varkala (still elusive)

been to varkala for a third time since 2008, this time at least a got around to opening my wing the second day (which apparently is a far cry from the last two times when it wasnt even flyable). this time around, as soon as i reached varkala the second day at 12.30 in the afternoon i saw yaseen (?) (a french guy) take off in his second attempt (with a pretty unique style) and that was followed by ohelion (another French guy). well whats interesting about their take off was that both were (technically) doing a reverse launch, but had turned around and were running forward such a way that the risers were assymetrical, but were managing to do a forward/sideways fast run, brake, as well as control the risers to get the wing out of the rotor zone due to the sharp edge cliff, once the wing is out of the dead zone, then it is ok and the take off becomes somewhat normal and all that is left is crossing over a meter high fence around the cliff, at the takeoff (which wasnt much of a worry). gave it 4 shots (to get the wing up above my head), the fist time, run was too weak to even pick the wing up from the ground, progressing to around 60 degress by the time i reached the railings in my 4th takeoff attempt but by which time the two of them landed, i was bloody sweating with all the reverse runs, spreading the wings, maybe more than the sea lets go to the sun, and it was time for lunch (12.30 in the afternoon not far from the equator). and then the conditions were too weak to give it another shot. waited till evening, then left for trivandrum after getting some tips from ohel on the takeoff technique (who it turns out has been flying for 10 years, around 2000+ hrs, and has been camping at varkala since october). the next day, was in no mood to risk driving 120 kms without a semi-assured flight and had to be back by evening for a party which meant me sticking around trivandrum.

been to the beach at trivandrum the next day evening with an intention to kite, but the main beach shanghumugham turned out to be crowded and went for a relatively secluded spot near a fishing village to the north, but it was no fun trying to keep the wing up in light winds in narrow beach, with fishing boats as obstacles and a bunch of of rowdy kids for company. aborted the kiting, and went recce-ing for other decent places to kite - unfortunately it turns out that its the same story all the way to the north till thumba, which would mean that a shanghumugham beach would after all be the best bet to kite, unless i can get to find another beach to the south towards kovalam (my next trivandrum trip, maybe).

so, looks like I have yet to do some waiting for Varkala which is pretty sad considering thats the closest flying site to Trivandrum. but the good side of it is that i got enough time to practice a 'varkala launch'. till then, its massala at nandi.