Kiteventure

Met Stu and Tony down the beach on a hot Australia day with a welcome cross shore breeze.  We had to act quick as it was forecast to go more easterly, which everyone knows gets gusty as hell at Mentone. Pete and Tarren soon joined us and it was game on. It was beautiful on the water - refreshing and clear - and I dived straight into the tricks.  Landed a frontroll 540 transition - stoked.  Got the backroll to toeside sorted on the left, landed some on the right, landed a lot of toeside backroll to heelside going right.  Great day out. Tarren survived a near popping experience of wrapping his lines around his kite and blowing towards ricketts point - lucky escape.

Eric, Pete, Tarren and I met up at Tarren's place.  It had rained the day before so we figured Aspendale would be the go - clean, flat water.  It was magnificent.  The wind was just enough - we could have done with a few more knots but still a lot of fun.  I worked on unhooked - and found out that it you dont have the kite set right it can be a real pain, every time I unhooked the kite just dropped out of the sky.  I tried the roast beef grab, got real close but I'll have to work on my flexibility.  Nailed the double grabs - not that hard.  Then worked on front roll 540 transition, landing toeside.  I was able to land it pretty consistently, just need to work on having enough power to steam out of it.  Sorted out the start from the board on the water - just jumping up onto it and heading off.  Not hard in flat water. Very decent long session - and I think we've uncovered a new great spot - there is fantastic flat water beside the pier....

I'm not sure what genius decided that the official kiting area at Hampton should be squished between the 2 groynes - but it sure gets busy with a couple of kites on a south westerly there.  We had a great turnout of good folks, Tony, Anthony, Stu, Job, James, Dobbo, Athol and Grant operating in stealth mode.  Wind was pretty good - not cranking but enough - to try the newly released excel spreadsheet of every trick in the world.  I worked on all manner of transitional tricks, toeside based jumps, heelside and goodness knows what else.  Ended up eating a whole lot of water.

Bit up and down at Port with Tarren.

With a 25 knot + wind forecast, headed down to Hampton to hook up with James and Stu for a small kite session.  It had been blowing all night with intermittent rain, so the expectations were high for great wind and nice waves.  Stepping out of the car I couldn't get the grin off my face - it was absolutely perfect for a kick rs session. Took the 7 out and was immediately greeted with some big surf out the back.  Took a while to get used to the little kite, but after a couple of runs felt right at home.  Fantastic big air opportunities launching off the swell behind the groynes. We mucked around in the main kiting section - sweet waves rolling in with very little chop and only about 5 kiters.  After a while we headed down to Green point to check if it was peeling off the point down there.  The surf just south of green point was even bigger which was fun, but north of the point it was kind of rubbish.  After one or two gos I pulled the pin, it was sti...

Met up with James and Bruce at St Kilda for a fun session in great wind.  Did a quick tour down to South Melbourne and back with James - still a favourite little place to kite in the waves.

Stu Styles came up with a fantastic idea to do a trip from Flinders downwind to Balnarring.  With such an interesting tour, filled with some great little surf breaks, there was naturally a lot of interest.  We had Stu, Pete, Eric, Anthony, Tarren, Mike and myself all raring to go at Balnarring.  Having arrived there seemed enough wind to do a there and back session - saving us the hassle of driving cars around for an hour - more kiting and less driving is always a winner so we setup and set off. The wind was a very consistent 22 knots or thereabouts - enough to make me wonder about taking the small kite.  Turns out the 10 was perfect for the session, enough depower for the stronger sections and enough pull when I got a bit too close to the rocks. We waited at Balnarring until everyone was on the water then set off to Flinders.  Great to be on the water and setting off with such a good and capable crew.  Point Leo was the first good stop - we took turn...