Sunday, February 12, 2012

Marvellous wind at Mentone and my first GYBES!

Session 168 - 12 February 2012

It seemed like an eternity since I last kitesurfed.  Later or Sunday a sea breeze stronger than the forecast came in. It was south east so I headed for Mentone.

It was overcast, and remembering that I got cold during my last session, I donned my 3/2 wetsuit, even thought it is still summer.

The task today was gybing (jibing).  I took out the Sector 60 and was immediately having fun.  The wind was good and the water was clean (despite pollution warnings).


I attempted some gybes and got around to toeside but fell off when I tried to reposition my feet.  Sometimes I got my rear foot forward, but lost balance and fell when I tried to bring my front foot back.  I let the kite get too low too.  

The BINGO - I did my first gybe!  It was on my strong side, from left tack to right tack. It felt great and I am not sure exactly how I did, or what I did differently.  Bringing the rear foot forward and getting it straight into the foot strap certainly aids stability. 

I got around to toeside on my weak site (from right tack to left) but then just fell of the board. 

I crashed my kite hard on one attempt and tangled the linemount a bit so I headed back downwind to the beach and landed my kite after grabbing another kite while mine was in the air.  The line mount was bent back but not broken.  I took it off and stashed in it my bag then headed out again.

Going upwind so easily on the Sector 60 is quite an experience.  I did some small jumps off waves on the way out too.  These felt OK but I am wary of doing a big jump and landing hard.

I succeeded in completing a total of 4 gybes this session - all on my strong side.  This was very pleasing, but I have a way to go yet to gybe consistently.  The balance is very tricky.  After nearly 2 hours it was time to come in.  I did some really nice fast downwind runs - the Sector 60 really screams down the bay swell.





Here is the gybe sequence

On left tack

Carving to toeside (right tack)

Riding toeside

Bringing kite back up

Rear foot forward into foot strap, front foot coming back

On right tack (rear foot not yet in footstrap)
 




2 comments:

rick engel said...

Thanks Peter, I brought a Sector60 just like yours, haven't tried to gyb it yet but these pictures will be a great help when I do.

Peter Campbell said...

Good stuff Rick. Its hard to learn, but is a good challenge. Just keep at it.

We can do some big tours on this boards, maybe even across to Portarlington!