Bigger is better..

My GF and I drove up last weekend since we spent the last 2 weekends at home and we desperately needed the change and fresh air. The drive was pretty good not much cars but we still ended up taking longer than usual since we found ourselves using the long route unintentionally. Anyway we arrived around 1:30pm and I was glad to see the other kiters rigging their gear. Edmond the guy who makes WiND-X kites was there with his GF, Andy, Eugene and Daniel. Daniel's dad Leo was in Kuching kiting, perhaps looking for a new spot to kite. Soon after Andy's friend Trisha arrived together with her BF Alex, both avid divers like Andy.

Saturday started out lousy the wind wasn't so good. Edmond brought with him 2 new WiND-X prototypes. I forgot what he calls them. After messing around with my 12m I gave one of the prototypes a try. Edmond tells me it's a prototype and the actual production kite flies better, or as designed. Meaning the kite I was going to try was...defective? I decided to try it anyway.

The kite was like a bus just like the other 16m kites i've tried , a good looking bus, to fly. It was quite slow to turn and it kept dropping down. I had a hard time relaunching it as well. Could be because the wind was not cooperating. Daniel and Edmond tells me the production kite is much better to fly, so I'm hoping to get a shot at trying that. Aesthetically the kite screamed for attention, it looked good. Best looking kite at the beach. Too bad it spent most of the time
parked.


Trisha and Alex played with my trainer kite for awhile until the wind got really lousy. They got a mean looking digital SLR camera with them which the made full use of while at the beach. Hopefully we get to see them.

After having dinner the crew we went back to Sunday Bar and had some drinks, Esther showed up and joined us for some drinks. Esther just happens to be the first female Malaysian kiter. Allan mentioned this fact to me when I rode with him. After a couple of beers the jokes started to come out and all these kiting stories. Trisha, Ken and Andy shared they're diving stories as well.

Sunday the wind arrived around 1pm. I asked Daniel if I could try his 16m Cabrinha switchblade the older bigger version of my kite and used the beginner board. It took me awhile to get used to it but after aggressively pumping the kite for more power I began to glide and move. I was so thrilled to be actually kiting in light wind. It was quite tiring thou, and it really makes your arm muscles work. After a couple of successful runs I went back a happy man. I was stoked.

Reeling from my stoked-ness, I played assistant kite instructor to Eugene who was giving Alex the basics. I was the guy who helped launch the kite. Alex looked pretty comfortable with flying the 12m kite. A diamond in the rough perhaps, like most of us hehe. Hopefully he takes up the sport. I hope Trisha takes it up as well. It would be nice to have a bigger kite community in Balok.

We headed back around 545pm, got home around 8ish. It was a good weekend.