Three days with relatively little wind in Cape Town, so I busied myself with other things. Yesterday lots of folk went to Hermanus where there was a strong SW forecast, which is perfect for the ocean and lagoon there. Lasse Walker was there putting on a show, as seen in this clip.
Anyway, a decent southerly was forecast for this afternoon, although not as SE as usual and some clouds. I launched at the lighthouse in Milnerton around 2PM on 7m Pivot and strapless board and had a pretty good downwinder. The best part was Sunset Beach with straight down the line riding on good clean waves. I should have stayed there longer, because the section to Kite Beach was messy, as indeed was all of Bloubergstrand. I stopped at Kite Beach for a break, also hoping the wind would fill in more, and found there was a Slingshot demo going on, so had a session on a 9m Slingshot Code, their three-strut kite and their Mystic carbon twintip. The kite is completely different from the Pivot, which has considerable grunt to it, even on the outer steering lines setup I use. Instead with the Code on the factory middle setting it was extremely light bar pressure, so much so initially I could not feel where the kite was, rather disconcerting. The wind was not strong, but even so the jumping seemed weak, but obviously it is not as their rider in the KOTA used a Code. I guess one gets used to such light bar pressure, and maybe it would be a good idea as I get older and weaker. Their bar is also interesting, having the main line and the flag-out line separately enclosed in tubes that are pretty well sealed, so presumably no sand in them so less wear. And the board was excellent, although a bit flat for my liking, I caught the tip a couple of times. Then I continued downwind, but perhaps half an hour too soon as when rounding the rocks to Big Bay I almost ran out of wind and barely made it in, with noone flying kites there, and guys getting ready to go out on 12m. I decided to call it quits instead of continuing to Holbaai as I don't like getting stuck halfway, but by the time I had packed up my gear everyone there was headed out as the wind finally filled in. Oh well, tomorrow is another day, hopefully with decent SEaster filling in earlier.
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