2016 10 09 - Massive wind at Rosebud

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 been out for about 1.5 hours - and then the 7m was pretty well suited to the conditions.  Got some big air, to the point of being close to overpowered.  Job came in first and self landed - which was a great achievement given the heavy wind.  It should set him up beautifully for future sessions - its hard to imagine more full on conditions than 40 knots + overpowered on a small kite without much beach to land on.
I came in absolutely exhilirated - great to be able to put yourself to the test in heavy conditions and have a ball.

Comments

  1. Job van DortOctober 10, 2016 at 9:59 PM

    Hejjjj Stu,
    Great to read your story about Sunday's kite session!
    I'm still excited about that morning. It does not leave my brain! Saw today several 8m kites having a ball at Hampton and had an instant stiffie.
    Catch ya dude. Untill next time. Jobbo

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016 04 10 - Sunrise over Franga

Ripping forecast for morning wind so Tarren and I met up at Aspendale, thinking it would be ripping the roof off.  Turns out it was a perfect morning there for a sup.  It seemed some wind was getting in at Frankston so we tore down there and it was definitely on.  It turned out to have something for everyone, we had wind ranging from 16 knots to about 28 knots, sunshine, rain and a ripping great time on the water.  The first 30 mins was good consistent wind for trying all sorts of stuff, I discovered that I could get massively upwind by gliding just 1 metre from the sand - had great fun carving up then going for big air on the way back.  Then the wind picked up and we were going huge - excellent fun.  Managed an entire board off and 2 rotations for an epic stack.  Love the track log on this one.
Read more

2015 11 13 - Kiting weekend - epic downwinder

Image
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...
Read more

02 July 2011 - Whitsunday - warm water, sharp rocks

Image
Location : Long Island, Whitsundays Kite : 10m Switchblade Conditions : 15-20 knots south easterly The stars seemed to align during the week, predictwind indicated that the wind would be perfect for the first day of our holiday.  I looked around Long island on google maps and found what seemed to be a perfect kite beach just 200m from where we were staying.  Yeehaa ! It looked like a beautiful spit, perfect for a south easterly, with great sand for landing and launching.  Check it out and you can see why I got excited. Reality however, looked a little different.  What appears to be a sandy beach is actually a rocky beach.  Not little rocks either, but rocks with barnacles and pieces of coral - all very sharp.  So did I go out - hell yes.   Luckily the tide was outgoing and revealed a sand bar around 4m by 4m. I was able to launch from this sand bar, and navigate out through a passage inbetween the rocks.  Rocks were everywhere, in the water, on t...
Read more