So what more can you ask for? Nothing I guess, because the conditions were PERFECT!

A nice and steady breeze coming in from the sea at about 4m/sec (or 9mph if preferred) nice and sunny and very warm temperatures for being January.

I guess I could have gone for the standard version of the A-Quad, but because the semi vented was on top of the pile of kites in my bag, the semi vented it was.

That kite can fly in surprisingly low winds despite its venting and 4m/sec is no sweat at all. I attached it to a 10m (30’ish ft) lines and hit the air.

After having warmed up for fifteen minutes or so I turned into practice mode. Today I was planning to explore the flare … or pancake if you like and see what was to come out of it.

It’s pretty cool to do power dives and just a split second before the kite is about to crash into the ground, you do a quick flare that stops the kite on a dime and hover in that pancaked position. The closer to the ground the more dramatic it looks. And you can even land the kite this way.

From that pancaked position, you can also pop Axel’s. The kite, being in a flat (pancaked) position in the air paves the ground for pretty flat Axel’s too as you can see in the video below.

In the video you can also see a bunch of flares and some other laid back freestyle moves in addition to a number of axels. If not for the heavy backlight, you would have seen a big smile on my face too!

…and here’s an axel up close!