[toykites]

OK, this is getting ridiculous. Today was the 3rd day in a row of 30+ mph winds in St. Augustine. I've never been really that comfortable on a small kite, but lately it seems we're becoming experts at high wind kiteboarding here! Once again, Matanzas Inlet was the spot and the boyz were on it riding 5, 7, and 9 meter kites. Luckily the direction switched more out of the north, and we were able to get out in the surf and ride some nice chunky waves approaching the double overhead range. I put up my new Flexifoil Strike 9 meter but with the current opposing the wind it became a little too much inside the inlet, so I only lasted a couple of hours. In the surf it was perfect and I had some really fun lefts down the beach. The new Strikes are a perfect combination of medium-aspect stability and unreal Flexifoil airfoil engineering, creating an amazing amount of lift but so easy to control. In the past I've had to fly a small kite back and forth across the power zone in order to control my descent on big jumps. With the Strike I just sent it and pulled slowly back in the direction of travel in order to land softly. What an incredible feeling!

The day wasn't without incident, as 2 different riders broke chicken loops and had to swim in. The first had to be rescued as he was in the surf and the current was sucking him out to sea. I grabbed his kite and he held onto another kiter's harness handle and was pulled back to shore. The second rider had the 5th element on a new North bar and managed to get back to shore under his own power with no twisted lines to speak of. Pretty impressive considering the conditions.

I did take some photos after I returned to the beach and I'll post them on the Extreme Kites photo gallery tomorrow sometime. Daryl Drown, owner of Extreme Kites, let me borrow his 2005 Airush Reactor 5 meter on a 12 inch pulley bar at the end and I must say that is the fastest kite I've ever flown. It's a little ridiculous. I was able to do 10 foot high kite loops in 35 mph gusts without much problem because the kite would loop on itself in less than a second. It would rip me for sure, but nothing like you would expect in that amount of wind, and if anything it softened the landings because the kite didn't overfly as bad. I'll be happy to see some mellower conditions tomorrow as NOAA is forecasting 15 knots out of the N. If it's anything like thier 20-25 knot forecast the past couple of days, it will be 15-20, which is perfect for my 11 Strike. Hope you guys have been getting it good down south!