Flying on Long Island...

Always great photography on KiteLife.  Love the lens flare from the multiple element lens.  Also cool to see all the gear layed out for a good long beach session.  Many times I head out so anxious to get in the air that I don't take my camera along.  I finally stashed the old five megapixel point & shoot in the trunk so I would have no excuses for no images.  Keep em comin Rob.   SHBKF

That mesh delta is just glorious!

So, I was lucky enough to have an hour break in between appointments this afternoon. My next stop was right near the beach (as most places on the Island are) so I figured it would be a good chance to get some flying in. The only problem was that the wind was not coming off the water, but the spot I ended up at is actually an isthmus, so the wind should be good from any direction, right ? Well... yeah, kinda. The wind was in the process of doing an almost 180* shift, so it was up sometimes and nothing at others. Not a big deal, the Sea Devil Light is comfortable flying in 3-15mph winds, and can be flown in less with some work. Well, it's tough to work on a beach that's 10-15 feet wide (high tide), so it was a challenging fly to say the least.

BUT... better than not having flown at all, so I'll chalk that up in the WIN column !

Sorry, no pictures today, but I brought the kite back with no damage, even though I had two water crashes, as most of the flying was over the water.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/40%C2%B055'11.9%22N+73%C2%B009'58.1%22W/@40.9191714,-73.1666356,615m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

 

I can't fly like Rob but I do have a Sea Devil Light & it has been a kite I have connected with.  Mine is black & looks like a raven flapping it's wings when I manage the correct little pop & accidentally get the slack right.  My thanks to Rob for letting me know it was a kite I might want to acquire.  Pay attention.  There are major clues given daily in KiteLife.  

See you in chat, SHBKF

Glad you like that Sea Devil. The Sea Devils were my first high-end kites, I chose them based on JB's promo video. I figured the first step to learning to fly like that was to get the same kite. Well, my original Sea Devil is 9 years old now, and it still doesn't fly like JB's. That's OK, I still like to fly it, and still learning how to make it do all those things...

 

 

Sea Devil '05

A few months after I learned my first slack line trick on dual line kites, and my first kite "promo video"... Filmed at 2005 WSIKF, footage by Todd Rudolph.

Posted by

John Barresi

on Thursday, July 23, 2009

Had to be done.

Wow!  That is some flyin'!  A few years ago I would not have even been able to figure out what was going on.  Some of the flight path is pretty subtle.  The side views show that wing flapping that others have mentioned after watching me casually.  But my flapping is barely starting to occur.  A video like this can feed me for a long time.  Dang, where's my kite?  Time to head out & get down.   SHBKF

4 hours ago, John Barresi said:

Had to be done.

So glad you did ! Always good to see one of the versions of that video. Wasn't there another cut with an AC-DC song ? 

I think the long tip-drag in the water side-slide is my favorite part, or maybe the multiple unroll into flic-flac, 6 inches off the water !

 

YouTube stripped the audio, so I did a track-swap from their music library:

 

The only outdoor ACDC dual line video I can think of is this one, flying a Shiva...

 

That must have been the one I was thinking of. It amazes me how far digital video quality has come in 10 years. There are so many videos from that time that are so great, except for the quality of the video...

 

4 hours ago, RobB said:

[...] or maybe the multiple unroll into flic-flac, 6 inches off the water !

That's the one that gets me excited every time I watch that video. It's a rare treat to see a move like that executed so cleanly.

For what it's worth, the Sea Devil in that video had the bridle points dropped another 1/2" or so (had to retie a knot), I was running about 35 grams of weight on the tail, plus a yo yo line.

Yes, I can tell it's got something done to it... my Sea Devils aren't as quick to trick as yours seems to be. Yours seems to trick more like a Fearless. I should try some adjustments on my standard, it's handling is so bland that I use it as a tow vehicle for my 75' tube tail ! If I want to trick, I fly something else...

5 minutes ago, RobB said:

Yes, I can tell it's got something done to it... my Sea Devils aren't as quick to trick as yours seems to be. Yours seems to trick more like a Fearless. I should try some adjustments on my standard, it's handling is so bland that I use it as a tow vehicle for my 75' tube tail ! If I want to trick, I fly something else...

At least I'm not the only one haulin tail with Lam's kites.....

Wow, a Lam kite relegated to dragging tails... That's a shame.