2018 12 22 - Ride that pony

Having effectively given up on the downwinder, I deflated my kite.  Even the yachts out in the middle of the bay were just bobbing along.  The second after my kite was fully deflated, we were hit with a big gust, an instance of 20 knots right in our face.  The water rippled up, and it seemed like the wind was back in town.
I quickly pumped up again and got out on the water.  The wind was good, but not enough for me to hold a line.  I tried to wait as long as I could, then bit the bullet and rode with the wind towards mordialloc.  As I hit Seaford it got a lot stronger, it ended up being a great ride for me all the way until Aspendale, well powered wind and a nice little wave.  Pete overtook me, and I could see James making up ground.  I couldn't see Stu so figured him and Dobbo had opted out.
Turned out that Stu caught up and Dobbo got stuck behind Seaford pier - damn.  The window of wind was really short, I was just fortunate to be able to grab the strongest section and ride it most of the way home.

Comments

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