Rain, cold and then sun... - Kitesurf Sessions 111 and 112

Last Saturday and Sunday meant the opening of the water season for me... I'd seen the forecast was gray and rainy for the first day, but I hadn't seen the sudden fall in temperatures announced, so on Saturday I found myself huddled together with friends inside a van to gather courage to go on the (still very cold) water in Beaduc, in the South of France.

Finally, when I managed to raise my body temperature and after the rain stopped, I got a sudden boost of motivation and got outside to try my friend Julos' 9m Slingshot RPM. Very nice kite, with a great kitelooping ability, but that takes some getting used too, I guess due to it's particular shape. The session was small, but great and I didn't even feel the cold until it was over. I had the brilliant idea to use only my shorty, so as to not get my 5.4 wetsuit wet for next morning's session, so I ended up braving the 9°C temperature with 25/30 knots wind (for an estimate of 4/5°C with the windchill) in "minimal coating", Viking style!

With the night, the sky grew clearer and we managed to find a nice spot protected from the strong winds to have our first barbecue of the season.

On Sunday the weather was much nicer! Sunny all day long and with a strong wind in the morning, that allowed for some a great flat water jump session, while others played in the small waves. If Saturday was still an hostile winter environment, Sunday was definitely our well deserved welcome to the news season! Hopefully, we have many more of these to come...

 

A very special thank you to Olive and Elroliv for the photos in this post, since my lazy ass didn't even got the camera out of the bag this time!

The Dynamic Duo! - Snowkite Session 46

A session with Cyril is always a recipe for success. Every single session we did together this Winter was a good (if not great) one! Last wednesday was no exception: even if there were high clouds covering the sky all day long, the visibility was good and the wind grew stronger all day long, so we could do again one of our "search and destroy" missions, as the two of us love!

Cyril, a man with a mission...

 

And some other nice photos of me taken by Cyril

Thermal in Autrans - Snowkite Session 45

After reading about all the sessions our OneKite friends from Grenoble manage to get at the spot in Autrans at this time of the year, due to a phenomenon of thermal winds, we decided (with Telma and Fred) to go there and give it a try. The forecast was perfect for the test: sunny and warm day with little to no wind predicted.

About 13h30, a little breeze started to blow and, half an hour later, the thermal wind was in place. I must confess it was still not very strong or regular, but we managed to have a nice little session and, for me, it was a perfect occasion to test Fred's Flysurfer Speed3 19m Deluxe kite. Loved the low end, the pull you get even with very low wind and the ease to relaunch (at least on the snow).

(a nice photo from Christian, OneKite's president)

 

(and a great one of my 180 on the kicker by Fabrice! Check his website here) - FABB©

 



My brother's first - Snowkite Session 44

As I said in my previous post, my brother came to France with his wife for a week long visit. I've been wanting for a long time to show him what snowkite is all about (living in Portugal, he only kites on the water or with his buggy) so, even if the forecasts weren't helping, we chose the best (or least horrible) day to try it.

The early morning fog and the light winds didn't discourage us and, with his wife freezing her ass and watching us, we started getting the gear ready...

After a while the sun appeared and, with a little explanation and 5 minutes of getting used to, my brother was off snowkiting for the first time!

Unfortunately, the wind stayed weak during the day, so I couldn't show him all the great terrain we have around in the Col des Supeyres to play. Nevertheless, he definitely liked the experience and wants to try it again next time he comes to visit. We spent a lot of time with our asses on the ground, but it still was a fun day!

Shorts and t-shirt! - Snowkite Session 43

I've been kind of busy, with my brother coming to visit for a week, so my latest sessions have been stored away in folders waiting to go on the blog. Time to get back on track, so here's what I've been up to on the 22nd of March: with a nice forecast for a Spring session, I headed up to our usual spot with Benoit, the "flying machine"...

...Banjoo, our club's "Champion"...

...and a bunch of other friends. With a southwesterly capricious wind, we decided to find a nice uphill section to play with the ascending currents, to avoid fighting all day long with light upwind stretches.

That was the best bet, since we had a lot of fun flying downhill and generally jumping back and forth all day long!

Benoit worked his GoPro and editing magic to offer us a very cool video of the day...

As you can see in the video, I kept a promise I'd made to myself, and rode for about 2h in shorts, t-shirt and sunglasses... Boy, did that make me think of the water sessions soon to come! Banjoo had made some pictures too, but his SD card busted, so the only ones of me are a little "low quality", taken by Cyril with his phone...

 

Snow, friends, an helicopter and a broken leg... - Snowkite Session 42

Last Friday's session started as many others: a bunch of friends decided to get together and enjoy the fresh snow and sunny conditions in a good mood. To be sure we got the best winds, we decided to get a ride on the ski-lifts and start on the top of the Chalmazel ski station.

All was going great and, around midday, we already had a good amount of kms on the gps... Moreover, it was great to see some faces I hadn't seen for ages, like Pierrot, and meet some new ones.

 

But, following a bad fall due to a poorly calculated jump, my friend Flippo broke a leg. Fortunately, since we were a big group of merry folks, we managed to call for rescue and keep him in good spirits until he got a police helicopter ride to the hospital!

 



Not counting Flippo's injury, it was a great kite day, finished of by a very cool sunset ride filmed and edited by Benoit...



An unusual place... - Snowkite Session 41

Some days you are just unlucky... Even if there was a lot of fresh snow and a forecast of sun and wind, I got up to the Col de Supeyres to find a thick cloud stuck on the beginning of the spot. After an hour trying to get through it to find the sun, only to get completely lost and have to use the GPS and snowshoes to find my way back to the car, I decided to try another spot nearby with a couple of friends.

That's how we found ourselves kiting at the Patte d'Oie, a kind of crossroads spot on the way down from the Col de Supeyres where we had never before thought about trying, but that wasn't so bad! Nice snow with enough space to play around, good wind and sun, with the clouds glued to the mountains in the background.

But my dose of bad luck wasn't over... I managed to, for the first time, get me kite stuck on a tree! And then I managed to do it a second time! Thanks to my friend Pejee, I was able to get it out (and also have a photo to prove it).

After this "ordeal", my 12m Manta gets a well deserved rest, while I leave for two weeks in Sri Lanka, to escape the Winter for a while...