Frozen depower
Today is the coldest days of the seasonso farand i was looking forward to it.
Since last winter i started planning my below-zero session and hunt for suitable equipment. Got myself a drysuit, good gloves, excellent baselayers, massive hood.
I slowly waited this day and tested my outfit while the temperature was going down and session after session i was proving to have found the right solutions. My hands were barely cold, my feet were OK and i was warm and happy.
Today i judged it was the final challenge and went off to Amagerstrand, lagoon, around 9.30. The wind was marvellous 10/ms and i decided to go out with my 10m. I am below 65 kg and i was pleasantly overpowered. I could comfortably control the pull with the de-power.
And guess what, i was not cold!! i had succeeded 😉 – i said to myself “you can kitesurf the whole year without problems!” 🙂
While saying so, i started noticing that my hands were sliding on the bar due to a thin layer of ice that was coming about on my hands and on the bar itself. I ignored it.
After a good half-hour the wind grew stronger and i had to adjust my de-power – and that was when i realised that the block of the depower had gone one piece of ice. In short i managed to release the de-power but not to fix into place again, because the ice wouldn’t let me do so. Well, from a good session, i moved quickly into a veryuncomfortableone as i could not edge well due to the pull of the kite. Finally i had to land as soon aspossible. A good fellow came out of water to give me a hand.
By the time i was folding my lines i realised that there was a 0,5 cm layer of ice on my lines and by the time i got back to my car, i realised that i could not remove the drysuit due to the layer of ice on the outer zip. I drove back home with it.
What do i get out this? i get that in spite of managing to defeat the Danish cold when it comes to my body temperature, i conclude that when the temperature is below zero – and i do put my lines into water while trying tricks – it can be challenging to be safely out if the lines freeze and if i can’t get out of my drysuit!
I shall try again 🙂
Some pictures after reaching home – in one of which my eyes froze too
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