Washington DC

In Washington DC at the moment, leaving for Dakar, Senegal later today. I had planned to do some kiting there, but forecast show no wind. I am taking kite kit back home, given up on Dakar as Kiting spot.

Mykonos - Pearly's Downwind

Lovely conditions, wind probably 25kts North Westerly. 4 of us were dropped off at Mykonos, luckily no big swell. I was a little apprehensive as this was the 1st time that I would attempt this run although we really tried to organize this quite a few times before.

Feels quite safe going with the likes of Hennie, Christian and Darren on the water. Darren had quite an spectacular launch with his chicken finger braking and then he was fully unhooked and a few meters up in the air quite quickly. This was the result of some gusting winds at the launch area.

Good idea to have these things checked it seems.

Anyhow, I managed to stay in my position in the wind quite easily, was more a problem moving downwind as I picked up speed quite quickly and the board became quite skittish. I was initially fully powered up on my adjuster. Then I started experimenting with settings on it, initially depowering too much but playing with these a little soon had me under control.

Out in the bay the wind picked up a bit and the waves were quite big, I found that I had to absorb the shock with bending of legs. The wind was also dropping off a little closer to the shore so I opted to stay about 500m or more from shore, here however the waves were bigger. Catch 22.

My kite flew quite naturally quite down low, about 1-2 meters of the water, this however made the kite pull me forward over the board. I eventually fixed this by positioning my forward hand closer to the center of the bar than the back hand. This made that when I pulled on the bar my back hand would be pulling a little bit more than the front and the kite would fly up a little. Seemed to work, will report back on this aspect.

I still can not get the turning thing done but the attempts are getting better.

Well, off to warm waters of Tanzania in 2 days time.

Light Wind Session

Eventually the wind came up to about 14kts, 3 more days to go before we leave for Tanzania. I did not get all the kiting done that I would have liked before we go there but maybe this weekend will be more wind.

I now have kited on the new wide board from Cape Doctor twice and I do believe it makes a big difference. 

I started kiting in April 2008 and bought a Naish Kite Cult 13.5, I am using a Naish Seat Harness because I am used to a seat harness with the Hobie Racing.

I started with a Naish Thorn 133 board but in hindsight this was too small.

This afternoon I could keep my position in the channel in the beginning but with the tide going out with the wind this was getting more and more difficult. I do think for this sort of wind I would need a bigger kite.

Winter

Seems as winter is here at last, cold today even though the sun shined. Not enough wind for anything today, too cold to go paddlesurfing. Working a lot this coming week so time to play is little.

No Wind

I had a whole day off and the wind never came up. Pity was looking forward to another session of kitesurfing.

1st Entry

The very 1st entry into my Blog thing. Not sure where this will be going but nothing ventured nothing gained.

I went kite surfing with Rowan earlier this afternoon, wind died down and we had to pack up.

Now I am hungry.