Kiteventure

Its always a bit of a homecoming going back to St Kilda - I've spent so much time there that it always feels comfortable and like nothing bad could ever happen there.  I caught up with Taz, who was having lunch with Bec and Alan after their kite lesson.  Great to see them both having a shot - I think they'd both have a ball with it. Had to go way out looking for wind, I chased little windy patches around the centre of the bay until the wind kicked up to 17 knots and I could have some consistent fun.  Great session with enough wind to do a whole load of rotational stuff, including backroll kiteloops all over the place.  Had to get out cause I was cold - its time for the proper wetsuit again !

Got up ridiculously early and met Taz down at Hampton.  Bit of rain about, windy and cold.  Got a good 30 mins in before the wind died off.  

Grabbed the surfboard for this trip as I've still got wear marks on my feet from the Robe trip.  We decided on the Beaumaris to Brighton downwinder to celebrate Pete's birthday.  Stu picked Pete and I up from Brighton, and we joined Job at Beaumaris.  Great wind, a good tight crew and fantastic scenery awaited. Didn't mess up one tack and I tried every variation of changing direction - all good.  It's strange how it just clicks after a while - gybing a surfboard felt so weird at first but now its just second nature. Highlights were backrolls and front rolls on a surfboard (actually pretty easy - the extra weight means you don't go so high) and just surfing whatever wave I could hit.  Had a hoot going through between the Cerberus and the pier on the little wave, and also surfing everything I could from blackrock through to Sandringham. Most fun I've had on the surfboard for ages - but I definitely have to adjust the strap - my little pinkie was getting jam...

Cranking wind, taz and I went big. We hit up Beachpool and the wind just kept getting stronger.  Went out on the 10m on the standard setting and I was soon reaching for the depower strap.  Pete had another crack at the foil - but no great joy.  Stu was surfing whatever he could find, and taz was getting massive air with loops and landing in 2mm of water.....standard fare really. I worked on getting some big air, rotational jumps, deadman - which always ended in me getting dunked spectacularly.  Great fully powered session. Backroll over seaweed No hands

Having had the session at Beachport anything from then on was a bonus.  But this was to be a extra special mega bonus. We'd gone up to Robe to check out our accomodation.  An initial look at the long beach indicated that there was no wind - the SE wind wasn't hitting the beach, people were lying around sunbaking.  We checked the SE facing beach on the south side of Robe - it unfortunately was pretty rocky and wasn't catching the wind either.  As the beach to the north is very long and cuts around we figured we could drive north and grab some wind somewhere. You can drive along the beach in Robe - its a bogan paradise.  4wd everywhere.  You can only imagine the kind of bullshit that goes on.  It was convenient for us - we drove along the beach until there was some wind hitting us.  It was around 15 knots but we figured it would be stronger further out.  We were right...and wrong. I got out both boards thinking we'd stay on the same tack...