I really enjoy smashing a 30+ knots session

[plummet]

had a few of these sessions lately and i'm loving it.

I really enjoy the challenge of the conditions.The feel of fighting a wild beast. muscling your way through the gusts. manhandling the crazy seas. boosting to the moon over thurnderous white wash. ahhh. flying small fast kites

oh yes. i crave big stupid winds.

[Toby]

I just came back from fighting a beast too, but in 20-25 knots!
Full power 3.5 hrs session.
Now dead like crazy, but happy...landed two new amazing tricks

There is nothing better than being stoked!

[Laughingman]

There is nothing better than being stoked!

Be careful getting to much stoke. It is apparently bad for your health and could be fatal!

http://www.theonion.com/video/report-mo ... tti,14386/

[Toby]

So what? Faith has it...with or without stoke...so better to choose stoke

[plummet]

yes indeed stoke. I guess to your right toby. it doesn't necessarily need to be 30 knots. A fully power kite in the top end of its range. just before that point of overpowered uncontrollability. jumps are real big and floaty, pulling the bar in feels like turbo boost. ahhhh...

[Kamikuza]

We get steadier winds here in the 15 to 20 knots range - much easier to ride, play silly buggers in the waves and try tricks... S3 15 and my 'small' board - big stoke!

[JGTR]

I'm with the OP - 30 knots+

Small kites, usually my 6m, on a big bar They move sooo fast and loop very quick

Big kites even at the top of their range move too slow, plus small kites the right size for the wind just eat up gusts

[Toby]

Too slow is relative...for you maybe, for others just perfect!

[Brent4336]

Ha ha ha ha

I often wonder how those few first charging snowboarders felt when all of a sudden the whole hill was packed with novice/intermediates content to call the bunny slopes totally rad.

4 people respond and none identify with what the OP describes. Stoke is great, and riding a bigger kite powered might do it for you, but don't kid yourself, its no match for mother nature going off in the water. The sheer amount of energy involved goes far beyond stoke, and when you are at play in the midst of it, Stoke is simply the after glow you carry away from it. The experience itself is practically transcendental.

There are plenty of great days, but there are only a few sessions a season that fill you with awe. You are not landing new tricks, or even riding as aggressively as you would in lesser conditions. You are genuinely happy to have been able to master yourself out there and not let the magnitude of it all get the better of you. Mistakes in these conditions have consequences.

I'm totally with you Plummet. big winds, small kites, monstrous conditions all the way. Love love love it. Such a treat after a long hot summer of sharpening skills in lighter conditions.

Come the big days, the crowd thins considerably. There is a particular kind of stoke amongst the few that share those days. It's collective and enduring. At each spot we frequent, we know the others of the group, and there is an instant mutual aloha when our paths cross. More often than not, its to once again celebrate the best way we know how.

[fernmanus]

Yeah, I love the days when the wind is so strong that you have a buddy holding onto your harness as you go to the water. All the newbies are on the beach. The wind is kicking so hard that it is just smoke on the water. Your first inclination is to overgrip the bar and just try to survive, but after a few minutes you start to loosen up and feel the awe of Mother Nature in her full fury...