Kinetic Grand Championship day 2

Day 2 starts with a water entry, which was a bit glorious.  The plan was to ride down the ramp holding the kayak on my head, which I’ve managed to do before, but this day there were strong winds.  My first attempt I had the kayak balanced wrong and came off immediately; my second attempt I made it sketchily almost all the way down, but eventually the kayak in the wind pulled me too far sideways and I came off just short of the water.  I was able to dump the kayak right side up into the water; I heard later that people thought I had planned the whole thing.

Once in the water, I was in fine shape; unlike most of the entries, I have an actual water craft, and I passed probably a dozen struggling sculptures on my way to the take-out.  A quick transition back to the road set us out on our 18-mile trek, the longest segment in the race.  Weather was fairly nice but breezy; I had some struggles with crosswinds.  The Other Wheels tried to break wind for me, but I was taller and had a bigger wind profile than they did, so I mostly just had to deal with it.  The Larry tire definitely helped a lot; the Endomorph I’ve ridden previously was terrible at dealing with cambered roads or side winds.

We kept it moving and rolled into camp mid-afternoon, as the second or third sculpture in.  The wind died down around dusk, allowing for the usual big party and bonfire that evening.