Circle One Carbon Skim 56" - Budget light wind solutions...

I am not a small, or particularly light person, some have even called me 'robust' and I have always found trotting up and down on a big kite and twintip pretty dull, even worse on a surfboard in no swell, and the beaches we use are not really suited for a raceboard as they are generally very shallow with suprise sandbanks everywhere. Not ideal for your £300 hand made fins. I also don't have a competitive bone in my body. I do however like to maximise my time on the water, so what's the solution?

Historically, the classic skim for kiting is the Nobile Skim, which I had in my posession (someone left it at my house for an extended 6 month period) and I rode it quite a bit, and it was easy to ride, but I was never really happy with its performance. The fins/rails were too grippy, the rail was lethally sharp, and considering it was CAP construction, it was bloody expensive. Even worse was the North Skimfish, the graphics alone made me want to vomit. Don't get me started.

After many trials and tribulations, I ended up riding a Circle One EPS 54" skim a lot last year; after stuffing my ankle up I got quite into it.

From about 8 knots, with a 12m, you really can fly upwind in diddly squat, in incredibly shallow water and actually progress your riding quite a bit, sharpen up your kite control which is critcal and improve your balance and fancy footwork for strapless. A lot of the time you have to work on apparent wind, and I would recommend a kite with a small diameter leading edge so it has good forward speed as well as flying further round the window. My Mr F 2 12m (Delta/Bow/Hybrid) is just about perfect for this, pure C shapes are not so good in the super light stuff in my experience. You need a kite with more aerodynamic leanings.

So what can you achieve on this strange little craft? Well, shovits, aerial transitions and spins, surface passes, jibes, tacks and even slashing little waves and all sorts of other cunning stunts are possible. Much more satisfying than trotting back and forth for me. It's skateboard trick heaven with a kite.

From time to time I have had skims out in quite large swell, which is extremely fun/funny. Dropping in is like sliding down a 45 degree ice slope and is a real test of balance and kite control. Wacky Races would be an accurate comparison. You can also literally reach warp speed.

'But it's got no fins' I hear you say, in an alarmed fashion. Yes, this is indeed the case, but in my experience they are more of a hindrance as they catch when you try and spin the board, or slip out when you least expect it, and make little improvement to the upwind ability. They also prevent you from riding in super shallow water, or even over wet sandbars. Surface tension is your friend. Don't stab it with G10 the whole time.

From an injury recovery point of view it has also been an excellent tool, without a doubt helping strengthen my gammy kankle. You have to constantly trim the board angle, and balance, using all your proprioception. Imagine it like a wobble board for the water. It also seems to give your core/stomach a damn good work out, as you have to control your balance with small movements. From an impact point of view (normally a thing to avoid after most injuries) there is barely any, and you are not just bouncing around on a locked in rail the whole time, a la twin tip.

So anyway, I just received this new 56" Carbon Skim from Circle One. Shape-wise, it's quite different to last year, having a lot more taper at the rear, rather than being a teardrop shape. It also seems more strongly built than the EPS version and more or less exactly the same weight. The rail shape has changed slightly, being squarer running towards the base. The finish, as ever, is really (bang) tidy with these boards. For the £60 price increase (RRP ~£240), I would go for the carbon version every time, specially with kiting in mind. The trouble is, that at the moment it's a special order.

Tidy rear end (more slender than previous)

After the first couple of sessions on it, my verdict so far is that it is a big improvement on the EPS board from last year, it seems even smoother through the water and the new rail shape means you can hold a little more power and go upwind at a ridiculous angle in the gusts. Due to the skinnier tail, it feels more purposeful/grippy on the waves, but the 2" extra length seems to compensate for the reduction in surface area at the tail, and overall volume and upwind ability are very similar to the last one. The rocker is exactly the same, i.e not much apart from a touch in the nose as you would expect from a skim. I may bore you with some Go Pro footage in the near future. Be warned.

Luxury kick pad is a must

More purposeful nose

Flat as a witch's tit, and note the new rail shape

Circle One Bamboo 2012 6' x 19" x 2 1/4"

New Circle One boards are here, and they are looking sweet. The 6' was the most popular board last year, and a lot of people locally have been getting on really well with the shape and buoyancy which works well in local conditions where it's slightly more onshore and you need a little extra float/volume to really use the wave. Considering its volume, it rides smooth as silk and it's not bouncy on chop as you would expect.

What I like about it, is that it's an easy enough board to ride, but still has a lot of performance. It also has just enough rocker not to nose dive if you are front foot heavy, and has enough in the mid section to steam upwind. I mainly ride it strapless, as does Sarah.

The lay up is slightly different this year, promising the same relatively low weight, but more robust construction. This is always a trade off so we will see how it fairs after some abuse.

For around £400 new with fins, deck pads and straps I don't think you will find a better kite board for your money.

New graphic

Single concave

Medium rocker

A touch of extra nose rocker, and flat mid section

Same fin box as last year accepting FCS plugs.

Double strap inserts this year

Finish is as good as ever

Kite repairs eh?

For the last year or so I have been doing kite repairs. I don't generally advertise this fact, as I don't want to be chained to the sewing machine 12 hours a day. I have no intention of running a sweat shop, with me as the child labour. But even just with the local trade I have got through a fair few kites, and I have had to face the fact it's actually quite a good way to earn some money. The other slightly sad fact is that I got quite into it, and started developing my own methods.

I owe it all, as with a few things in my current existence, to my friend Jimmy who has done kite repairs for about 4 or 5 years, covering warranty work for some of the brands and shops down his way in Kent. He was nice enough to come down and show me a few hints and tips (in return for some cider)

So in the name of freedom of information, and also because I get asked questions on how you do this repair, or that repair all the time, I am going to do a quick how-to explaining a few simple repairs.

I am not giving away all the secrets, as this will be a breach of the magic repair circle, and I will have Paul Daniels on my arse faster than you can say 'bobbins'.

Using/setting up the machine is a skill in itself which takes a while to learn and perfect and I wouldn't suggest you start trying to learn on your own, or even worse other peoples kites. You will end up punching many unnecessary holes in a innocent kite. But anyhoo, here is a few photos of how I carried out a recent grisly LE repair. You also need a decent industrial sewing machine, preferably with a long arm, and/or a lot of clearance which will cost more than sending it to a proper sail maker or kite repair guy.

Kaput

So here we are, whoopsy diddle, a foot long hole in the leading edge, most likely caused by self launching on something sharp judging by other deep scrapes on the leading edge material close by. To make things interesting (or not), it has torn along to that hang point on the right as the air came out and it fell to the ground with the pressure on it. The bladder is pretty knackered, with a foot long rip right along the seam. If you really wanted to (or are unable to source a new replacement bladder) you could fix it with Stormsure and some spare PU from a donor bladder.

T shaped effort

So once it is laid flat, it all becomes a little more clear how to sort it out. Not as bad is it initially looked. Notice I have unpicked the leading edge here already to get the segment nice and flat before laying it up. Ideally stretch it over the edge of your table, and weight it with something.

Double sided tape applied - accuracy is key at this stage

So the next stage is laying up the repair with double sided tape. From a point of view of getting the kite to fly the same afterwards, and not to hang to one side, this is by far the most important part to be accurate. This is specially important when it comes to canopy repairs. If you are a few millimetres off it can make all the difference. It's fiddly, and depending on the area damaged it can be time consuming. Imagine it like sticking a jigsaw puzzle back together. Also, with ripped Dacron there is usually a furry edge to the material which makes matching it back up accurately difficult. Most Dacron has lines running longways on it, spaced an even 12mm apart, so get your ruler out and make sure it all lines up.

Looking better already, with new Dacron graft on the left

So as you can see above, I have removed the backing from the double sided tape applied to the torn LE. I have measured out and applied more tape to the edges of the replacement Dacron that I will graft over the top of the repair. The theory is to transfer the load onto this, and off the damaged material underneath. Again, when you measure and cut this, you need to be very accurate, or you will waste material, or make an ugly looking repair. You need to overlap the tear by at least 1cm. If you need to, you can apply a patch to the inside of the LE, in this case I made a small one 12 x 10cm under the bump stop, as the tear had stretched  underneath here, and the exterior patch wouldn't have covered it fully.

Laid up, ready for sewing

So next stage is applying the patch. The aim is to get it perfectly flat. Approach this like applying a sticker, starting at one end and working it flat to the other. If it's not on right, peel it off and start again.

Bitchin' stitchin.

Next step is to run around the patching with the machine. A 3 step zig zag is the standard. The thread is Dabond V69, which is extremely tough and UV resistant. I try and keep about 1mm off the edge of the patch to prevent it from peeling back. Top tip: make sure you check underneath material you are stitching for anything that shouldn't be there. i.e the other half of the leading edge, a wandering bridle, or even worse, the LE bladder. Otherwise you could be at home to 'Bobby McBallsup'

It's great when you're straight

So now we need to close the edge back up. A liberal application of double sided tape to the closing seam is required, and you an match it all back where it was before you unpicked it. You can also match up the kinks in the LE material to help you do this. Again, accuracy at this stage is absolutely key. It needs to be lined up exactly as it was previously, or you will see bulges in the LE.

Tapeitupnow.

Next is closing the LE seam. This varies from kite to kite, as some have extra webbing over the seam. In this case it's a simple sew a straight stitch down the middle. Thread tension needs to be just right at this stage to get a nice strong stitch.

First closing seam

Once this is done, fold it over applying more double sided tape to line it up properly. Once folded, a second run of straight stitch finishes it off. Bang tidy.

Final closing seam

At this stage I try and match the new stitching though the old holes as much as possible. If you make new holes you end up with a weak 'edge of a postage stamp' effect along the edge of the Dacron, meaning it s more likely to let go under impact. Kites which have more overlapping material on this seam are often weak here anyway as there are twice as many holes.

I neglected to take any more photos of this kite as the client needed it back in a hurry, but it is now cruising the South Hams on light wind days as if nothing ever happened.

For Sale: Canon 50D

We have recently upgraded our camera back, and have a Canon 50D for sale. It is about 2 years old, and is a really solid, semi pro stills camera. It will come back only with the grip, second battery, charger, box, and cables. There are few light scratches on the top LCD, but other than that, it's in great shape. Specs are 15 megapixel, 6.3fps and a 9 point autofocus. It has more settings and flexibility than most folks would ever need.

They are still about £550 new, and the grip plus extra battery is £200 worth, so make us an offer!

For Sale - Circle One Skim 54"

*SOLD*
54" Circle One Skim, perfect for light wind, and excellent training for riding strapless  and general balance, injury rehab etc.

Nice and light, and friendlier to the shins/wallet than the Nobile option. It rides well backwards and has a comfy EVA kickpad. It has a small few dings which have been repaired. It's good to go. I could even scrape the wax off if you really wanted.

£75 


(original price was £175)


I am getting a new carbon one. Saucy. 


*SOLD*

Union Island - A Kitesurf Paradise

On our various trips to Brazil over the last 6 years we keep running into Ocean Rodeo team riders / promotional gurus Jeremie Tronet and Linn Svendsen. The lovely French-Caribbean / Norwegian couple have now set up their own kite centre with school in the Grenadines, mainly serving the passing yacht trade. See: www.kitesurfgrenadines.com

So knowing that this pair wouldn't settle somewhere with anything less than amazing kite conditions, we thought we might go and check it out. We shot a bit of video of Sarah kiting which you can watch below. This gives you a good idea of how good the conditions were :)

After a very good autumn/winter season in the UK the long range forecast all of a sudden looked very bleak, so we booked a cheap flight to Barbados with Mr Beardy Branson Airways, organised the transfer hop flight with Mustique Airways (thanks Keisha) who offer an excellent range of reliable winged caravans.

From above (Pic stolen from Hannah Darling)

So after some Twin Otter hi-jinx, some confused but amusing conversations at customs about what was in the huge kite bags, and the arduous hotel transfer (30 second ride on a golf buggy), in what seemed like no time at all with the time difference, we had travelled from a freezing and drizzly Gatwick to sunshine, palm trees and clear blue water. We stayed at the Anchorage Yacht Club, which mainly acts as a transfer point for luxury tourists travelling over towards the Palm Island resort. The hotel is about 100m from the kite spot and is extremely convenient. The staff are very helpful and friendly as well, and the Wifi runs as smoothly as the supply of Pina Coladas.

Not too shabby view in front of the rooms at the hotel

The wind over the duration of the trip was excellent, with 10 out of 12 days kiteable and really it was more like 11 out of 12 but one morning we were particularly hungover. The wind follows a daily pattern. It kicks in at about 8 in the morning and is at its strongest (18 - 20 knots) until around 1pm. It then has the courtesy to mellow out a bit over lunch time (although it's still rideable) to allow you to have a leisurely lunch. By 3pm it's back up to speed again, and gradually gets stronger until sunset. We quickly settled into a routine, and found an early start and a long lunch, possibly with short snooze afterwards, let you have 2 or three hours in the morning riding quite hard, and then a more relaxed sunset session before cocktail hour. As you can tell it was pretty tough over there, but we coped.

The main spot set up is very good as well, with a large lagoon protected by a reef. It's shallow and flat, and great for training, the bottom is a mixture of old coral and sand, so nothing much to bump into. You need to be confident upwind to ride here, and stay away from the airport end which is marked by some buoys. The tides are tiny, so not much to worry about there.

Wang Ping

There are very few kite spots with in-water bar/BBQ services. Happy Island was built by an enterprising local who kept dumping conch shells on the inside of the reef until there was enough reclaimed land to build a bar on. All the yacht tenders moor up there for a stunning sunset and Jeremie sometimes puts on a big air show much to the delight of the punters.

Happy Island Sunset

From a beginners point of view the best bet is to head off downwind to Frigate with the school and enjoy the huge amount of space, and boat support. If the wind switches a little more easterly (away from the normal north east) the potential for freestyle down here is spectacular. It looks like a few years ago they started building a huge dock for more boats, and they must have run out of cash and work stopped, leaving a man-made spit creating some rather tasty flat water. Running downwind to here from the centre is worth the ride just for the experience of hopping in and out of the reefs. Half way down is an enormous turquoise bottomed lagoon which is worth hanging around in for some time. Frigate island itself looks like somewhere a Bond villain might have his lair. It's extremely spectacular.

Frigate from above

Jeremie and Linn can further amuse you by organising day tours to the other islands close by. We went up to Mayreaux for a quick kite on a little reef break, and to the Tobago Cays, and stopped somewhere they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean, where a month or so back, part of a Russian space rocket washed up rather bizarrely. This was a great addition to the trip. Everyone likes messing around on boats. We finished up the day with a sunset downwinder in light wind back to Union with the boat following.

Russian space rocket anyone?

Every full moon they are running a beach party at the centre, where the whole Island comes out to enjoy some dancing, rum and night kiting. It's an eclectic mix of locals, yacht dwellers and kiters, and made for some amusing moments.

Check the moon.

Food wise, high recommendations need to be given to:

Big Citi - the local canteen diner above a yellow building in the square. This is very reasonably priced, the food is tasty Caribbean dishes like conch stew, BBQ chicken and a sandwich called the 'mumbler' which was absolutely off the chart if you are into chicken.

Captain Gourmet - Just off the square towards Ashton, this is run by local French folks, and as you would expect provides great breakfasts, bread, croissants and most importantly coffee. They also import luxury goods from France and all over the place, so if you need some champagne or confit de canard in a hurry, this is the place to come. Watch out for the chocolate muffins.

Marie's Pizza Place - Located opposite the ferry dock, Marie became our temporary mother for 12 days. Initially she wooed us with amazing seafood pizza and pasta, and then let us order what we would like the next night the day before and she would source it. This meant every night we had delicious home cooked food with a French twist. This was great compared to other small island experiences we had like in Cape Verde where the food was generally terrible.

So all in all it was an amazing trip, and very do-able for a two week holiday. A huge thanks go to Jeremie and Linn for showing us a great time and sharing their spot with us. I think we would definitely be back, the potential for waves is also very good in the right conditions, and we didn't really touch on that on this visit.

This time last year.....

Remember the good times?

So last year we were graced with decent ground swell from the south and some cranking north westerly wind, and this year we seem to have nothing but light offshores and fog, which is all well and good for surfing but the kitemonster is literally clucking to get out.

Bored out of my tiny mind yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the massive spring tide (0.4m low) and go and see what makes this wave jack up so nicely.

Mordor. Wouldn't want your leash stuck round that.

OK, so you are always aware that it's rocky under there, but I wasn't expecting it to look quite so evil. This is definitely a no leash situation (board or kite leash for that matter) The only saving grace is that I normally only ride this at a highish tide meaning that if the proverbial did hit the fan there would be some safety margin. The wave also isn't exactly heavy so chances of being taken this far downstairs would be fairly slim. So as you walk out west from here, further towards the sea it shelves off pretty steeply down to sand. When I had my mega washing incident a year or two back I swam in and clambered out over similar stuff, the secret being to duck dive the wave as best as possible, and if it does throw you down, protect your head.

The mind boggleth....

Extreme Dog Walking - 2012 storms

Ever wondered what the sea would look like with wind gusting about 60 knots? Well Bert, Donna, Finn and I decided to go and have a look this morning.


 The swell wasn't as big as we have seen it recently but it was really windy. On the cliff the wind would do it's best to knock you over in the gusts.

South Devon Kite Club 2011 Christmas Video

We made a very last minute video for the local kitesurf club (www.sdkc.co.uk) Christmas dinner a few weeks ago. As usual this was shot and edited in a hasty fashion, but I did actually manage to bang a tripod out for the evening and we got some nice light, even if the waves were really small, it was bolt onshore, and Sarah wasn't riding at her best! She was stacked on a 9m and strapless. I may reuse some of the footage for the English Riveira Part II, the yet to be planned or even thought about sequel. The evidence stacks up below:

2011 Advent Storms

It's been a big old week down here in the South Hamsters. For once, Windguru didn't under cook the forecast and we got dealt a serious week of big wave, and big wind hi jinx. It's been the longest storm we have seen down here in the last four years of Devon. The week previous we were fairly sure most of it would be to windy to kite, but it actually turned out alright.

Slapping the close out with a salty Go Pro on Tuesday 13th

 Monday was one of the best days for progression before the storm really hit. Powered 9m and the swell had arrived before the storm kicked in. There were nice rides to be had, but if we are honest, it was a little too onshore, made up for by how clean it was. We got a couple of good hours in the morning, and packed up just before the wind went crazy.

Extreme 6m weather

 Tuesday was the strongest forecast, with 35-55 knots predicted on the Guru. We went down set up, only for a mega squall to arrive which left us sheltering under the 6m in a hail storm. Quote of the week from our recently retired friend Bert was "I feel like one of those f@*king penguins off frozen planet"

Thurlestone working with no wind

 Sarah and I both got an hour or so on Tuesday on the 6m Da Vinci, in humongous swell. When it gets hairy, this is still the kite we turn to. We literally pull it off the dusty shelf in case of emergency. In the end I actually got a few decent rides, which I wasn't really expecting. The swell period was so large that there was a lot of space between waves at high tide, meaning you had plenty of time to jibe and prepare to haul your arse over the white water going out. It was actually far safer than some days we have with smaller swell, less wind and shorter period. A windsurfer managed to lose his rig and was swimming in about 300m out and half way across the bay from where his rig was. I hovered around him and watched him in which he was very grateful for indeed. The current was ridiculous with the river flowing out full of Dartmoor's brown sheep shit and tannin rainwater. I obviously earned my karma points here as straight after that I got the best five waves of the day. It was very eerie out there with the low sunlight and mist. Another squall was building behind me, so I called it quits and came out of the water extremely euphoric, and for once the Go Pro worked and I forgive it for getting salty.

Burgh Island Bigggies

Wednesday came and went with very unstable weather. We rode for 20 mins or so, but it was literally 10 to 40 knots as the squalls came and went. Not exactly conducive to fun and we got quite cold. Thursday and Friday were spent doing work and repairs, and in the morning in between the storms I went out and took some photos of a few reef / point spots that have potential to work on big swells in WNW. They were firing, but the wind wasn't quite right. 20 dgrees further north and I would have been all over it. With the onset of Manflu hanging over us like a bogey encrusted overlord, we stayed out of the water and in front of the wood burner. But we know where to head, and when, next time and the exit strategies are in place.

In fact next week looks like it's on. The winter of love continues.

There are more pictures from the weeks antics and scoping here:


December Scoping Album