Session 23: Good wind, turning and my GPS onboard

A good strong consistent Southerly started blowing in the early afternoon so I headed home early and got to Hampton Beach at about 3:30 and was on the water by 4. There was a reasonable chop/swell, and the wind seemed a lot stronger than my last outing. I took it easy intially keeping upwind, but relaxed a bit and went for more speed.

The wind chart showed 20knots gusting to 25. What a difference 5 knots makes!

I had a great outing. Looking down at the board and watching it carve the water. No problems keeping upwind. Catching the swell coming back in and surfing over waves with lots of speed. Consistent turns are very satisfying. I gently dunked the kite a couple of times while practicing turning but relaunched it without trouble. It is a bit hard getting the board downwind when you are get body dragged. I hoiked on the bar to generate lift above to bring the board under me once.

This was a memorable outing on the water for about 1.5 hours. I felt tired and satisfied afterwards.

I think I am nearly ready to try some small jumps soon.

Turning tips

I successfully turned both left and right on several occasions. Some things I did that helped me:

• Don't let the kite get too high while changing directions or it loses all pull and you stop in the water
• Keep some power in the kite as it pulls you downwind in the middle of the turn
• When you steer in the new direction, the kite wants to dive and will hit the water if you are not careful. Watch it, and bring it up to prevent this.
  
• Get some power on as quickly as possible to get going again

GPS log

My GPS worked well in the waterproof pouch. The stats were:

• Max speed: 37.9 km/h
• Trip odo: 17.6km
• Log start: 4:10pm
• Log finish: 5:32pm

I am working on overlaying the track log on a map, but I need a lower scale digital map.

Wind chart