Notes from a few more sessions
- 60L board is 10x more fun and 10x harder to get going than the DW board. I find it as difficult to stinkbug start as a 44L board, only benefit is I can get it going in lighter winds. On flat water it is easy though, and surprised how little wind I need with a 4m. 15kn initially would have guessed impossible but waiting for a gust and hammering away you can get it up.
- Getting a real kite vibe - wind too light, gusty, too this or that, the only difference being that I can wing in a spot that wouldn’t even be at all viable with any other wind sport. Maybe a paradox here is that you’ll always be at the margin of what is viable. Winging has made it possible to get that “marginally viable kite waiting for wind all day” feeling at a spot that otherwise would be suicidal on a kite. Far better though because you can deal with most conditions other than massive breaking waves.
- Riding bumps is super fun on the smaller board. I’ve managed a few long sequence of linking bumps just pumping, and it is great DW practice in otherwise useless conditions.
- Riding waves is also super fun. I’ve struggled to find the right combination, and waves feel way bigger with the wing. Getting out through shorebreak is a complete pain, and I can see how that quickly leads to trashed wings.
- The conditions behind the breakwater in the original post are just terrible, swell, bumps and reverb all coming from 3 different directions. Occasionally a clean bump comes through and you can ride it.
- Riding switch is a struggle, but tacks are getting clean and make the whole thing much easier
On the whole I’m pushing ahead. Have bought a used 5m v2 strike to deal with the lighter flukey winds which is really great.
Today had the longest session yet, 3 hours of riding bumps downwind, some cautious wave riding at a beach break that closes out and had flukey wind and then a massive slog back to the start, this at a spot that is ridiculously not at all good wind spot as it sits in the lee of a huge cliff (see point 2 above), but still managed to make it work by waiting for a gust to get going and then on the way back working the wind shifts
One question to the experts: I was with a friend, wind ~25kn.
Their setup: brand new 3m matador, f-one eagle 1090, small tail and alu mast
My setup: 2 season 4m mantis (v2). progression 140, katana mast and marlin 14"
They were able to point a bit higher than me on one of the longer tacks, and this on my strong tack and their weak tack. I’ve been winging about twice as long (not very long) and we both kited sailed and windsurfed so know how to work upwind. I felt pretty overpowered and had to let the power off quite a bit.
Is their pointing angle due to the new wing?