Well found the top end today of my 6 Reo. No wind meter with me so no sure what the actual speed was. I'm calling 40+gusts.

At my extreme location and its windy indeed. but it looks ok. 30's I guess as I stand on the cliff. Its allways hard to tell because the wind is cross off and the cliffs screw the wind up so its not until your 100m out that you know what till you get clean ish wind.

So. Solo launch fully trimmed down wind of the cliffs. real hard gusts. 15-45 at a guess. its insane punches of wind the kite surges 15-20 feet forward and back at the edge of the window.

Anyway grab board and into the water. Pull off a bit of trim ready to dive the kite and BAM. lofted into the air. Not super high maybe 10 foot. But I'm hauling arse down wind super fast. I smash into the water high speed. Wowa. never had that happen on the little 6 before.

So second board start and I'm going. but there Is sooo much power in the kite. I have to trim it well. Sea its BIG. Very Big. I get out past the breakers and trim more. I'm still overpower. I Decide "this is stupid".

I head back and a monster set rolls in. Tripple me at a guess. But i'm too powered. even trimmed i'm pulled of the wave face with my 6m.

So I scream back into the beach . not time for fluffing around I pull the safety a few meters before I hit the beach.

kite flags out. but there's still too much power to walk the down the line. I jimmy the kite to the waters edge and it gets drowned by a white wash. Yay. I retrieve my kite and sand it heavily.

Ahh a stupid session. One I shouldn't have done. I guess my enthusiasm got the better of my good judgement.

Plummet said..

Well found the top end today of my 6 Reo. No wind meter with me so no sure what the actual speed was. I'm calling 40+gusts.

At my extreme location and its windy indeed. but it looks ok. 30's I guess as I stand on the cliff. Its allways hard to tell because the wind is cross off and the cliffs screw the wind up so its not until your 100m out that you know what till you get clean ish wind.

So. Solo launch fully trimmed down wind of the cliffs. real hard gusts. 15-45 at a guess. its insane punches of wind the kite surges 15-20 feet forward and back at the edge of the window.

Anyway grab board and into the water. Pull off a bit of trim ready to dive the kite and BAM. lofted into the air. Not super high maybe 10 foot. But I'm hauling arse down wind super fast. I smash into the water high speed. Wowa. never had that happen on the little 6 before.

So second board start and I'm going. but there Is sooo much power in the kite. I have to trim it well. Sea its BIG. Very Big. I get out past the breakers and trim more. I'm still overpower. I Decide "this is stupid".

I head back and a monster set rolls in. Tripple me at a guess. But i'm too powered. even trimmed i'm pulled of the wave face with my 6m.

So I scream back into the beach . not time for fluffing around I pull the safety a few meters before I hit the beach.

kite flags out. but there's still too much power to walk the down the line. I jimmy the kite to the waters edge and it gets drowned by a white wash. Yay. I retrieve my kite and sand it heavily.

Ahh a stupid session. One I shouldn't have done. I guess my enthusiasm got the better of my good judgement.

I read all of your story, Plums. ^^^

I believe I got the gist of your message.

Apparently you were over-done on the 6m.

So dude ... do you own a 5m kite ?

lol.

Nah 6 is the smallest. Only a few times a year that its too windy for the 6.

Nah i can't claim huge balls. It was one of those days that look better than it was.You get out there and go.. Dang ! this is infact stupid.

Little Reo's still a punchy wee kite down low you'll have to get something a bit softer
15-45 west coast can be real explosive if the gust period is short,know where your coming from plummet but we still like to punish ourselves,my mate went out the other day in a gusty wester at times it was dropping sub 10 and gusting up over 35 he said it was a s**t of a ride he ended up getting tea bagged and gave it away.

sorry no cliff shot only pics of the water. doesn't look big in the pics either.

Plummet said..

Nah 6 is the smallest. Only a few times a year that its too windy for the 6.

Nah i can't claim huge balls. It was one of those days that look better than it was.You get out there and go.. Dang ! this is infact stupid.

Hi Plummet, thought she might be heading your way! We just had 2 days of it here at Lord Howe, Monday had a session gusting up to 38kts & picked the 2 hour lull in between. We were in & packed up by the time it gusted over 40kts. Was overpowered most of the session. Awesome session yesterday arvo 25 to 33kts, just right for my 8m C4.

Were abouts in NZ are you?

I'm in Taranaki . The best place to be for wind and waves.

nah I don't need a 4 Cauncy. There is litteraly 3-4 times per year that its too windy for the 6. 3 out of those 4 I will be solo at this location. At those wind speeds the sea is insanely big. The rocks/cliff/cross off wind make it a extremely dangerous place in these conditions.

Even if I had a 4m I still would have to flag due to solo risk levels being to high.

But I have to say if there were others there yesterday I most likely would have continued riding.

Plummet said..

sorry no cliff shot only pics of the water. doesn't look big in the pics either.

Delivered! Thanks mate, some serious oversized sheep in that pasture. Enough to get any Kiwi hot and bothered. Nice break between waves though. I imagine for the bits you weren't thinking about your impending doom it was quite fun.

I'm trying to guess where you have taken those photos,

Kind of looks like weld rd with that rock, but I'm not sure?

Maybe it's back beach? Seeing you mentioned large cliffs?

I'm surprised knowbody else was around......

Puetz said..

... the problem with days like that is it makes the 12 - 15 knot days sooooooo much more boring and you struggle to have fun

yep.! lets face it anything sub 20 is just batshiit boring compared to this.

Lots of sheep and cows but they don't understand the finer points of kite control!

Plummet said..

Lots of sheep and cows but they don't understand the finer points of kite control!

WhAt are they interested in? Sorry couldn't resist....