> I have recently become aware of the sport of Kitesurfing. Has onyone on > PW experimented with traction kites and kayaks? We have bought an older second hand wipica wing and tried it paddling along some caribeean islands. I can't say that we were too sucessfull. Some reasons: - we stayed within a kilometer off-shore of the mountainous islands and most of the time had to deal with winds that changed their direction a lot. With a kite that was a major problem because each time the wind changes more than a few degrees, we had a problem keeping the kite in the air. - once it is up, even a small 2 square meter kite develops enourmous force that accelerated our fully loaded Nautiraid double to unknown speeds (better prepare to roll if you have anything then the stable nautiraid and a wind from the side). Unfortunately in doing so, our the kayak surpassed the kite whenever the wind slowed down a bit, effectively bringing it down. To get a start, my friend in the back seat resorted to backpaddeling while starting the kite (and I'm sure she has done more miles that way then we ever paddeled forward on one day!). - restarting from the water works only if you have really strongs winds. Otherwise you really have to place the kite exactly right which often means going there adjusting the kites layout on the surface, paddling back and trying again. We finally found that holding the kite just above your head gives you better control and less trouble on a restart, but changing winds are still a bit of a problem. So a couple of times I was quite close to cutting that kite to pieces and make it into a nice sail. Btw: Packing and unpacking of the inflated kite is a nuissance in a kayak, because each time you want to paddle, you have to deflate it to squeeze it below deck. Regards Ferdinand ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 0 Ferdinand Soethe o/ o__/ Wollkaemmerei 8 -----</-----[\/------ D-30519 Hannover ´~~~~~~`----/-------/------´~~~~~~~~~` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ph +49-511-9845437 mobile +49-170-6362720 email f.soethe_at_apc.de ------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue May 09 2000 - 21:53:43 PDT
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