OBE!

This is what happened to me just over a month ago...

I got down to the salt lakes nice and early as we had some decent wind forecast and I wanted to put the new 3m core through its paces and hopefully get a new PB.

The core is great, give it some decent wind and it wants to pull, it's quick through the air and the turns are quick and precise. As this was only my second or third go out with the core I thought I would build up slowly, making sure I could scrub the speed when needed. This was more important today as the wind was a SW-erly so didn't have the full length of the lake to play in.

I was gradually building up speed and confidence when the GPS flashed low battery and typically I had no spares! I did manage to match my PB before it died completely...

But still no 60kph!

Still kept on going and was having a great time, the core was performing brilliantly and I was motoring (have you guessed what happens next?).

The wind seemed pretty constant, with the forecast being 27-30kph, well within the cores limits (max recommended is 20knts or 37kph). There were a few gusts which just increased the speed! The next gust stayed and another one just added to it, started to slow the buggy and took the kite higher into the window - did I say the core is quick? Well it shot up and took me with it! I looked down and the buggy appeared to be 1-2 meters below, but i don't really know as my perspective was pretty skewed! I really didn't want to land on the bug as that was going to hurt...

No worries there! As I landed about 4m from the now stopped bug! Thankfully, I did still have some luck on my side and was on one of the softer parts of the lake. No cuts or grazes, jarred my neck and shoulder, and bruised my ego (and my arse, as I landed on my foot!). So glad I was wearing the helmet.

Left a nice dent in the ground...

Then I staked the kite out and took a bit of a time out to recover. At this point checked the real-time wind forecast, the current speed was 38.9 with gusts of 48.2kph.

Decided that discretion was the better part of valor (whatever that means) and with the wind still howling like a banshee, decided to pack up and go home.