Kiteventure

Pete and I hit the beach early - just before 8 - having guessed that a window of no rain would open up.  It seemed impossible the day before - heaps of rain and fronts made what looked like great wind unkitable. We'd agreed to meet up with quite a few folks - Dan, Mike, Stu, Job - but come 8am and it was pete and I on the beach.  A front had just passed, we could see another coming in 30 minutes, but thought we would be able to squeeze in the session and hope it would dissipate before hitting us. Out on the water the wind was fantastic.  It was such a relief not to be kiting in a hurricane, you could try things without getting smashed - which makes such a difference.  The new kite is just handling beautifully - today just let me enjoy it so much.  There wasn't much swell, but so much fun to launch off the kickers into jumps, rotations and inverts.  I didn't land many rotations today, but still had great fun. James showed up about 45 mins in when a front...

Another heavy forecast, Taz, Pete, James, Stu and I headed to Seaford and we weren't dissapointed.  The wind was ballistic - pretty consistent 30 knots, gusting up to 40 at times, close to hitting the limit of holding down the depowered 7m.  I tried out Taz's new board, which was sensational.  Cuts through the water beautifully, and as its so light, you are able to go even higher than normal in the jumps and hold your legs high.  The only catch is that it is so light that it blew away down the beach!  The wind got so strong after I tried Taz's board I couldn't walk into it at all - Taz had to bring me my board.  Got some big air, surfed some nice waves, and everyone was pumped to be out riding heavy wind.  I saw Stu surf some of the incoming waves beautifully - massive smile on his face. I came in and self landed - happy to have played with heavy wind again and come out the other side.

I arrived at the beach at 930, with gale warning being forecast for the bay.  It was fairly light on the beach - about 17 knots, a far stretch from the forecast of 40 knots +.  I setup the small kite - just in case - and luckily it picked up just as I launched.  Nice consistent probably 25 knot winds, so I was able to do some jumps, rotations and loops. Stuart, Job and Anthony turned up - happy to have enough wind and that it wasn't blowing its nut off.  I took the opportunity to try out Stu's Drifter 7m. It was very different to the 7m crossbow, a heap less power.  I was having to work it quite a bit to keep going, but as its a wave kite, it was great on the small swell, parked really well so you could play on the wave.  It was also pretty good once you were up in the air jumping, just a bit different in terms of where it got its maximum pull to most other kites I've flown.  Still heaps of fun to be had. The wind started to pickup about 11 - I'd be...

With a fairly strong northerly I was super keen to get out - but it was offshore at Point Leo.  Managed to work the angle, but any stuff up would have dragged me into the rocks.  Still - nice to have a few runs.