Kitebuggying sand dunes

[plummet]

Oh yeah. Every year attend the Moose meet which is a camping and kite buggying in sand dunes event for 4-5 days.
Its the highlight of my year. No cell phone coverag, You drive 8 hours to get to the beach then 50km down the beach and camp in the dunes. When the tide come in your stuck there until the next low tide. There is nothing else there at all other than sand and wind. It is farken glorious indeed. If your lucking you might see one or two fishermen drive past on the beach or the occasion 4wd on some of the closer dunes.

Riding the dunes is freaken awesome fun. A good day in the dunes is as good and as epic day on the water. Its like having your own personal roller coaster ride that you can ride none stop all day.

Here's a vid one of my buggy mates made up. This year was the 25th annual event. Yep, these dudes have been buggying dunes since before kitesurfing was invented!

[RedSky]

Love those dunes. My dust devil would be at home there. Looks like a good turn out.

[Herman]

That looks awesome! Seems to me like you are connecting the qr direct to buggy and they look so comfortable. Looks great for exploring and covering distance! If that observation is correct, do you find yourself always riding that way or do you drop back into a harness when just messing about? Also how long was your longest stint of flying, give or take?

[plummet]

Yep. The kite is hardwired directly to the buggy. It means you can hold more power, not get plucked out of the buggy if lofted or get your ribs broken if you load the buggy up sideways.

You can ride for hours and hours without too much fatigue. Our biggest day this year was 10 hours 150+km.

But, when it goes wrong in a hardwire it goes wrong badly. If you flip upside down, you are dragged upside down in your head with a 40kg buggy on top of you until the kite crashes...... If you get lofted or get any unexpected airtime because you are sitting down any impact is absorbed through the spine.

So hardwiring is not for the inexperienced.

With the exception of launching/landing I am 100% hardwired.

[plummet]

Love those dunes. My dust devil would be at home there. Looks like a good turn out.

Make a plan to attend the moose one year red sky. It will be an experience of a lifetime. We can organize a buggy for international travellers too. Dr Doom who took this video lives in Singapore and travels over each year!

Put it in your bucket list.

[Coloradokiter]

So much fun in the dunes of my backyard.

[plummet]

Nice. Where abouts is that?

[Coloradokiter]

South Padre Island, TX, USA

[Herman]

Thanks for the info plummet 150k is a really good day out. The longest reach I have at my local beach is about 600m and for the last few years I have just been doing flatland freestyle for giggles and kite handling practice etc. Decided I need a bit of Goya and do some exploring.

I will start with my good old Flexi bug that is similar to the one in Colorado's photo, which also shows that South Padre looks like a lot of fun. It has been so long since I strapped in (still got a baby harness somewhere) or hardwired, I had forgotten the terminology. I am sure I ran my hard wire rig from the kink in the side bars. Hopefully this will be far enough aft to be able to get the nose down first if I get air. I know I used a wichard to steel ring but can't remember whether I preferred the wichard fixed or on a runner. I shall have to do some re-booting! Thanks for the inspiration!

[plummet]

He's a shot of the hardwire. I have since swapped the carabina's around so the big ones are at the chicken loop.

Ensure you have weight and balance either centered with your weight in it or slightly forward. The last thing you want is C og G rearward. Then if you get air the buggy will flip backwards which is not a good thing!