"The dream team has got going again the last few days with the return of the Tramontana winds. Last night (18th June) about 7.00pm, Yann, Philou from Neway Leucate and Thierry from the Kite Force School came along to give me a hand and try a few private and non-official runs. It was big Philippe who organised everything and everyone, Thierry on the jetski, Yann on the stopwatch and a cameraman (there should be some video), to get all the equipment there and set up the run (506 metres to be precise).
A first test run at about 32 knots with my Rhino2 10m2 and Fanatic Raptor board. The wind picks up steadily and the runs get faster all the way to 22 seconds and a few bits, or 43.91 knots using a prototype Kalamazoo board from the Mondial du Vent.
But it’s the usual story, our watches aren’t really up to accurate standard but it gives us a very good idea, same idea we had earlier this winter! We’ve gone from 36 to 43.9 knots, that’s a massive increase in a short space of time and gives us big hope for the future. For your information the wind was not well oriented and quite gusty, I never was able to hold one line during a single run and there’s plenty more grunt in the tank. Yellow Pages better go get a re-spray because the kitesurfers are coming!!!!!!!!!!!
But seriously, I’m putting together a project similar to the windsurf one, with the specific aim of beating the legendary 50 knots mark, and it’ll soon all be up on line. Code name: 50 Dream."
Eric ‘Kzimir’ Carriere
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