night (mare) session at Calhoun

[fabrino]

so the forecast for today looked very good.. free up my morning and show up @ calhoun at 10am.. forecast 15kn.. reality: totally calm..
ok so go to work and plan a night session..arrive @ Calhoun around 10pm.. forecast 20-30 kn.. reality:5kn ??????
pump my 12 anyway (beautiful and warm night) and wait for the wind.. sit around for 20 mins or so and feel some wind coming pretty much straight N...
start cruising around, trying some jumps.. surface very soft, having lots of fun...
but in 5 mins the session turns pretty nightmarish.. in 5 seconds the wind go from 10/15 to 30 knots..
pull depower, hold the hedge like crazy.. then 5kn lull and new gust 30 knots form a completely different direction.. then no wind.. kite falls from the sky, then hot launches on another 30kn gust...
then 5 knots again.. craaaaazy... now i am not an expert by any means but I have been kiting on the snow for 4 years and this is the worst conditions I have kited in..
had a been out in this condition as a newbie I would have surely done some damage....
also being alone at night made it a bit too dangerous..
so go back to my ice screw pack up and go home..
makes you think though...kiting is a fantastic sport but, unlike other sports, things can turn ugly in a heartbeat...
I always need to be aware of that..

Good night MN kiters...

[Drvermin]

White Bear kicked my butt Friday afternoon. Nice steady winds, all is well for over and hour, riding a Turbine and just as I am about to head in, I get pummeled with a super strong gust that blows me past my vehicle at light speed. I got dragged over an ice road and had to drop 3' down onto the smooth ice and then get hammered going back up 3' on the others side. Why I did not bite it right there is some kind of miracle. I turn 180 to head back to my vehicle and I get hammered again. This time in no time I am heading towards shore at light speed. I crank the kite hard and set it down on the ice and punch out the QR so I can get full depower. After catching my breath I think, "should have quit 10 minutes ago." My GoPro captured the whole thing and upon viewing it my daughter said "don't show that to mom." LOL

[jrjohnson1]

Drvermn, glad you're okay, but can you please show that footage to us?!

[pongnut]

Yeah, that's a huge tease Drvermin - "My GoPro captured the whole thing and upon viewing it my daughter said "don't show that to mom." "... share the pain please...

[Drvermin]

Yeah, that's a huge tease Drvermin - "My GoPro captured the whole thing and upon viewing it my daughter said "don't show that to mom." "... share the pain please...

I can't seem to find the unedited video that has the full fun and frivolity, but you can watch my edited one. Pay attention to about 2:35 on the time clock. I was NOT intending to go past my 4-Runner and take that hard right turn towards it. You can see the road right about where the kite first set down, but then the wind caught it and sent it sailing and headed me back towards the SW and towards shore at a speed I was WAY uncomfortable with. I'll keep looking for the raw video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu4vTSde4nc

[Matt V]

Love the vid! Would love to see the kitemare even more. Hope you find it. Glad you survived and really glad that your kite friends did not have to split up your gear.

This reminds me that I need to watch the first part of Empire like 10 times to get ready for the kite meet. Compared to what we have down here in Omaha, Mille is going to be just like Hoth.

[StrutWear]

Drvermin,
I have just started using the camrig myself. Do you have any tricks to get the best footage while using it that you have learned along the way? Your video seemed pretty smooth, but that might be youtubes stabilizing feature (works very well). Are you also using an editing program to flip over the footage when it records upside down?

thanks!

[Drvermin]

That was my first and only use of the CamRig. Slopecat has borrowed it from me and I need to get it back from him. It worked like a dream. I only used one of the green clips to hold it on the string, that way it could slide if necessary. I use GoPro's studio program for working up the video and it is slick and easy to use. Slipping the video is a simple one click process. Adding music and comments was very easy.

[StrutWear]

Only one of the green clips? So is it just kind of hanging there from one line? or do you mean one clip for each side? I was told that the 720 res and 60 fps works well. I used those settings once and had good luck with it. I find that these cameras are very touchy as to what settings to use on a clear day vs a cloudy day. and many other variables.

[Drvermin]

The strings pass parallel and up through a set of "fingers" that wrap around the lines. They are at the 4 corners of the CamRig. They ship 4 green clips, one at each corner, but one does not need that many. One is plenty, and that gets attached to the fixed central line. The sliding central line needs to stay movable and so no clips are needed on that side of the CamRig.

This video explains it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFWxQ6AcgfA