Got back from European Travels where I was cursed with wishy washy winds. In my bag a Charger 10 (only used at a demo by a very light lady in Italy).
Back in Cannon Rocks (home)… Can’t wait to try these new kites.  After a few days the wind finally came to the party. 20 – 25 knots Westerly. I Launched the Charger 10, then wanted to land it to check some settings… Helper missed the kite and it dragged along the beach… Ripps on the only rock to be seen for miles… Bugger! But, It’s a Peter Lynn, so easy fix. Some tape and off I went.

Man this kite is dynamite! My first few jumps, the timing was totally out… Kept crashing because the kite just surprised me in speed. It was like being on a Synergy 8 or smaller….  I might put that kite on a shorter bar. I did have it on the fastest turning settings. So will try some different settings next time. It’s a very smooth kite which responds to every bar input.

Was nice to be back on familiar shores, even though we did have quite a current running with the wind… Difficult to try any unhooked stuff. But the kite seems to have good pop, The little that I tried. However one needs to get used to the responsiveness on the bar. It’s gonna be an easy kite to loop.

Because of the current, boards almost got lost… Thanks to Michelle for kiting down wind to look for my board, and Hudson who drove….

Friday is looking good for an easterly session… Hope to have (the fixed) 10 up again and try some kite loops.

Till next one…

Ced

Last Week End was the Oxbow Kite Race in Knokke Duinbergen on the Belgian coast line… Being in Belgium I decided to hook up with the Peter Lynn team  in Den Haag and travel with them to the comp.

Was great to catch up with Gunnar and meet the people behind the emails.

Getting to belgium was uneventful. The forecast unfortunatly was not great and got progressively worse.

On Saturday, the wind got up to a max of 7/8 knots. just enough to fly the new Charger 15, but not enough to test it in anyway. It behaved like any kite with little wind.

So we did some demos with the impulse teaching people how to fly kites…

On Sunday the situation was even worse. So much so that the Organizers decided to run a Canoe race. Myself and Gunnar entered and managed to come 3rd. It was all done in good humour and got us to spend some energy!

By then it was obvious that the wind was not going to join us… So the price giving was announced. Amazing to see in such trying economic times so many wonderful prices up for grabbs. From Race boards to wetsuits. Everyone got something!

A big thank you to Matthias for running such an amazing contest. I really hope that they get some wind next time…

The Charger
I now have some pre-production Chargers with me and am heading to Italy for some Demo sessions with them. I hope I manage to at least fly them in some decent conditions. If not, I look forward to being back in Cannon Rocks with them and really getting stuck in!

Till next post

Ciao

Ced

All pics courtesy of Antoine Rose www.coolpix.be

Hi

Here is a new Video from the left over footage from the last summer (South Hemisphere) in Cannon Rocks.
I edited it while I was in Cape Town. I am now in Europe getting ready for the competition in Belgium on the 27th 28th. Will be blogging about that soon.

Enjoy the vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSBtK4iYGuM

Ced