Sunday 12th Altona was Grrreat

[kaboom]

hmmm come on all who went say what you thought of the day. And maybe the results could be posted up some time

I thought it was great and I had heaps of fun only down side was I didnt wear sunscreen and I am now a walking talking red tulip.

Oh and I am going to add a pole here, do you think we should invite land yachts to the comp next series (if there is one). To make it a bigger and better and more diverse day. And plus to give those very few land yachts out there a chance to enjoy the winds.

[goshen]

It was a fantastic day indeed. One of the best.

The results will be posted. It's a bit of work, there's tonnes of pics to sort through, tables to write up... If anyone has any pics of the landboarding race, it'd be great if you could email them to me - I don't have any.

I'll put something breif up on here soon. The full results and pics will show up on the Kitepower website, but I'll post something here for sure.

Also, regarding your poll. It's a nice idea, but I just could not organise them in any way. They would have to show up, organise and completely run their own race. Also, there would be problems with time and space. We are a kiting organisation, and unfortunately that doesn't extend to windsurfing, yachting or landyachting... It's just a different dicipline.

There's a big race in SA that happens in January that the landyatches organise - and they invite Buggiers, but the lake is huge - we don't have anything nearly that big. If a few landyatchs want to show up to Sandy Point, then that's great. I'm sure there's enought space, but then we don't want to go and make the event too big, as access (legal) might become a problem.

All the best, and you'll see some results soon...
Goshen

[Gav]

Great day alright! I didn't manage to use the sunscreen either, and now have a bad case of panda eyes.
Sorry goshen, I got some pics but not of the landboarding. And thanks again for helping me swap kites mid race..... think I'm going to go for a wider axle before the next one.
Looking forward to the next one, and hope the weather is as good.
Gav

[nigel]

No, No, No to the land yachts.
They would need atleast 5 times the area and it is way to rough for them.
They can also go down wind faster than us as they can acheive the wind speed, the mast holds up their sail but we have to go slower as our kite would fall out of the sky if we hit the wind speed.
Think how much damage a yacht would do to someone if they stepped out from behind one of those trees. A land yacht is far heavier than a buggy, not as adgile and can not stop as quick.
I wish that the land yachts did use the park as they would need the trees removed. :D
As for my racing, I was excited about the fact that in the first race I was 2-3 seconds a lap faster than the next fastest guy (Andrew) but very anoyed that a bolt attached by a ny-lock came undone, causing me to stop and get a new bolt put in. Wheels with greater than 45 degrees camber are not good. :shock:
This I had no problem with as I thought that the race was 45 mins. long, as decided at the pilot meeting.
The bolt thing happened about 25 mins in, and it cost me two laps but thought I might get first by the end of the race.
Little did I know that the time for the race had been ammended, whether or not I was told I do not recall. The time was now 30 mins for the race.
So I managed to do another lap or two before the time elapsed.
If I had known that we only had about 5 mins to go I would have still run without getting the bolt as I had over half a lap lead.
A third place, but racing at the top is hard.
Ok. Second race.
This time the wind had picked up a bit and I was offered the chance to fly a foil kite, namely a Libre Bora. :D
Fling a foil is a bit different to a C-Quad so I lost a little bit at the start and the first upwind leg. The down wind leg I lost even more but was holding thrid place, a lap or two later I took second place and set about chatching that Andrew guy again.
I was just gaining but not much on each lap and he had a good third of a lap on me near the end.
Ever had one of those days where the big guy upstairs says its not your turn to win.
Well. The front tyre pinched and seperated from the rim when I hit the ditch near the gravel road section. I don't know how fast we had all been hitting that ditch at (no it was more like the height of a gutter).
I can only put it down to the fact that as I run a 20 inch bike wheel on the front and was hitting it at 30 odd kph. The tyre has less air in it and there fore less give than the barrows that everyone else had.
I must of just hit it at the wrong angle or too quick, or maybe to often. 30 times in an hour??? Laps were under 2 mins.
I struggled with the front end on the up wind tack as the inertube slid on the fresh mowen grass. Tyre flopping all over the place.
Made it to the finish line position and asked how long to go???
The reply was 1.5 mins.
I knew that third place was half a lap behind and that a lap was 1.5 mins, so I had to do another lap and hope that I could do the lap before he past me.
He got me on the upwind tack as my wheel was sliding all around.
Funny thing was that as soon as he passed me the iner tube shredded and I was running on the rim. This gave me grip!!!
But it was a bit too late.

The final placings were:
1st Andrew Mac
2nd Neil Duke
3rd Me

Great day of racing
But not a good one for me.
And the problems are already on there way to be sorted and NEVER happen again (fingers crossed)

Nigel

PS: Good to put faces to names, and all the people that turned up. I only wished that I had time to sit and have a chat to each of you.

[schultzie]

yeah nigel i would have to agree that those bumps do take it out on you, i had to slow right down and jump them so that i know that i wouldnt bent nething. yeah and if land yhats were alloud could you imagen what tim would be using? me thinks no,, and on the photo front i have the race on video which may let me get some pictures off the tape... give me till thursday night to see what i can get....

Justin