Slider Inspiration
Sometimes when you are out on the water there are moments when inspiration and enthusiasm reach an evolved level beyond what you might expect on your average day of riding. Today was one of those days for me. Sideshow and I were out riding at Matheson. It was a beautiful sunny, warm, and most importantly windy day.
It was blowing a sold 15 on-shore so we headed out upwind to test out one of the prototypes that Sideshow mentioned in his previous blog entry. He was on his 8 with the proto and I was on my 12 with my Zap. Once we got upwind the wind started picking up pretty good and we were having a great time pushing each other to impress the other. He would hit nice unhooked, pop-shovit, handlepass (his signature move), and I would go and do a handlepass, ole, ole, handlepass (my latest trick). The wind was picking up to the point where he was perfectly powered on his 8 and I was getting a little worked unhooking on my 12.
Then I spotted these two guys carrying a slider out to our riding area. It is a rarity when anyone brings a slider out to Matheson. The 2 guys see me riding around they scream to hit it. Well, I have never hit a slider on a strapped board; much less a skimmer, but I figure what the heck. The tide was pretty high so as I came into the slider I only had to ollie about 1 to 1 ½ feet. Not a big deal, but I was so juiced on my 12 I could not unhook to hit it. So, I came in with pretty good speed, brought my kite up and ollied onto it and slide all the way down to the end. It was about 8 feet long made out of park bench material and was flat. Really, perfect for learning to hit a slider. The two guys screamed and I was totally stoked.
I went to hit it again, and Sideshow saw me. Well, needless to say, there was no way I was going to hit it and he would not. I know Sideshow had never hit one before either. He set up to hit it as I rode behind him and cheered him on. He ollied up, whacked it, and cruised right over. It was freaking awesome. For the next hour or so Sideshow and I mut have hit it over 100 times. Crashing and burning on many but we also got a ton of nice nose grinds and full runs along the rail. Of course, Sideshow had to out do me by hitting a perfect 180 handlepass off the slider. That was awesome, but I could not follow suit because I was so juiced on my 12 and could not unhook off it. I will get you next time Sideshow!
Overall, a really inspirational day was had by all. Except for our boards, they took kind of a beating, but well worth it! When I saw the guys that brought the slider out to the beach after riding I thanked them for bringing it out and letting us have some major fun on it. They also thought it was wicked that we hit it with our skimmers. I get the feeling they might be trying to hit it strapless in future?? Certainly, an inspirational and evolving experience for all! Sideshow and I had already had plans to build a skim specific kicker, but we might need to work on a skim slider. More details to follow…
About the Author
Lonny Founder and Admin of Lose the Straps, the original site dedicated exclusively to the progression and evolution of strapless kitesurfing, Lose The Straps.
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