When I got to my initial flying spot, I found the location being in some kind of wind shadow. I would have thought the wind would come in straight from the sea, but when I got there the wind had shifted to a more southwesterly direction, thus leaving “my” beach in a pocket of wind shadow.

I was planning to shoot a bit of kite aerial video, but it wouldn’t be possible with such unpredictable wind conditions. So I made my decision; look for the wind elsewhere.

So I started to walk along the coastline searching for more wind. I was heavily loaded with kiting gear. One bag stuffed with quad lined kites, another bag with a bunch of one lined lifters and a large rucksack filled with all the rest of the required stuff. It was to be a pretty good workout!

Finally, I had reached the southernmost point of the Jeløy island and there I found the wind! This is a really cool place. Pretty rough terrain with a lot of super interesting volcanic rocks shaped by the elements over thousands of years. The colour of these volcanic rocks is shifting between purple and red and all the nuances in between. Spectacular when painted by the golden rays of a setting sun!

What will these volcanic rocks look like from up above? Well, let’s rig for some kite aerial videography and find out! But I wonder…. Will the wind be strong enough to lift the gear? According to the weather forecast, it was about to die down just a little later. Well, better get going then!

I first put up the big, orange Rokkaku. This kite will fly in a light breeze and carry some load while flying. It didn’t take long until the Rok’ sat steadily up there. Yes, the wind wasn’t very strong, but WOW, super stable, so the kite was just like glued to the sky up there, barely moving at all. Then I grabbed the flying line checking for tension. Hmmm…. I was on the limit. Would the kite create enough lift to carry the KAP rig and the camera?

I decided to skip the gimbal and fix the GoPro only to the rig saving some weight. And it seemed like a good decision. Yes, I’m losing some stability not using the gimbal, but I’m saving some weight and the GoPro stabilization feature – the Hypersmooth – does a pretty good job.

Slowly but surely the Rok’ rose higher in the air bringing the KAP gear up there too. But it was on the limit. I needed to work the kite up there, but when I got it high enough, it seemed like the kite kind of caught some more wind thus doing the job of lifting.

I worked the kite up and down several times adjusting the camera angle so that I could shoot the surroundings from several views. I had connected my phone to the GoPro so I could sort of control the recording while working and flying the kite.

After an hour or so, the wind started to die down, just like forecasted and it was time to bring all the stuff down to the ground again. Another great day of flying and here’s an edited video from this wonderful afternoon.

Please enjoy!