2021 10 24 - Hampton - up down and scary

 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 detected a crack in the casing of my centre line - taped it up which is fine but it does make me a tiny bit uneasy!  Can't wait for the replacement part.

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