Kiteventure

 Perfect conditions at Mentone - but lifesaving club has been relocated to where I would normally kite.  Went a bit further south to parkdale - really the south end of Mentone beach - and got perfectly consistent wind - all on my own - no other kites, wings or sails to be seen.  Worked on rotational jumps and managed to get some comfort and progress, but just loving being out on the water.

 SSE forecast and didn't seem to be getting in at Mentone, so I figured South Ricketts would be the go.  Welcomed to the beach by Ken the lifeguard telling me that windsports are forbidden (whilst there were 3 wings on the water).  He softened slightly and told me to keep out of the swimming area (which is massive with no people).  Out on the water it oscillated in strength from 12 knots through to close to 30 and changed direction quite a bit too.  Pretty challenging and no margin for error with rocks everywhere.  Great to get out and probably great to survive.

 Tina is amazing - suggesting that I go for a kite after christmas lunch at Nicky's.  We quickly circled back, I grabbed my stuff and the car and after a great lunch, went up to Ricketts and was joined by Stu.  Wind was just enough to hold a line and sometimes cut up to the flat area in front of the cafe.  Grant and Chris L dropped by for a chat which was a lovely way to top the day off.  Spectacular day !

 James and I hit the jackpot with a consistent (but hard to pick) wind at urquharts bluff.  Water was spectacular, landscape amazing.  Just a joy to be on the water.

 Having a grand old time at flinders, thinking about going round the corner when I spotted a big grey thing right in front of me.  Thought it was a massive shark and went quickly into the shallow water.  I would have cut for it but everyone was still out - so I spent the rest of the session trying to warn everyone.  Eventually I gave up - I figured it would have moved on by then - and just kited through the rest of the session.  Looking back through the tape discovered it was actually a dolphin - there were a couple of them chasing me later in the piece.   Wow.

 Out of nothing came a downwinder session with Pete, Stu, James, Ant, Rich, Sean and for the first time we were joined by Garry and Anton and some other random dude from Ricketts.  I took it easy on rotational jumps but spend a lot of time jumping and surfing, always a fun little trip.  Great way to spend the day and wash away the cobwebs from a blinder the night before watching Wolfmother with Ben, Darren, Johnathan, Ben and Gus.

 Cranked up another couple of knots for some fantastic air, rotations and all round fun.  Stu, Ant, Pete and I.  Unfortunately Stu had a blowout late in proceedings whilst trying out my board so we had a bit of board rescue fun.  yay !

 First kite after rib injury and all good.  Got an hour and a half in with Stu and Pete, then beers afterwards.  Lovely.

 Finally got to meet Eugene in person - lovely guy with a very cute kid.  Fantastic conditions today but I totally screwed up my first jump and damaged my ribs, making the rest of the session pretty painful.  Hope like heck it mends quickly - kiting weekend next sat!  

 About 17 knots, perfect for working on landing double backs consistently.  Pete and Ant came out too - Pete fresh off the wrist injury and appearing to enjoy being back on the water.

 We all wanted to go to Aspendale but the wind had other things on its mind.  Met up with James and Mike for a kite at Hampton.  I was somewhat undecided between small kite and big kite - but a lull convinced me the big kite was the go.  Probably the right choice but it was a hell of a ride at times. Some fantastic ramps flowing through meant for some big big airs.  I pulled a couple of kite loops and got tremendous drift, so much fun.  The wind pushed through twice - to the point of almost getting lofted and wondering how the heck to calm things down.  Luckily the depower on the kite is amazing, once I made the decision to depower it was all relatively under control. Had a closish call with Mike - I was just focussed on ramps, got up in the air to look to my right and Mike is also jumping beside me.  We both were able to pull out fine - thank goodness. Stu came down after a sleep in - looked to be having a ball when we left. Last session I detect...

 Rock solid wind and all up an awesome session.  Great waves rolling in which made for some nice ramps.  Didn't do too many rotational tricks today, the wind was pretty strong so just went for airtime.  Pete  is still laid up after a mountain biking incident so took some great pics and some video .  Dropped off some firewood to Eugene to thank him for his amazing drone footage from earlier in the year.  He takes some amazing drone footage around Aspendale - well worth checking out.

 Nice sea breezish afternoon, hit the port funnel for some fun in the small breakers.  Ally came down and had a go of Pete's trainer kite - which was terrifying at first until we untangled the lines.  She is pretty gutsy, got yanked a couple of times but kept it totally under control.  Very impressive.

 Pretty marginal at first but tidied up nicely for some great jumps.  Ant, James and Dobbo also out.  What a joy.

 yeehaa, lots of big air and fun, 50kms and 2 hours on the water with James, Dobbo, Stu and Taz just outside of his house.  Cracking session on the small kite. Bit tricky landing James' kite cause it was blowing pretty hard, and Dobbo put some holes in his crashing it into a wall.

 Cranking wind of around 35 knots down at Aspendale with Dobbo, James and Stu - and Taz off in the distance.  Got some huge air early, then things settled down and I was able to ride some waves, jump and muck around.  Had a couple of bad stacks - and one horrible ball slap where I came in too flat.  Really feeling the cold at the moment, went to bed at 8pm.  Luck shq is kinda open so was able to replace my spreader bar (looks like the screw came loose somehow) and get a new pump.

 Felt pretty cold this morning and was a bit cautious for some reason.  Still lots of big jumps, loops, some rotations but nothing crazy.  What a weekend !

 yep, what it said on the pack

 Hit it with James, Stu, dobbo, taz  and even Pete made an appearance.  Went too small with the kite but the nugget compensated nicely.

 I may have went a little early with ditching the booties but it was a rock solid wind so I managed to get out the big kite and have a load of fun.

 Quick session over lunch.  With a forecast of high 20s, put up the little kite in the northerly wind.  Wind picked up quite a bit - gusting to over 40.  Got some fantastic secondary lift - but then started to get pulled off the water for no good reason.  Ant was blown down wind and had to pull the safety to land.  Dobbo hit the beach but didn't come out, it got a bit too crazy.  Great to get out in the water - and bye bye booties - yay !

 Cracking morning with a cracking north westerly wind.  Headed to Aspendale first, no go - but Seaford was game on.  Beautiful little waves, sunshine and a solid 20-25 knot breeze meant lots of air time and massive smiles.  A swimmer came through - well flagged by James - and Taz even introduced us to a decent sized turtle floating around on top of the water.  Great to get out !

 Hit up Rosebud with James.  Went small at first, then changed up.  Great way to start the day.  

 Went out at Aspendale with Taz and Stu - great to be out on the water.  Coldest hands ever - had to put my hand in my mouth to thaw it out.

 Surprise session on a Monday afternoon with James at Rosebud.  James put it out there and I was able to shuffle a few things around.  We tore down, had over an hour on the water and tore back.  Awesome.

 With James, Pete and Mike.  Lost my wetsuit beanie unfortunately, but all up an awesome session.  Did a great double back with the surfboard, and some forward rolls too. Unbeknown to us, Eugene was taking some amazing footage of the session on his drone.  Bonus !

 Called in to see Taz's new place at Aspendale - heaps of room, a cute cat and a very big snake.  Great turnout - Pete, James, Mike, Taz, Stu, Anthony.  About 17 knots so I swapped it up a bit between the twin tip and the nugget.  Back is still a bit sore and constricting movement.

 2nd day in a row at Brighton.  Rich already on the water, Ant and Stu on the beach.  Got a niggle on my side from soccer, hope it calms down soon.

 Awesome to get out in lockdown.  Met James and Ant down at Brighton for a great little session.  Water was cold, but wind was very consistent.

 Wow.  With the wind blowing north westerly, I set out for a quick kite before lunch.  Having seen windsurfers the day before, I knew it was gonna be epic.  And it was.   Great swell, some nice clean wind and slow moving waves through the bay made for some fantastic ramps and really fun surfing.  Got lots of nice air and so much fun ripping in to the larger sets.  Very picturesque and beautiful water.  Mucked up my landing big time though, tried to land grabbing the line but the kite powered so I let go.  The kite ripped through the window wrapped around my bar and my finger, till it crashed on the other side, giving me a nice little drag down the beach.  Got it back up again and nailed it the second time.

 Met Anthony at Hampton, easy going on 15 knots then a massive storm hit.  Had to try and land the kite in 35 knots, was a bit of an adventure.

 What a joy to have Sonny come along ! He surfed for about an hour, then was keen to have a go with my ad-hoc towing arrangement.  He jumped on the nugget, and I towed him through the surf for a couple of kms.  It was hilarious, he was doing little jumps across the waves, we were laughing the whole way.  Oh and the kiting was spectacular too !

 A quick detour via Frankston - not quite enough wind for James without his big kite - landed us at Brighton.  Very sketchy wind in close (as normal) but interesting out in the middle, amazing views of the sun through the clouds.

 Being greeted by being blown off the beach is never a great start.  Joined by Stu and James on the kite, and Tarren as a spectator with his new beast of a car.  Put up the small kite and was very anxiously watching the horizon to avoid being blown away.  Out for about 35 mins then called it - better safe than sorry.

 Not enough wind so a bit of walking involved.

 After checking out a couple of spots we decided to call the weekend and head for home.  Stu and a couple of the guys headed in to Ocean Grove for a coffee.  it just happened to be cranking windy there !  So we turned the wagons around and all had a magnificent session in high winds.  Yeehaa.

 After a nice walk along Jan Juc beach, the crew were impatient so we headed down the coast with the promise of some better wind at Point Addis.  We went down to the spectacular beach lugging a tonne of gear, Mike had a surf but there was no wind at all.  A local guy told us that wind just doesn't get in there no matter what due to the cliffs and venturi effect.  So we saddled up and headed back to Torquay and guess what - wind o'clock. Same formula as the day before - small kite, awesome waves.  After a decent amount of time Stu, Pete, Mike and I headed north, across the whole bay and tacked up to Point Impossible.  The waves there were ridiculous - huge and kinda scary, with rocks along the shoreline.  We had a ball kiting through there and back out again, definitely up for a specific trip down there.

 Very very excited to get to the kiting weekend.  Dobbo and James went very early down to Inverloch to kick things off, I had a few things to take care of so stayed in Melbourne before heading down to Torquay in the afternoon.  Waited around looking at the beautiful Point Danger until things started to kick off as expected.  Went with the small kite as it was forecast to come in hard, so was quite a struggle at first.  Once out the back it was game on, heaps of wind and amazing waves on the south side of Point Danger.  Glorious to be out and about, even managed to get down to Torquay main beach and have a peak around at Jan Juc also.  Some great surf kiters out also carving it up.  Magnificent start to a cracking weekend.

 Met up with James who had bought his whole family down to Hampton.  Perfect wind, just perfect.  First kiting session back after tearing my calf - good to be back.

 Followed up a sup in the morning with a kite at Port with Mike.  A few random photographers taking images - allowing us to ham it up.

 Met up with James and Pete, went out on the twin tip for half, then pulled out the nugget for the light wind action.  Awesome as a backup.

After the big rain, we (Taz, James and I) hit Aspendale hoping to find cleaner waters.  Alas it wasn't quite the case.  Wind was nice, but bay was extremely choppy out the back, waves coming from all directions.  Worked a lot on rotational jumps and started to get them dialled in.  Did one sequence of 720 back, 360 forward transition with kiteloop, backroll to toeside, toeside backroll kiteloop to toeside and it just kept going, totally nuts.  Had a lot of fun taking the shallow channel run to get back upwind with Taz - screaming along about 1m from the sand.  Did finish with one heck of a sore stomach though - I don't think it was related to the water.

 Overcast day and a consistent wind forecast, so we headed to Hampton.  Rock solid wind so worked on rotational jumps, landing some, not landing others.  Great to be out on the water as ever and see some familiar faces. yeah.

 Great strong wind, took out the 10 and had a ball.  Had to deal with the aggresive dude on the surfboard (Jeff Steel ?) which is always a pain.  Took on Laird Hamiltons advice to go first which helped.  Went to hit a ramp just behind the reef, the wave reared up and I got thrown into a double loop pretty hard.  Was quite a shock but turned out fine.

 Don't know why we went to Mentone but it was up to its usual tricks.  Taz, James, Stu, Rich all turned up to be courted by lady wind but no-one really won out.

 Snuck out for a quick session - just enough wind to put a smile on my face.

 Wow.  Absolutely huge surf in the bay after a fairly strong westerly that was even stronger down the bay.  James, Stu and I hit up Aspendale and it was game on - overhead waves to tuck into and amazing ramps to launch into orbit.  Saw Stu hit a cracker and then tried a few myself.  Awesome start to what was a cracking week for kiting, surfing and suping.

 Ant, Mike, James and Stu joined in to hit great conditions down at Flinders.  The wave was big and working, absolutely glorious to be out there.  Ant unfortunately stacked and wrapped his fifth line so we had to assist him to get in.  When flinders is working it is unbeatable, awesome session.

 Headed down at 11am through some big storm fronts to hit Inverloch at 1pm and be greeted by a rising wind.  2 hour session on the small kite in fantastic conditions, lots of big air, bit scared to try new tricks though.  Went out in the surf but the wind was patchy there and the surf wasn't really breaking.