Kiting in England

forrest · Mon May 07, 07 2:05 pm **Kiting in England**

Here are some pictures.

Spent the last to days getting some good kiting on. There is a sandbar that makes the water super flat at low tide, and the swell comes in and wrap around the sandbar so that the side onshore wind becomes side offshore of the sandbar... Kind of hard to explain. That plus waves equals one motherfucking happy Forrest.

I have to tell you guys, if you've never ridden them with this wind direction you should do it as soon as you can. The waves actually push you up wind, and you can just turn around and ride another wave the other direction. My friend Adrian says they get over head in the winter sometimes.

magicmaker · Since 29 Oct 2006 895 Posts da Hood Opinionated

sweeet dude Exclamation

looks like fun

we're enjoying 75 degrees and 18mph avg thermal winds today and probably for the next few days.

pjc · Since 06 Mar 2005 649 Posts Addicted

where in England? U.K. doesn't sound half bad - a very good friend of mine is moving there so i'd have a place to stay.... good whitewater too i hear.

offshore wind + waves is supposed to be the bomb, if you are getting that without the risks and gustiness associated with offshore then that is a special spot, i think.

forrest · Mon May 07, 07 9:49 pm

Hayling Island, it's South coast about an hour from London. It is a very special spot, I had no idea kiting over here would be this good. It isn't very cold either, but it is cloudy most of this week. 4/3 suit, no hood, gloves, or booties.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=hayling+island&sll=53.098145,-2.443696&sspn=7.695746,21.42334&ie=UTF8&ll=50.788792,-1.011772&spn=0.063268,0.16737&z=13&om=1

Next weekend I'm going to check this place out if the wind looks good:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhossili
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=hayling+island&sll=53.098145,-2.443696&sspn=7.695746,21.42334&ie=UTF8&ll=51.569601,-4.286728&spn=0.12441,0.33474&z=12&om=1

Mark · Tue May 08, 07 6:53 am

Bloody good!

forrest · Wed May 09, 07 5:21 am

Got another day out yesterday after work on my 9m. It's fun driving over here, I feel like I'm driving a gokart, that and the rental car company didn't have anymore automatics so I got a free upgrade to a Mercedes.

The waves were a little bigger, but I didn't pay much attention to them. Landed my first backloop kiteloop on my third try and I'm 1 for 4 on those. It's a super fun trick and really not hard at all, just make sure you get at least half the backloop done and you're not spinning like crazy before you crank the bar. Oh yea, make sure you're in more than 2 feet of water. Sad

I'm landing hooked in kiteloops pretty regularly now in lighter conditions and actually managed (accidently) to land right into a wave on one. It was like landing on the otherside of a wake behind a boat, almost zero impact.

Tried an unhooked kiteloop and the bar just got ripped out of my hands, gonna have to try that one again. It's fun kiting over here, when one person tries something everyone else just lines up in a rotation and starts trying the same trick.

Also, I'm getting exposed to all kinds of different gear. Mostly Airush which I hadn't really paid much attention to. The Hammer is a sick twin tip for waves and you can carry a ton of speed into your bottom turns. If you're looking for a good twin tip for waves, I'd go with this board. Also works fantastic in narly chop.

Yesterday there were three guys on the 10m Torch3 and they were staying upwind a little better than I (tide was going out with the wind), so I'd have to say that kite has the lowend of a 06 Waroo 9m at least. I'm on a pretty large board (144 LF mission with straps now, bindings will be put back on when the sliders go up).

Word on the street over here is that it's going to come down to the Airush Vapor 10 and 12m and Flexifoil ION2 10.5m as the two kites to watch this year for the kiters who want to do both freeride and freestyle and are looking for a high end product, lots of speculation about the Yarga 07 9m as well. I've been looking at all three of these kites quite a bit and I'm hoping to get some demos while I'm over here.

I finally flew the 07 Waroo 9 and the biggest thing I could say is it's more stable, no more McDonalds sign shaped leading edge. Others were on the 07 13m while I was on my 06 14m and they were all doing way better than I was. If you have a 7m or smaller 06 it's not worth the upgrade, but I think the 9m and larger are worth it. They have more C kite feel, but I still can't get the timing for jumps right.

forrest · Wed May 09, 07 7:51 am

btw, here's a little video about the food over here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG-pmg_CCeI

Gman · Since 11 Feb 2006 4911 Posts Portland Unstrapped

More photos please.

Sorta looks like OR coast - you're not hiding out at Seaside.

forrest · Fri May 11, 07 5:05 am

More pictures. Got three days in a row, last weekend including monday. Looking to be a repeat this weekend.

The last picture is my South African, English Kiting Liaison. His name is Adrian and when I first came over to England he picked me up from my hotel and took me kiting, took me home to the hotel, and never once asked for gas money. I've since then become friends with all the SAs in the kiting group and hope to get them all out to the Gorge one day. You can't have enough SA friends, they're some of the nicest people I've ever met.

pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 6549 Posts Couve / Hood Honored Founder

Nice shots! Looks like some good butter out there.

forrest · Fri May 11, 07 7:03 am

Okay, last file, a little video of another SUCKY railey, was going to slow. Sad

Btw, I'm coming home Wednesday, can't wait to get some kiting in!

http://rae.nu/video/kiteboarding/Forrest-railey-Hayling-Island-England.avi