Kiteventure

Lovely 20 knot southerly down at Mentone gave us a great opportunity to ride some waves.  Nothing new nailed, but much joy in doing the same old stuff - riding waves and trying a few new tricks.  James got his first jump in, and Pete had a run around on the surfboard.  A guy pulled me over about 20 minutes in and asked me to teach him how to jump.  Don't know if he learnt much, but he seemed to enjoy following me.

Another 20-25 knot southerly seabreeze so James and I grabbed it.  Got some very big air running up the wave ramps with secondary lift.  Kite was on middle knot but fully depowered.  Landed a forward roll transition, and stacked heaps of darkslides.

Glorious day at Hampton with a very consistent 20 knots blowing.  Doesn't get much better than this.

A bit of a stronger front came through, so Tarren and I headed to Port Melbourne and I broke out the 7m.  Almost immediately inverted it, which was a pain, you have to fly that sucker hard during transitions ! After resetting, the wind picked up a little more, so I cruised around the pier and hit South Melbourne surf.  Fantastic swell, I had a magnificent time in the waves.  Attempted to get covered up in a barrel and got smashed up, otherwise it was a really fun session.  Hardly any kiters around, I was solo at South Melbourne, which was fantastic.  All followed up with a great dinner with Nicky, Simon and Tina at Albert Park Hotel - what a day !

Another session down at St Kilda - pulled off the start of the darkslide but didn't land the kiteloop at the end.  I can definitely see this starting to happen, and the kiteloop ending is not nearly as dramatic as I thought it might be.  I also pulled off a couple of downloop turns, they generate way more power ! Great session, and James is progressing really well.

you just can't beat the sea breeze - 20 knots of goodness and solid as a rock. Great opportunity to try some new tricks.  Here are some of the things that went well - backwards 1080 on preferred side - forwards 360 transition on preferred side - forwards 360 loop goofy - butterslide Here are the ones that I crashed terribly - darkslide - darkslide - darkslide Launched at St Kilda then headed down to South Melbourne with Tarren.  Fantastic fun kiting in the waves and going as hard as I could to try and improve my suite of tricks.  Got back to St Kilda exhausted but very happy.  Unfortunately lost the put-puts keys in the sand - inevitable really.

Met a kitesurfing family down at the beach at Hampton - 4 kids and the dad all with kites.  Fantastic late session, good 20+ knots.

Hit Port Melbourne after work for a monster session with Tarren.  Very choppy at Port Melbourne, and I was hit by a big gust near the spirit of Tasmania which lofted me - I've haven't had that happen in many years.  This was immediately followed by a wind direction change - fantastic news as it enabled us to go across to south melbourne away from the numerous hazards at Port Melbourne.  South Melbourne was fantastic, very small bay surf - especially after Sydney - but some nice flat sections to muck around with.  Got in a couple of butterslides, but not on the weaker side.  Tried very hard to nicely land weaker side forward 360's but kept driving the kite too far back.  Came back in exhausted and with a sore hip from where the harness has been rubbing.  Excellent session though ! Tried getting my head around darkslide and jesus walk - I think a bit more research is required.

Pete and I grabbed the seabreeze at Hampton.  It was blowing southerly - so very light on the shore.  I just squeezed past the rock wall - about 1 metre in it - and grabbed enough of the breeze to go slightly upwind.  Pete was naturally set on the sector 60.  Pete and I were the only two kiters that made it out far enough to grab the wind. Great to be back on the nice flat bay, with no big surf to contend with, and none of the grey fellas in the water.

Down winder in about15 knots.  Not quite enough wind to do anything at all, especially in the waves. 

Lovely session in the waves at long reef, not quite enough wind so it was hard going keeping upwind amongst the surf. Didn't get onto a lot of waves, it was pretty sloppy. some great runs about 1 metre from shore, as the waves pull away from the shore, it creates a little extra tension in the kite, lots of fun.   Stayed out for quite a while. On the drive home my leg started to hurt really badly, one spot behind my ankle them all the way up my leg. It hurt so much after a while I wanted to throw up. Got home and doused it in vinegar... relief. I've never had a bad sting from a jellyfish, they hurt! Turns out that they have blue bottles, or Portuguese man of war jellyfish here that sting badly, as opposed to the blue blubber benign species in the bay.