my race experience (Portugal)
Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:55 pm
here I will state like my experience like a daily blog.
I never raced before, only few times kitecross. But no course race.
So I will start from zero.
My only knowledge comes from reading and talking to people.
And I kite since 2000, so I have experience with handling kites, going upwind etc.
I'm in Portugal now, where the first out of 3 tour stops will have course racing as discipline.
My goal sounds simple: not be the last!
But if it will be simple, we will see!
Here info about me:
Age: 35
Weight: 94 kg
Size 1.86 m
Kite since: 2000
Style: old school
Gear:
well, here the discussions are running hot...so much different gear available, that it is hard to select.
Since I'm also on a budget, I stay with my 2006 kites, but have a new 9.0 sqm kite and 2 new boards. I never tested the 9, not the bigger of the new boards. So I have no idea how it will work out.
Here my gear:
Vegas06 16.0
Vegas06 12.0
Rhino07 9.0
Phantom 138
Phantom 149
I chose the Phantom board, since I saw a guy in 2006 winning all races during a competition with this board, so I figured, it must be good.
If it is the best for me, I don't know, I cannot test that much.
It's all North gear for now, I'm not sponsored, but got a good price on it.
I pick my gear mainly for old school and being able to do big air, so the kites are not picked because they are fast. So we will see how this works out.
The questions for me are now:
- what is the fastest setup
- what is the best setup for going upwind
- which size is the best for different conditions, e.g if the wind is gusty
I cannot test any of this, so I need to learn from race to race.
I hope to have 1 hour before the race starts to do a test run, which combinations of board and kites will go better upwind:
- small board with big kite
- big board with small kite
Normally people say, a smaller kite goes better upwind. But if you have to sinus the kite more often, it might be better to have a bigger kite with constant pull to edge all the time and go upwind better...
Well, stay tuned, on Tuesday the races will start!
If you have any questions, please open a new thread, since this thread will be reading only.
It will be exciting!
Toby
I never raced before, only few times kitecross. But no course race.
So I will start from zero.
My only knowledge comes from reading and talking to people.
And I kite since 2000, so I have experience with handling kites, going upwind etc.
I'm in Portugal now, where the first out of 3 tour stops will have course racing as discipline.
My goal sounds simple: not be the last!
But if it will be simple, we will see!
Here info about me:
Age: 35
Weight: 94 kg
Size 1.86 m
Kite since: 2000
Style: old school
Gear:
well, here the discussions are running hot...so much different gear available, that it is hard to select.
Since I'm also on a budget, I stay with my 2006 kites, but have a new 9.0 sqm kite and 2 new boards. I never tested the 9, not the bigger of the new boards. So I have no idea how it will work out.
Here my gear:
Vegas06 16.0
Vegas06 12.0
Rhino07 9.0
Phantom 138
Phantom 149
I chose the Phantom board, since I saw a guy in 2006 winning all races during a competition with this board, so I figured, it must be good.
If it is the best for me, I don't know, I cannot test that much.
It's all North gear for now, I'm not sponsored, but got a good price on it.
I pick my gear mainly for old school and being able to do big air, so the kites are not picked because they are fast. So we will see how this works out.
The questions for me are now:
- what is the fastest setup
- what is the best setup for going upwind
- which size is the best for different conditions, e.g if the wind is gusty
I cannot test any of this, so I need to learn from race to race.
I hope to have 1 hour before the race starts to do a test run, which combinations of board and kites will go better upwind:
- small board with big kite
- big board with small kite
Normally people say, a smaller kite goes better upwind. But if you have to sinus the kite more often, it might be better to have a bigger kite with constant pull to edge all the time and go upwind better...
Well, stay tuned, on Tuesday the races will start!
If you have any questions, please open a new thread, since this thread will be reading only.
It will be exciting!
Toby