A quick note regarding a sobering lesson i was dealt over the weekend regarding gusty onshore wave riding...

As we all know last Sunday was a classic MF gusty NNE...
...Shaan and i wisely decided that there was little point in joining the masses at orewa (as we have enbough of that road/pole rage, getting to the rat trap during the week) and it was teeming full cats and dogs, with no fox's in sight, so offf north it was, in search of a smile from the Gods.

We actually did score some good conditions and there was significant motion in the ocean to carve a few turns.

All seemed to be in our favour when teh Sun actually broke through and the peeling lips came alive in beautiful blue green. It was at this moment that my dream was extinguished with a sudden slapping.

I had jibed onto a nice set wave that was peeling well overhead and managed to line up a great section and proceeded to crank the lip for all i was worth. Unfortunately the conditions, being very gusty had other ideas for my mortal soul. As i wound off the breaking section i sailed into a big lull but could do nothing as the lip tweaked me down the full face of the wave, directly under my luffing rag. i had enough momentum to bottom turn but to no avail as my 10 m raven dropped into the impect zone. Immediatly 'my' wave showed me who's boss by sucking my sorry ass over the falls and into a birds nest of spectra line!!

I surfaced just in time to see 'my' wave engulf the kite and yank me through the water with lines all around my waist. Luckilly my harness took most of the tangle and my new winter suit was not shredded. At this moment the kite started to relaunch and i just managed to grab the 5th line (about 5-7 metres up the lines by thie time) and hual like my life depended on it (which it actually did!). The kite still boosted me a little way but luckilly i had enough 5th line (about 1.5m) to take most of its life and it dropped back into the shore break...

Only after strugling back to the beach still wrapped in kite lines (with only a few retirees and their grand kids wacthing my plight with modest interest), and still grasping the 5th line with white knuckles, i began to untangle myself.

After a couple of days of reflection a have realised what a lucky MF i am to be riding a 5 line system and my old 4 line setups would have surely meant a long painful trip to the hospital or worse!! The ONLY reason i got off unscathed was that i could grab the 5th line and haul it in only a few feet to depower my kite at that critical moment...

...Thank the gods for progressive and on to it designers, who keep upgrading our sport so that we may continue to walk on water and experience natures energy purely, uniquely and as no other generation has been capable!!!

Have Fun
Armie...

nice effort my son. however i do recall you making very disparaging remarks about your five-line system on the way home and how you wished for the simpler days of old.

this was well illustrated by the 46 minutes it took you to join me on the water and then the 1.25 hours it took you to sort your game out after taking one on the head. result: approximately 25 minutes of wave combat compared to my approx 3 hours.

as i recall you were also rambling on about your rarotongan magic mushroom experiences so i took what you were saying no more seriously than usual.

That is as usual your own twisted take on things.

As i mentioned in my above spiel it was only after a few days reminiscing that it became clear how close to the line i had come.. True... another line does take a little more time to rig but my enlightened conclusion is that for most kooks (like me) it is time well spent!!! ,
also teh kites feel really stable and are great to fly!!! -

PS i do recall having to save your rag from said shore break and relaunch after a gust coused the old technology to wobble like a jellyfish...

aloha to the designers!!!

that's because i was kiting in 40 knots with a 9m while you were faffing about with string on the beach.

you yourself (in a lucid moment) even acknowledged the conditions were so brutal you were purposefully stalling before you entered the fray.

and another thing if i flew your sorry ass around the sky while negotiating 10 foot rollers at warp nine, i suspect you'd get a bit wobbly also, even if i was running a fifth line off your nose ring.