Dude, I boosted like 60 feet in the air!!!
 

Well, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, it was more like 2-3 feet, but I did bust my jumping cherry yesterday!!! First (intentional) jump was real fun, I think I was maybe a little cautious with the kite because I was riding the 20.5 Machine and didn't want to kill myself on the first try! Forgot to bring the kite back tho and kind of paniced so I just plunked back into the water board first and kept trying...

Now I see why some guys bust out a 10 foot jump and come into the beach saying 'hey man, did you see that 30 foot boost!?!?!?', what a great feeling!!! Hopefully I can try some this afternoon when I am fresh and haven't been riding for a couple of hours already.

That 2 weeks off killed my body as far as endurance, I am sore as a bastard today but it hurts so good!!! 8)

ha!

I was there and saw it. whilst it was not a 60 footer.. it was a a clean jump and i had no idea you had never tried it before (on purpose).

T- how did the hand hold up?

Killer! I did what I said, put new skin over the cut, wrapped it in tape, and wore gloves. The only problem I ran into was after the sesh when I took my gloves off and started to unwind the tape I realized that the adhesive on the tape must be similar to that of the new skin because somehow it bonded together. I had to cut it off with toenail clippers real carefully all around each stitch so that I didn't pop one. After this evening's session I will probably just leave the tape on until I get home, drink a couple of diet coke & Jim Beams, cut 'em and pull 'em out. Then just wear new skin until the wound is healed.

But other than that, I had no problems, great session and had a great time out with all who were out yesterday at the Skyway. You should try to make it down this PM, will probably be cruisin' on at least one of the Machines!!!

Toby, after jumping with that 20, wait till you jump a 9m on a strong day. You'll send it and it'll feel like someone shot you out of a cannon. I guarantee you will nearly shit your pants the first time when you look down.

I'm afraid that my fat 250 lb @ss might not allow me to boost as high as you my friend, but I'm sure I'll crap my pants anyway!!! :D

Glad to see you're back Tom, hope we get to ride together real soon...

ehhehehehehehheheeh toby I can relate to the feeling, that how my first jumps on the stand-up were.....first time I got 10 ft I thought I was never coming down.......

good job though, for now I'm just gonna dream about jumping...
just out of curiosity though... how long ago did you started kiting?

I have been around these guys launching, landing, listening since last August. I took my lessons in October with Bryan Eagle who did a great job I might add although all of our local instructors are VERY competent and had a hard time with my water start. I would get up on plane and riding about once a session and would be frustrated for the rest of the time, not knowing what 'the trick' was. I finally figured out that I was not edging against the kite and keeping the lines tight to shoot it back up through the power zone after my initial dive, then come off my edge when I dive the kite again until I was sufficiently powered up. That was just my thing, but about a month ago with a lot of support from all of these guys and after a lot of failure, I finally got it...we also didn't have the best/cleanest wind this winter which didn't help and it seemed as though every time I was out of town, it decided to blow!!! Give me a call if you want to chat Z, 941-284-0477.

T

way to go dude!
 

Congrats my friend! Keep on going!!!!