I stopped at Neale Park on my way home this afternoon for a kite buggy blast. I was going to head out to Rabbit Island but the wind was looking changeable, and thats a long way to go for no wind. The wind was perfect for my 6.3m C-quad. Unfortunately the last time I used that kite, I removed the lines and put it away with what I'm pretty sure was a tangled bridle. This means that next time I get it out of its bag I'm probably in for ten minutes of cursing while I try and untangle them again. A little reluctant to use the 6.3 C-quad, I got out the 'snot-rag' instead.
I got about half an hours worth of good buggying with the little green kite, before the wind began to drop away. The snot-rag got to be too much work as I began working it up and down the wind to get more power. Ten minutes of that is worth a gym membership any day, and soon I put the kite down for a rest. Now I was faced with a decision. Get out the 6.3m C-quad and untangle its bridles (this would have been the safest choice), or tell myself I'm an experienced power-kite flier who can handle a big kite, and drag out the 8.5m C-Quad, effectively doubling my kite power in one kite change. "They're only little gusts after all", I told myself, puffed out my chest and began setting up the 8.5, the biggest kite I own.
I managed to get the thing in the air and sitting straight above me 'parked'. Between the kite leaving the grass and reaching its zenith, I moved about 100 meters down the park, in a very controlled and experienced looking way. There was a 'little' more power there than I had anticipated, but I still thought it might be OK. I tried a couple of little jumps to test the wind and to see just how 'little' those gusts were. The little jumps became what I've heard other kite fliers refer to as 'floaty' jumps. A floaty jump has a moment where the kite has picked up your full weight of the ground, quite suddenly, but then, at the apex of the jump, just when it should start lowering you down again, it 'floats'. The kite holds you there for a moment,like it could either, put you down, or boost you another 10 feet, but the gust hasn't quite decided yet.
At this point I decided that this could get painful in a hurry and I shouldn't push my luck.
A few minutes later as I was knelling on the grass packing away the big scary C-quad a golfer arrived at the park for some practise. As he wandered past me he looked at the huge kite I was stuffing into a not very huge bag, "not enough wind for you today eh?", he said wisely.
Yeah... something like that mate.
10:09:15 PM 
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