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Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

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Timop
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Local Beach: Stilbay - Western Cape
Favorite Beaches: CT bigbay, Whitesands Kommetjie, Langebaan, Stilbay, Sterkfontein, Kalpitya
Style: Big Air
Gear: Cabrinha switchblade 2014, 4, 6, 8, 11, Bandit 5 - 10. F-one acid 130. Cabrinha thruster.
Location: Stillbay - South Africa
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Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

Postby Timop » Sat Feb 22, 2014 11:22 pm

Hi Guys, Here where I live in Stillbay, South Africa, we normally kite board and kite surf or just surf. However this season the wind and forecast has been very unpredictable. So today when I got to the beach expecting 15 knots and only had 7,5 knots, I phoned our local yocal surf shop owner, cum head local, who new someone who moved back from England who had a mountain board (the chances of any one having a mountain / land board in Stillbay is a close second to winning the lottery). Anyway before I knew it, I was standing on the beach at low tide, 7 knots and my Cab 11 switchblade 2014.and something that looked like a futuristic skateboard, no helmet. After battling to get the kite in the air, I jumped on the board.........no start......ok board pointing in wrong direction and people on the beach. Pointing board downwind and away we go. A 750m run down the beach, Stop and run again on opposite direction. After a couple of runs was able to skid upwind and start again in other direction without falling off,,,,,,how cool is that no wind and cruising...(no jumps:=) yet . OK realizing that at 16 knots it would be a different story all together. But I am hooked. In SA land boarding is like ...."yeah I have seen one of those before in another country".

So a couple of questions to the guys that know how.
1. in light winds, which make of kite is the best, I've have seen Flysurfer and Ozone, or can you just use your LEI kite, as long as it flies.
2. In stronger winds, can you use the normal LEI kites.
3. The mountain board I used was quite heavy, I did let out some air of the tyres to coupe with the soft / semi hard sand.. Are the kite boards lighter and are the foot straps softer like a kiteboard.
4. Does one use the same board for sand and grass.
5. How much would one pay for a second hand, good board.

Thanks alot

Timo

plummet
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Re: Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

Postby plummet » Sun Feb 23, 2014 12:38 am

Welcome to the dark side!...

For light wind you cant go past a big foil. The benchmark for years has been flysurder 15m speed 3 deluxe. I use this kite 6-20 knots on the landboard. 6-10 cruising, 10-15 jumps, 15-20 silly big jumps..... (well big for land anyway).

Once you start jumping on the land you realise a lot smaller jump gives you a bigger thrill. 10 foot above hard sand and you must land it nice or you will hurt!...

Now there is a new competition to speed 3. that is the ozone chrono.... looks very interesting.

You can use open cell foils too. But if your on the water a big close cell foil will also work as a light wind kitesurfing machine also.

In the higher winds just use your lei's. Start riding a size down from what you use on the water. Then when you can handle the jandle same size.

As for boards. Big wheels/heavy boards are better for high speed, rough terrain and soft sand. Little skate truck boards with small wheels are good for tricks but are twitchy at speed and getr stuck in soft sand.

I run a monster board for ultimate speed, boost and soft sand a nd light wind riding ability.

Bellow is one of my vids from a view years back

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/31279185[/vimeo]

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Timop
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Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2011 6:49 am
Local Beach: Stilbay - Western Cape
Favorite Beaches: CT bigbay, Whitesands Kommetjie, Langebaan, Stilbay, Sterkfontein, Kalpitya
Style: Big Air
Gear: Cabrinha switchblade 2014, 4, 6, 8, 11, Bandit 5 - 10. F-one acid 130. Cabrinha thruster.
Location: Stillbay - South Africa
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Re: Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

Postby Timop » Sun Feb 23, 2014 8:14 am

Hi Plummet.

Thank you for the information and advice.

Nice video, CRAZY SPEED in the beginning. It opens my eyes as to what can be done on a land board!. - Certainly not bound to the flats. Nice music also .... LOL for the darkside.

Cheers

Timo

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baobob
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Re: Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

Postby baobob » Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:17 pm

Hi Timop,
this is another point of view
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/8155425[/vimeo]

I was used to do a lot of landboarding and now I'm doing mainly kiteboarding and i'm on land when i can't kite neither with the skimboard.

About the kite I think that really depends on how compact is the sand in your beach. If you have big tides and compact beach you can use the same kite on land and on water. Where i'm, the sand it's really hard with low tide and even if I have C-kites only and as long as the kite fly I can have fun.
I don't quite agree with Plummet about the flysurfer speed. It's an amazing kite but as to be trimmed really well otherwise... The last time i've been on the beach to do just landboard as the forecast were not so good there was a guy with a flysurfer speed 3 15 mt and he had a lot of problem with backstall and could barely fly the kite. I pumped my 11 and I was doing even unhooked stuff.


About the board: you can use the same for grass and sand, but if the grass is not well trimmed you should need a bigger kite. I tried one plummet's board (in Raglan) and cruising it's just amazing. He can jump with it but for me was way to heavy. As I like to try some pop and tricks with low wind i'll rather prefer one with skate trucks.
I would suggest you a MBS or a Trampa. For the MBS a good entry level is the Core, don't buy deck which are not in composite! In Uk there is a big market and you can find something interesting at fair price. Personally I use a Trampa and I found it amazing. As long as you have some speed you can pop and do stuff even with kite at 45.



Ciao

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Re: Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

Postby plummet » Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:49 pm

Yeah my board is a monster 9kg!... But i'm not a freestyler. i'm into speed, distance terrain and floaty jumps. The monster board is good for that. It also holds more power than your average board so you can load and pop and jump higher.

But if you want to freestyle is WAY to heavy. Good freestyle boards are 5kg.

Boa is right. you can't go wrong with trampa. Hunt one down and buy one.

As for kites its all personal preference. Use your leis and buy a big foil later if you feel the love. But big slow foils fly very differently to lei's. Many people that have only used leis find the foils too slow. I just love the float and glide they give you in light wind. a 12 knot session on a 15m foil is soooo floaty. I've had some really fun sessions gliding over boulders in 12 knots!

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Re: Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

Postby plummet » Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:51 pm

PS speed in that vid is about 50ish kph. So reasonable speed but not crazy fast. The fastest landboarding dudes are hitting 85kph!!! now thats crazy fast!.

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baobob
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Re: Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

Postby baobob » Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:28 pm

:thumb: Plummet!

I pointed out that he could use his kite instead of the Speed as he was on a switchblade 11 and, I guess, it's his bigger kite and this means to me this is related to his style.

BTW, I'll be in New Zealand till the end of this year. I'd like to nuke the moose with you and Daniel before leave. But I should borrow you a Monster board :D I guess that with my 4.5 kg modified trampa it's going to be too though!

plummet
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Re: Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

Postby plummet » Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:46 am

Your trampa will nuke to the moose easy. It wont be as fast as the monster board but still easily doable. The first time I nuked it was on a board with small wheel.

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Re: Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

Postby t3rse » Mon Feb 24, 2014 6:26 pm

On hard sand (back side of low tide when it's still all wet before it dries out in the sun), I can have a blast with a 3.5 meter foil trainer and a landboard with standard (8 inch) tires (go faster than you could easily do on a bike given ground conditions). I have a 7m LEI I use on the beach as well and can get going fast enough to make me nervous on hard sand riddled with shells. Anything over 10 kts is enough for some downwind fun on the foil for me. Anything over 15 and the 7m is a blast and since it's small and light it flies when bigger kites are falling out of the air. Of course you have to work it at low speeds. When I get better and my balls get bigger I'll give it a try with my 10 or 12 LEIs. I'd love to have a foil for this but it just isn't feasable for me to spend that much money on something I won't use that often, hence why I bought a cheap 7m second hand that I won't get too upset about if I destroy it crashing it on the beach.

My board has skate trucks but you can get around speed wobbles by using the kite pull and keeping your balance centered. Your legs will get rocked using the balls of your feet to keep the wobbles down. I just started recently but it's the best purchase I've made for being about to get out and play in winds that are hard on shore or off shore, but I have a nice big park to use with nothing to run into except some marsh or ocean if things go awry.

My beach conditions are a mixed bag. Some of the sand is very hard and some of it not. If you are hauling and hit soft stuff with standard tires you better have your weight back or you will eat it. You can slide though most stuff if there is good hard pack on the back side and have enough speed. I'm exploring copying Plummet on the tires, though I may go with 9" instead of 10" since I have better beach conditions.

You can't go wrong with Plummet's advice.

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Re: Landboarding in little wind ..hee haa

Postby plummet » Mon Feb 24, 2014 11:28 pm

Hey t3rse.

You can completely elimenate speed wobbles.

But you need to be powered up. Speed wobbles happen when you are too standing upright and the board wobbles over its center of balance.

This is what you do.
Have a powered kite. if your average weight 75kg 12m kite in 15 knots would be a good start
Drop the kite low. As close to the ground as practical,
Lean back against the kite pull.
Put the board into a slight drift.
Feather your drift down the beach. To go faster drift less, to stop just chuck it sideways.

With your body off center in this position with the drift off the board can never wobble past center and your never get speed wobble.

Look at 30-40 secs in my vid above. The the ideal position for speed without wobbles.

You need enough power the kite to hold you up. If you are not powered enough you will end up on your arse.


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