Waconia, Cinco de Mayo

[Prof Marc]

Chris and I arrived after work and watched the windsurfers rip it up for a bit. Even they were looking a bit harried (on 4m sails!) -- it was gusting between 45 and 50mph at 4pm.

We drove to the SE beach area to wait and see if the wind was going to come down. I was going to try kiting on a 4m kiddy kite, but the wind did come down a notch by 5pm, so we decided to rig up real kites.

Chris had an amazing session on his 11m. (It ended, unfortunately, when a tree munched his kite.) I was out on my 9m until dark. Days are getting nice and long this time of year!

I'll post pictures tomorrow. I wonder if we'll see wind like this again this year.

--Marc

[Eric P]

Hey Mark, I missed you guys. I launched out of the DNR launch at around 5:30 and was perfectly powered on the 7 Meter for about 45 minutes, then the wind started to get too light for the 7, so I called it a night. Dave C said it was one of the most amazing days he's ever seen on the Wac. Even after I got out, and the wind had died a bit, there was huge swell. It even smoothed out at times. Great ramps for launching off. I'm heartened to hear someone got out and enjoyed that sunset session, I just didn't want to pump up another kite, and was very content with my 45 minutes. I love the power that a 7 meter can produce in that kind of wind. Crazy Fun.

[bern_rider01]

Rippin at Waconia-

SO much fun, at first there was no way I wanted to take out my 11m, gusting to 35mph, but once it came down a bit the conditions were perfect, awesome session, boosting, surfing rollers, getting heavy wind kite skills down, until riding toeside back to the beach, not paying attention to shore or my kite height, hit a puff and the next thing I know im climbing a death tree to try and save it. Thanks Marc for the assistance and encouragement. I'm excited to get back out there, ill probably be working a few extra hours to save up for repairs or a new kite. Any advice on kite repair shops? RIP 11m rev RIP.

Chris Boyle
UofM kite club
boyl0101@gmail.com

[wings]

Hey Chris,

How bad is the rip? Through any struts or the leading edge? I haven't used them myself, but I've heard Airtime will repair anything. It's gonna set you back a chunk, but likely not nearly as bad as buying a new kite.
http://shop.airtimekite.com/index.php/r ... pair.html/

Also, I have a friend with a sail shop, and I've had him professionally repair medium-size rips. I'll ask him if he'll do it for you once I know how bad your kite is.

Otherwise, there's got to be someone in town who does it...

Isaac

[Rick R]

It was full on at Washington, yesterday also. Very fun, amazing wind, and water action going on. I really like having a 7 meter kite in the quiver, dont pull it out that often but its great to be on it when its nuking
Rick R

[macattack]

Was out from 1:30 to 2:45 very powered on a Switchblade 8. Survival kiting for sure.