General Kite Archives - Page 5 of 15

VIDEO : Snow Kiting awesomeness!

Is Awesomeness even a word?! It should be and in the oxford dictionary they should simply put the link to this video!!

Cheers Marty for sharing this on FB.

VIDEO : Endless kiteloops

Check out this awesome video. It took me a while to find where the bar was but it shows at the end. Looks like this poor chap has binned the safety and the bar has got caught on the post pulling it into this loop. It’s a long video so FF maybe your friend.

For those people curious as to why it didn’t snap a line sooner, and for those people that want to learn more about looping kites safely this is whats happening. When the kite is looping for the first 19 off minutes, notice how the kite isn’t actually flying anywhere, its looping inside its own length so it’s not generating any apparent wind and is pretty much stalling itself, then all of a sudden towards the end it starts opening up its turn and really starts whipping a good loop, that is where the power of the kite loop is being generated! A few mins of that and something had to give and sure enough a line snaps ending the almost comical 20mins of looping and probably saving the kite.

anyway, here is the vid..

Some weekend WA wind, swell — and rain…

For most of us in WA, it’s been since about Easter that anyone’s had a kite. I must say, moving over I didn’t realise how infrequently there’d be any any kiteable wind through the winter season. You’d usually be expecting the sea breezes to start trickling back by about mid-September but no sign of that happening yet. But we do have a winter weather system moving through from tonight that will push some wind and some very big swell our way over the next three or four days. I’d be guessing that down south, we’re going to see some of the biggest waves of the season, if not for a few years.

Tonight there’s a 970hp low pressure system sitting about 1,000km SW of Margaret River and moving SE. By tomorrow, it’ll strengthen to around 965hp and by Sunday to about 955. That’s a seriously powerful storm. Anyone in a vessel at sea in those sorts of conditions is going to be in for a serious fight.

For those of us in the Mid West, that means we’ll get some rain tomorrow, swell up to 6m and winds from the West around 25 knots. By Sunday afternoon, it goes all pear-shaped with lots more rain moving in and continuing big swell and 35-45+ knot Westerlies.

So, if you are up to the task, and have a decently small kite, tomorrow afternoon looks like the best time for a shot at it. But do expect to get rained on at times.

Rain and swell continuing til about late Tuesday and the wind trailling off to about 20 knots on Monday and next to nothing by Tuesday. The swell finally fades by mid-Wednesday, along with the bad weather.

Might be worth looking at in a few instances but do take care. You do recall the tragedies that happened last year round this time. Let’s not repeat those.

Take care,

Rob

Sydney wind forecast

Hey All,

If like me through winter you don’t religiously trawl the seabreeze forecast waiting for wind and I usually miss when wind coming up. Well I decided to take a look the other day and look at this!

Yewwww.. If this forecast holds true (it has changed since Friday and stuck more south) then we could be on for a few crackers. It’s probably going to be WET and GUSTY (depending on the rain clouds) at a bet and there is a chance the surf will get up as it goes on. Swell forecast is down a little from last week but we’ll still get some chunks. Looking at the charts with that low off to the east will determine if its dead south or more east, it’ll start off more east as it builds and then trend south. Another up side is the water is nice and warm, surfing over the weekend felt like summer again! (almost)

As always, beginners it’ll be probably be ok to start with and then progress to being too windy. Usual spots will be in play, Botany will work (stay further south), Longy, Narra. I know where I’ll be :). See you all at 5.30am on the beach for a sunrise session!

Bar found at long reef.

Matty Ma has found a bar and lines at long reef. If it’s yours and you can identify it we’ll put you in touch with him.

Snow kiting location map for Australia

The good chaps (Marty) over at the facebook kosi kiters group have knocked up this wicked map for snow kiting locations in the Snowy Mountains!

Whilst this map may fill you with excitement for getting out there please remember the following! Snow Kiting is f-ing dangerous! The top of a mountain can/will kill you if you are not prepared! it’s cold, the weather / visibility can change in the blink of an eye, winds are GUSTY, they are usually either light or stupendously windy, you can travel a LONG way without realising so you need to be prepared to walk (with skins on skis or snow shoes) if the wind dies or you pop a kite. The rule here is never kite further than you are prepared to walk! Remember, if you hurt yourself and can’t get down someone else has to, it either screws up everyone elses day or costs a shit load in chopper fees, oh and mobiles don’t work so well up there!

That said, it’s awesome fun and we’ll be up there as much as possible! If you are going up, let someone know when you should be down and where you were intending to be.

[googlemap src=”https://www.google.com/maps/u/0/ms?msid=207430822816324808184.000441bee2ba4ef95d505&msa=0&ll=-36.307932,148.380661&spn=0.195049,0.363579&dg=feature” height=”600″ align=”aligncenter” ]

Kitesurfing.com.au stickers showing up

This is great! I was sent a text today with this picture attached. Awesome!

It also reminds me I’d not got the shop sorted. I’ll get it retested and up so you can all get yours.

Have a good week.

ARTICLE : Apparent wind effects #1 – Getting upwind

Wether you’re new to kite surfing or a seasoned long term kiter there may still be a few things to learn.

If you just stepped into kiting without doing any prior ‘wind based’ activity you may not be familiar with the term apparent wind or you may have heard of the term but don’t fully understand it. That’s ok, we’re here to lay it out in simple terms to help you get to grips with the basics.

apparent wind
noun

the wind as it is experienced on board a moving sailing vessel, as a result of the combined effects of the true wind and the boat’s speed.

So, what does it mean? OK, imagine you are in the car, you are stopped and the window is open. There is wind blowing directly onto the front of the car at 20kph. You hold your face out the window and you can feel 20kph of wind on it. Easy. Now you start driving into it, your speedo says 40kph, your head is still hanging out the window are you feeling 40kph of wind on your face? Nope, you are feeling 60kph, your car is pushing through 20kph of wind to do 40kph over the land so the airflow is 60kph. Easy eh.. Well hold on! We are sailing (kiting) we can’t go directly into the wind! so whats going on there?

OK, lets get on the water, I know for a fact that cruising about we do about 20-30kph at speed so we’ll say 20. The wind is blowing at 40kph (so about 21knots – nice and breezy) BUT we can’t go directly into that wind, so we tack at angles slightly higher into the wind than away from it hence we get up wind eventually. BUT have you ever noticed that sometimes you’ve got a good lick of speed on but for some reason you don’t seem to be able to make as much upwind ground as the guy who’s going a bit slower? What’s going on?

Right, for the example we’re doing 20kph forwards, the wind is coming from out left at 40kph. When I’m stopped I’ve got 40kph blowing from my side and i kite forward at 20kph. This affect alone of me travelling at 20kph is generating my own wind (via speed) BUT it’s not coming from my right (where the wind is coming from) its in front of me, that means the direction of the wind affecting my kite has shifted more in front of me. OK, but doesn’t that affect my kites wind window? Good question (I hope you asked that question – if you did can you see where I’m going?)

If you haven’t worked it out already, the wind effectively moves around more in front of you, this in turn has the effect of making the kite move further back in the real wind window – to the front of the apparent wind window – effectively meaning you can’t go upwind into the true wind angle as if you were stopped.

Thats great! But what does it mean??

This means that whilst it feels awesome to splat about flat chat at mach 10, IF you really want to get back up wind and you are struggling, S L O W D O W N! Edge harder with your board and keep the speed down. If there is good wind and you are powered up then you can crawl along quite slowly and get great gains up wind quickly, or you can use this to your advantage when trying to hold position in the surf by almost stopping and holding ground in a small area. You may also have noticed this when shooting down the front of a wave and you get overpowered and the kite starts to pull you backwards, this is the apparent wind shifting so far forward you are now dragging your kite into the wind and you end up heading a lot more downwind and overpowered.

So, next time your smashing about on the water give it a think and see if you can work out whats going on. This is just a simple overview into the affects of apparent wind going upwind, there is a lot to cover here with kites as they are so dynamic in the sky unlike a windsurfer or a sailing boat. We can generate our own apparent wind by flying the kite about in the sky. It’s what makes us go up and will always always be the reason why we will always come down!

Interested in knowing more? Have a google around, there are some good images, all the math and some great reading.

Pete

REVIEW : 2015 Cabrinha Overdrive 1X Bar

So, we’re half way through 2014 so that of course means we’ve got the 2015 gear turning up ready for summer. This year sees Cabrinha make a massive change to it’s bar system , Finally!

I’ve been lucky enough to be flying Cabrinha kites for the last few years and was very fortunate to get my hands on a new 2015 Overdrive 1X bar a while back, I’ve been testing this bar out on the water and in the snow and have to say this is exactly the move Cabrinha needed to make.

So what’s new? Well the bar itself is similar to the last few years in terms of comfort and grip, colours have changed to a orange / grey combo. The adjustable ends are still there similar to last year (there is now a version without these if you like) They have extended the floats on the bar ends now I guess to help keep the additional weight afloat when in the water, the lines are still classic top quality Cabrinha.

But there are 4 MAJOR improvements made this year that are a massive to me.

They have simplified the 2 front lines at the V, they are now spread with a nice lightweight metal spreader that makes self landings so much easier, the V is also lower so it’s easier to reach.
The spring (overdrive) system now sits a little lower, this means I can let go of the bar and still reach it with ease, this is much better for the girls and short chaps like myself.
The chicken loop is FINALLY a chicken loop worth using! The old system with the breakaway chicken loop was to be honest not very good, if you have ever tried to reset that sucker you know its a total pain and depending how many years back you go you ran the risk of actually loosing your chicken loop completely! This year it’s been replaced with a fixed loop that releases on one side with the push of the safety release, best of all it takes 2 seconds to reset and get back together. This means that you can now hook your loop around posts or rails for safer unassisted landings if required. The donkey dick is also shorter and easier to use and doesn’t jab you in the gut.
The leash connection is now free running through the centre and pops out on a spinner at the top of the chicken loop, it simply extends one of the front lines so the additional safety line from last year has gone. It’s so simple, I’ve pulled the safety, gone to one line, walked back to the bar, reset it and relaunched without any issues!

Check out the quickloop vid:

All in all, I’m REALLY impressed by these improvements, if you want to check them out for yourself come and find me on the beach at Longy and come and have a go! Here are some pics I took when I first used it.

For more info check out The Cabrinha website http://www.cabrinhakites.com/controlsystems/overdrive-1x.html

apparent wind noun

Thats great! But what does it mean??

apparent wind
noun