Small wind - Big kites

Kite run #5

St Kilda
Conditions:
Wind 12-15 knots
Sunny 26 degrees kited from 3pm to 5pm.

Today wasn't the best day to hit the water. I figured with what North said about their kites that heading out into the water blowing 12 knots, that I would be fine to put the 12 in the air and have a session. The water was flat, there weren't many people out there and there wasn't a cloud in sight. Perfect right?

Wrong.

The wind was nowhere near enough to get me going. I could water launch, get up and then there wasn't enough wind to turn the kite back up to 11 after and keep me going. So I would launch and sink, launch and sink, then launch and sink some more. I tried this for about 45 minutes then without going anywhere decided to call it quits. There were some other kiters out there but by the looks of it they were on 14's, 16's and I believe I saw an old school 18 out there too! So knowing either my kite was too small or that I wasn't skilled enough I headed back to the beach, but as I decided this my kite lost all power and hit the water. No worries I’ll just water launch. But as much as I tried and tried I couldn't. There was enough wind to pull it towards the window but nowhere near enough to lift it off the water.

I was stuck.

I tried in vain for over half an hour with no luck, and seeing as I needed to be at my partners work in 45 minutes for us to inspect a new house to rent; I was running out of time. The only thing I could do was to pull the 5^th line in and pull the kite in. I did this, the kite was wet, the lines a little tangled and there was no chance that I would be able to dry the kite off before I packed it up.

Lesson learned: If you’re keen for a session, pump up the kite, get things ready, but wait for the wind to be right instead of assuming it’ll be right when you need it on the water. See if there are other kites your size on the water and see how hard they are working the kite to get momentum.

There’s always another day

Last Day of Holidays

Kite run #4

Conditions:
Wind 18-22 knots
Sunny 22 degrees kited from 2pm to 6pm.

With my partner being NZ'er we were over there from the 22nd Dec to the 2nd Jan and with my limited experience with the kite I thought it best to leave it at home. Although it was blowing a gale there the whole time I managed to catch one kiter on the Queenstown lake all by himself. Looking like he was having a blast.

So with one day left on my break, wind blowing Southerly at a constant 20ish knots I couldn't wait to get back in the water. I spent probably the first hour or so launching from the water and 'Supermanning' it or getting up and sinking. One such 'superman' caused me to launch quite high out of the water and on my decent noticed that there was a sandbar not to deep under the water. So I put my feet out and tried to land. BANG. Ouch, I hurt my right heel. But not too much (or so I first thought). After this last Superman I realized my feet were still not in the correct position. The launches where I would superman it were probably enough if my feet were where they were supposed to be. So remembering from my last session that I don't tuck my back foot in behind my ass enough maybe this is why when I do launch I don't have enough power and sink.

So I set the kite to 11, swung it through the power zone, placed my back-foot under my ass and I was up and going. And going. And ....... going. Man these things can get some speed! I was grinning from ear to ear. I managed to get up, head downwind and stay up for more than 10 meters. I decided when to stop, not falling off deciding when I was to stop. This is more desirable I think. So with my left foot in front, a natural stance in the surfing world, I can surf. I lost the board a few times after hitting the swell and I would estimate that half of my day was spent body dragging upwind to retrieve it. I became quite good at it by the end of the day. Boosted my confidence that if I hit the deep open water and came off that i'd be alright. Not that my confidence needed a boosting.

I had been on the water for 3 hours now. Surfing downwind, body dragging to the odd lost board and walking my kite upwind to start all over again. I was exhausted and loving it. I decided to rest my kite and body and take a fully take in the last few hours. While relaxing on the sand I looked up in awe to 50+ kites in the air with I'm guessing another 20 on the sand. I know later on I'm going to wish there were not so many kites in the air when I'm having a session but there is a beauty to seeing the sky filled with kites.

While on the sand I helped a Canadian guy who hasn't been in Australia long launch his kite. He was having real trouble. Plus watched a few others struggle with their launches. St Kilda seems to be the real "beginner" beach. As this is pretty much what I am and as much as I like St Kilda with its flat waters and big sand area to launch with, I prefer Altona. Its easier to set up, the grass keeps the sand off the kite when inflating and deflating, and there is more shallow water for those times you do come off. There is more swell which makes adds another component to riding but its something I guess I'll have to get used to.

My last stint on the water wasn't as desirable as the others. I lost my board and my upwind body dragging wasn't going to well. There was a bigger swell and my face was getting smashed by the incoming water. I lost the board at one point too. My endurance was waining, my patience running out so I decided to pull on the 5th line of the North Rebel so it wouldn't continue to catch the wind and swim to the board. I grabbed the board, tried to re-launch the kite but my 5th line pull had twisted my kite. I could no longer water launch. The Rebel still caught some wind and managed to drag me downwind to the shore and as I got closer to the shore I realized that I had little to no control over the kite and it flipped around and nearly hit a windsurfer. I called out for help asking him to grab the kite but he just stood there looking at me. I asked (yelled) again. He still stood there continuing to look at me. After my 4th request he replied "on one condition", grabbed the kite and placed his foot on the leading edge to hold it down. I wasn't overly happy with methodology of stopping the kite but at least the kite was stationary. He turned to me as I thanked him and said "The condition was that you f#@king kiter's stay up at your end, I'm sick of sharing this beach with you and those f#@king dog lovers" then turned away and put his board in the water.

As all this was happening a walker by came and spoke to me telling me not to worry about the 'sailer's' and that he was just a grump, bitter old man. Explained that the wind was tendering SSE and at this time of night a little gusty. Not ideal conditions for my 12M Rebel. I rolled up the lines and headed back to my back, with a limp. The Superman I did earlier seemed to have hurt my right heel and preventing me from walking on it with any pressure. Not to worry though, it should heal by the morning.

Professional lessons with my gear.

Kite run #2

Firstly to be able to kite with my gear I had to untangle all the lines. I spent close to an hour last night untangling the lines, and another half an hour this morning. Getting home from the concert at midnight and waking at 6 didn't help but these things you just have to do.

After yesterday's blunders my next kiting lesson was going to be with an instructor. Kiran from Ireland. The guy who i did the last 3 hours of my 'get up and ride' lessons with from GoKite.
The wind was southerly, good for St Kilda, but was a little to strong for my North Rebel 12M. So we pumped up the kite and he ran through the 5th line element that North use. I originally bought the kite from the RPS store in Elwood 2nd hand. The origional owner used if for a while, busted his arm and wasn't able to use it for 12 months. So this kite being a 2009 model is reasonably new.

The kites we trained on are nothing compared to what it looks like the Rebel can do. With the ability to de-power quite easily and power up on the move, plus i find it really easy to fly.
Kiran took me through general tips to look after the gear. Wax the lines once every 3 months, using normal board wax. Give the kite a wash from time to time with fresh water. There was one more tip, but i'll have to find out the proper 'kite' name for it and edit the post later.

Once the kite was pumped up and we had gone through all that was needed to know about the kite, how to use it and best to care for the kite it was decided that it was too windy/gusty to get a 12 into the air to learn on. So Kiran quickly ran up to the 'office', grabbed a 9, pumped it up and we headed upwind to launch for the last half hour of the session.

One major point that was covered in this lesson but not others is the kiters right of way. Who has right of way when and where. Follow this link to see what I'm talking about.

http://www.seabreeze.com.au/Articles/Kitesurfing/Right-of-Way-Rules_903070.aspx

With all that Kiran thought i needed to know to be able to kite I got in the water and launched off. Faceplant..... Again.
Too much power. Kite at 12 O'Clock, board at my feet, set kite to 1 and through the power zone and lift off.
Well sort of.
"Move the kite tom, really work it!"
Right, move the kite, work it. Back into position and pulled the kite though the power zone again.

I got up for about 3 meters, then fell into the water again.

"Tom, what you are doing is good. Your getting the kite through the power zone, its lifting you out of the water but your not working it from 2 back up to 11 again. You need this to so the kite continues to pull you through the water".

Kiran then demonstrated this and it just looked so easy.

So I got the kite and board back off Kiran, got back into position, flew the kite through the power zone and AWAYYYYY I went.
It was awesome. This was the first time that I have ridden the board for more than a meter, and i did 20 of those suckers. Kiran did tell me to go no more than 10 meters away from him and i think he got in trouble from the kite manager/boss lady but I was just happy to move on the water with the board.
Seeing as i was a fair way off shore I needed get back. I got back into position and tried to launch the other way, went too hard (low) and flew through the air like superman. Hands in front, legs out of the water and-a-flying i was.

I didn't care, i had a good chuckle. I can get up on the board now, i can go for more than 3 meters and I now have some faith that I can do this.

We picked up the board, flew the kite into shore and said my good day to Kiran. My lesson was over, confidence restored and I was buggered.

Kite 1 - Tom 0

Kite run #1


So I was impatient on kite run #1. I was booked in the next day with an instructor to go through all of my equipment, set-up and more practice with getting up on the board.

To date, I have completed the initial 5 hours of training but struggled on the last lesson to stay on the board. My direction, foot placement and kite control all went to shit once they were all happening at once. My kite instructor relayed that I know what to do with my feet; direction and kite, now it’s just a matter of practice. So practice is what I planned to do.

Maybe another lesson may have helped? Well not 'may' .... definitely would have helped.

I pumped the kite up. Tried a self launch, the kite blew all over the shop and landed in a puddle. I managed to self launch from the puddle and get the kite in the air for the first time from my hands (the kite is 2nd hand from an experienced kiter, the kite must be wondering who the hell owns it now). It looked great in the air. I was able to control it very easily and walked over picked my board up and headed to the water.


Up to this stage I thought "it was your first time, launching will get easier".

I got in the water. Held the kite a 12 o'clock, set it to 1 o'clock pushed it thought the power zone and ................. faceplant!

Hmmm maybe a little too much power? I walked back up to my board, strapped it in, tried again and this time had more success. Got up on the board, moved a little but there was not enough power in the kite to pull me along the water. Or I was pushing my board upwind too much. At this point the next day I'm not sure.

I continued this for another 5-10 starts all varying in regards to how long i stayed up on the board. Until the last time when I started to heavy again, got pulled face first into the water and the kite hit the deck.

When I pulled my face out of the water and looked up at the kite i noticed it looked a little wonkey. Like it had deflated or something. I tried a water start but the kite wasn't responding. So i did an emergency pack down, pulled myself towards the kite and once with kite in hand went fishing for my board.


By the time I could stand again, then over onto the shore, I was absolutely buggered. Worse to add to my condition was my kite and line's condition. Kite was bruised, mentally, and the lines were reminiscent of a birds nest. I tried to untangle them but 20 mins later the sun was hot, my patience was running out and I had to be home to head off to a concert.

I rolled up the kite, grabbed my board, wrapped the tangled lines around the bar and headed back to the towel and kite bag. Along the way an experienced kiter noticed my tangles and said "don't worry about it mate, we've all been there before. Just run it under fresh water when you get home and it'll make it easier to untangle". For some reason that helped a lot, mentally, I was pretty guttered at what happened and just those few words made it seem ok. I wasn't and haven't been the only person to try and fail.


Lessons learnt:
Don't kite too far away from the shallow water.
Inflate your kite properly (I found the pressure gauge AFTER i had packed everything up.)
Get a lesson with an instructor with your gear. Unless you buy the exact same set-up as you practiced on, there are going to be differences (mine had a 5th line!).
Patience is key.

I've got a lesson tonight, maybe I'll have better luck with professional help.