Kiteventure

We had a few words with the big man in the sky (Job) to organise some great wind for the afternoon for an adventure.  After some teething problems with the recipe, he really turned it on. Stu and I went down to Aspendale to start the session - but there wasn't quite enough wind - so we went up to Ricketts to join Grant as we figured we could catch more of the southerly funneling up the bay. We went out and there was just enough wind to keep a line.  Still fun with Stu and Grant on the water.  After about 30 mins it picked up a bit, enough to allow us to cut up wind.  We had agreed to wait for James prior to setting off on any big adventure, but it seemed he wasn't coming as it was after 3 and we were going to meet on the beach around 230.  We figured he must have went out at Hampton. We cut up into the wind - I had to work real hard to keep up with Stu on the nugget.  My quads were burning already.  We managed to get beyond the reef and there was...

Did quite a few doubles - backwards and forwards - in excellent wind at Port to South Melbourne.  Absolutely love that section at South Melbourne.  Got crunched in a wave and lost a pair of seaspecs though - totally worth it !

After a great catchup with the Gonad man, dim sims and a jam donut, I hit the beach again for a great follow up session.  Magnificent.

Cranking westerly had James and I head down to Aspendale.  Fantastic surf, great strong wind, no people, absolutely epic session.  Used my big bar with the small kite - I left my small bar on the beach like an idiot at Port.  It actually worked better than my small bar, heaps more comfortable and great spinning - not sad at all that I lost the bar ! The session was amazing, tucked in to heaps of waves, some nice jumps and all sorts of fun.  Broke out the surfboard - but in that kind of chop its really not that good - kind of boring.  Back on the twin tip and the fun party started up again.  Pete joined late in the session and did a downwinder to Frankston.  I was very happy with a massive 2 hours on the water.

Port Melbourne with Taz, my small bar and the 10m kite.  Great that the kite handled beautifully, small bar was a bit weird but now I've repaired the normal bar too - all is wieder gut.

Amazing first half of downwinder from Frankston to Hampton with Pete and Anthony. Landed a triple back and several double backs and forwards.  It was like surfing one massive wave all the way down the coast.  A real joy. Going past Mordy pier I realised I was going to run into a stack of fishing lines so turned around and ran straight into Pete's kite.  I hadn't checked that no-one was right behind me - our kites tangled and got all sorts of mucked up.  I hit safety, but it was a steaming mess - both of us got pulled through under the pier.  Kite lost one of the connector lines, and had to cut my lines off the pier pilons.  Crappy situation.

Finally landed 4 unhooked raleys in a row.  Magnificent.  Feels like I've been on that mission for a long long time.  Also tried lots of variations on jumped kiteloops

Great afternoon session at Hampton - spins and kiteloops.  Worked on the jumped kiteloop, pulling the loop on the way down to generate power.  Worked out that its better to go early.  

A weird weather pattern hit Melbourne, so the predicted 20 knots never really arrived.  We'd got over excited and setup for a down winder from Beaumaris to Port Melbourne.  Met Pete, James and Job at Beaumaris - but only got as far as just off Sandy before I got a wing tip stuck in the water and then was unable to relaunch.  Drifted in about 1 km to Sandy beach, then James and I had to walk back.  Rubbish.