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The Blueballs Kite Buggy Event:
29/30th July 2007. Kiting action in the dunes!
I had packed my Falcon full of new
Peter Lynn Kites, shackled the trailer on the back with the new Kite
boat and went to the Blue Balls Buggy meet in Port
Waikato with a mild hangover to break my Retirement from
buggying. (Great night Friday Craig! <GRIN> )
I stopped Kite buggying about 12
years ago after injuring my shoulder after an accident. I was a
little nervous to be getting back into the saddle after such a long
break from active racing so was pleasantly surprised. It was just
like jumping back on a bike.
After convoying to Port Waikato with
Craig Hanson from Peter Lynn's, we staked our place at the top of
the first dune, set up flags and put the Buggies together. Craig had
brought up his tried and true Peter Lynn Big foot, and a brand new
Suspension Big foot Buggy (with new ultra wide tyres) and a
huge selection of new Peter Lynn kites to demo.
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Setting off with the KiteCat in tow |
Arrival at Port Waikato |
The new Suspension Buggy |
Setting up the Buggys
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The wind was light and there were in
area's of the dunes very patchy areas. We set up a few different
kites to try out. I settled in quite happily with an 8m Twister and
took off in the Suspension Buggy. I got about 1km away from our set
up and found a big hole in the wind where it became pretty much
impossible to move the buggy in the soft dune sand and keep the kite
in the air......So dropped the Twister and set about doing my
"walk of shame" upwind to find some more favourable wind.
Finding some I headed back to base...albeit a little slowly!
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We marked our spot out
early on! |
Craig Hanson from PLK and
me |
PLK
Pepper 8m flew really nicely. |
Trying a Venom 19m out in the light stuff. |
The wind proved fluky the rest of
the afternoon, and the best buggying seemed to be on the tidal
area at the bottom of the dune. I had some fun switching to a Peter
Lynn Reactor 8.3. This was a bit trickier to fly than the Peter Lynn
Twister, but had awesome upwind speed when you started working it.
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PLK Reactor and Twister
Dualing |
Getting moving in the light was tough at
times. |
Charlie Watson on the move! |
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The Smile says it all! |
Al, Anatole and Perrin enjoying a beer at the
end of the day. |
Reason 1 on not bringing a trailer... |
At the end of the day we headed back
to the Camp ground cabins to regroup, and then a good old fashioned
feed of Fish and Chips.
A bit later that evening after a
period of great chatting and catching up with people it was decided
to head back to the beach as the wind had picked up to about 25-30
knots....and "It'll be great fun hooning in the dunes!"
About 15 of us went to the beach with
about 4 buggys in total...Much to Craig Watson's concern about
losing a crazed buggier to the strong winds and the treacherous
dunes in the slightly moon lit evening!. Craig and I put up
a 3m Venom and he buckled in and bolted off at break neck
speeds!
With four buggys now absolutely
screaming along in the night everyone was being very aware of the
safety factor and keeping an eye out for one another.
After Craig returned and jumped in
for a run. The Peter Lynn Venom had some serious pull going on. I
harnessed in and in no time I must have been doing over 50km. I took
a couple of slightly more conservative runs back and forth before
feeling ok to give it some herbs.
The Viper really took off as I
took it into some power and pointed the buggy into a down wind reach
and doing some power loops......AWESOME!!!
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There was a good solid breeze for the 3m
kites! |
We were safety Conscious! |
Al's face on returning from a manic dune run. |
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It was very black out there! |
Craig saddled up for the return trip down the
dune! |
The walk back. Smiles all round! |
I recalled the rush that
I'd been missing the recent years living the "quiet" life sailing
competitively. After a slightly scary run across the dunes I headed
back upwind for a run back to base to proclaim how crazy what we
were doing was and at the same time how awesome!
Somewhere around midnight we decided
we had done enough and headed back to the cabin for some much needed
sleep.
I'm now looking forward to the next
Buggy Event coming up..... The 13th Annual Moose Meet at Murawai.
Anyone interested in going for a
buggy drop me a line or give me a call..... I certainly have the bug
again. Cheers Anatole
anatole@skytoys.co.nz
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