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Phone Camera
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BizB
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Better than nothing
2005-08-14 |
You really can't see it, but in the phone-cam pic called, "stupid," there is a guy with a kitesurfing kite.
This guy was my entertainment during my trip to MBSP today. Oh, sure... there were some periods of wind, but nothing to get excited about. I think it probably blew about 8 knots at best during the time that I was there - from 12 to 3:30.
I had been there for some time and I was switching back from my Beamer 3.6 to my Crossfire 4.0 when he and his girlfriend arrived. He parked a few spaces down from me and dug his kite-bag from the back of his truck. As he walked to the middle of the kite field, he asked me, "How's it flying?"
"It's not." I replied.
He said, "I was worried that there wasn't going to be enough wind until I saw you flying."
I replied by asking, "What are you going to put up?" which is kite-lingo for "What size kite do you intend to fly today?"
He said, "A 16." which, again, is kite lingo. It means 16 square meters.
"What brand?" I asked.
"I'm not even sure." he replied, "I think it's a Liquid Force."
At this point, I knew this wasn't going to be good. Some of the clues were the fact that he still thought it was worth attempting even though I told him the wind was crap; the size of the kite he intended to fly, and the fact that he didn't even know the brand of the kite. I don't know about you, but when I spend $1,000 on a toy, I tend to remember what brand the toy is.
I went on with my business and after a few passes back and forth across the parking lot, I paused to watch them. I had been riding on the parking lot because there was enough wind to fly my foil kite (parachute like), but it wasn't strong enough to pull me through the grass. -- Yet more indication of NO WIND. This guy must have done everything wrong that he could have. The only thing I have to be glad of is that nobody got hurt. He sure gave his girlfriend a workout. While he stood in the middle of the field, holding the control bar, she worked at launching the kite. It was obvious that she had no clue what she was doing just by the way that she was holding the kite. At some point, the guy gave up on launching the kite at the edge of the wind window (where you're supposed to launch) and decided to launch from straight down wind. I heard him proclaim to his girlfriend, "Go straight down wind and launch it there. It will pull really hard and drag me across the field, but at least we'll get it in the air."
Lucky for him, there wasn't enough wind to do that.
I walked over to the water fountain at the bathrooms and returned with a Gator-aid bottle full of water and upon my return, I decided to help them out a little. I walked out to where he was standing and I told him that the only way they were going to get that kite airborn is if they could generate some forward speed... somehow. I suggested that he have her run across the wind window with the kite. He indicated that he understood and I returned to BART (Big Ass Ram Truck) to drink a few more gulps before I went back to my parking-lot surf activities. When I I got back to BART, I turned to look at the hapless couple. He had told her to run across the wind window and she did exactly that. Unfortunately, she was holding the kite with the leading edge down, so any speed that she would have generated was negated by the fact that she was basically dragging the kite sideways. Feeling generous, I went back out into the field and offered to give him a launch. I figured it couldn't hurt anything because I knew that even if we did get it airborn, it wouldn't last long. I grabbed the kite and held it in the correct flying position. I called out, "Ready?"
"Ready!" was the reply.
Holding the leading edge, I ran across the wind window and the kite launched. It rose to about 12 feet where the guy turned it and it promptly fell back to terra-firma. They thanked me for showing them the correct way to launch the kite and I returned to BART and my own kite. When I felt a breeze at my back, I yelled, "Here comes some wind!" and I launched my kite. By the time I got across the parking lot, they had tried and failed to launch the kite two times. She just had no clue how the kite was supposed to behave - I can't put any blame on her. He shouldn't have had her playing center-field. That was stupid.
I made 2 or 3 more passes across the parking lot and then parked my kite to take a break. I had only taken about a 5 minute break when I noticed that they guy was deflating his kite and preparing to pack up. Of course, that means the best winds of the day were moments away. And, I was right. I had 4 or 5 more good rides before I decided to throw in the towel and call it a day and some other cliche that I can't think of.
Overall, the day would have been considered dissappointing had it not been the first time in about a month that I've even been able to fly. I can't wait for fall winds.
As for the guy and his girlfriend, I guess I can be glad that nobody was injured. Though, I bet he ruined kitebording for his girlfriend for ever.
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Betty Boop Fri Aug 19 09:25:26 AM 
sopops Fri Aug 19 09:12:01 AM 
BizB Fri Aug 19 08:38:29 AM 
'fer Fri Aug 19 03:33:35 AM