Kiteventure

Location : Hampton Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 16 knot southerly Fixed my kite at SHQ - unbelievable really, when I went in for the pulley replacements last time they put the old style pulleys on my kite.  No wonder it broke ! Replaced the front pulley with an eyelet, and got all new style pulleys for the rest.  Went out at Hampton with Jeremy - wind died off whilst we were out so had to run back from Green point to make an appointment with Tina.

Location : Hampton Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 25 knot southerly My kite has a broken pulley, so I borrowed Tarren's trial Cabrinha drifter.   The drifter has no centre strut and turns real fast.  I got caught out taking off - I turned the kite through the sky as I would the switchblade and this thing just pivoted fully powered and smacked me into a wave.  I wasn't wearing my impact vest so I bruised my ribs in the process.  The kite was fairly powered so I did some long floaty jumps - it seemed to launch into jumps differently from the Switchblade too - at much smaller angles.  The kite is super twitchy and turns a bit too fast for my liking, any kind of grab and the kite is shooting off somewhere.   Riding waves is where is excels - the fast turning speed and the ability to stall the kite and ride were fantastic.  Having said that, I won't be buying this kite. Jeremy borrowed an Ozone edge after finding problems with his kite, but I...

Location : Port Melbourne Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 20 knot southerly Another awesome wind day.  Tarren and I set off from Port Melbourne, again scooped around the corner onto South Melbourne beach where some beautiful waves were breaking.  Had a ball in the breaking waves before heading up to St Kilda to check up on James.  He's going well in one direction now - won't be long now till both are happening. We headed back to South Melbourne - those waves were just too good.  Pete joined us later in the session. Heading back to Port Melbourne I got some air and heard the ping - broken pulley again.  Fortunately I knew what to do from last time - quick release and wind in the centre lines.  Tarren got a bit close at the end and got tangled in the lines which made things a little tricky.  Very glad to have only jumped a fair way out so that I had a chance to get the kite under control before hitting the beach.   Time to replace the p...

Location : Port Melbourne Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 15-17 knot southerly Just a bit fatigued after a big week so not a big session.  Wind wasn't as good as the night before, nor was the swell.  Managed a good crash whilst attempting a frontloop transition, otherwise nothing to report.

Location : Port Melbourne Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 20 knot southerly I was pretty tired but just had to give it another shot - and am I glad !  The wind was spectacular - nice and consistent, the day beautiful, Tarren and I hit Port Melbourne at around 4:30 and had an absolute ball.  Went the other side of the pier to the South Melbourne beach - lots of nice waves to play around in, flat sections and rolling swell out the back.  I had a massive smile on my face the whole time - I just love playing around in waves.  Took one massive hit to the balls at some stage - but even that couldn't dampen my enthusiasm.  We ended up staying out for about 2 hours. I consolidated the board off by landing another one, tried the forward loop transition which is getting ever closer and even landed a backroll to toeside - but by no means consolidated yet.  

Location : St Kilda Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 25 knot southerly What a month it is turning out to be.  Absolutely incredible amount of time spent kiting - and the wind has been playing along perfectly.  Got out with Tarren and James.  James really got up and going today - he is basically away which is fantastic.   It was real windy - I used the opportunity to try some new stunts and the regular stuff - with some big success and some hard landings.  Managed to land a back foot board off on my preferred side - stoked.  Got 720 through a backloop and decided late to go for 1080 - bad idea - fully powered kite going backwards is never good.  Also raley's with gusts end up with you kind of hanging and drifting which is not so great either.  After about 40 minutes I was totally spent so chucked it in for another day - I think I'm still feeling the effects of the marathon session on Sunday.

Location : Hampton-Altona Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 20 knot southerly It has been an amazing 3 days - kited all 3 days - 4 hours on the first day, 2 on the second and 3 hours today.  And had a big night on Friday, and did a lap of Lysterfield on the mountain bike with Jamie and friends.   So how could I top the weekend off ?  With a fantastic kiting session and a bay crossing from Hampton to Altona. The session was magnificent - nice and warm, beautiful water and perfect wind.  Managed to land a board off (back foot) but didn't have quite enough power on landing to pull away - its close though.  So a couple are real close - front loop transition and board off. After waiting for Tarren for a fair while, I decided to follow Pete out when it looked like he was headed for the beacon.  Pete stopped along the way and said something to me - I didn't really understand but I figured he was heading for a crossing.  The wind seemed good and alt...

Location : Mentone Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 17-20 knot southerly A real high point having a line up of Tarren, Pete, Jeremy and myself heading across to Beaumauris point.  All on the same tack - would have made for a great photo. Re watched the kite lessons in the morning and figured out how to do the vertical frontloop - they start toeside.  Kind of makes sense in my head, but still have to turn that into reality.  I haven't made any progression for a while - its really time to have a red hot go at some new stuff. Had a great long session and was just thinking about ducking around to Beaumauris when the wind dropped out entirely and I had to swim in a little.  

Location : St Kilda Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 17-20 knot southerly The Saints were with me - with Tina going on holiday, I needed some good wind and it came through straight away.  Hallelujah ! Spent a bit of time with James - he's completed his lessons and just bought his first kite.  Incredible flying skills - he kept the kite up even after doing a full rotation in the water.  Really reinforces the fact that it is all about the kite - the next decent wind session he will be up and away. I had a fantastic couple of hours out doing the regular thing.  Tarren was down at St Kilda too completing his trial of every kite known to man.  Stayed out till around 8 - then went and met Wildy, Darren, Steve and Linda for a big night out.

Location : Hampton Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 25-30 knot south westerly Big wind hit hampton with a change and kicked up the best bay surf I've seen at Hampton.  Decent waves were rolling in.  Everyone is back from holidays though so it was busy - and with the wave factor - it suddenly seemed really crowded.  Some folks are on tacks, some are trying to get waves, and idiots kept pulling off tricks and almost landing on me.  I went downwind to the second groyne - until that got busy - then headed down to green point.  Green point was great - the surf wasn't breaking on the point but further south.  Its a bit dicey though as any error with the kite could have massive consequences - power lines and train lines are not far away.   It was a fun session in waves, but a bit frustrating fighting folks for waves.  I probably should have gone upwind to near the Cerberus - the waves are quite good up there and no one around.

Location : St Kilda Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 20-25 knot southerly Very consistent wind down at St Kilda - great setup for getting out and trying a few of the things that have been on my to do list.  Tried a couple of them and got pretty hammered a couple of times, but pulled off a nice 1080 on my preferred side.  With consistent wind anything is possible.  Landed a forward 360 transition but didn't have enough power in my kite to pull out of it - but an end is in sight for that one.  The backwards 720 on the non preferred is still proving to be my nemesis - got caned on that again today.  And I have to do some research on riding blind - I can't even transition into it anymore !

Location : Rye back beach Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 20 knot south westerly  Big surf on at Rye back beach - a couple of days at Peter's holiday house in sorrento gave us the opportunity to give it a crack. The wind seemed very strong in the car park so we went small - 7m - but that was rubbish. Not quite enough power to get out through the surf. You often need a bit more power in the surf due to the flow of water - in this case it was all over the shop - in, out, sideways. The surf was real big and messy - no nice troughs and flat sections, all chaos. Grabbed the 10m and it all became a lot easier - the surf was still hard going but I could hold a line and power myself out of bad situations. A tough place to kite though - lots of rocks and as mentioned, messy surf. The best spot n the peninsula would have to be balnarring for mine - the surf beaches need a combination of wind, tide and swell that are hard to come by.

Location : Hampton Kite : 10m switchblade Wind : 18-15 knots southerly  Late afternoon session to see out the year. Tarren took out a 12m switchblade to trial. Was glorious in the water, could have done with a bit more wind though.