Ok so first off when did winter storms start getting named? This is new right?
Living on the Martha's Vineyard we tend to get the best aspects of Nor'Easter's....The Wind. Yesterday was no exception. I woke up to winds from 39 Degree True Wind Direction blowing at roughly 31-44 mph. Ok I thought not bad for 0630 and "Athena" is still centered off of Norfolk, Va. By the time I took my son to school and loaded the truck it was blowing 31-51 mph. Wow! Ok now we are talking, especially since the anemometer I was using is at the boat ramp in Vineyard Haven and is somewhat sheltered in a NE Wind.
I met Rob, Jamie and Morgan Douglas down at State Beach and looking across the road at Sengekontacket Pond it looked pretty windy, then it started raining. There is something about adding rain to wind that makes the wind seem that much stronger. Maybe it is the stinging of the drops on your face. Then Athena decided rain wasn't enough so it started to mix in some sort of snow/sleet/hail mixture. As I said to Rob "It's nasty enough I think I need to wear my Zeal Goggles and Atlantis Smock in the truck."
But of course as soon as the precipitation started we figured it must be time to rig. I was already suited up with my 6mm Wetsuit and booties and then my smock on over so I was actually quite warm while rigging. The other boys had to do the "dance" on the side of the road. I always love it because it is inevitable that as soon as someone drops their pants a car rolls by and honks.
I rigged my 6 Meter TS Kite from BEST. This was the first time I had flown it so I was really excited to get out and give it a go. I combined it with my Gorilla Racing Bar and Gorilla Lines. I decided to go with my longer 30 Meter Gorilla Lines. The other guys went with shorter 22 Meter stock Cabrinha Lines. It was interesting to see the way that this affected the flying characteristics of the kite. My kite seemed less volatile in the gusts and even though the Gorilla lines have significantly less stretch than any production stock lines the kite seemed happier and less "jerky" in the air. Was this a testament to Gorilla Lines or to the stable nature of the TS Kite? Not sure I know the answer yet but either way I was really happy.
Now just before I launched my kite I checked the wind speed in Vineyard Haven. It now read 31-51 MPH. 51 MPH is the most wind I have ever rigged in and I was really excited. In no way do I condone the average kiter rigging or riding in this much wind. It is a lot to handle and the margin for error is very little.
Living on the Martha's Vineyard we tend to get the best aspects of Nor'Easter's....The Wind. Yesterday was no exception. I woke up to winds from 39 Degree True Wind Direction blowing at roughly 31-44 mph. Ok I thought not bad for 0630 and "Athena" is still centered off of Norfolk, Va. By the time I took my son to school and loaded the truck it was blowing 31-51 mph. Wow! Ok now we are talking, especially since the anemometer I was using is at the boat ramp in Vineyard Haven and is somewhat sheltered in a NE Wind.
I met Rob, Jamie and Morgan Douglas down at State Beach and looking across the road at Sengekontacket Pond it looked pretty windy, then it started raining. There is something about adding rain to wind that makes the wind seem that much stronger. Maybe it is the stinging of the drops on your face. Then Athena decided rain wasn't enough so it started to mix in some sort of snow/sleet/hail mixture. As I said to Rob "It's nasty enough I think I need to wear my Zeal Goggles and Atlantis Smock in the truck."
But of course as soon as the precipitation started we figured it must be time to rig. I was already suited up with my 6mm Wetsuit and booties and then my smock on over so I was actually quite warm while rigging. The other boys had to do the "dance" on the side of the road. I always love it because it is inevitable that as soon as someone drops their pants a car rolls by and honks.
I rigged my 6 Meter TS Kite from BEST. This was the first time I had flown it so I was really excited to get out and give it a go. I combined it with my Gorilla Racing Bar and Gorilla Lines. I decided to go with my longer 30 Meter Gorilla Lines. The other guys went with shorter 22 Meter stock Cabrinha Lines. It was interesting to see the way that this affected the flying characteristics of the kite. My kite seemed less volatile in the gusts and even though the Gorilla lines have significantly less stretch than any production stock lines the kite seemed happier and less "jerky" in the air. Was this a testament to Gorilla Lines or to the stable nature of the TS Kite? Not sure I know the answer yet but either way I was really happy.
Now just before I launched my kite I checked the wind speed in Vineyard Haven. It now read 31-51 MPH. 51 MPH is the most wind I have ever rigged in and I was really excited. In no way do I condone the average kiter rigging or riding in this much wind. It is a lot to handle and the margin for error is very little.
Morgan gave me a launch and I was able to depower enough so that walking on the beach was almost possible. It always cracks me up how much more comfortable I feel with a kite once I am in the water on my board. Once I got in the water and got use to wearing booties again I slowly started to take some runs. Rob decided he was going to just go for his twin tip as he had left port tack board at home and the angle was perfect for him to boost some HUGE airs. I wanted to work on riding in the bigger breeze and get a better feel for how my new Pleskunas design from Hydroflex worked in the higher winds. The course I was using for my practice was not the same course we used for NASSCI it is a bit shorter but the wind tends to be steadier and it was right in front of our trucks so it meant that we were all together. It had a really nice lead up and the first part of the course was very smooth but very square. Then as the shoreline curved the angle got better, unfortunately the curve in the shoreline also means an opportunity for the rolling chop to build up. So by the time you got down to the last 1/3 of the run and were going fast the chop would become quite sketchy. When I left the house I was really hoping that today would be the day I broke 50 Knots, but in looking at the water texture of the course I knew this would not be the case. My goals changed and I just started to work on getting comfortable in this much wind and how my board would handle. As I started to get more comfortable with the course and the kite I could definitely feel that I had just a bit too much board under me and definitely too much Fin. It seemed like the board was controlling me instead of the other way around. In one way at the bottom of the run I felt more comfortable because this board really blows through the chop without even thinking twice but on the other hand I feel like leading into the run I can't quite dig in as deep and press against the board. Needless to say I think these minor issues are to be expected but at times it is frustrating when you really want to push it and then just feel like the board pushes back harder....Maybe I just need to hit the gym harder.
Well after a solid hour of speed runs and learning I decided it was time to just have some fun and enjoy the fact that I was riding in 50 MPH winds. Jamie had packed up his kit and gone for dry clothes but had left his beautiful John Amundson Custom Twin Tip. After trying to yell upwind while trying to stay on the beach and get his attention I finally just raised the board. This caught his eye and he nodded approvingly with a large smile. What a guy! Having spent the last hour focusing on board and water and wind I finally had the opportunity to look up and see how my kite was doing and how it performed when I could whip it around and actually pay attention to its characteristics. I was super impressed with the way the leading edge held it's shape. Often times when you are rigging a small kite in big winds you see the shape of an LEI distort or even invert. This use to happen a lot with my North Rebel. Whenever it got loaded up you would see the LEI buckle. To state the obvious this is NOT what you want. This new TS on the other hand was super steady and really good at handling the puffs. It didn't bounce around and it didn't distort in shape. The one thing that I do notice with any small kite in high winds is that the canopy material is a little lighter than what I would want. My guess is that BEST uses a .6 oz cloth and I think you could probably go for a 1.5 oz cloth since there is no issue on trying to conserve wait. I discussed this with Ryan Evans and Rich Sabo after the session and we even discussed the possibility of using Cuben fiber which we use on the LEI of the Nemesis line of kites.
Well after boosting and boosting and ripping and boosting and all out just hanging on I finally felt that the wind was getting to a level that I was perhaps just a bit too overpowered on my 6m. There had been a few squalls come through and you could tell that we were way up in the wind range. Morgan was kind enough to catch my kite and I did my best to get my lines undone and wrapped up in the cold wind. Once I was moderately dried off and the gear was safely in the truck I clicked on my phone and checked the wind speeds in Vineyard Haven. As I suspected the wind had increased and the reading was no showing 48-60 MPH!!! That is a whole hell of a lot of wind especially since that Anemometer is in the harbor and we were in a much more exposed spot.
All and all it was a fantastic day and I couldn't have been more excited to get out and Kite with such a great group of men. I learned a ton and am looking forward to more high wind days where I can increase my level of confidence and my
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