windstruck
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Everything posted by windstruck
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Well that's depressing... You have that on authority or just speculation? Any knowledge on what makes it a V-3.0 other than stenciling?
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Agreed - the Peak2 and LongStar2 seem the most analogous at first blush. Time doesn't stand still of course, and the word on the street is that we are weeks to a few short months from the release of the Peak3. I know from a reliable source (a Flysurfer dealer) that it is around the corner, but no details on design refinements. Hope springs eternal and I for one am hoping the P3 quiver gets expanded even larger than the current 4, 6, 9, 12m sizes up to a 15 or 16m. Assuming things are in good order with the evolution I would seriously consider picking up a HUGE Peak3 to complement my full quiver of P2s. ?
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Less we forget, the NINOX is apparently waiting in the wings with 9m of SS fury: https://monjetkiteboarding.com/ninox.html
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I know what you mean. I too was an early adopter with the V-1.0 of the LongStar, having loved my NS3s. I never liked the reverse bar action of the LS1, tried to rig them with four lines and z-bridling but remained frustrated. I eventually sold them down river (with full disclosure) for pennies on the dollar. I'm intrigued by the early peek at the LS2 but have decided to not be first in line this time. I fondly await John's reviews and videos and will regroup after seeing them and (hopefully) hearing about things from other brave souls. I want these to be good kites and I want Steffen and Kerstin to be successful; I'm just not jumping first this time. Thing is, I'm also a very happy owner of a full quiver of Flysurfer Peak-2s. Just from the short amount of video I've seen so far these 3.5, 5.5, and 7.5m LS2s don't appear to fill a space in my quiver not already grandly covered by my 4 and 6m P2s, affectionately referred to as the cheeseburger wrapper and little burger. I love those kites! We'll just have to see!
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Not for the faint of heart, but on recommendation of my son I've started to watch the Netflix original series Black Mirror. Some of the episodes torque with your mind quite a bit but they are very well done.
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I would say this is sort of "half right". True, some Bernie followers never ultimately got on the Hillary train, but neither did many, many non-Trump conservatives get on the Trump train. I'd say those two groups sort of cancelled each other out last week. What is missed here is the very large fraction of the voting population who voted for Obama once or even twice but this time went for Trump. Not for all the reasons propped up by the media and identity-politics liberals (racism, sexism, name your -ism) but rather for the thought that he would do better for the country ECONOMICALLY. This plus folks are just fed up with being told what to think in a condescending and dismissive manner. The final nail in the coffin is many blacks voted for Obama (he took 90+% of the black vote) but didn't come out and vote in large numbers for Hillary. This lighter turnout was then offset by a fair number of high-school-only educated whites that saw Trump as a candidate that could make their lives better. Again, better here meant better economically, not some stupid "white thing". Trump actually got a higher percentage of both the latino vote and black vote than Romney, the ultimate white guy. Hillary, if she had it in her, would look back and see a number of flaws to her plan to waltz into the White House. Her choice of a running mate was ridiculous, pretty much saying "I've got this" all on her own. The smart play would have been a younger black man or some other person of color that would scoop up the vote of people that are easily excited about something in the person's identity.
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More bad news from the GoPro camp. They've just recalled their drones for the nasty tendency to unexpectedly fall out of the sky. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a23828/gopro-drones-falling/
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I own and love all four Peak2s and owned for a short period of time a PL Uniq Quad 4.5. There were very different flight characteristics between these FS and PL kites, most noticeable in that the PL wind window was quite a bit smaller than that for the FS. Hard to know if that translates into these trainers. Just throwing that out there. Quality of both were good.
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@SoutherlyBuster: I may actually have misspoken. "In bounds" is the traditional skiing terrain maintained by a ski resort that skiers (or boarders) access directly from the lifts. Such terrain, whether groomed or let free is nonetheless patrolled and maintained from a avalanche perspective. Depending on the set up at the particular resort, the land folks are skiing on (and the resort maintains with grooming, patrolling, and blasting (if necessary) for avalanche control) is often leased from the Federal Government. As such, there are a series of stipulations attached to that lease. Compounding that is the whole liability issue of a screwball flyer leaving a designated kiting area and entering a skiing area and having some sort of lines cutting, collision thing like you said. Another term you hear getting kicked around in "ski-speak" is something called "side country". Side country is terrain that is unpatrolled, ungroomed, and unsupported for avalanche control but is contiguous to a ski resort. Skiers and boarders often access "side country" by taking the lifts up and then heading out of bounds. There is often ways to ski in side country such that you can work your way back into the resort lower down depending on the topography of the area. The ski resort does not assume liability for you in side country, nor will they likely mount a rescue for you if you get in trouble. Side country is different from"back country" which is ski-able terrain not contiguous with a ski resort. Long and short, after thinking more about it, I suspect this kiter might have been riding in "side country". About two hours from my house is a place called Powder Mountain that offers side country access for snowkiters and lets you take their lifts to get to it (I assume for a fee). I haven't been there but may go this winter. Higher altitude around here usually means much deeper snow and much broader open terrain, so I suspect this side country snowkiting could be pretty darn fun and a lot less work then having to snowmobile in or skin in for several hours to get to your spot.
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I just posted this over on PKF. Too good to pass up. What a video! Up in the northern hemisphere we are just getting geared up. I suspect this is in Europe. Not much of this sort of action permitted so close to in bound alpine skiing in the United States. Thanks for the post!
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I saw my neurologist earlier this week, and based on his reading of a follow up head CT, concluded that my chronic subdural hematoma has fully resolved. I am thus freed from captivity! Thank God, because I've been going crazy not getting powered about by wind since July 9th when my ascension (and inglorious descension) happened. I've actually sold pretty much all of my skating gear as committed to with my bride so that chapter is officially behind me. I now have an AQR installed on my buggy and only plan to snowkite in our world famous deep soft Utah powder (just as it says on my license plate "Best Snow on Earth") so hopefully my concussions and cranial bleeds are behind me. To celebrate my return to wind powered fun I'm meeting some fellow kiters at Lake Ivanpah for a couple of days right before Thanksgiving in November. Can't wait! Sincere and heartfelt thanks to all of you who supported me during my recovery.
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Exactly! Matches the speed of what mostly goes into them anyway....
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Just ordered one of those bad-assed black premium beauties. Perfect for upcoming Lake Ivanpah buggy sessions!
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I liked your video - nicely done! Thanks for sharing the stoke.
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Sweet. Thanks for the post @.Joel Goes to show you can boost with pretty much any kite out there. Personally I like that boosts with Peaks only happen when you really work at it as I like staying on the ground. We have a Peak Worship thread on PKF and I think I'll post this video there.
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Sorry to hear you are so effected like this. The science behind this can be summarized as follows: your balance systems is made up of three major components all working together. Sensors in your inner ear, vestibular sense (the sense of your body in space, e.g., with your eyes closed you can still tell what angle your elbow is bent at), and finally (and over abundantly for you) visual input. What makes riding behind another landyacht hard for you is your vestibular and inner ear senses are telling your brain one thing (in this case that you aren't really moving), part of your visual field is moving but an important central part of your visual field isn't. Whammo, barf city. Taking the landyacht out of your central focus would probably help, but only a little. Hard not to look at the bugger! Even better would have been just to have closed your eyes for a while to remove the visual input altogether. Next time, next time... What could possibly go wrong?
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That was spectacular! I just watched it on an iMac with Retina display with the resolution pumped all the way up. What a fantastic country. Thanks for the post!
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@jhn.holgate has it right, the P2s seem to have more grunt per m2 than the NS3s (assuming here that NS3s and NS2s are more or less comparable). In terms of a low wind kite I personally love the 12m P2, in fact its my favorite kite of all time. I know it's silly, but I even named my Session Saver I liked it so much. As a low and variable wind engine it is hard to beat. I can directly attest that it is a superior low wind engine to the 10 and 12m NS3s, as well as the 12 and 15m Summits. The caveat here is that I am an inland janky wind flier. Around where I live when the wind is light enough to need to pull out Session Saver it is also quite variable, often going to absolute lull to periods lasting a couple of minutes of wind pretty much above comfort level for that size kite. I'm not saying "gusty" in a punchy sense as much as the being variable from minute to minute. Having a 10 or 12.5m NS3 in the air when the wind speed exceeds their range in these settings is a hairball experience as you don't have any way of letting off the gas. I've found that the 12 and 15m Summits are a real challenge to get off the ground and keep off the ground in the winds I describe, though both fly and pull nicely when they are in the air and the wind is just right. So.... I'm a big fan of the 12m P2 for my conditions. It will get off the ground in a puff of wind, generally stay afloat with the bar out during low wind lulls, sits rock steady in a park and ride position, and if the wind picks up when you have it in the air you've got the trim strap to further throttle down. I've pulled the trip strap near all the way in (it flies pretty weirdly all the way in) let the bar all the way out and pointed upwind to save my ass many times. She'll flap and surge around like an angry bird but she won't be pulling hard. Last thing I'll say, and I learned this from @jhn.holgate, is the little magic ball as he puts it (a grape sized black ball that can be slid down the trim lines to hold the bar in place) is absolutely a wonderful thing when in a setting where you can park and ride a Peak2. I know John has his ocean beaches which look spectacular. I live about 7 hour drive away from Lake Ivanpah on the CA/NV border and can get endless long runs on the playa there. Take a gander here of some Peaks in action on the playa including the 12m, each with the magic ball in place. Great fliers! -
The first is just strange. The second, road kill. The world is a big, big place.
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I figured I was pretty close to the truth. I get it about not remembering much. I'm still a complete blank when it comes to my accident. Zip, zilch, nada. Good luck with the missus. I know you've got the rest handled.
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@jhn.holgate - did you chew a lot of sugar cane when you were young, or is this spectacular grill more the result of some ghastly kiting accident? I'm assuming here of course that your wife doesn't just beat you senseless on a regular basis. Enquirering minds want to know!
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Damn, that was sweet! What a place. I'd give John's teeth too, just sayin..... It was interesting that it was dated 2016 yet all the NASA Stars were NS2s. I didn't see an NS3 in the bunch. There was an interesting sort of rainbow colored SS that was in frame a few times. I wonder what type that was? I didn't recognize it. Some Euro special no doubt. Nice share Sean!
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Pete - I wish you a speedy and uncomplicated recovery. This sucks.
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Looks to be the same. That little thingy that holds in the ball (the donkey nad as it were) still seems to me to be a potential weak link in the design. The elastic looks flimsy and could stretch out.
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Thanks @.Joel. I wasn't familiar with "Perrin" and had hopped over that word in my mind. The color and general design is what threw me at first in the Monjet direction, On closer repeat inspection I now see that in great likelihood this kite is a FB design (the Ninox prototype looks to be a DP). If this is perhaps a PL design as you say, perhaps it is a second generation UNIQ Quad. I owned a UNIQ Quad for a few weeks (which turned out to be a few weeks too long IMHO). V-1.0 was really not ready for Prime Time as anything beyond a static flyer on the beach or at the park. Motive power? No thanks. A UNIQ Quad V2 would be a welcome reprise, though I'm not planning on dippin again.
