| session_date | Wednesday, October 28, 2009 | |
| Spot | Luderitz, Laguna 2, Namibia | |
| Board | Cape Dr Custom Custom Speed |  |
| Average speed | 30.55 knots ( 53.36 51.13 18.38 15.27 14.62 ) | |
| Remarks | Posted on behalf of Hennie from Luderitz.
This session was on a borrowed kite as Hennie's Genetrix had a cut in the LE, he improved on his previous best peak of 52.8 by over 5 knots, the 10 second is super fast too.
At the end of his 2nd run he had a wipe out that entailed a kite loop on either side of the window and incredibly walked away from this without a scratch.
Nice one Hennie, that's how you go big.
Thanks for posting this for me Basil.
Big day for speed kiting with Seb consistently maxing over 60 on the day. As we started rigging up a massive gust pulled in and the brazilian team measured 58 knots!!!. My Hydra 9.0 had a cut on the leading edge so i tried Sjoukje's Modified 7.0 Helix for Two runs. It felt Great on the short lines but the tide was still too high for really good speeds. The guys were milling around unsure how to deal with all this wind. Basil mentioned that he had a 7.0 bandit 3 from Bruce Chrystal as a test kite and maybe i should give it a go. Seemed like a good idea at the time so i rigged up and missioned up to the top of the course. Did my first run Fully depowered and it felt great and all in Control. 51.1 ten second run with a 52.5 Max already just about my personal best. I thought to myself that with less depower i should be able to do much better on the second run. I had a good run into the start but was dragged away from the bank by a big gust so i raised the kite and eased back to the perfect line. As i got into position and dropped the kite a massive gust picked me up and swept me down the course. Feels a little like your kite hooked onto a low flying jet passing by. Finished the run knowing that it was a good one. As i was slowing down all under control a small gust lifted me off the board and i very innocently did a small skid on my back. After that all hell broke loose. The lines went slack and then massively powered up. I was hauled high in the air and looking back over my shoulder i saw the kite looping hard. I managed to correct the loop and actually landed ok on the first bounce. I think i overcorrected the kiteloop because the next loop went the other way....hard. I landed on my right ribcage and was completely winded. I had some of the lines wrapped around my body and knew i was in serious trouble. The kite powered up again but luckily the bar broke along with all the lines and the kite headed downwind straight for the rocks. Once i got my wind back i had a look at speed genie on my GPS but the crash was so hard it had reset. I walked back to the beach with half the bar and the dregs of the kite lines in my hand. Back on the beach i took out my GPS and had a look at the history.....58knot max!!! Unbeleivable and it made the crash worth it. Manu's kite followed mine to the rocks so there was some missioning involved to get the kites back. Both had big rips in the canopy but otherwise Ok.
I might have some nightmares about that wipeout for some time because it happended so fast from such an innocent start. It never even crossed my mind to release the kite and another 2 big bounces would have taken me onto the rocks. On the GPS track i flew straight downwind for 120m in two bounces clocking a impressive 37knots through the air before the first big landing. I am very lucky not to be injured. Best of all Paul Railton got the whole crash on Video.
Sorry about the kite Bruce!! At least i got a SA record 10second run out of it.
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