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Yeah, It's Cold, but I Gotta Fly !


RobB
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It was a little cold out today...

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It also looked a little cold over at the flying beach, too !

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I needed 4WD to get in the parking lot, they don't really plow it very often... Luckily the salt spray and wind take care of most of it...

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But totally worth it, even for less than an hour of flying...

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Sea Devil Light... winds were ~5mph (+/-) Nothing beats a good session on the lines !

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Great story in pictures Rob. Thanks for the many kite images (and a few kites too). I carry several in my kite mind for recall at times I feel the urge to fly. Kites bring such joy to my life. Keep inspiring us please.

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Kites bring me much joy, too. And... stress relief. Nothing like flying on an empty beach, even if it is a little cold. You know that saying about dancing like no one is watching... well, fly like no one is watching !

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That's too much. Rob, I just don't know how you handle that kind of cold ! My fingers and feet would be freezing. You must have really wanted to fly bad, that day. I'm even more impressed with the Tahoe. I didn't even realize, that GM made a Hybrid Tahoe...........how cool ! (err, cold) :ani_victory:

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re. Questions about the frozen water... in the second picture, you can see that the harbor actually freezes over & has ice & snow on it. You can walk on it (not me, but some people do) but salt water ice isn't as strong as fresh water ice. The water freezes there because it's not moving as much as the water in the Sound.

The fourth and fifth picture shows a pile of snow behind the kite, and past that is about ~30' of slushy saltwater, and then the open water. The water doesn't freeze in the sound because of the constant movement of the waves, but it does get slushy when it's real cold. We had just gotten ~6" of snow that morning on top of the ~2 feet left over from a previous few snowfalls. The salt spray & wind mixes up the snow and the sand, that's why you can see sand in spots... but there's also snow and ice under the sand. It's weird, in spots you'll actually fall through when you step, and it looked like you were standing on solid sand. It's a real booger to get the ground stake in sometimes, I have to grab a large rock & hammer the stake in, Flintstone style.

And yes, Nick, GM made a hybrid Tahoe until they changed the body style in 2015. They didn't sell well (except to Police, municipalities, and limo companies). My company took advantage of 'green' tax incentives and bought a couple. They're not bad, they go pretty good in the snow & on the beach, just not really suited for 'real' off-roading. They get ~10mpg better than the standard gas powered ones...

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Oh, what a gift today was... winds were low, really low, like the windmeter wouldn't register low. And the temperature at 31* F felt like spring, especially with the sorta bright sunlight. I had 3 hours of flying some duals, just didn't want to put them down. Non-stop flying, except to switch between the Fearless Tattoo and the ProDancer SUL.

IMG_7471.jpgWe've had many days of temps below 20* during the day, close to 0* at night, so the ice has built up a little more.

IMG_7465.jpgIt's hard to tell from the picture, but the water is 3' to 5' deep where you can see the ice under the water. It drops off very steeply at this beach.

IMG_7448.jpgHad a good two hours on the lines with the Fearless. It took a bit of work to fly in the low wind, but still was able to wring some tricks out of it. I got pretty hot running around on the beach, had to ditch the jacket after only a few minutes.

IMG_7485.jpgOnce I was mostly tired out from flying the SUL trick kite, I switched to the real SUL kite. Even in winds this low, you can pretty much just stand in one place and fly the ProDancer. The trade-off is that the ProDancer has a limited trick repertoire. Still, with longer lines, it's lots of fun to gracefully carve up the sky.

I'll be looking at the video footage later, maybe I got something to share... we'll see. Hope you all are staying warm & getting a chance to fly some !

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Thank you, glad you enjoyed... The Fearless is a great kite, but I prefer the SeaDevil SUL. I chose the Fearless on this day because the black color contrasted better with the snow. The white Sea Devil would've been lost...

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Don't run the sound on the laptop much but I have learned to crank it up during Rob's videos. The Joe Walsh tunes are something I have listened to many times. So if you see some old guy cruisin around in his old jalopy he might just my be listening to Rocky Mountain Way & laying a little rubber in sync with the music.....rock on my friends, rock on. SHBKF

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I've seen Joe Walsh perform live a few times. He's a musician & a comedian ! The music I choose from my mp3 collection for videos are usually chosen because they match the length of the clips. Sometimes it works out better than others...

Hope you full screened & clicked HD, too. The GoPro shoots clearer videos than my old HD videocorder, lot of bang for the buck in that little camera !

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Another snowy day... couldn't resist the urge to get something in the air !

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The Revs have been neglected, and due to the sketchy off-shore wind, four lines are usually better than two !

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I'm still not too good at flying with one hand, so this is all I got that came out clear.

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Well, you can't see too well from the pictures how hard it was snowing, but I did get a little video that shows the flakes flying a little better...

Stay tuned & hope your flying field is warmer than mine !

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Ooops, forgot the SLKs... went out last weekend with my son to get a little KAP. The winds weren't quite what I had hoped, and even using the larger foil, found it difficult to keep the camera off the ground. My son was able to get a couple of KAP selfies, though !

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It seems like it's snowing every other day here. I guess you could call it a good winter. Too bad it's almost over, but I do miss flying in shorts...

If you full screen the video, and click HD, you can kinda see the flakes flying...

Winds were squirrely off-shore, from nothing one moment to maybe 5mph the next.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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Well, there's still snow on the ground (6 new inches last night), so I guess today's session qualifies in this thread still. So much for spring ? I got to fly the SuperSonic on this brisk sunny day. What a trip this kite is ! It's like it has a turbo... takes a while to spool up and then Vooom ! DON'T BLINK ! I'm surprised how stiff it is, and it oversteers like a RWD V8 muscle car in the snow ! A real handful... This one's going to take some work to get used to...

Thank you, Mark, for the great Karma prize !

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I flew a couple of duallies (only broke one) and kept the Ultrafoil 15 anchored nearby as a colorful windsock.

Sunday Funday... it was a great warm-up for Kite Month (starts next week !) :ani_victory:

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