Progression. Making progress, moving forward, upward, there is even a great video series from Fatsands on kiteboarding progression. Well I’ve progressed in my kiteboarding skills. No not rad kiteloops like Lenten does wherever he goes but jumping both directions. Like many others I learned to jump better in one direction. For me this was when I was traveling left foot forward. Anytime I tried to jump with my right foot forward, I usually got a rotation and landed on my side or back.

Well on Friday we had a beautiful day at the Secret spot. Wind was very steady about 15 knots and blowing from the SE. It was easy to stay upwind on 16m C kite. A perfect setup to progress! So every time I came close to shore, I tried a jump with my right foot forward. Initially they were small ones but I got the feel for the jump and the timing down. As I did more I started to try more aggressive jumps until I pulled off 3 or 4 that were as high as I can jump with my left foot forward. I was stoked!

Even worked on back rolls a bit too. I’ll keep you posted on the progression that happens with them, and riding toeside both ways.

Hurray! Kited again today! That’s two days in a row. Might not be a big thing for some folks but it is awesome for me when you have a day job. Daylight Savings Time helps for sure!

I went back to the same spot as yesterday. I was the only one there so I had to self launch and self land. It was solid 12m wind today. Waves were about a metre high and the wind was gusty also. I got to ride some waves in several times and once I got in the lee of the jetty, the water was really smooth except for the waves.

To land I self rescued about 3 line lengths from shore - the fifth line really helps for this and I was able to keep the kite above the water enough that it did roll.

I’m tired - did a fitness class today at work in addition to kiting two days in a row.

Other folks were out in Toronto. The waves were fairly big there and folks were having fun in them.

Horray! The wind and the temperature co-operated today and got a great 3 hour session in at Oshawa. Two other guys out - Hobie wins dibbs on being the first kiter out at the spot. Cram was busting some nice moves. I guess the trip to the BVI’s helped!

It was a beautiful day @ 13 deg C and water temperature of 2 degrees. It was sunny so I was quite comfortable in my 5/3 steamer. Gloves and booties were necessary. The wind was about 15 knots or so. It went up and down a bit but I was fine on my 16m C kite.
This location has a jetty and with an easterly wind, you get a nice flat spot in behind the pier. I was able to do some nice heelside to toeside transitions in the flatwater. Also some jumps. Nice to be tired at night because you kited!

I tried Cram’s 12m Boxer SLE today. I was impressed! Flying it 1 to 1 and there was a lot of power in it. Almost as much as my 16m Boxer (2006). It was very easy to go upwind. I felt in some ways like I was cheating - I didn’t have to edge very much and was shooting upwind. I would like to try it when the water is warmer so I can try some jumps.

It looks like the forecast is good here tomorrow - I won’t be able to get out until after work. Will have to see what the weather is like.

Down in Hatteras and doing what is the toughest thing for a person that kiteboards - Waiting for wind! We got here Saturday and this huge high pressure system has come overhead and the wind is not even enough for our 16m kites. What a drag….

I got out for late afternoon session on Saturday but it ended up being a downwinder to the first turnout from our beach house. Spent Saturday afternoon at Jockey’s Ridge testing out one person’s new Eclipse Chamileon 7m kite. Fun little kite to fly and did some kite loops with it. Dimitri was there and let us fly a 16m Thruster. Kite flew nicely and did turn very fast. Interesting for me to fly the kite considering I fly 5 line C kites right now.

We will probably go to Kite Point today and see if there is enough wind to hack around on surfboards. I really need a bigger light wind board than my 139 cm Haze. Something a bit wider!

Got out for a short 3 hour session Saturday. Was it my last water session of 2006?

I’ve been trying to get out for a session for a month now. Either the weather hasn’t co-operated or work has got in the way. The forecast for Sauble Beach was for SW winds increasing to 20 knots by early afternoon. Plus the air temperature was supposed to get to 10 degrees C - very warm for southern Ontario! I headed out and got to Sauble about 1230 hrs. The wind had picked up and was blowing around 10 knots. Because of the forecast, I decided to rig my 12m instead of my 16m so I would have room for the wind to pick up. Unfortunately the wind did not pick up and peaked around 12 knots.

I did get up and ride a bit but it was hard to stay upwind. It was just good to be out on the water and fly the kite. Water temperature was probably around 6 degrees C. I was warm in my 5/3 steamer, gloves and booties.

Rain? Snow? Not go kiteboarding?

Saturday Oct 14th

Well it has been quite a week in the Southern Ontario region for weather this last week. Because of a large low pressure system near Hudson Bay, the wind has been blowing near gale force since Wednesday. Our friends in Buffalo NY got 20 inches of snow! Temperatures have been below freezing at night and when I was work Wednesday afternoon I saw my first snow flurries!

The forecast for my favourite spot at Sauble Beach, ON was for gusty winds and cool temperatures - below 10 deg C. When I woke up Saturday morning, ikitesurf indicated that the winds were blowing about 25 knots with gusts to 30. The wind was forecasted to decrease over the day. So I set out for Sauble from Pickering. In the almost 3 hour drive, I went through several snow squalls and rain showers on the way up.

When I got to the beach it was an interesting drive out on the beach. Normally you can drive your car on dry sand out about .5 of a km from the road. This time though the road was covered with water! I don’t have a 4X4 so I took it real slow and managed to get out to a dry spot. Most of the beach was covered with water due to the very strong winds pushing the water in on to the beach. The beach is very flat here.

I was the only one on the beach. I took out the wind meter and did some measurements. The wind was blowing WNW from 12 to 25 mph. In addition there were some large lake effect snow squalls coming in off the lake. One squall had gusts up to 42 mph! Not something that you would want to get caught out on the water with your kite. Since the forecast was for the wind to drop a bit, I decided to wait around to see what happened.

While I was waiting, another couple of guys showed up and waited around for a bit and then left thinking they would come back later. I have a Blackberry that I have internet access on so I was reading the kiteforum and checking the wind on ikitesurf. From 1200 - 1430 hrs, 3 big snow squalls came through with wind shifts and very high gusts. One nice thing about this location is that you could see the squalls coming 15 minutes before they hit. During that time I also read the unfortunate news that a kiter had been injured at Cherry Beach in Toronto on Thursday. Added to my sense of being very careful about going out.

At 1430 hrs, no more squalls were evident and the wind had settled down a bit to 17 - 25 mph. So I decided to pump up my 9m kite and get ready to kite. I got everything ready and for those interested I was wearing a 5/3 wetsuit with full booties and 2mm neoprene gloves. Oh and my standard equipment - a helmet. If you are reading this and new into kiteboarding, wear a helmet! You only have one head even if you don’t like the way it looks!

I self launched and got the kite into the sky and walked out. You have to walk about 200 meters out into the water before you have enough water to safety kite. I got going and had a great 2 hour session! Wind was gusty but quite manageable on my 9m Boxer C kite. Like I always do, here are the things I got out of my session.

1. I made sure that I kept a frequent check on what the sky / weather was like behind me. When you are kiting any dodgy weather will come from behind you. I made the decision before I went out, that if I saw a squall heading anywhere close to where I was kiting, I get in and get the kite secured ASAP. Had I been at a beach where the water was deep, I don’t think I would have gone out. I knew that at any point, I would be able to hit my 5th line on the kite and be safe.

2. Hands get cold! It’s inportant to keep them moving. After about an hour I noticed that my hands were cold in my gloves. The fingers were slightly numb. It was similar to what I experience skiing on the winter first thing in the morning. I moved them around and took my front hand off the bar on some tacks. That helped them warm up.

3. When I transition and go the other way, you need to adjust which way your feet are pointed. Booties don’t help with this. I found that on my weak side, I was having problems getting enough weight on my back foot. This was happening because on the transition, I was not moving my heel towards the back of the board. Once I did this, I could put a lot more weight on my back foot.

4. Front leg should never be locked / hyper extended. I realized that I was trying to get my front leg too straight. This was putting strain on my knee. Knee needs to be slightly bent.

5. Don’t try new stuff if you are the only one out. No I didn’t do this but I was very aware I was riding alone and just worked on stuff that I had already tried and knew I could execute. Well I did try one jump. I wanted to see what the 9m kite was like to jump. It was fine - the rider didn’t do so well - around the horn!

Overall it was great to get another session in and like always I learn something from each session.

Went to explore Crystal Beach on the shores of Lake Erie. Found some great spots, wind was not the greatest but a tried some new stuff!

Saturday September 23, 2006

All week I had been watching the wind forecasts and things had looked very promising for a big wind day at my favourite place to kite Sauble Beach. However on Friday, the frontal system that was going to generate SW winds slowed down and turns out was delayed for 24 hrs. It’s very difficult for me to kite on Sundays - I’m very involved in my church.

Set the alarm for 0600 hrs and got up and checked the wind Saturday and sure enough, it wasn’t blowing at Sauble. Went back to bed and slept in until 0900 hrs. When I checked the wind forecast, it seemed have some promise for spots on eastern Lake Erie around Crystal beach. I decided to go on an exploratory journey down there and see the spots and hopefully kite.

Crystal Beach is about a 1.5 hr drive from Pickering where I live so I got down there about 1200 hrs. Using some info from a site I managed to find 3 beaches down there. Two were sandy beaches with fairly wide launch areas and one was quite rocky with limestone shale and bigger rocks in the water. After cruising around for an hour, I decided to go back to the one called Thunder Bay.

Conditions were quite gusty and the wind was from the west and forecasts indicated that the wind would swing to the SW and increase. Because I was only one on the beach, I decided to rig my 12m kite. I knew I might be a bit underpowered in the lulls but was more concerned about the gusts.

Turns out that the wind did not increase and the 12m was not enough to stay upwind. I had some fun though doing some downwind work and playing in the small waves. It was good practice trying to get my 139 cm board planing in low wind conditions. In the lulls I worked on keeping the kite in the air and walking back up the beach.

On one of the walks up the beach I thought hey it would be cool to try flying my kite unhooked to see what the feel of it was and to try a kiteloop! I did both - yahoo!

It was interesting to feel the full pull of the kite when I was unhooked. The kiteloop generated a lot of power and dragged me a bit. I did this without the board well out from the shore.

It made me realize though that I had started unconsciously “steering” the bar when I turned the kite. This is not a good idea if you are going to do a kiteloop as I was tempted to followed the bar around with my steering.

So what did I learn from this less than epic session? Plenty. I found some new places to ride. Also I got to work on flying my kite in low wind, flying the kite unhooked and tried my first kiteloop.