Yeah!!!!!!!

[Tighe]

Huge day at Waconia. When I arrived there were a few windsurfers out and Mike W ripping it up on his new toy. Checked the reading and it was high 20's-low 30s gusting to over 40mph.

Mike was getting some huge air and looking pretty dialed even in those winds.

I put up a 5m and took out the Fuse. The swell was huge, though a bit chaotic. So nice to play in the swells. The wind came down and slowly kites got bigger and bigger. When I left 9s were going out.

fun day full of so much energy. lots of smiles

[Tallinn]

Yes, it was great day on White Bear too.
It was the best day since I moved here in 2000.
... I wasn't expecting such good wind ... so I had no small sails available, but I enjoined every minute ... thats how it should be every day!

[Mike W]

Thanks, Tighe. That was an amazing session. One of the windiest I have had. From 11-12:30pm it was down right hairy, with some pretty strong blasts coming through that pushed my kite to its limits. After that it mellowed out some, but sill great 7m conditions. The swell never quite smoothed out, but there were some nice ramps to be had for launching. You were stylin' on that Fuse when I left. It looks like a fun board.

[MK]

Ditto for the wonderful day. Body aches today. Thanks for letting me use the 5 and 7 TB. I used my 9 T2 for the first time afterwards and laughed when I pulled it out of the bag b/c it was mostly PINK!

I got a little hung up in the wind shadow of the island with the on-shore winds. Kinda fluky and dodgy for me. I think I was taking too aggressice of a tack angle due to the short runway. A couple of decent runs but the gusty wind and huge rollers took there toll on me. The rollers made me think it must be similar to riding the swells oceanside. Need to figure out the balance and eager for the next opportunity. Small kite days are a little different than big kite days. Peter Hill commented it is more like survival on a small kite and I see his point, didn't keep me from giving it a go though

I'm officially putting in a request for steady 15-20 mph day (I'll let you know when the order comes in).

[Tighe]

What did you think of the 7m Mike W? I rode the newer model yesterday and really liked it. The 5 is a bit too much like a trainer kite. The 7 feels more like a real kite, steady and powerful.

what did you think?

[Mike W]

I was quite impressed with the 7 TD2. I had been flying a Crossbow 7m as my small kite, but that kite was wickedly fast and not very grunty. The TD2 is more predictable and well-behaved. It has great low end too. Hangtime on the TD2 is noticeably better. As I mentioned in an earlier post, a true bow kite is almost a necessity in super strong gusty wind. It really smooths it out. The readings for yesterday peaked out in the middle to upper 40s, which is about as much wind as we get around here. A 7m is as small as you need unless you are a small person.

My only complaint is that the kite collapsed and folded up on me once. But I realized after it happened that I had moved the yellow ball on the sheeting line all the way out when I tried the bar with my Waroo Pro and forgot to put it back. Fortunately, the kite fixed itself in the water so it turned out to be no biggy.

[Eric P]

I don't know Mike, I was very happy to have the 5 meter yesterday. It made everything much more enjoyable. When I went out on the 7 meter Bularoo in the strongest stuff, I was really on edge. Now I know that is not a true bow kite, but I always felt that would be as small as I would ever need, until yesterday.

I compared the 7 meter rev, back to back with the 7 meter Bularoo, what a difference. The two kites had a massively different feel. The Bularoo was slower, more stable, while the speed runs on the rev were totally intense. I wasn't sending it much yesterday because it was just too gusty for my taste, so I can't comment much on hang time, but the Bularoo felt better for surfing the waves as well. It droped into the window better when you cut hard down wind. I do wish I had a GPS for some of those speed runs with the rev, man I was out of control.

I like your comment about grunty. It seams counter intuative, but you really do want a bit of grunt in your high wind kites. It keeps you going during the lulls. The Bularoo had more grunt than the Rev, and seemed much more user freindly. I think that is what I want in a high wind kite, especially in Minnesota.

[Tighe]

You sure looked dialed out there. I was amazed you were pulling the trigger and boosting in those winds. Yeah, you were hanging forever.

I tend to just play on the water's surface in the big winds. It was pretty easy to head down a face and carve upwind and just pull in the bar to sky forever. Not the big air you were getting though.

I've had that fold up happen on my 5m too. I've always wondered why it did it. Now I remember that I used that bar on the 9m once and loosened the yellow ball as well. Doh!

I had it happen yesterday and it wouldn't clear itself. So I pulled in one lineabout 10 ft. Unhooked from the kite completely, and stuck my bar through one of my footstraps on my board. worked my way up to the kite, fixed it, then slowly let the line out as I went back to the bar. When I got to within 15 ft of the bar/board I stopped letting the line through my fingers and got to the bar, hooked into the leash and CL, then let the rest of that one line go. The kite powered up and viola, I was off. First time I've went to the kite and back. The bar in the board worked well to keep the lines strung out upwind of the kite, and keep them from being loose in the water or around my body. Without doing that I would have had a loooongg float.

I used the 5 and the 7 back to back yesterday and I agree, the 7m is the smallest you need around here.

I have also flown the 5m Rev in huge winds, but I agree with Eric, it's too fast and too slippery. All that makes the kite so efficient and sweet in normal winds, make that kite too unpredictable in high winds.

Yesterday I was slashing all over and the Turbos for the most part just sat there, following my every move. I don't think that Tiny Rev would have been so tame.

I found yesterday though even with the turbos if you took a straight line off the wind at all you'ld accellerate so fast that you'ld add an exponential amount of power to the kite. (not unlike apparent wind in winter). The Revs explode with power in apparent wind. Slow and smooth is what it's about.

Fun just to be out in such an alive day. Its loud, and the whole surface of the earth is moving. The right kites can make it just like cruisin on a 13m day, but with huge swell to play in.

tighe

[JRN]

SPEAKING OF SLE/HYBRIDS.....My lowly '06 waroo 7, notorius for erratic behavior in high winds, actually performed remakably well in the thermonuclear conditions on Friday. It DID invert once on initial take-off, but after moving the back lines behaved passably. I had done the stopper knot mod to the front lines, and added a pulley to the rears, but I think the secret was higher pressure in the LE main bladder. This prevented the LE from deforming and flying like a wounded duck. We're going to try more rear line tension next time in hopes of minimizing inversions altogether.

[Kosk]

Friday sure was crazy! Launching in wind like that, on-shore, was pretty intimidating at first, but once I got out it was ON! Much different from the nukin' first day we had in Padre this spring though. 30mph down there feels alot different than it does up here with all the gusts and holes and what-not. Chris B showed up later and was killin it on his 11m Fuel.

I scored a 45cm bar for my 9m from Max today, I'm set for the next blastin' day.