So the wind is back in the Marshalls. Maybe I should only speak for the Kwajalein Atoll, regardless its back and so is kiteboarding.
I would guess most people are clueless in regards to what kiteboarding is, or how it works. Its kind of magical, incredible, and sort of reeks of French craziness, although its origins are American. I'll skip the history of it, except maybe touch on my personal history of it, and try to explain it.
A modern kite for kiteboarding is a "C" shaped deal or somewhere between a "C" and the parenthesis "(". If you tied lines to the ends of those two characterizations...oh shit just google it.
Most of us, especially from the states, have held our hands out a car window going down a two lane country road and played with the speedy air going past. Parallel to the air and the hand stays put. Raise the front a bit and the hand wants to take off (read up). Modern kites are like that, just like that. They have two lines tied to the front of the kite using a bit of a bridle.They go 60 feet or so to a loop that is hooked on a harness attached to your waist. These are the lines that keep the kite flying like your hand when you hold it parallel to the wind while riding down the road at 60mph. So you have this somewhat huge wing shaped deal about the size of two queen bed sheets in area flying above you. There are some air filled battens and a leading edge that is also air filled to about 8 pounds of pressure. The air filled battens hold the kites shape. The two lines that come to a loop and are hooked to your waist harness go thru an 18" or 20" inch bar that offers no resistance. The bar has a hole in it that slides around the two lines. At the end of the bar are two "back" lines that are tied to the back of the kite. These two lines are attached statically to the bar, while the bar slides over the two front lines that are attached to your harness. So the deal is, if the bar is pulled tight it engages the back lines and makes the kite do just like your hand would hanging out the car window going down the road and you raised the front up.
There are different kite sizes for different wind speeds. There are also different attitudes on how that plays out. Once you gain confidence in your abilities to fly the kite and maintain control in crazy situations you want a big kite in big wind. A 12 meter kite in 25 mph winds is what we had last weekend. Normally when we go out with the 12m kite, the winds are around 20mph. With that combination, you pull in on the bar and you get tugged up a little when the kite is directly above you. It feels like you are just a bit lighter on your feet. 12m kite and 25 knots left me ten feet in the air when I pulled the bar back. Incredible what those things can do. Pull the bar back and its like an alien abduction. Instantly you are sucked up, straight up. I say "sucked up" but it is obviously pulled up, it just feels like your are sucked up. You come down a little down wind, but gently.
completely awesome day....
