Kiteventure

After a couple of days of not quite enough wind, I decided to hit St Kilda to be sure of a good sea breeze.  I arrived to about 20 knots of fantastic, consistent wind - good choice.  The beach was a bit smelly but the water was fine - fine enough to land backrolls, forward rotations, backroll to toeside both ways, toeside backroll to toeside, forward rotation transitions, and even landed somewhat awkwardly the toeside frontroll.  Fantastic progression when there is good consistent wind.  I returned home quickly for a game of tennis with the kids grinning ear to ear.

Got a good 20 mins in before the wind died out.  While it was on it was nice.  Just want more !

Only just enough to stay upwind with the twin tip, so I tried the surfboard.  Big mistake.  Went down wind and had to walk back from Black rock.   Luckily Pete grabbed me half way back.   Good to see Grant, Job, Pete &Stu on the beach though!

Thought I'd mix it up a bit and practice some dance moves whilst kiting. Here is the robot (with serious face) Fun session to wrap up a magnificent couple of windy days at the prom.

Woke up to a cranking south westerly and good waves.  Hit the beach for a 1.5 hour session, Darren joined in on the surfboard for the last 40 minutes.  We both managed to get quite a few waves, I'd do a couple of laps of Norman beach and join Darren out the back to surf a wave back in.  Had to jump over Darren once which worked out fine - but not a good idea in general.  

And they seem to love a sunset photo with a kite.... Just enough to keep a line and get some nice transitions in.  Heaps of people grabbing photos on the beach - I'll have to search the internet cause they went trigger happy when I went past on the kite.

Just enough wind to keep a line.  Great to be kiting at the prom again, amazing backdrop.

Great 2 hour session at Hampton with James, Tarren, Stu and Pete.  

Hit Brighton with James at around 630.  Great session.  Kited down near Green point where we could play around in the flat water and waves.  Got back into darkslides - nice!

Got a late afternoon session in about 17 knots at St Kilda.  Had to work it a bit and go out a fair way to get decent wind.  Cut back into the kiddy pool to watch Ewan Jaspan pulling all his latest moves.  Damn impressive - not that I want to do wakestyle anytime soon - but good to watch close up.

After Sandy point,everything was going to be a dissapointment.  The wind was patchy, the water was kinda brown and it was choppy as hell.  Its like a totally different sport !

And more of the same - had a go on the sector 60, my surfboard, the x ride, James' kite, Tarren's kite.  Just enough to stay upwind but a fair bit of work.

The forecast for the Saturday looked like it would be consistent all day at around 15 knots - so we took our time in the morning.  We hit the beach around lunchtime, but the 15 knots was exactly that.  We had to rely on the motion of the water to stay upwind most of the time.  We had some good runs over multiple sessions - but it was impossible to beat the day before.

After another break it was time for the main event.  We debated about what we should do and came up with a down winder into the inlet.  With everyone being very capable kiters we were confident we could handle anything that conditions would throw at us.  Plus - if anything went wrong we could just go for a bit of a hike. We dropped a car at the inlet, then setup and headed off.  We still had 25 knots or so wind - although in the inlet it was mostly offshore and a bit dodgy - but isn't it always ! Heading off we knew we were in for a treat.  The sea had turned angry - it was very hard to get out the back - but the flat water sections and the smaller waves rolling through were providing fantastic rides.  There were a stack of smiling faces all the way down. After about 40 minutes I thought we needed to get a wiggle on - I still couldn't spot the entry to the inlet and it looked like it was miles away at what I later found out was W...

The great people at the Sandy point shop sold us sausages that we cooked up on the barbie for a great lunch.  Fully recharged, we headed back down to the surf beach - the wind was still 25 knots or so, for the second session.  I took the surfboard out for a while, which was fun in the surf, but I find I actually get more and better waves with my xride. This is mostly due to the fact I can turn it quicker and jump on any wave I see. I got totally crunched at one stage and lost my glasses - just part of the kiting tax! I watched Stu Styles for some of this session - he looked like he was in heaven - finally into the waves and surfing "without the sh!t parts".