Wingsurfing Inland?

I had the first (sucessful) go with the kitewing & dirtsurfer combination inland. The wind was blowing 15mph and although it was raining I decided a quick trip up onto cleeve hill was called for. As it's only 2 miles from my house, its not a bad venue, and one I should use more often. Its right on top of the hill, and if its windy anywhere round here, its the place to be. Normally you expect to see a few kiters there. However, probably because of the rain, it was just me and a few dog walkers.

Because of the higher rolling resistance starting, and the generally bumpy surface, its harder to start than on a beach. Once going though, relatively easy, and because of the wheel diameter, much easier than an ATB. Try and avoid the really ruff stuff, but otherwise quite good, and quite fun if you start to pick out the "interesting" terrain.
I managed a few runs up a hill, but hard work in the gusts as it was downwind and more sheltered. Big wind shadows behind the gorse bushes, and nearly bailed out when I was riding between two big bushes.
Top speed reached, 21mph, but didnt really go for it as the conditions were not perfect. (wet and muddy). Kited about 6 miles. Brake seemed OK.

Highlights
Nothing new learned, except uphill riding, but worth doing a few more trips up there after work (if its 12mph+), now the nights are getting longer.

Bumps and Harness

Llangenith again last Sunday. Wind was forecast to be 17mph East, so we headed off as usual. Although it seemed windy on the way there, on the beach when we arrived it was almost zero :-(

So we played with our flexifoil bullets for a while. I managed after a few attempts to use the kite with the Dirtsurfer. Thats a first. You need a bit more wind than there was, otherwise, as soon as you get moving you catch up with the kite and it drops out the sky. Anyhow, managed a few runs then the wind picked up. Whatnot tried his new 5.5 kitewing, but it was very gusty and variable by the dunes, being offshore. The beach was nearly useless everywhere else due to the "ploughed" effect. It seems that a couple of days of easterly wind create this effect. No chance of any speed runs in those conditions.

Down by the sea, the wind was much better, more consistent. So I did a few runs at the waters edge (and in the water) and that was quite fun. No speed attepts as it was very wet and ploughed.

Harness
I thought it would be a good chance to try the harness lines on the Kitewing. So I set it up (as best I knew), and it was actually much easier than I thought. NOt sure teh line positions were right, but using my old windsurfing (seat) harness, it was easy enough to hook in, and power up. You can still depower OK as the lines slide through the harness hook giving you a fair degree of freedom. When you get gusts, you can still depower OK. The thing to watch (as with windsurfing) is remember to unhook, when you turn or stop. Otherwise you end up on your face on the wing. (Yes I did)

Highlights
I can dirtsurf with a 3.5 flexifoil bullet for power.- need more practice.
Using the harness lines on the kitewing is much easier than I though and will afford far more power when doing runs.
GPS reading said I had covered 25.7 miles during the day (we were there for 6 hours!).

More Kitewing Problems

Looks like we have a serious issue with kitewing boom wear - after only one season. This wear appears in th 4 spots where the battens must touch the boom. SWs boom is the same and his battens have actually worn at the end. Must look into some form of sleeve that might protect the boom. Nylon or Mylar? I wonder if anyone else has this issue?

Broken Kitewing Boom

After the wingsurfing session at the weekend, SW checked his boom. Its knackered :-(
Clearly the crash the week before had caused more damage than we realised. So its a new boom for him.

Dirtsurfer Brakes

Had a bit of problem with the brakes on the dirtsurfer at the weekend. Although we put it down to very wet conditions, subsequent inspection of SW's brake made us realise it was actually locked up. Turns out the Dirtsurfer brake pads were completely worn. So much so, that the pads were actually touching each other over the top of the disk. ie not even touching the disk when braking.
A trip to Halfords and £14.99 for a set of Tekro Gemini-Novela pads (needed a hole drilling in the back) seemed to do the trick. and a complete strip down, oil and rebuild, seems to make the thing work better. Although I'm not convinced that the Y-brake cable we fitted a while back actually helps, as it gets clogged with sand.
So... currently looking into hydraulic (sealed) units from Hope. I'll blog more about this when I find out.

Wet Gower Trip

OK, so you'd think we'd learn by now. The wind was from the South-East; it was raining, and we had to drive through the snow to get there.
Well it was OK actually, just a bit cold and wet, and we had a chance to play with the new GPS's - They work a treat; although conditions meant I only managed 35.7mph :-(
Managed some quite good downwind turns on the Dirtsurfer; and about half an hour powersliding on the mountain board.

Conditions: Wind: 15mph gusting 22mph from South East, moving round to South
Beach: very, very wet, but very flat.
Weather: Very wet. Rained all day.
Nobody much about. No other kites, but one windsurfer.

Highlights:
The wind broke a pole on my beach tent.
Simon's new tent couldn't stand up.
Sand in the kitewing crossbar meant we couldnt get them apart with cold and sandy hands. Solutions: Unscrew the whole bar and fixing. Simple.

Cool GPS

This looks rather cool. But having just ordered a Garmin wrist mounted one, looks like I'll have to stick with it.
Link

New GPS?

Been looking into GPS systems as SW has an old Garmin unit strapped to his Dirtsurfer, and I'm currently using a Halfords £12 bike computer. Mine gives me max speed (so far 40MPH recorded), but as part of our new "official world speed record" we (we me actually) need to be able to record and verify it on GPS.



Found this one: a GARMIN FORETREX 101 Personal WRIST MOUNT GPS for £68 + 15 postage. Thats great value as its normally over £100. Its also fully waterproof and wrist mounted. We decided to order a couple and have direct comparisons then.

Dissapointing trip to Gower

OK, so it cant always be great conditions, but last weeks outing was a waste of time. OK we knew the wind was offshore, but after 2 hours in the car for me (4 for SW) the beach was as rippled as a ploughed field. We tried to find a good spot, and the best was near the dunes, but of course, the offshore wind was round in circles there which made it almost impossible to fly. Right next to the sea was useable, but there was no way we could commit to the power.
I did a few runs actually in the sea (well 3 or 4 foot into the sea) where the water was 2 or 3 inches deep, which was good fun.

Then SW doing a tight turn on the edge of the water, managed to fall onto his wing and, as we found out a bit later, split the fibreglass boom. He's since ordered a new one from MKYD, but thats an expense he wasnt expecting.

We decided to pack up and drove over to the campsite near "bomb beach", but the site was closed and nowhere to park. A bit frustrated we made the decicion to drive over to Pendine as we'd not been there before.

It was further than we expected and probably took an hour to get there. The tide was in (we knew that anyway), and there was nobody kiting, but we chatted to some guy about the rules. You have to be a member of http://www.clsc.co.uk/ to be able to fly there (£50pa ?). (read the forum http://www.racekites.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=243&PN=0&TPN=1 for latest). Pembrey looks to be better but same club membership rules apply. Its a long way to go and hassle with membership (day membership is available, but you have to be sponsored by a club member)

News Tricks / Things Learned
A bit of riding in the sea, a few turns in very gusty conditions.
Perhaps look into a Pembrey weekend at some point in the summer. - hassle with membership.