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Ha ha Joel. @wolfie reckons an average so 93.9kmh (just upped my PB slightly) and I held over 90kmh for 1,283 meters up past Ridges resort for a 90kmh/ fastest kilometre. Wet yesterday all day so just socializing happening. Make that pissed rain all day and last night blowing like 40 bastards. Sun is out today (Monday) with a 28-30knot SSE blowing, so just having lunch waiting for the tide to go out to get some beach to use. Awesome conditions as the cyclone is threatening. 7 years coming here and looks like it wont let me down this year with another weather event/cyclone?? Will have to see what evolves wind wise. The beach is absolutely perfect all the way to the point. Creek crossing is a total non event only being 50mm deep at low tide, but surprised me by being 400mtrs wide at low tide. Gotta run baked beans are finished and it's off to the beach. .

If a man speaks in the forest and his wife doesn't here him, is he still wrong?

Had a ball yesterday with Rob Lukin, Bernie and myself in fantastic winds and getting lots of runs up to the point overtaking cars. Goz and Chuck were overhead filming the action with their quads. Had an incident by breaking a power line on my Ozone R1 and ripped out some bridals. All respliced and back up and running as we are getting the tropical cyclone weather today and steady rain. It took 2 hours to untangle the bridals as when I dumped the chicken loop safety, it was the flag out line that had snapped so it blew 100 meters into the creek and had the walk of shame back to camp. Just a little note to Joel.

We're back with some @Chookenomics! Apparently @Chook managed to do 45km/h in 30 knots

First run on half kart wheels. It's reeeeeel good. Smooth, fast, slides are buttery. Holds power ok, jumps sweet. No wobble the wheels run true. Rides the soft with ease. Very pleased. Now I need to find 2 more

Finally the rain has stopped today and we got out for a morning buggy before the incoming tide stopped play. Bernie and myself along a still perfect beach after the storm. The wind was 15-19 knots up the beach a bit and made it hard work to get back to the caravan park at times. Practically no-one on the beach as everyone has cleared out due to the cyclone threat. There is only 6 vans in the park today and I'm by myself at Driftwood during the day. Very quiet makes it fantastic buggying for us. I was surprised as our quick 1 hour outing this morning got me to 88.8kmh in what I though was pretty tame conditions with my old 7m2 Ozone R1. Not a single bump along the beach due to the big swells planning it flat. Might get an afternoon run in if the wind holds out. Forecast is for great onshore winds for the next 7 days.

Another perfect day in Yeppoon. Sun was out and the wind started off a little on the light side for my 15m2 R1 and then increased slightly towards the end of the session. Covered 140.2kms and had a ball. 2 1/2 hours before a pit stop was all my bladder could cope with after a heavy night with Faulty and the gang over a great feed last night. Conditions look fantastic too for the rest of the week.

New Freeride foil kite from Flysurfer called the Soul. Flysurfer continue to make some stunning looking kites, the Soul is available in 6M, 8M, 10M, 12M, 15M, 18M and 21M. It's a bit more nimble than a Speed 5 and offers easier single line relaunch so you can relaunch the foil just like an LEI off the water by simply pulling a single steering line. More Info: https://flysurfer.com/project/soul/ Video of the Flysurfer Soul

@nigel did a great job all weekend... in more ways than one!

I have just finished putting the latest parts onto my buggy and I’m wondering if I can still say that it is my original buggy? Like the grandfathers axe paradox my PL buggy has had every part replaced. Well almost, the front fork and foot pegs are still original. Now if I had of replaced all the parts at once, then I would of said that it was a new buggy that was using my old fork. But the parts have been replaced in stages over several years. So, can I still say that this is my original buggy?

Ive ordered one of these suits for ultimate speed.....

Hey @bob2 here is something to tempt you since you already have a wing,

Here's a quick video I pulled together from IBX 2018 earlier this month on the Ivanpah Dry Lake Bed on the border of CA and NV in the Southwestern USA. Great time, great people, and a great event!!! This video ended up becoming a bit of a Born-Kite love fest because I only had helmet cam footage and I was only flying Born kites this year. Hope you enjoy it!

@Tiger37 Thank you kindly sir! IBX is truly a fun event. My rookie video hardly does it justice. The whole LS2 versus RS thing is certainly a matter of personal preference. The newer RS kites have some nice new bridling using a line material exclusive to Born-Kites. It is a little bit stiffer and somewhat less prone to tangling. In some back and forth with Steffen he mentioned that this bridle line material would likely make its way into his entire line of DP kites eventually. Hard to know when that might be (if ever) as that would likely mean advancing the line numbers (LS2 to LS3, etc.). There is a cost factor in play here which can affect things. You'll see of course that the RSs are size for size more expensive than the LS2s which may certainly factor in. One thing to think about is that in light wind conditions the 9.5m and especially the 12.5m LS2s are quite slow turners. Tons of grunt but sort of like turning barges. The 9.0m RS turns on a dime. It pulls hard in light wind and could well be a contender in your book. Rolling surface makes a big difference here. The Ivanpah playa has extremely low rolling resistance and it is possible to get going pretty fast quickly with the big kites. If the wind picks up with one of the big ladies in the air that is a whole lot to contend with. A higher rolling resistance surface like sand or grass would allow you to run the larger kites in more wind and get more response out of them. It is sort of tricky on Ivanpah with these big kites. Most of the times I've been there for multiple days the wind has either been blowing far too hard to even dream of putting up my big ladies or it is light and variable. Not seen in the video I showed was huge amounts of time with these big girls sitting on the ground in complete lulls. You'll notice during the big kite shots how few people are out; they were smarter than me! I'd give the 9.0m RS a good look if you truly need to replace your 9.0m P1. Vroom!

Yep and it's the first time ever that I have had to do continual kite loops directly downwind for 4 kms when the wind changed. Certainly challenged my rusty skills with the kite laying on the beach a couple of times. Pete and Theresa on the kite bike and Pete having a go on my 18m2 Elf Joker 7. Wind 1 gusting 3 knots.

A couple of snaps for you to ponder on and why didn't you book your holidays for Easter in this beautiful location 🤣 Another awesome day with good friends

Well Pete and Theresa arrived from New Zealand and boosted our numbers on the sand. Pete leaving those wiggly kite bike tracks everywhere. Winds have eased slightly so the bigger kites are out of their bags. Lots of kilometres covered by everyone and LOTS of runs up to the point and back. Theresa's first day on a depower (Ozone Catalyst here) and she nailed it with ease and with Bernie's spare buggy looked like a professional by days end on the big Chrono's. Andy's quick reflexes saved us both. I ticked over 1,000 kms covered yesterday. We finished the day with Andy on his 24m2 Charger and I test flew my 18mtr Elf Joker 7 which I fell in love with in the first 5 minutes, topping out at 56.7kmh in a crab fart of an evening breeze. Theresa was still dominating on a 9m2 Chrono in the by now very feeble breeze. You have to be very proud of your daughter's efforts Pete. The tide is heading back out this morning and wind is directly onshore but much lighter than we have been having. So back out to play shortly.

Just got to find 2 more of the same go-kart wheels and some bearings and I'm ready to chase the world speed record and try for 100kph.

As promised another cracker day. 15m2 R1 all day and plenty of fun up and back to the point. @andy666 to share the beach with. We had a ball with a top speed of 71.6kmh for me with a moving average of 31.2kmh. Same weather forecast for tomorrow. Andy's "F-arc" top speed was 66.3kmh when I followed behind him for a kilometre or so. First off in the morning Andy was on his 12m2 Venom.

Had a good run over easter, it was pretty fast, only 4kmh off my PB. Unfortunately ive had to shoot home for some family issues so im leaving chook to have all the fun

Road test is good. Steering is good and no wheel bite

Now resides in Lennox Head, its a land lizard in perfect order with splashguard and front mudguard, with an ozone access harness, PL backstrap, 1 x 2M original Quadrifoil, and 1 x 3M rectangular white foil with kevlar lines. All fly well and the buggy is getting a workout with the local kids and adults in the autumn easterlies. I had a few goes in the buggy, used a 12M Hyperlink yesterday.

A new video from Ouddorp in Holland:

@Tiger37 - Yes to the bar question. The RaceStars and LS2s both come with two DP pulleys per side and the little securing lines in the center of the leading edge as you see in the pictures. The bridles terminate as four even sets of lines, "balanced" as it were. As such, either RSs or LS2s could theoretically be flown on any basic four line bar that has break and power lines terminating in equal lengths, again "balanced" (if that's the right word). I personally plan to use both my LS2s and RSs on the same single bar, a version of Born-Kites Universal Control Bar: http://www.venturi-power.de/product_info.php?info=p272_ls-universal-control-bar.html I have my bar strung with the full length 5th safety line that terminates in a yellow little wind sock along with the standard Red-Blue-White-Green lines. Similarly, I have all my LS2s and two RSs (5 & 9 m) strung with the center 5th line FAS system. In retrospect this is probably overkill as the SS kites flag out just fine with the standard 4.5 line setup but I started that way so I stuck with it. Final thing, I had Steffen make me up a second set of 5-lines that he packaged up for me and charged me for. I don't remember what he charged me, but he made them up for me custom so that I could have a complete second set of lines as backup since I only have a single bar for seven kites. I'm sure he could do that for you too. If I like the RSs next week and I'm feeling frisky I may have to buy the 7 and 11 m RSs too. Lord help me!

I was going to get a select few... but I couldn't decide between sizes so i just bought one of each.... as you do. :-)

The RaceStars are now on the Born-Kite website. http://www.venturi-power.de/index.php?cat=c86_Race-Star-Race-Star.html&XTCsid=0l839i9q2be1aovr6928nhc2h0 Kite-only coming in about 200 Euros more than comparable LS2 sizes.

Have fun chook. I’m a week behind you, so don’t use up all the wind before I get there

Yeah, I don't know what went wrong this year Chook, targeting was off by a couple of thousand km's. I will put in an order for next year for you

Granpappy got 2 hips replaced last year. Year before he got a carbon replacement for his wooden leg and new false teeth to match his glass eye. Granma got him a wig to wear under his hat for church picnics the year before and he's thinking about the hair implants but he's worried they may affect his pacemaker and kidney transplant. Is he still your granpappy? Damn straight he is! Show some respect boy and don't be listening to old Greeks with wooden boats!

Hadn't seen this one until someone put me onto it. Very good watch Greenland, snow skiing and kyaking adventure. https://www.redbull.tv/video/AP-1QHHXVBJN1W11/into-twin-galaxies

Even comes with pneumatic chest protection. Nice!

You have Crocs there ! I think, I'll leave the foil board at home now and stick with kitebiking 🤣

So with a low tide at 12.47pm, Sandy Point could be a real possibility. Still waiting for the wind forecast, so we all might have to wait till the weekend before we get a good idea if it's good or not. Who's interested??

Thanks @windstruck. Always happy to take advice from somebody who has experience with both kite styles at the same meeting. Will let you know which was I go!

That trip is on my very short bucket list. It may take some years or it may not but either way I'll be sure to let you guys know. The non-stop flight makes it much more doable.

Great video. Its good to see some people's footage of IBX this year. I wish I had made the time... It's amazing the long reaches that you can do on a dry lake bed vs a beach with less than optimal wind directions. I'm hoping to make it to Oregon's dry lake bed (Alvord) sometime this summer to try out some playa.

Cheers. Back is coming right, slooooowly - Stupid disks, why they can't stay between the vertebrae where they are supposed to be is beyond me.... Another few sessions with my Back Man should help.

I can’t wait for Joel’s response to that one chook.

Last day of flying tomorrow. Two great days. Saturday was a stand out, Rob Brasington rated it a 9.75 Lots of quad work by the Pheonix kite crew, and plenty of maxi kites filling the air. One more day; come on down if you're Adelaide!!!

Just ordered mine. :-)

Look out for info on Flysurfer's web site tomorrow for info on their new closed cell foil, the "Soul". Teaser clip on YouTube:

The good old Theseus paradox :-)

To get an extra 20 kph without changing wheels just swap your old crocs for some of those slinky aerodynamic boots .

The leading edge has those flexible plastic wires sewn in at each white piece of fabric shown above. Feels like the sort of material you use in a edge trimmer. As usual, Born has done a superb job in the seamstress department and the quality really looks to be great. Can't wait to fly these beauties in a couple of weeks at IBX2018!

You didn't get the shot of Alex giving his cow mouth to mouth.

He's always trying to scare you Pete. Bring it and that will keep me safe while crossing the creek. Striking them off now. left.

And Tiger lost his Chrono virginity when I lent him mine and we went to the Granites Andy. Sub 5 knots and southerly was directly up the beach, so we both had a ball cruising up and back averaging 32 kmh to the Granites and back. Both on Sysmic S2 buggys, Tiger on my 15 Chrono V2 and I'm on 18 Chrono 1. These kites don't know they are flying directly into wind!!!(well within 10 to 12 degrees of into wind) Bar out they just surge to the front of the window and you would swear it was 5 knots directly onshore. Do I get a spotters fee Jas?

2013 Ozone Access 6m... This is my second depower kite as I have also got a Ozone Manta 10m, flying the Manta is what convinced me to sell my trusty Ozone Method and Flow to fund a smaller depower.The thing I like about the depowers in the buggy is the huge wind range and the gust handling abilities - also how much cooler does it look flying one handed with a bar...?The Ozone Access is designed as a beginner/intermediate snow kite, with great performance, stability and safety and as a high wind/storm kite for the experienced rider - I bought it as my high wind kite, with a wind range from 15-25 knots it sits nicely below the 10m Manta. The build quality of Ozone kites is legendary and once again I was not disappointed. The sail is immaculate with neat seams and not a thread out of place. It has top quality Ronstan Orbit Block Series 20 pulleys, four unique blow-out-valves on the under surface, these seal as the kite inflates and velcro dirt-outs at the wing tips. The sail has the typical Ozone mesh covering the vents and diagonal internal cross bracing. The Access has a clam-cleat trimmer that sits above the bar so that you can further adjust the power even while flying and this is easy to operate one handed. This features a really nice bit of design; the clam-cleat and end of the line have magnets in them so even if you have it pulled in fully (complete depower) the length of cord attaches to the clam-cleat and doesn’t flap around (I found this out purely by accident on my third or fourth flight!).The 2013 6m Access comes with a 45cm Ozone Contact-Snow control bar and the 5th line safety system, Ozone Megatron chicken loop and 25m lines. It all fits into the usual high quality back-pack and comes with the instruction manual, key ring, stickers and repair tape. The set up of the Ozone Access is simple with the lines wrapped on the bar and all numbered, I set it up on the grass opposite the house and the only issue I found was when I came to my first flight I had the 5th line safety over the top of the front lines where it is supposed to sit under them (easily rectified), I should look at the manual rather than thinking I know what I am doing! Performance – first flight the wind was gusting 11-18 knots, once the kite was unpacked and the 5th line adjusted! I started attaching the safety leash to my harness and then to the loop on the 5th line that comes through the chicken loop then attached the chicken loop to the harness, release the handbrake, step back, the kite fully inflates and launches a few light touches on the bar and it sits nicely at the zenith.Usually I would have a go static flying just to see how the kite performs, get a feel for the power- zone and range of power and try out the safety – this time I just hopped straight into the buggy, dropped the kite into the power zone as I pulled on the bar and off I went…Like some of the other Ozone kites I have owned, if you work the kite at the lower end of the wind range you can start to get some decent pull as the kite develops some speed. And as the wind increases the kite comes into its own with some decent pull. In the buggy the Access performs well, some great pull, awesome stability and is developing some decent speeds (probably not as quick as my fixed bridals - yet), I have flown it in about 10-11 knots and it has got me moving and was in its element 18-20 knots and gusty. My problem is hitting that perfect line in which the kite really performs at it's best - but I am getting closer. I have been every which way with the kite, work it a bit to get some speed and it travels well up-wind. you can sit it off to one side and quite comfortably sit with one hand on the bar and let it cruise or cycle it through a sine-wave to increase the speed. track with SW windsThe feel on the bar is great, nice and light pressure, but the feedback is really positive. Even with the shorter 45cm bar on the 6m the kite response is immediate and positive. Just the lightest touch to change the direction as good as if it were a fixed bridle on handles. I absolutely love flying on a bar, with the Access I am really letting it pull me through the down-wind power slides. Taking the kite to the top of the wind window, turning it through 180 and as it comes back down into the power zone, pulling on the bar as I turn the buggy through a 180 degree down-wind turn and let the kite pull me round through a huge, grin inducing, power-slide. The 5th line safety system gives a total flag out when you release the safety on the megatron chicken loop. I wasn't sure how I would go flying with the leash attached to the harness, in the buggy, but it hasn't been any sort of encumbrance. A part from having to hook the leash onto the flag out loop there is no difference than flying any-other kite. Let go of the bar and pull the release on the megatron chicken loop and the kite collapses and totally depowers -the bar shoots up towards a red ball on the front leader line and there is no pull at all. There was a little bit of untangling needed though - but it's reassuring to know how effective it is. There is also another quick release on the leash for those who like to get air and ride unhooked - not for me! Landing the kite in normal circumstances is straight forward and easy, just grab the hand-brake webbing with one hand and pull it towards your hip and the kite lands easily even in the power zone. Put it down at the edge of the power zone on those strong wind days. The hand-brake also works to reverse launch the kite when you stack-it, either keep hold and it will right itself and park on the ground or let it reverse launch and spin it and off you go... There is no way I have even come anywhere close to realizing the true potential of this kite, as my confidence and competence with the depower continues to increase my speed gradually edges up. It has already proven it's flexibility and stability in gusty conditions. I was always worried that I would regret selling my Ozone Method and Ozone Flow as they were my main work horses but I think the Access 6m is going to be a worthy replacement. the back pack close up on the bar

I've had my Vmax since 2009 and have currently done just over 8000km in it. The only thing that has broken in all that time, are the two plastic tri-glide buckles that hold the excess seat straps in place. This thing was just built right from the word go. It's very stable, it's very comfy. You can modify it with all sorts of extras if you want. I've added a bigfoot fork, alloy wheels, made a back rest for it (possibly the only thing missing from stock), a swan neck downtube and some axle extenders. Center of pull was pretty good from stock for my size with the buggy just breaking out at the back end first. I've added 4" extensions so all three wheels will basically slide together with midi's on and flying the Nasa Stars. The picture below has the Libre 8" extensions on the back end of the side rails but this makes it want to break traction on the front end first so they're a bit too long for me - I swapped to some home made 4" extensions and it's just about perfect now. All bolts are SS and none have seized on me. The downtube/swan neck can be easily adjusted by loosening the four bolts attached to the side rails and sliding the downtube fore/aft. The seat is very generous - it doesn't 'hug' you quite the way some other buggys do. You couldn't jump this without being strapped in. It's also a little heavy for that being around 25kg in stock form. Mine is quite a bit heavier now with alloy rims and midi tyres. Speaking of stock... note the excellent foot pegs with the padding up the side. The webbing heel strap is my addition. I was all set to buy a Peter Lynn as my first buggy....but made the mistake of having a ride in one of these. It was so much more comfy and sure footed that there was no way I could go for the smaller PL bug. Obviously, if you need a buggy that's quick to take apart and put in the back of a small car, then the Vmax will be at a disadvantage then. But if cruising or speed is your thing, then this deserves your consideration. I have had so many great trips with this buggy that I really regard it as THE best thing I have ever bought. You can see that with the stock straight downtube and bigfoot tyres, there is plenty of ground clearance. It's a bit lower with the swan neck downtube.... The only thing I would change is make the seat three inches narrower to really fit me. Although with a hotwire system, that sort of becomes irrelevant. Oh, and despite being super comfy, I think it's better with a back rest, something you'll have to knock up yourself as I don't think Libre make one for it. Highly recommended.

Yep, me too - intrigued and excited when I see them. They sure make some big ones.. Some of the kites Cody made could reach 2000ft and serve as observation posts..