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Fuel Vs. X3(saxat från kiteforum)
Lite trevlig läsning så här i vintermörkret…
This kite rocks.
Coming from Naish X3’s I thought my big air days were over but a new world of easier tech tricks was about to begin. The tricks are definately easier, but yesterday I scared myself senseless and got the biggest jump of my life on the new 11m fuel.
These kites may not be high AR, but they turn quick and that translates to pop. I was out very overpowered in nearly 30knots in super steady wind in waves at Sandy Point and let it rip and got some monster jumps. Like REALLY monster jumps. I had to come in and recover because I was freaking out (and overpowered!). My friends on the beach were freaking out too and they have seen me get some serious air plenty of times.
So don’t think lower AR will hold you back!
And then today I was out on the speed course at Sandy Point. The Macquarie / Endeavor (whatever its called) fixed wing trimaran thingy was getting prepared to better the world speed sailing record which it set a few years ago. They are trying to break 50 knots over the next 4 weeks. They had the course set up and all these little wind detectors everywhere, and then decided the wind had gone too SE. So I had the inlet to myself (and one other kiter).
If you have never been to Sandy Point, it has a 2km long sand spit with rock steady wind coming straight over from bass straight. There is a gentle curve so you go further and further downwind as you make your way down the course. The water is like butter and you can reach out and touch the sand at the waters edge as you blast along.
I thought it felt like 25 knots + and was well powered on the 11, but the techies with their monitoring set-up said 21.
I never thought I would be so scared going in a straight line. I was riding my little 140 mutant flat and was going so fast I had one fin and about 2 inches of board in the water. I thought it was going to flip over on me and get airborne the whole time. The faster you go the more power you get. And if you sheet your kite out you just seem to go faster. its really like nothing else. You can feel so much power and have so little board in the water so balance becomes a major issue and you get pretty tired legs after a few runs.
I have done it windsurfing before, but it’s much scarier on a kite. And I reckon you can go nearly as fast but you need bigger balls for sure. I didn’t wipe out but it would be easy too, and you wouldn’t stop in a hurry going that fast with that much power. it really feels like you could break your neck if you got it wrong.
Anyway, the point of all this is to say that the lower AR kite wasn’t holding me back. I am sure the X3 is a faster kite (I never tried that there) but my trusty SS fuel can go much faster than I care to take it. I was actually keeping it a little high because I was shitting my pants. I was still cranking faster than the other kiter though so it wasn’t like I was going slow.
The SS was a perfectly balanced and awesome kite.
Doing one of these runs as fast as you can go tires you out a bit. So every secord run I was carving upwind at the sand spit and jumping at the last minute, landing and then jumping again. Kind of like jumping at the point at Le Meridian in Noumea but then after you land you can do it again and again. I was getting maybe 10 big jumps one after the other all the way down the course and half the time you are in the air just over the edge of the sand. beleive it or not this was much less tiring than trying to just go fast!
It’s worth a visit to Sandy Point if you havn’t bee there. Go when it is SE-SW.
Tja det är väl bara och packa väskan och dra dit då ? ; )
//Pan
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2 Svar
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det va ss fuel 2004 right?
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jepp… och det ar en grymm skillnad mot 03 ; )
//Pan
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