Owner:
snoozer11
Member
Member#: 8676 Location: Registered: 14-11-2009 Diary Entries: 121
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3rd July 2010
Kite surfing: Wind Direction: W Wind Stength: 12-18 Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Finally a perfect day to have a go on the water after so much landboarding
recently. First I must thank all the guys who gave advice today it is
amazing how a few simple instructions probably saved me hours of
frustration. So I learned that in comparison to landboarding it is crucial
on water to a) point the board (kinda) down wind to lift up on the board
front leg extended back leg bent. b) Dive the kite through the power zone
more positively than on the landboard but not stalling/slowing it by
pulling on the bar until properly planing - c) look where you want to go
- not at the board. d) then once moving decently pushing down with the
`back' leg forces the board to edge crosswind. With the landboard I tend
to start in a more upwind direction power up the kite and if necessary let
the board slide sideways until speed builds up. This doesn't work on the
water because the power needed just stalls the kite and ploughs the board
sideways downwind. So with these simple instructions the whole business of
getting controllably up on the board worked a treat. Spent quite a lot of
time walking back into the sea because it was a direct onshore wind and
lots of surf/white water around, but also made quite a lot of reasonable
long runs - best was about 6 of the Ynyslas groynes. Occasionally got so
fast I couldn't keep the board from skipping fast downwind with no edge
(probably just need to use less bar pressure to let the kite to accelerate
to the edge of the window - but my wrong instinct is to pull the bar).
However quite a few runs were really 'cruising along' directly crosswind
and feeling really stable and not uncontrollably fast - for some reason I
found the breaking waves/surf difficult to deal with if too fast. Super
chuffed with a great first proper day on the water. Late in the afternoon
I packed it in and spent an hour chatting to a few people. Went to pack up
the kite but wind was still perfect and kite was just sitting there so
couldn't resist a final go and had several real nice feeling runs in some
flattish water that was forming in the shallows after the wave break.
Didn't even manage to crash the kite all day, though it did get close to
the water a few times...
Fantastic first serious attempt on the water and I feel like I already made
huge progress in just a few hours.
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