went out for a gusty 2o mins and shelved the 4am-drinking-like-a-man-who-wants-to -get-nasty-but-just-doesn't-have-the-demeanour hangover (was that too much?). Won't do it again, well ... maybe not. Arse.

00127 Grand Roques jumping

Vazon was crowded out with surfers and a windsurfer on a low tide, so I decided on Grand Roques.

Good decision.

Great, if a little gusty, but as soon as I had it "dialed" (I am now holding out my arms and moving the middle and index fingers of each hand up and down to parenthesise this and in doing so providing a modicum of sarcasm to add to the proceedings) I was "rippin'" (see above). Even with the gusts I was going great guns on the new board - the size and flex gave me great control in the heavier gusts and made sure that I didn't accellerate out of control. The jumps were small affairs, but they'll grow in size slowly as the confidence increases with them - that's the idea. Just before I left I thought I'd try to get in a good big one and found myself with mucho altitude and a certain feeling of "hangtime" (once again I refer you to the passage referring to parenthesising extreme sports speak so as to make light of it). Man that was good. And thank goodness for the seat harness as I'm sure the brown stain on the back of my wetsuit would otherwise have been obvious.

Should add that rootin' tootin' shootin' was all over the shop yesterday. I will now come down from my high horse in order to take up a "it's no fun being perfect, I'd rather have room for improvement" attitude.

00126 Gusty Vazon

Slightly worried about the fact that this has just turned into a log of when and where I go to KAP, kitesurf or shoot. I'll look into the creative side of things later.
In the meantime I was of course out kitesurfing at Vazon today. Really gusty, I guess because there was too much south in the wind, meaning that it came over tehheadland and became more turbulent as a result. Still, got a couple of good runs in - but I wasn't going to start jumping in those conditions, no siree.
Oh, didn't I mention, I got lofted and dumped in the shallows thank goodness for seat harnesses. So much for not jumping.
Out shooting tonight. Wonder how the exertions of the kiting will affect things.

00122 New F-one 120

New F-one 120

She's here!

£270 bought me this nice little board which I hope will see me taking to the air very soon.

Pity it's brutally cold out there. Guess I'll just have to stop whinging and get out as soon as the wind shifts - so far it's predicted to be Easterlies, no good for me.

00120 Three days on the trot

I won't draw it out, but I've been out kiteboarding three days in a row. Two short stints on Monday and Tuesday with not really enough wind and one decent session at Ladies Bay today (the first there for a long, long time).
Mike reckons I should start jumping. I told him that I'd been popping off the water without any kite movement and his reaction was "move the kite" - scary, but exciting.
In other closely related news I get my new board in the post soon (allegedly). Ieeeeeee!

00117 First sail of the New Year

Went out to Pembroke on Wednesday (4th) and the conditions were as good as they get there. Tried to do a couple of gybes to toeside - man, there's a fair amount of acceleration when you whip the kite through the window in the opposite direction. I'm going to need alot more practice.

No more wind for kitesurfing for at leat a week. I'll turn my attention to KAP.

00111 Vazon and the air

After deliberating whether or not to try some KAPing this weekend, it would seem that the winds have turned favourable for a spot of kitesurfing. So out we went, me and Grif, off to Vazon - which is handy, 'cos that's where we're living now.
High tide, but neap, meant Richmond end. Started with a 15 and the 138 woody and I would have been fine if it hadn't picked up and I got lofted and dropped. A first for me, and a real eye opener. The wind increased and so did my speed on the water and by some sort of misguided instinct I lost ground downwind before raising the kite, which in turn raised me. I got dropped in shallow water - but not too shallow, thankfully. Wish I'd made inroads into getting further upwind and I'll make sure I do next time, rather than pissing about anywhere near the beach. Grif lost his board as he got overpowered on his 14 and a high speed body drag ensued, followed by a mile long walk to retrieve his board - bummer.
Tomorrow looks good, mind. Hope the wetsuit dries or it could be icky.

00110 Maiden voyage

She goes! I took out the 138x36 (or 35.5, to be accurate) and she really flies upwind and scythes through the chop. Much better speed control than my other board - because of the flex I guess. I went down to Pembroke with Mike and started on my Mauricio Pro, thinking that if there was less swell I'd take out the ply board. I was imagining that one decent landing after hitting a wave might snap her in two and that might nearly break my heart. In the end I thought f*** it, and off we went. In a word, beautiful. And if there was a down side to the first outing it was that my Mauricio Pro just didn't perform as well - although the epoxy coating on the ply board isn't UV resistant and might break down over time, I like it much more - more flex and sharper rail and I'm sure the longer deeper fins had something to do with it. I'll look into UV-proofing any boards I make in future.

00103 Rippin' kiteboard sesh

Mum & Jennifer - rippin' kiteboard sesh

This picture of my mum and her guest for the week, Jennifer. They walked past the beach right after I finished kitesurfing at Ladies Bay in good, but slowly deteriorating North Westerlies. Just in time to help me get my gear back to the car. It really did look like two ladies of a certain age walking back from a rather pleasant outing with their Flexifoils - no doubt dialing in some most singular backloops before a nice cup of tea.
The session was excelent, as moving and staying upwind, I managed to turn some 180s and then jibe the board as I turned the kite, carving round onto a new tack - just superb. Also started the edge and release technique that I've been reading about as a preparation for learning to jump.
Had a go on Mike's Wipika Serum in powered-up conditions and it was a reall eye opener. It really ran smoothly over the chop and handled the extra power superbly. As soon as the wind dropped a bit, it came to the end of it's usefulness and I started going futther downwind. so I switched back to my Mauricio Pro and off upwind again. It's made me think that if I evr get round to making another board, it'll be a 120cm model for higher winds.