NABX - wrap up

Day four and five of NABX blew by (ok, just had to get that pun in sometime, eh?).

Day four, Saturday, started out with light winds. I didn't waste any time getting into the bug and, powered by my 2.0 PL Hornet, headed across the playa. It was gusty at times and at other times the wind just stopped causing the kite to just drop right out of the sky more than once. Needless to say my trip was not totally smooth as I had to stop often to wait for wind so I could re-launch the little foil and then other times I slid to a rather ungraceful halt when the gusts threatened to beat me against the dry lake hardpack.

The boys at buggy camp were impressed, when I finally arrived after a slow and not particularly skilled zig zag back at camp, because I had made it across the width of the lakebed to the edge of the highway. This is a minor accomplishment for many buggy pilots but not one that I can actually fully claim as it wasn't really my goal at the start of the run and more of a result of my efforts to get in some nice long'ish controlled rides between the gusts and the lulls.

In the afternoon, as the winds again started to nuke as they had in the afternoon on previous days, I had an invite to ride tandem with one of the pro Flexifoil team riders. What a thrilling experience that was as we whizzed all over the playa with my pilot displaying phenomenal flying skills looping the kite to generate speed and then casually spinning the handles on his harness pulley, deftly scrubbing off speed when needed, and blasting past other solo bugs and two tandems as well.

The wind howled all evening and my one attempt to launch my smallest kite for a possible quick ride on the playa ending rather abruptly because of my near miss at becoming a hood ornament on Ken #3's SUV. As the kite powered up it pulled me forward and almost off my feet. I quickly dumped the kite to the ground before being towed right into the parking lot. And that was to be the last of my kiting at this year's NABX.

Saturday night featured the banquet and raffle. Good food and prizes wrapped up the evening. I came away with a wealth of new knowledge about kite bugging, a small duffle bag of new tee shirts, two of which I won at the raffle and a whole new respect for the skill and luck necessary to stay safe and injury free while partaking in power kite play.

The final day of the event and day five for me, Sunday saw most kite fliers packing up and heading home. When we reached the playa there was again no wind and although it did blow powerfully and briefly about mid day most pilots had their buggies dismantled and kites stowed by then.Before the fliers dispersed we took the time for a quick group photo on the playa complete with a fly by from on of the Dutch team riders.

I'll be kicking the dust out of my gear as best as I can this evening and then heading in for a few hours of tourist'ing in Las Vegas tomorrow afternoon before Westjeting it home late tomorrow night.

I'm mulling over my impressions of kite bugging as a sport generally and specifically how much I want to pursue it given all that I saw and experienced here in Nevada. Would I come to another NABX? Well that's a good question. On one hand it is fabulous to have such a huge open space to kite buggy and to be among such a great community of riders. But on the other hand the extremes in wind conditions are very challenging for beginners like me and it really was a lot of organization and expense for very little flying time.

I'll be spending some time this summer messing with my power kites and buggy at Gary Point and Vanier and who knows, for this newbie, maybe that's all I really need to sate my power kite appetite.