planning on 3 seasons session today

[ice_kmauve]

eta 2 pm or so.

[ice_kmauve]

Right.. 4 seasons it is. it has been too long.

Well I arrived early - let's say 2pm. Nobody was there, wind was uneven and breezy at best. off to the left of this beach there are several flags by which to judge the wind. There is a polar bear flag, and one or two other 'murican ones. Well, they were all rippling confidently, but also they were dying down just as often.

It started coming up so I rigged up a 7m, because that seemed easy. a half hour later, the 11m ozone came out. Yup, built in 2006 and still in operation.

Adam came for a while, then left to go ride at Bellaire. I had the option of drift launching. I did this, however, the wind started dying as I went for liftoff. A few minutes later I gave up. Some time went by. I tried again. This time she pulled into the air, but I couldnt shake the feeling that all was not well with the ozone. The corners were getting pulled in pretty hard, and there was no obvious reason why. I rode for a few hundred feet, and she died. I washed up onto a nicely raked beach. Thanks Whitebearians. Upon close inspection, it turned out that I had wrapped my bridle incorrectly. The 2006 ozone, in its infinite wisdom, has a 5th line, which is used to to adjust the power of the kite from mega-turbo to slight turbo. I had looped this around itself incorrectly. I hate how sometimes kiting seems like little more than lining 15 random things up correctly, only to be ruined by missing the 16th.

Anyway, got it back together correctly and dragged the fracking kite across 5 or 6 of the best tended lawns in the US. I tried a launching again, and was successfully rewarded with a generous windy session, wherein I was ogled by several pontoon loads full of bored people. It was nice riding.

With these low-water conditions on the Bear, one has to get way the hell up wind when possible. Landing at the 4 seasons launch is possible, but don't try it unless a kiter is there to grab your rig. As it was, I ended up landing at a nice beach somewhat upwind of the launch, where there is a gap between docks (thanks Adam!).

Peace.

[Dave Z]

Ice - will be better today down at Wildwood. Straight NW so plenty of power to get out and upwind. There was probably too much West in the wind Sunday which make WW real difficult (and dangerous some days) to get out and upwind.

[ice_kmauve]

Nice to hear, but unfortunately have to work.