Kiteventure

Tarren, James and I hit St Kilda in the afternoon.  Big aspirations of heading across to Williamstown soon evaporated, the wind was just not quite enough - somewhere between 16 and 17 knots.  I tried some of the stuff on my to do list - backroll to toeside/faceplant that just never really worked, riding blind that kind of did.  The tip about putting your leading hand on the back of the bar was a winner, and doing a karate kick and looking down into the water.  Kind of weird but it worked.  I stuffed up heaps of jumps, the wind was just so light that there was not much hold in the jumps at all.  Totally spoiled from the Paynesville trip !  I got one really nice darkslide in, and one howler...back down to 50% !

The magic of Hydralite, bounty and snakes had me back on the water in no time for more awesome wave action.  Nailed some good waves, hit some backloops of the lip and had a spectacular crash while doing a forward loop.  One of the lines wrapped around the top of my finger - which could have been awful, but I managed to slip it off before anything bad happened.  Another invert and another end of the session.  Like always, I'd thought a minute before about heading in as I was getting very tired - that's when dumb shit tends to happen.

We headed to Sandy point to ensure we got enough wind for our final session.  We weren't dissapointed, we arrived and it was howling-probably around 28 knots.  It was blowing south westerly, so the inlet was a bit gusty, we headed to the surf beach and were greeted with perfect conditions. I had a fantastic time in the surf, trying to grab as many waves as possible.  Magnificent fun, nice waves, perfect flat water between them.  I didn't try any crazy tricks, I'm a bit wary of ditching the kite in the waves and getting it destroyed.  Didnt stop me ditching it while turning on a wave, the kite inverted to end the session.

We decided to forgo dinner and hit Paynesville main beach for the last session of the day - at around 630.  The wind appeared strong, but was very dodgy.  There was just enough to get out, and the only place that wind was really blowing was close to Raymond island in the channel.  With boats, piers and marginal wind we packed it up after about 15 minutes.

It finally blew up a little bit so that everyone could get on the water, kites, sailboards, the whole shooting match.  I haven't laughed so much for ages - it was hilarious doing little races, trying to scare people, dodging between kites and sails.  It was a heap of fun - it lasted about 30 minutes but it was probably the highlight of the day.

What a difference a massive upwind machine makes.  With just enough wind and a sector 60, I was able to go upwind and check out a bit more of the lake system.  Its a lot of fun on the board, super stable but very hard to gybe - certainly takes a bit of getting used to.  Also had a challenge upon return, Amelia had ditched her kite, so I had to find her board and return it - a tricky proposition on such a big board.

Through the power of google maps, we found a great little sand spit on the Banksia peninsula that we thought would get some good wind when the south westerly came through.  We took Grant's boat around as backup - which turned out to be a very handy move.  The spot was very fickle - there would be just enough wind to hold a line that would just dissapear - so much so that most of the kiters had to be rescued at some stage during the day. The first session was just enough wind to hold a line, I had to continually look off into the south to ensure enough wind was coming through to stay upwind.

Luckily enough, Grant bought his boat down to Paynesville, so we went for a tour and also managed to do some wakeboarding.  Very similar to water skiing and kiting, it was a lot of fun on beautiful flat water.

After the ripping session of the morning, we thought we'd top it off with a shot on the main street of Paynesville.  Its a very small beach, with trees and obstacles everywhere, we were warned off it by some locals given that someone had put a kite in the powerlines earlier in the year.  It was a bit sketchy - there is no margin for error in the launch, and a heap of obstacles on the water, piers, lulls around obstacles, a river - definitely no place for beginners.  I had a good session on the surfboard hitting gybes early then hitting faceplants later (as is the way).  The wind kicked up a bit so I came in and grabbed the twin tip for a bit of jumping action.  That was going fine but unfortunately Amelia got into a little bit of trouble, so I had to ditch the kite and run to grab her...she had dumped her kite in the rivermouth.  She's very resilient though - and was not phased at all, even given that she's washed up on a pier with the kite kind of traili...

The start of the kitesurfing weekend, and what a hell of a start it was.  I headed down in Petes car with James, to meet up with Tarren, Amelia, Grant and Stu Styles at Paynesville.  Pete managed to fit in a newspaper interview and a session on 774 on the way down - nothing like multitasking ! We arrived in Paynesville and after picking up the keys, checking out the amazing house (right on the waterway, fantastic setup) and chatting to a local guy, we got the lowdown that Newlands arm was the place to go.  We headed out there and were treated to a steaming 30+ knot breeze. The setup at Newlands arm is not quite ideal.  It looks fantastic from the shore, nice grassed area to setup on, but it is very protected from the wind (hence very flukey) and the rocky shore - with associated oysters - not terribly inviting.  Once on the water, all was amazing. I setup my 7 and the wind was steaming in - it must have been anywhere from 30 to 40 knots.  Not quite the...

It just takes one seabreeze for you to realise how crappy frontal winds are.  Magic, consistent 20 knots came streaming through, and I was hitting darkslides and multiple rotations straight away.  Eric and Pete met me at Hampton - its been a long time between drinks for Eric and Pete was testing out his new North Nugget board - both were very happy.  Great little session - got a bit cold in the end as I ditched the wetsuit and just went out with a 1mm top.  A little too early !

Backing up from the session in the surf, Tarren, Pete and I hit the inlet in the afternoon for a nice powered session in around 25 knots.  I broke out the 10m again, and had a nice time hitting up speed runs behind a sand bar and getting some big air.  Did some basic rotations and had a go at riding blind, but the wind was a little strong to be mucking around too much.  Great fun session, but seriously fatigued by the end. Pretty obvious from the track log where the sand bar was !

A nice 25 knot wind was blowing in, so Tarren, Pete and I hit the surf beach.  The waves were huge, but it always a hoot to charge the flat water between the waves so I couldn't wait to get out.  Had an absolute ball surfing waves, jumping (and getting applause from the beach) and just generally loving having a kite in crazy conditions.  I have no idea how big the waves were, but suffice to say they were bigger than me.  I had to jump over a couple on the way out as they were a little scary.  I've learnt a lot about keeping the kite high while going out to make sure that any jump has a soft landing, the previous surf session had me hitting the water hard after getting air of the lip. Got totally munched late in the session, but managed to fly the kite hard throughout - otherwise I'd probably be looking for a new kite.  Pumped to have a great session. If you are a photo glutton, there are more to be had here https://pl...

Pete and I were greeted at the start of the annual Inverloch kite safari with a 30 knot base gusting up to around 42 knots.  Blowing a gale.  We both launched 7 m kites, I fully depowered mine (thank goodness).  It was absolute chaos.  We tacked up the inlet to the surf break towards Venus bay, then across to the surf beach.   The water in the inlet was running in all sorts of directions, in one section I had waves hitting me from all sides - bizarre.   The wind was nuking, easy to go upwind, but every now and again it was hold on for your life kind of stuff.  Got some big air and rode some big waves, before looking off into the distance and seeing one hell of a front coming through.  The one previous had delivered something like hail and about 42 knots worth of fun, so I hightailed it back into the inlet.  One of the last jumps I did, the kite somehow jellyfished and looked a little inverted....it just couldn't handle the wind strength. ...