Stockton Beach this Saturday all welcome!
Tides are low 0.30 of a meter at 1.40 pm, Saturday Outlook: Wind: S/SE 10/20 knots. About as good as it gets.
Ill be right up the Birubi end just under the surf club from 10.30 you will be able to buggy from then onwards, if you don't have a 4wd, there is a carpark there and a 30 meter walk to put up your kite and you are away.
Be good to catch up with some flyers.
Cheers
Luke
G'day Luke
Jon and myself are both coming up, we have hired a semi trailer to bring the Libre Dragster!
Bring all the tools to dial it in although from the short run I had in it at Wanda last week its going to be Ok to ride as is. We may drop the camber back a bit from where it is now thats all.
Really hoping I can get a run down to the wreck and back, have not done that for a few years now.
We hope to be there by 10 -10.30 too, packing the ute tonight and leaving around 7ish, so might see you on the road!
Room for one, maybe two people in the ute, call Kitepower today, if you want a lift up. Must be able to get gear to Kitepower by tonight (anytime), and meet at Kitepower at 7.30am'ish
Cya and
Goodwinds
Steve
Most excellent Steve.
I will be leaving Sydney about the same time. will definitely be at Birubi by 10.30am
Cheers
Luke
Quick report - it was excellent!
But the wind was a bit light peaking around 12 knots at various times IMO. Mostly around 8-10 knots ESE to E, but starting off SW.
With a super low tide we had tons of beach, and I was able to make it all the way down to the Cigna shipwreck, and enjoyed an average or around 45kph all the way back (approx 25klms one way).
Managed to get snagged an avoid being hooked by some drunk fisherman who had tangled line and hooks laid out behing their rods, as in upwind of them and their gear, grrr.
Lots of stupid people around, I mean really stupid as in one bunch in black xtrail softroader, 20 klms from the Anna bay entrance, driving in the water pulling friends on a boogie board, the car will be stuffed and if they did bog it then it would be a total loss, because the tide was on the way in.
Approx 12 or some people turned up, and there was a collection of buggies and landboards, as well as people just learning the ropes and static flying.
Luke was a bit underpowered, but still putting on an excellent demonstration of skill and control, love the backwards transition spins.
I was able to match Luke for speed and power as I had a 10M Flysurfer Speed2 and Luke had his 12M
The Libre Dragster buggy is amazing, so comfortable, solid, smooth, and stable. It feels like it would be possible to do 100kph in this thing no problem and no mods.
I have set the buggy with no toe in, and a minor amount of negative camber, I'm guessing a few degrees, maybe 5 max. Turning circle is surprisingly tight for such a large buggy and at no time did I feel it was big and cumbersome (except dragging it to the acr over soft sand!)
Other large depower kites that we had and were performing well were the Manta1 10M and the Frenzy FX 9M, as well as a 4.9 Blade4. The Blade4, 4.9 performance made us think we should have had an 8.5 there as well?
Awesome day and looking forward to the May weekend!! Big thanks to Aaron and Jon for helping out with all the gear.
Cya and
Goodwinds
Steve
Even without the wind it was a great day.
Stoked to see some new faces arriving on the scene, the guy in the white T-shirt, who jumped in a buggy for the first time and proceeded to put up a 10 meter Manta, and go up and down the beach....... dude, your a natural, suggest you get some gear asap haven't seen that kind of natural talent for a long time. Congrats.
Steves libre buggy is......... big? thats one way of describing it, it should have a coffee machine on the back so you can pull up behind it and make one heading down the beach. Nice looking buggy its just huge.
Aarons first effort with a depower basically went like this. He was flying down the beach, kite set and have never seen him go so fast. His first attempt at depower was a 10 meter manta I am really stoked to see him using big powerful kites a fantastic effort.
Jon spent most the day on the 10 meter flysurfer Speed 2 and practically used my own words once I had flown one a couple of times "geeze, I think i should have bought one of these instead" ha ha ha sweet kite, sweet ride.
For me, as steve said, the wind was a tad light, still had a great time but jumping was an uphill battle, an extra 3 knots would have had me sorted with some floaty hang time, next time :)
As for the other new people that showed up, I speak for all us regular flyers its awesome to see new people getting into the sport, and we are all really looking forward to the Kitepower Demo weekend in early may with the amount of people showing interest its going to be HUGE.
Cheers
Luke
ps...... I notice a trend towards much bigger kites lately which illustrates the fact that land kiting in general is producing much more experienced flyers opening up new doors on the kind of gear that is being used......
Supersize me! Nice guys
Hi guys,
It's nice to hear you had a good turn out, shame about the wind though.
Had intentions of going but a big night at one of my daughter's birthday on Friday, woke up late, and a self indulgent head didn't do me any favours.
But will definitely be there in May.
Also sorry to ring so late Steve thought it was earlier, Andrew's mobile phone had changed from daylight save time.
cya next time
jd
Things have come a long way in the last 10 years Luke for sure, and now there is no reason for a serious landkiter to have a 10M depowerable kite. If you wanted to have a 10M kite 10+ years ago then you had only one choice really and that was a 2 line PL Peel, which were always trying to kill their owners! LOL's
The Libre is HUGE for sure, but I am not getting a coffee machine Luke, maybe a water purifier. If I got a coffee machine I would have to get a fridge too and all those jugs and cups would rattle around, so its out of the question ok?
The Libre does not feel so big, I was easily able to handle it in tight spots, its slides easily under power, although you can feel the weight. However, it is silent to ride, no squeeks, rattles and wobbles like my old buggy. It also tracks like its on rails and points high into the wind, like no other buggy I have used.
Next time I am going to experiment with smaller barrow size wheels, for no reason other than curiosity.
The Eurotrax bigfoot and bigfoot light combo I have now is very nice and will handle 60-70kph no worries, and thats all I really need.
I ran the rear bigfoots at 8PSI and the front bigfoot light at 12PSI, and that worked well, its was like riding a suspension buggy.
@jdhot - No worries John, bummer you missed the end of the daylight savings summer period, next time for sure eh?
No worries about the call, my silly phone did that too, but I knew I had no chance to make it just by the angle of the sun. I do want to get out to Riverwood, Rooty Hill, and the area near the Olympic stadium. Yesterday morning would have been excellent at Wanda except the tide was wrong nice SE blowing, more today I think?
Cya and
Goodwinds
Steve
