Back in November while I was out kite surfing with Charlie, he had a new Samba Atom and i happened to mention to him how sweet a blade would look in those colours. Once I found out it was possible a set was ordered and I just had to wait for them to be built & delivered. There was no time span given as these were going to be fitted into a very busy production schedule and could only be made in a free slot which is very rare, so the likely hood of getting a custom set made is very unlikely.
Last week they were delivered to Edge Power Kites Norwich for me to collect. On opening the package and laying one out I was not fully sure if I had made the right choice. With new kites in hand I headed to Tibenham Airfield to set them up and grab an evening session.
The wind forecast for the weekend was immense, On shore or cross shore both days at around 20mph with an afternoon low tide, everything was perfect except for one little problem. On Saturday morning we woke to heavy drizzle, with the wind forecast so good for day and the possibility of it clearing by early afternoon I headed off to Tesco’s to grab some food for the day. At Tesco’s we had another discussion on whether to travel the next 50 miles to the coast, after a few minutes we made the decision to sod it and head there anyway.
To no shock it was still tipping it down but a local sailing shop said it should all clear within an hour so we headed to a local cafe for some lunch. An hour later we made our way to the beach and to our surprise it had stop raining and was not just overcast.
With the wind almost bang on-shore we knew we were in for a cracking session, but none of thought it was going to be as good as it was! It was one of the sessions when everything was perfect, well almost perfect, had it have been sunny it would have been prefect but that’s a small niggle. The beach was hard packed and in places had sweet little streams to jump and sometimes land in lol. Boosting big airs, large sidewinders and sweet rotations missed in with speed runs it was a sure sweet session. With the tide still going out another large patch of smooth, hard sand was exposed which just added to the days kiting. As the sun had gone down we decided to call it a day even though deep down, none of us wanted to. Having just had 4-5 hour of hard aggressive kiting our bodies were aching and stiff.
On arriving home and checking out the forecast for Sunday and seeing cross on-shore 20mph and Sunshine all day I knew that it was going to be another amazing session.
Sunday morning headed to the beach slightly later as of the time change that had occurred over night. At the beach the wind was blowing constant and smooth again with a slight increase in speed compared to Saturday and glorious clear skies and sunshine! On setting up I knew that it was going to be another sweet session and it did not disappoint. The beach again was superb giving plenty of space for us all to play and use. During the day I managed to sort out getting underneath in my side winders which is a very strange sensation to say the least.
The direction of the wind did not allow for any stream / puddle jumping unless you wanted to get wet, Eh Sy! It was another one of those big airs days that we all love boosting big and smooth and enjoying every second of the air time. As with every session its nice to do some of the old basic’s and one of them for me is spins, throughout the day I had been doing plenty then on one run managed to pull off a spin that got to the point that I was too dizzy to keep going. From untwisting the lines I worked out I had managed 7 spins I was totally stoked!
Having kited so hard the previous day my body was starting to ache and was telling me to stop but I was having so much fun I just carried on and flew till the end. Packing up was decided by the weather as the wind gradually decreased and I just did not have any power left.
With the tide being late in the day it was a evening session on the beach in glorious sunshine and it truly was the start of a Great summer to come of evening sessions. Leaving the beach at around 7pm again but this time with it still being light and knowing that there is plenty more of this to come is a great feeling.
Apart from the previous weekend I had never really got on with the mk 4 4.9 to the point where I never flew it and put up wither a 6.5 and be overpowered or go out on a 4.0 but this weekend made my mind up, the 4.9 is such a sweet powerful kite, it has the boost of the 6.5, some of the speed of the 4.0 but is totally controllable and is very enjoyable to fly! It gives great control but has such good manoeuvrability allowing you to really throw the kite about and have fun of epic proportions. Learn from my mistake, try each size as much as possible you don’t know what you might be missing!
Monday morning and my body can certainly feel the 10 odd hours of kiting over the weekend, with joints aching and stiff but it was worth it! Bring on summer 07……….
