Kiteventure

A honking early morning breeze got James, Pete, Athol, Mike and I out of bed and down to Aspendale for one of the best sessions of the year.  The wind was somewhere between 25 and 35 knots, small kite territory.  I managed to spend the first hour jumping around, then the wind went more westerly and the surf sprang up so I got a full hour surf session in too.  Glorious ! James got into a bit of trouble at one stage, luckily Athol was on the beach and able to assist with a landing.  It might be pertinent to move further down to the Aspendale carpark rather than Roycroft st - there really is not much downwind leniency from that spot. I managed to crash a few jumps pretty hard, my bottom right shin hurts a little bit now which I'm hoping will wear off to let me revel in more of this glorious wind.  I think I've discovered my kiting limits though - that 2 hour session has wiped me out for most of the day.  Feeling totally fatigued, but with a big shit eatin...

After no opportunity to kite for a couple of days, I couldn't wait to get out.  We organised a few people to meet up and do a downwinder.  7 people ended up coming along - Pete, James, Stu, Anthony, Paul, Eric and myself.  We dropped cars at Mentone and were greeted by a good 18 knots, and drove down to Frankston. Paul unfortunately had a bridle malfunction at Frankston, but otherwise we all launched and headed off just fine.  I had James' twintip to give him a go on my surfboard, it was a great cross between my current board with a little more length like my older boards, so rotations felt just fine.  Excellent fun cruising in the small surf without any regard for staying upwind. Saw a couple getting nude in the small surf - good on them ! Stu Styles was trying his new nugget and headed miles out to sea - it only emerged later that transitions weren't going so well.  James and I traded boards around Aspendale, it was strange to get back on the surf...

Hit Port melbourne to put a superb bookend on the day after the morning session.  Met Dan at last, and worked hard to keep a line in around 16 knots.  There is quite an updraft near the spirit that let you get a little bit of air, otherwise it was hard work but always a blast to be on the water.

Great morning session at St Kilda with Tarren and James.  Hit the beach at 6:30 and kited through to around 8:30.  Wind was between 15 and 18 knots - there were a couple of good little moments in there.  I tried unhooked raleys - but the kite fell from the sky almost straight away. Both James and I had to stop kiting, as we were pissing ourselves laughing after Tarren misjudged some trick and rode two loops up the beach on his stomach. Fantastic way to start the day.

...your not trying hard enough. I must have been trying plenty hard today cause I had heaps of stacks.  Absolutely heaps. Met up with Tarren down at Hampton to what looked like 18 knots or so.  Lots of racing kites and hydrofoils around, I quickly setup next to some very nice looking girls on the beach and headed out - kiting is obviously a priority.  Once out the wind was fantastic, a perfect Hampton day, very consistent 20 knots or so, able to go upwind with ease and lots of space. I tried most of what I had in the to do list.  Reestablished a few old favourites, but had a bit of trouble landing the frontroll consistently.  Tried backroll to toeside, landed one on both sides, stacked about 3243.  Tried toeside backroll, landed 2, stoked.  Got one darkslide in with a very low loop that felt like I was up above the kite in the loop, scary with a hard landing that I sort of landed.  Tried riding blind, got more of a feel of whats required but...

Met up with Tarren, Pete and eventually James down at Mentone for a session in very frontal SE winds.  At first the wind was around 20 knots and kind of fun, fairly strong and a good chance to get some nice jumps in.  The wind picked up and was quite up and down - got quite a bit of secondary lift on the jumps which led to not landing much at all - but incredible hang time.  Some of the jumps hit the apex and just seemed to stay there for a very long time - kind of scary.  It was over 25 knots by the end, sand going everywhere down the beach, and being late for our family christmas party - I had to run for it.  

After a couple of sweaty days, I couldn't wait for an after work session to lower my core temperature.  Headed down to Mentone for a 7pm session, meeting up with Pete and Stu Styles.  Stu was having a great time - first time that he was really staying upwind and doing well.  It was all looking great, got rigged with shorts on, on my very first run out I see Stu Styles has wrapped his kite around the marker with the big x on the top.  Luckily he'd pulled the safety, I pulled in close by to give advice and help out.  Within seconds my board is wrapped hard in his lines.  Having seen he was still in some difficulty, I grabbed his board, kited in with it, landed and swam out to assist.  He'd freed the kite from the marker, we grabbed the kite, lines and board and I showed him how to sail in on his kite.  By the time we'd got in, Pete grasped what had happened and had paddled out to free his bar from the x - Stu had untied his lines to free the kite. ...