Screwing Yourself is Easy as 1-2-3.

You know what blows?  Having perfect conditions, solid wind and a pile of new kites to ride only to haved it screwed by the fact that you're lazy.  Or forgetful.  OR BOTH as the case was with me.

I got out of work at noon today and drove over to Naples to ride Long Lake off Seth Merriam's parents place.  The ice was unbelievable.  It was so clear I was looking down at the sandy lake bottom 3 feet below me.  It gives the illusion of hovering or in the Christmas spirit, you are literally walking on water. (check longlakecam.com for live footage)

The wind was blowing maybe 8-10mph which I thought would be a great opportunity to try out the 19m Peter Lynn Charger.  I set my launch anchor screw, set up the kite, launched and "NEEEEOOOOW!" off I went.

Try saying "NEEEEOOOW!" fast and you know what I mean.

First I have to say to both pro and anti Peter Lynn/twinskins/ARC that a lot of complaints about low end will be done away with.  This 19m ARC has more grunt than any 19m ARC I've ever had.  More than the Syn, V2 or V1 y a long shot.  It's turn rate was just slightly faster than the 19 Syn but this could have to do with the lack of wind.  If it were blowing 10+ it would have turned faster for sure.

I would have been powerless to control it.  The thing was a beast. 

But let me give a brief summary of how I screwed myself and became powerless to control the 19m Charger. 

I put a lot of miles in on a ski.  And average late season session can be 50-60 easily.  Depending on snow conditions that's a lot of wear.  Which means a lot of hand tuning.  I tune the hell out of my speed skis.  And eventually you start cutting into the cap or the sidewalls and you can't get a good filing on the side edge.  Not without cutting the cap or sidewall back.

Something I was going to do last spring.  Something I put off and forgot about in the fall and didn't remember until today when I went out on the clean, hard ice and had no edges.  None.  I drove the front of my boot as hard as I could and got no bite at all. 

After a few shots back and forth past the causeway I dicided that I needed to thrown an edge on before I kill myself.  Or at least to make me look less like a tool kiting around, standing bolt upright, dragged by a kite that's way too burly for the current state of my edges.   I landed and shot up to the car with my skis.

My mobile tuning kit Consists of a few flavors of wax, an assortment of files, stones, scrapers,brushes and and iron.  It all fits in my Ozone Kites shave kit.  Don't ask me why the have shaving bags but I won one and they make a nice tuning bag.

I tried to use the 2Deg. side edge guide to freshen up the edge so I could ride today.  But I can't get the file to hardly bite.  Why?- Oh that's right, the damn cap.  I'm filing nothing but plastic with each run down the edge.  So no sharp skis for me on this perfect day. Spent the day cruising around struggling to go where I wanted.

Like I said the 19m is a beast.  I had the thing almost fully trimmed the whole time and it was still having it's way with me.  I hardly ever trim if I can help it.  If I had edges I would have a fighting chance but I screwed myself remember?

There's more to this story but I'm calling it quits for the moment.  Too sleepy.

Next time I'll write a little about Randy's adventures with the "Purple Cobra".

Stay tuned....