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Wed. I was riding at Waconia on a pleasant mostly sunny day which we thought was going to be a stormy day. All the storms were missing us. 16m. and large board was used and I was just cruising back and forth about 200m. South of the swallow cliff. All of a sudden I was lofted approx 40' in the air of 3 elevator rides in a row. Never been that high before.
What was weird was I was held up there like being suspended by 10000 balloons & I was not moving at all down wind. All I told me self was to "do not panick, that I will come down". I did slight steering of kite overhead left and right to keep the kite moving. My fear was being drop like a rock at any moment. I did eventually come slowly down and when I touch the water, the kite hyndenberged. After regaining control, I looked around to see if anyone saw that. No one, damn. The other kiter riding at that time had his kite down at access. So.......anyway, what the hell happened? Randy had some insight of what caused it. Please chime in Randy or anyone else.
"The Pessimist complains about the wind; the optomist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." William Arther Ward
Hi Jerry;
Don't all the details of your lift off, but a couple of thougts might be: if close to shore or cliffs-a thermal may have broke loose on land and you and your kite helped fill the vacuum. The other might have been prefrontal unstable air rolling in above you broke loose when your kite disturbed it-especially near the cliffs it might have gained some lift. Jag
Dang! I love jumping by the cliff for lift!!! Maybe I should reconsider. Was in the cliff north of the launch or south?
If it was the north side, there could have been a current of air streaming unimpeaded over the top of the bluff and accellerated by the thermal on the road and cropland...I don;t jump to often by the south cliff, too much of a hole down there. Although if the photographer is there from the local paper again I would...
Jerry told me about this when we were at Milly last Thursday. It brought back memories of lift experienced from hang gliding on a few rare occasions. We'd fly the sand dunes in Indiana and Michigan and sometimes found lift far out over the water. On one event I skied out to 1000' from a 150' sand dune, and I was close to a half mile out over the water. Generally, the vertical lift window is narrow for ridge soaring, but certain conditions (thermal, lift, frontal) can come together and make unpredictable lift a scary element. I remember seeing Alex Peterson unexpectedly lofted 40' on Lake Calhoun several years back. It was a frontal wind shift. We all remember the guy in Maui lofting to 300'. In all cases, the riders survived by holding keen awareness to the present moment, not panicking, and riding the event out to a safe landing. There's great strength of character when calm, and grounded-ness can be held in the face of uncertain conditions. Jerry, I'm glad it was you who experienced this, lived to share the story, and held the composure we all wish to develop in our riding style.
"when you smiling, keep on smiling...and the whole world smiles with you" In this case your smile gracefully landed you for another ride.
Never been that high before.
I love jumping by the cliff for lift!!! Maybe I should reconsider. Was in the cliff north of the launch or south?
