Just got back from the most peaceful place on earth, Aitutaki. 5 hours flight north of NZ, A small island in the middle of the ocean protected by a barrier reef with scattered islands across the lagoon with clumps of palms in the middle. We arrived to trade winds South easterlies of 18-28knots varying day to day, It was Epic. I was there a similar time last year and had the same conditions, wind everyday! A group came with us for instruction, some from scratch and some that could ride and wanted to lean back rolls, kite-loops, & passes etc. We were on Aitutaki for 7 days then off to Rarotonga.

Only 2000 people populate the main island with a very basic lifestyle. It’s a great place to escape to away from the comforts and discomforts of city life. It hasn’t taken off as a huge kite destination but it looks like it will be as more people come back stoked with their trip. That’s the beauty of it at the moment, it is so untouched and it can be just you and your friends with all the paradise to yourself. The conditions are world class flat water with smooth offshore winds, with safe places to end up if you have a major problem with a tangle of some sort. The only thing I wish it had was natural kicker’s, flat water can get boring after awhile, there was a little bit of chop but not enough to class as a kicker.

The highlight of the trip for me was a session at 1pm after a few whiskies and beers, We had a full moon, 18knots, low tide and smooth sandy flat bottom, throwing tricks in the dark is amazing, its all done on feeling, amazing sensation. 4 of us stayed out till 2pm after a hard days kite and then had to wake up the next morning to do it all again!

We finished the trip off in Rarotonga, We didn’t get much in the way of wind, I had some sick sessions there last year, but it didn’t produce this time round, I got one session in but it was too weak. A few guys had a crack over the next couple of days and failed. So we resorted to chilling and climbing the biggest mountain on the island, which I thought was pretty intense, I got told yesterday by a student I taught that many people have died climbing that mountain because they didn’t have a guide, neither did we, Haha.

Above: Weathercam out in his back garden in Worthing.

As wind users, the development of our ongoing relationship with wind (our eternal free energy source) is important. Some of us are happy to check windguru every now and then to see whats happening with the wind, but there are others that turn the weather into an obsession.

“Weathercam” as he is known around these ways is somewhat a local Celebrity. With a weather service taking in way over a hundred thousand hits a month it seems he might be the person to help us with our understanding of wind especially the south coast of England.

WM: Why do you have a weather station?

WC: I originally set up a weather station when I was commuting up to the smoke every day from Worthing so whilst at work in London I could check on how windy it actually was rather than ringing up every half hour or so to check – this was in the very early days of the internet in the days of 14.4 modems – there were no other weather sites as such as this was very much a first in the UK, I later introduced the webcam image which was obviously then a static image, in fact I still say I coined the phrase “WeatherCam”….

Below: A typical Day for Weathercam, At least a 20 mile round trip, try that on a kite!

WM: Realistically how far can we look ahead to plan a day’s kitesurfing?

WC: Really does depend on how vigorous the Atlantic depressions are tracking across and how frequent they are. If we only have the occasional one, then as we all know sometimes they can track further North than was forecast / expected and be gone within 24hrs and in that case here on the South Coast we can loose out.

However we can get periods when the Lows are lining up in the Atlantic one after the other and they are further South with the centre of the low maybe over Cornwall with the bottom half tracking up through the Bay of Biscay, then we can be sure maybe 5 days in advance of what will happen. Anything beyond 5 days as well all know it not cast in stone!

WM: When is the windiest month on the south coast?

WC: I know most will think it must be the months of the Spring / Autumn Equinox but one reason I never go away in July is that its always seems to be windy every day, and the stats very much support this. Ok it might not be outrageously windy but it is constant

WM: Without looking at a forecast or outside, can you wake up and sense a seabreeze?

WC: I can’t sit up in bed and say “Hello I think we’re on for a sea breeze” but in the morning after walking the dogs up to the Café and back by the time I get back I can have a reasonable feeling without seeing a forecast.

Below: Weathercam out in a ‘big one’ F8+ Worthing.

WM: How far out does a seabreeze work?

WC: Mmmm not too sure about that, I’ve been a fair way out the back, say a couple of miles and there’s been no significant difference in wind strength, even as far as the buoy off Rustington which is around 4 miles.

WM: What time does a seabreeze hit its peak?

WC: I think it very much depends on what month we’re in. Middle of June sees the longest days & sea is colder, so it might be warmer at say 11:00 am than maybe in August/September. The wind does seem to peak between 15:30 – 16:30 and again in June it seems to last longer in the day whereas in Aug / Sept that’s when we see the 19:00 drop.

WM: Did you know Seebreeze is an anogram of See Zebra but is this meteoritic phenomenon so black and white?

WC: Well I’ll be……………..

WM: Whats your favorite wind direction and why?

WC: Not the best of directions for kiters here at Worthing, as it tends to be very gusty, but a strong W’ly or even WNW’ly which is best for providing good Down the Line riding (DTL), that’s if we get the waves!!

I’d also add that it’s only in the past year or so that we’ve really had access to data on the JetStream and I’ve been looking at the position of the JetStream on days when we get a strong sea breeze and there does seem to be a direct relationship. That said I still love it when we get a totally unexpected breeze kick in, and you yourself, say “Where did that come from?”

WM: Thanks for your time WC.

Running, Windsurfing, Snowboarding Hiking and Biking are all part of the typical Weathercam day but the fun doesn’t just stop there, even “Poochie” the Jack Russel gets out on the water!

For More on Weathercam visit the following sites…

http://www.seaspritesports.com/weather-cams.php

http://www.anotherharddayattheoffice.co.uk/

http://www.youtube.com/user/WeatherCam

Whilst getting ready for the Redcar BKSA event I stumbled upon this turbine as I entered the supermarket car park. It got me thinking, are we all really doing everything we can to help OURSELVES and OUR planet?

Just think of all the wasted space in this world. Random corners of car parks, overhead along all our roads, roundabouts, old industrial estates and your backyard. All these can be used to harness the wind and help to reduce the impact our electricity consumption use makes on the world.

This is a great idea that puts a new slant on wind farm. Instead of taking up valuable untouched land or the great expense of installing and maintaining offshore wind farms, these turbines sit over the motorway and it is the turbulence of the passing vehicles that drive the turbines and generate the power. The idea comes from a student at Arizona State University, and each turbine would be capable of generating enough power to light up a medium sized apartment, even if the wind speed is only at a low 10 mph. Why have we not thought of using these already???

I know there is always the cost factor in implementing these sorts of small scale projects, and the ‘not in my backyard’ gang that seem to oppose anything that is a bit different, but if these ideas took off there are literally thousands of miles of roads and acres of land going to waste that could be used for potential power generation in the future!

The extraordinary true story of a Malawian teenager who transformed his village by building electric windmills out of junk is the subject of a book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

The teenager had a dream of bringing electricity and running water to his village. And he was not prepared to wait for politicians or aid groups to do it for him. The need for action was even greater in 2002 following one of Malawi’s worst droughts, which killed thousands of people and left his family on the brink of starvation.

Unable to attend school, he kept up his education by using a local library. Fascinated by science, his life changed one day when he picked up a tattered textbook and saw a picture of a windmill. “I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water. ”I thought: ‘That could be a defence against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself’.”

When not helping his family farm maize, he plugged away at his prototype, working by the light of a paraffin lamp in the evenings. But his ingenious project met blank looks in his community of about 200 people. “Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy,” he recalls. “They had never seen a windmill before.”

Shocks

Neighbours were further perplexed at the youngster spending so much time scouring rubbish tips. ”People thought I was smoking marijuana,” he said. “So I told them I was only making something for juju [magic].’ Then they said: ‘Ah, I see.’”

Mr Kamkwamba, who is now 22 years old, knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire. ”I got a few electric shocks climbing that [windmill],” says Mr Kamkwamba, ruefully recalling his months of painstaking work. The finished product – a 5-m (16-ft) tall blue-gum-tree wood tower, swaying in the breeze over Masitala – seemed little more than a quixotic tinkerer’s folly. But his neighbours’ mirth turned to amazement when Mr Kamkwamba scrambled up the windmill and hooked a car light bulb to the turbine. As the blades began to spin in the breeze, the bulb flickered to life and a crowd of astonished onlookers went wild. Soon the whiz kid’s 12-watt wonder was pumping power into his family’s mud brick compound.

‘Electric wind’

Out went the paraffin lanterns and in came light bulbs and a circuit breaker, made from nails and magnets off an old stereo speaker, and a light switch cobbled together from bicycle spokes and flip-flop rubber. Before long, locals were queuing up to charge their mobile phones.

Mr Kamkwamba’s story was sent hurtling through the blogosphere when a reporter from the Daily Times newspaper in Blantyre wrote an article about him in November 2006. Meanwhile, he installed a solar-powered mechanical pump, donated by well-wishers, above a borehole, adding water storage tanks and bringing the first potable water source to the entire region around his village. He upgraded his original windmill to 48-volts and anchored it in concrete after its wooden base was chewed away by termites. Then he built a new windmill, dubbed the Green Machine, which turned a water pump to irrigate his family’s field. Before long, visitors were traipsing from miles around to gawp at the boy prodigy’s magetsi a mphepo – “electric wind”. As the fame of his renewable energy projects grew, he was invited in mid-2007 to the prestigious Technology Entertainment Design conference in Arusha, Tanzania.

Book On Amazon Here

Nice trip the other month to Caberete. A typical Azza trip, “Hi Lew hows it going we are going to Dom Rep tomorrow for 2 weeks so deal with it”. I never went to Caberete before to be honest I avoided it as all I saw was horror chop vids on the net. No wind on the first 5 or 6 days so we did some stand up paddle boarding. It’s a very hot place, one of the only places I have ever not needed a wetsuit at all.

Caberete is much smaller then I ever imagined. All you hear is how its a Mecca for kitesurfing so you expect it to be big. In fact its just one road which goes through it and a big bay. Enquentro is further downwind which has nice waves and kickers and La Boca upwind is very flat. Out the front at Bozo beach is a bit choppy but there is a good reef which I got to kite one day too. 7/10.

x

26 October 2007

Architect Chetwood Associates has applied for planning for a £2.5 million “wind dam” in Russia.

The dam, which would be located over a gorge at Lake Lagoda in north-west Russia, includes a cup-shaped spinnaker sail, believed to be the first of its kind, which will generate renewable energy by funnelling the wind through an attached turbine. The spinnaker shape is similar to the mainsail of a yacht, and is thought to be particularly effective in capturing wind. Project architect Laurie Chetwood, said that the shape of the sail was influenced by functionality and a desire to produce something “sculptural”. He added: “The sail looks like a bird dipping its beak into the water, which will be much less of a blot on this beautiful and unblemished landscape. “But it is also highly effective at capturing the wind because it replicates the work of a dam and doesn’t let the wind escape in the way it does using traditional propellers.”

If granted planning, the dam will be 25m high and boast a 75m span when it goes on site next year. The practice is also looking at applying for planning permission for a similar scheme at another gorge, further up the valley.

-Source bdonline

Wind is the rough horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by uneven heating of the Earth’s surface. It occurs at all scales, from local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting tens of minutes to global winds resulting from solar heating of the Earth. The two major influences on the atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and the rotation of the planet (Coriolis effect)

Wind sports such as kitesurfing can deliver radical emotions to the human being. From frustration to devastation, triumph and exhilaration, Wind is unique in the fact that you can not physically see it.

As we cannot control wind (at this time) wind fits into our lives in a completely different way then something as routine as say, Work. It can really take control and cause kitesurfers to re-plan their whole lives around it.

Lets take Steve on the left, just received a phone call from Bill down the beach explaining how good the session was at his local beach. Steve chose to do a bit of overtime after work even though there was a 50/50 chance of wind. As Steve well knows after looking at the forecast in the morning, this is the last of the wind in his area for quite sometime. Steve is absolutely devestated.

Bill (to the right)  on the other hand took the chance. He clocked off work at 2 to get down the beach and hit the sea-breeze of the season. Bill was so stoked in fact, that he had to ring a load of people to tell them about it. One of those people was Steve.

Steve’s peace with the situation will come from the understanding  that  when you miss a good session- “That’s just how it goes” but at first it hurts. This however, is the main reason Wind users choose wind as their thing, as you cannot use it whenever you choose. Finding good wind becomes part of the challenge and in turn the reward is so good it makes you want to do it again and again. Kitesurfing is therefor on par with Surfer’s who are reading swells looking for the perfect waves and Snowboarders searching for the best powder to ride.

Wind can also have considerably deeper effects on human beings that can literally drive them crazy. In the South of Spain lies a town notorious for this called ‘Tarifa’. Before windsurfing Tarifa’s claim to fame was an unusually high suicide rate, attributed to the ‘levante’, a hot gusty wind funnelled by the mountains of the south of Andalucia on one side and the Rif mountains of northern Morocco on the other. Forced through the straits of Gibraltar, the levante hits Tarifa like a pressure hose and blows a reported 165 days a year, sending locals insane and tourists back to the Costa del Sol. Wind energy today has thrived there and wind turbines are visible all over the town’s hills.

Ruben Lenten riding Tarifa on a “Levante” known in English as “El Bastardo“

Billy down the green always asks “How do I do this handlepass” or, “How do I do that handlepass”. The problem Billy has is he only just learnt front rolls and back rolls so when he goes for one of the new school handlepasses and gets it all wrong I say “Back to Basics Billy!”, just like Neal Hilder Bells used to tell me when I got into unhooking. One of the best basics probably has to be the 180. Massively overlooked due to the 360 (or ‘Flat 3′), 540 or 720 the 180 can actually be just as fun and is a good place to start with handle-passes.

1) First of all let’s find a smallish kicker to start with. Start looking for one in the distance.

2) Here’s a good one. Small but it will do the job. Even off a small kicker if you time your takeoff right before the wave breaks you can get a good bit of height. Go in fast edging for power and unhook just before the kicker.

3) Pop off the kicker keeping your elbows into your chest and push down on the bar. This will keep your weight over the bar making it easier to pass as the kite won’t be pulling it away. Try to time how fast your rotating in relation to your height. Already you can start to spot the landing as your looking down. A good tip I’ve heard of from other riders when learning this is to look at your toeside edge on the way round.

4) Eyes on the landing still and hold off the pass as you rotate round. Passing the bar too early is a classic mistake as you can be concentrating on the bar pass rather then the rotation leading to an off balanced position. Only once your facing away from the kite go for the pass. Most of the rotation should already be complete by the time you get your other hand on.

5) Try and take the landing. Landing slightly over your heels is preferred as you can ride out some power heading towards the kite and absorb a lot of power through the legs. Landing heavily on the toeside edge can drive you away from the kite which can power it back up before everything is under control. In some cases landing heavily on the toeside can deliver a face first entry into the water. A successful difficult landing can be described as a “Good Take”.

Learning to pop to blind and pass the bar afterwards can really help with the 180 because the body movement is very similar. A good tip when going for any pass is to try and rotate around the bar rather then passing the bar behind you. After a while you can build the speed up more and decrease the kite angle for one of the best feeling tricks I think there is in kitesurfing.

p.s thanks to Martyn Wells for the photos.

The term freeriding originally came when early snowboarders chose to break away from what they considered to be the restrictive confines of traditional ski culture and competition.  You can find it being used in virtually any extreme sport to define a concept where there is no set course, goals or rules to abide by. It is amusing to look at the difference between how the term is used in Business and sport as it is almost the completely opposite meaning of the same term.

Freerider (In Business): A party that enjoys a benefit accruing from a collective effort, but contributes little or nothing to the effort.

Freerider (In Sport): A person that persues a sport, but does not confine the way they partake within the boundaries of competition or other regulations.

Freeriders contribute more than their share to the sports they partake in, so to think that in business it is seen as someone who does not contribute is laughable. Without them most sports would never take off as every sport started with ‘freeriders’ pushing to develop it. With little need for recognition or reward, these core riders do it for the passion and love of being out there doing their thing amongst the worlds varying terrains just for the craic.

Freedom (the overall expression that freeriding is amongst the sporting world) is not a reward that has to be earned. It is a right that we are all entitled to should we chose it. These days it seems too many people end up living around work, rather than working around life. This balance that many chose is not the way we should be dividing our life. Stress and lack of self fulfilment seems to come hand-in-hand with living around work. We all need time out for ourselves to recharge and re-energise so we can tackle what life throws at us. Just get out there and ride.

Kitesurfing with the use of a surfboard has become increasingly mainstream, with the majority of riders having a surfboard with or with out straps in their quiver. For those wanting to progress on the waves who have not come from a surfing background, this simple guide on surfboard designs will enable you to know what does what. Surfboards differ in terms of length, width, thickness, rocker, rail shape and tail shape, but once you have this lot worked out you can tweak your ride with a change of fins.

Length is always a compromise. Larger boards pick up waves earlier and glide well, whilst also getting around sections easily; on the other hand shorter boards are more maneuverable and respond quicker feeling alive under your feet. However don’t make the mistake of buying a board that is too short for you, as it will make it harder to catch those much-needed waves.

Wider surfboards have more buoyancy, consequently they get going earlier and pick up tiny waves as the width makes up for a large part of the boards surface area. More surface area means less drag, thus better glide and better distribution of weight. However, narrow boards allow you more control and less bounce, letting cut backs and punching through any wind driven chop easier.

Thickness of the board determines how buoyant the board is. Surfers rely on a buoyant board to allow them to pick up waves when paddling, on the other hand, kites have the power of the kite to tow them in, and so whilst it remains important is it not such a vital aspect as it is for a surfer. Surfers find a buoyant board to their advantage as it helps them pick waves up early, however for kiters it poses the problem that it can also become bouncy quick and it lacks in maneuverability.

A board with flat rocker will be nice and flat leaving more board in the water when riding, this creates a more stable board giving it improved drive and overall a larger planing area. A board with more rocker will be highly maneuverable enabling you to throw the board around quicker and ride bigger waves. Also, a board with heaps of nose rocker is less likely to dig in to the face of the wave. Tail rocker makes the board more and more maneuverable but what you must note is that as a result it creates more drag.

The rail on the surfboard is the edge joining the top and bottom of the board. Different rail shapes determine how the board flows through the water when riding. Soft rails are generally rounded and smooth generating good stability and lots of drive. Whilst this allows the board to be easy to ride, it can sometimes lack performance. Hard rails are often finished off into a corner or commonly on a good distinctive edge, however more positively to soft rails, these boards snap into turns making it quicker and tighter when hitting top and bottom turns.

There are many different tail shapes out there, but I am going to quickly cover the most common:

Squashtail = Most common tail shape on surfboard. Squashtail gives a stable ride but leaves the board relatively loose. Ideal for small and overhead waves.

Squaretail = Less common, The squaretail makes for a maneuverable board. Not recommended in overhead waves.

Rounded Pintail = Makes a board that bites extremely well, holding in the extremes as there is nothing stopping the flow of water release. The rounded pintail is great for a large powerful hollow surf.

Pintail = Pintail bites better and even longer then the rounded pintail. It’s dedicated to larger, powerful tube riding waves.

Swallowtail = The swallowtail is a hybrid of the squaretail and pintail so you get lots of drive and sensitivity at the same time. Great for creating drive on smaller surf but also fine in larger surf assuming the swallow isn’t to big.

Bat-tail = A Bat-tail is simply a swallowtail with a little added stability.

The world record wind speed in a non-tornadic environment was set in the United States in 1934. This world record wind speed still stands unchallenged today at 231 mph as measured by a heated rotation anemometer. The winds were so strong the anemometer was reported to have broken.

Others have argued that a wind gust of 207 mph at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland would actually have been higher because of where it was measured. Even so, nothing beats the amazing wind speed of the highest recorded wind in a tornado. That record was determined via Doppler Radar near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The wind speed was an incredible 302 mph on May 3, 1999.

Kitesurfers very much into ‘Wakestyle’ (which takes its roots from Wakeboarding) will be used to hearing the term ‘Powered Riding’. “Powered Riding” is what every wakestyle kiter is trying to achieve. Why?? Because riding powered gets Cred. It is deemed more difficult as you are using your board speed and pop to achieve the trick rather then upwards pull from the kite. In general conversation the term may be used like this: “That guy’s riding well powered”, or “Billy just landed the most powered trick ever”. Two major variables have to be looked at in order to determine how powered something is. Entry Speed of the move and kite Angle.

These variables are universally understood by wakestyle riders however they have made no mark on the judging system of the World Tour. Last year it was reported wakestyle tricks performed with higher amplitude were what the judges were looking for. It is not unusual to see top riders performing “double mobes” in heats or the crowd favourite a “front mobe 7″. Wakeboarders are literally finding these moves amusing at best. In A recent online Interview 5X World Champion Aaron Hadlow commented: – “There are many tricks that I wouldn’t mind trading, now days there are a lot of tricks I just never do, like the normal Mobe with the kite high, I will always pick the wake style low Mobe.” Other riders choosing to perform the kite high moves in heats must of been a very hard thing to accept.

As well as giving the viewer more of an understanding of whats going on, including the kite within a photo or video will always be the only way to show if something is “powered”. Until this moment the true beauty of a ‘wakestyle trick’ will always be overshadowed by the question “Was it powered?”.

As a strict kitesurfer (I only fly kites on the sea) I have always been amazed by the thought of Terrain, going up or down it, or as in the video below over the whole lot. Apart from Waves the sea is controlled by gravity, it will always be flat. Kitesurfing boasts many sports within it which is something I like to refer to a lot (Waveriding, Speed, Hangtime, Freestyle, Racing, Wakestyle etc etc) Snow kiting on the other hand takes in many of these divisions (apart from Waves obviously) but there is one side to this sport which is very unique. That is the ability to jump off the side of hills/mountains and fly.

People often talk about influences from other sports but never has their been such close comparisons to them. Speed Flying and Paragliding look very similar to this. The more you see of this type of thing as a ‘kitesurfer’ the more you think about spending a season in the snow. After all every kitesurfer loves jumping off the sand dunes.

This Scale is used everyday by kitesurfers but the man who created it has been forgotten by many. The scale was created in 1806 by Sir Francis Beaufort, an Irish-born British admiral and hydrographer. Francis Beaufort had a lifelong keen awareness of the value of accurate charts for those risking the seas, having been shipwrecked himself at age fifteen due to a faulty chart. The Beaufort scale is also widely used in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, however with some differences between them. Taiwan uses the Beaufort scale with the extension to 17! 17 must create devastation everywhere if you look at the picture below of what a 12 should do.

About 3 years ago I stood on the beach flying my kite in 8-10knots. We used to practise handle passes and new tricks on the sand,  jump off big sand dunes. One day I turned around and looked up the beach and saw paragliders flying our local Mount (located on the beach). At first I thought it looked slow and boring, I carried on to just mess around with my kite, when it came to packing it away, I saw one of the paragliders was decending super- fast spinning and flipping all the way to the beach. It was like seeing kiting again for the first time, I knew that this is what i had to do. It made me excited that light wind had big possibilities.

I got home and jumped on the net, downloaded all the acrobatic videos I could find, I was getting blown away with all the stuff that these wings could do, collapse them, free fall and recover, spin the glider above your head, out to the side and underneath you. Winter passed with a great kiting season and summer was starting again, I found a kiter who paraglided and bought a wing. From then on I taught myself as much as I could, had a look at the top of the mount but was too scared to jump as I didnt know enough.  Then I met Shane Tims a guy just getting into kiting and was going hard, I started talking to him and found out he was a paraglide instructor, and eventually found out he was the guy doing all the tricks off the mount that day.He got me off the top of the mount A.S.A.P by the 2nd flight I was put into manouvers (wingovers, spirals.) Because of my kiteboarding experience I found this an easy transition.

Kiteboarding teaches me to stay calm under pressure and that helps with everything else in my life, when something goes wrong now i dont freak out, i go with the flow, sometimes i get hurt but thats apart of our sport. Paragliding has taken staying calm under pressure to a new level. There has been a time where i have shut my glider down and not been able to come out until a really low point, too low to throw my safety parachute, when that happened i tried to fix the problem and would have untill i hit the deck. If i freak out and freeze there is a high chance i will come down hard to the ground.

Most of my mates either paraglide and now kiteboard, or they kiteboarded and now paraglide also. It eliminates those days where we wait, and wait, and wait, for the wind to pick up. Now i get days where we go for a surf in the morning and after, as the wind kicks in light we go flying off the hill and then when it gets stronger we land and pump up for a kite off the coast. Now sometimes im wishing a moderate sea breeze would die off, only when im in the learning a new trick process on my glider!

Having both these sports in my life gives me two angles of views and feelings, both giving the feeling of freedom in a different way, when im over 2000ft high and its silent i get a feeling that nothing on the ground can give me, sharing the sky with the birds and my mates, With kiting i get a similar feeling, whether its 40knots and im maxed on my kite jumping in big swell, or just a cruising alongside stingrays and turtles.

Acro Paragliding is like being on a swing in the park, to create a manouver you have to start weight shifting the swing back and forwards. If you can imagine a swing on its own and you can swing from side to side, eventually you will build up energy, enough to swing you above the bar. With the glider you have 2 brakes (left,right) and I use these with the weight shifting. Once I start getting above the glider Im creating alot of energy and as I drop down my feet feel like lead weights and I can feel the force of the G’s on my face. Acro is about creating the energy and the more you have of it the more stable the glider is and the safer it is.

off the mount in N.Z…..

Everlasting thanks to Meca-Graphics for having the patience to work with me and get the job done.