man i had a hell (in an bad way not a good way) session on sunday. I was attemping to kite inland on a horse racecourse. wind was coming from inland and it was lumpy as hell. anything from 15 to 30 knots.

i thought what the hell the venom is a gusty mucher.

the wind was shifting about 20 degrees from gust to gust. The gust/lull where slaming in instandly.

needless to say it took me about 45 mins to solo launch the beast with multiple bowties and even one inverted flight. once i got it it the air it was super hard to control.

after a couple of unwanted loftings and a slam and drag down the feild i thought stuff this pulled the safety packed up and went home.

While it's definitely true that all twinskins eat up all kinds of gusty lumpy winds, there is a limit. I remember many inland norwest sessions when safetys have been pulled!

I find the smaller the kite, the easier it is to ride out gusts with. Partially because you aren't overpowered in the nuking gusts and partially because you are able to put the kite where you need it almost instantly. A 2m bridled foil in 10-35knot southerly gusts is insanely fun.

What size venom were you on?

10m venom.

so 30 knots is stupidly powered 17 knots is to the low end but still powered.

truly i couldn't see a fixed bridle staying up in those conditions.

the morrel of the story was go home.

some conditions are not for kiting.

i think the wind shifts was the big thing gusts hitting the kite from various different angles.

anyway it wasn't fun and wouldn't have been any more fun on a 2m kite. i'll stick to onshore winds at the beach..... alot more fun.

Just depends on how ballsy/prepared to get hurt you are. You're right though... it's best just to pull the safety and head home... I used to have a couple of sessions like this every year, although I hardly kite in conditions like this any more...

However, I do know of people that have done it successfully, and some who still do it.

Those kinda conditions are able to be kited successfully with a 10m venom, but you've gotta remain 100% focussed on the kite, be prepared to ride out the gusts (read: hold your ground after loftings), have all straps fully let out and some extra throw on the bar is a good idea too. Short lines make it easier as well. (15-20m).

Kiting gusty wind is just shows how hardcore you are

:wink:

Cheers, Will

you gotta keep the kite moving when it's like that, it's all about airspeed - keep the air flowing over the kite, punch through the lulls, be locked in and ready for the gusts. you can't faff around with the kite parked, launch, get on your board and go!

there's always limit though - sounds like you'd found it

can be fun for those lofty double lift jumps where the gust kicks in halfway through though *don't try this at home.

in this instance i had 80 meters either side me from the middle of the feild until i hit a 5 foot high fence not to mention goal posts every where. not ideal in shitty conditions. i handle these type of conditions way better on the beach where these a run out if a gust and sends you speeding off.

thing that annoyed me the most was the 50 mins to solo launch..... arse.

sounds like a bad day if the venom is not totally inflated it does all those horrible things and more making it tough to get going, but i think it was more about the inland location than anything else . land makes the wind from zero to hero in the worst way totally unpredictable and too dangerous for me most of the time, if there is a Fup i want it to be my fault not a freak gust if possible

ah....

packing up the venom today and discovered one of the carbon spars split and had. probably happened during one of the take of the bad take offs.

hm......

probably the venom was behaving badly because the spar was broken.... aswell as the bad conditions.....