Hi all,
With the summer here the winds are even lighter than normal and I've started wondering if there's anything I can do with my kites without any wind, or
at least without any external wind. What I'm thinking is if I'm using something where I can get moving without the kite would I do thing like jump
using just the apparent wind?
I'm thinking maybe pick up some speed on inline skates then throw the kite around and see if I can get any air or something similar.
Another option might be riding an innertube with one hand steering the kite and the other holding on to a tow rope. I know better than to actually be
towed up by a boat, but I imagine if I'm just holding the rope and staying relatively near the water things can't go too badly.
Has anyone tried anything like this? Do I just have to give up on using the kites in this weather?
Heh, I'm talking about wind that won't even get my 10.5 NS3 up. I'm not sure a blade would do much better, otherwise I would have placed a bid already
:p
PHREERIDER: I'm just talking about holding a tow rope in with one hand, not attaching it to myself. I realize the hazards involved there, but my
thinking is that my grip would give long before my equipment or body did. Do you think otherwise?
longer lines will help. 300 foot lines with a 10m will let you buggy in ZERO WIND.
i do it quite often.
Appex buggy, Libre hardcore buggies.
Flexboardz. Blokarts.
PKD Century Soulflys. NPW's. Nasa Stars.
A few other less flown oddballs,
Line sets from 10" to 328" or 2m to 100m.
worlds only AQR that works.
North American distributor for PKD.
"Kite Bugging is not an addiction until you try to quit".
longer lines will help. 300 foot lines with a 10m will let you buggy in ZERO WIND.
i do it quite often.
My other problem is that I rarely have the space for 20m lines. Anything beyond that and I won't have room to even make a full power stroke. When I
finally get my water lesson (which keeps getting canceled because of the wind conditions) I should have enough space to run longer lines, but until
then nothing longer than 20m is reasonable and 10m is better.
Life really seems to be telling me to give up, but I can't.
@ rofer - in your idle moments you may wish to read up a bit on Chaos Theory, sometimes referred to as the Butterfly Effect.
From Wikipedia:
Chaos Theory is the field of study in mathematics that studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial
conditions—a response popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. Small differences in initial conditions (such as those due to rounding errors
in numerical computation) yield widely diverging outcomes for such dynamical systems, rendering long-term prediction impossible in general. This
happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future behavior is fully determined by their initial conditions, with no
random elements involved. In other words, the deterministic nature of these systems does not make them predictable.
The Butterfly Effect is derived from the metaphorical example of the details of a hurricane (exact time of formation, exact path
taken) being influenced by minor perturbations such as the flapping of the wings of a distant butterfly several weeks earlier.
Believe me I get where you are coming from, but you may just be setting yourself up for Toad's Wild Ride.
@ bigkid: I know we'd all love to see some video of your no wind 300 ft lines buggying!!!
Heh, we had a pitbull who would pull a special dog-powered scooter thing. The cat thing looks crazy though.
So, looks like there's little I can do with power kites without any real wind. I might just stick to my other hobbies then, but I guess ultra light
stunt kites are an option too.
PHREERIDER: I actually U2U'd you about that before. Been thinking about those recently, but I probably don't have the funds to build any RC things
right now.
Haha!
That is just WAY phun lookin"!
I got a couple old riding lawn mowers out back that I was going to build racers out of...now i'm gonna re-think that!
Life's too short to be anything but happy!
My stuff:
Flexifoil 1.2m Sting
HQ Symphony 2.2m
Beamer 3.6m
Pro Foil 2.5, 4.5m
JoJo 6m
Montana 7m
Flysurfer 19m Speed 2 SA
Flexi bug
Several pair of kite skis
‘There are two types of education: One should teach us how to make a living, and the other should teach us how to live.’ - John Adams
![[*]](images/perspective/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
yep ...thats a common destination for me , it
will take you to disease level phun where there is no waiting my man! 