Kiteventure

 With Job and Luca.  Had sessions on the nugget and the twin tip.  Did a run to Ricketts and back.

 Great little session. Took the nugget out with Stu and went to Green point to surf a bunch of waves.  It blew up so went back to hampton, grabbed the twin tip and went big air with Job, Luca and Garry.  Met Steve (again) on the beach and added him to the thread.  Classic session.

 Headed down to Flinders with Pete and Chloe in the car.  Pete still has a sore elbow so wanted to take some photos and Chloe was up for adventure. Stu, Dobbo, Sam the German visitor and I hit it up - small kite, big wind and pretty small surf but still heaps of fun.  Rode a tonne of waves, did some big jumps, got pushed into a rotation on one jump that went real bad and landed me in very shallow water.  Still heaps of fun though.

 and it works a treat.  Very consistent wind and really fun to be out there.  Sam the German guy from Sandy point didn't show up - oh well.

 Wind had backed off quite a bit - and the surf had too.  Took the nugget out but couldn't keep upwind at all.  Happy to pack up as my right arm and shoulder were a little sore and I didn't want to wreck it.

 Setup and went out on the small kite again after lunch.  More of the same really - but no visible seals. 

 Finished up early for the year.  I'd taken leave to go to Indonesia, and with Tina's dad being in such a bad state we decided to cancel the trip.  I kept the leave and thought I'd have some kiting adventures instead - and do a trip to Uluru with Alexander. Headed down to Sandy point after watching the soccer in the morning.  Arrived to 25 knots and a very big swell.  Took the small kite out and turned out just as well, it was pretty consistently 27-30, big air and heaps of fun.  Rode a lot of very big waves out the back and in the middle, had some ridiculously big launches and kite loops.  Met Sam - a German kiter and his family.  And saw a very large seal which came up right in front of me.  It wasn't scary at the time but I was a little paranoid of running in to it. Noticed at the end that my gopro had come loose so had to come in after 2.5 hours and 60kms.  I could have done more !

 hell yeah.  Little kite still as it was over 20.  heaps of fun.

 Dobbo and I met up at Hampton and were greeted by flat water and no wind.  You could see a yacht going sideways out in the middle so we setup and the perfect wind rolled in.  Had an awesome session, heaps of really big jumps, loops and fun galore.

 Went down to Aspendale and met James and Taz.  Put the little kite up given the forecast was pretty heavy, but soon had to come in.  Sonny was surfing in the pretty rubbish bay surf, and Stephen Lawson came down for a crack too.   I put my big kite up but didn't tie off all the ends so it went through the window and crashed hard into the car park on the other side.  doh.  Really stuffing up my self launch game this year. Got out and the wind picked up enormously, probably 30 knots +.  Lots of big air which was fun, and felt out of control at times.

 Hit Aspendale with James and Stu.  With the huge amounts of rain, the water was really dirty and soap suds washing on the beach made the kite putrid.  But the wind was magnificent so it was awesome to be out on the water again, big air, kiteloops and rotations the order of the day.

 Rather be doing sport than watching it.  16 - 18 knots so took the nugget out at Hampton.  I'm definitely improving my gybing game.

 yep, in close

 Max and Noy came down to bring us lunch and film us so mostly showing off.  Tried to head out later to the surf and everyone was already coming in.

In close

 rinse and repeat, some early action in close then out to ufos again.  Wind is ridiculously good.

  A bit of early showing off for our visitors (Max, Noy, Swiss lady and Perth guy) followed by super fun surfing session at ufos - again !

 If it worked on day 3, why change ?  Follow up the surfing session with a jumps session.

 Straight out to ufos for more surfing.

 Following on from the surf session, once the tide got a bit lower we hit up a jumping session close to the kite beach.  Yay !

 We took the scooters down to the beach -game changer.  Really fun trip down through farmers fields, and the autonomy to come and go as we please.  Headed straight out to the surf and had a fun session at bagus before going and checking out the longer reef right in front of the kiting beach.  We termed it "ufos" because of the ufo shaped island in front of it.  Turns out this is a super long break and fantastic fun.  Spent most of the session just going up and down ufos and having a ball.

 Wind picked up enough to do fun stuff so just went back and forth in the flat water for a while, with a quick trip out to check out the surf.  Water was a bit shallow and reefy out there so came back quickly.

 We took the car to the beach again - and thought we would only need small kites.  Mistake.  The wind wasn't that strong on the beach.  A quick first session where I was working the kite a lot.

 After flying to Denpasar, we grabbed a quick meal for $3.50 (wow) and spent the night in Bali.  The domestic transfer was chaotic of course, but we eventually landed in Lombok and were greeted at the airport by Max.  He had bought a fisherman to help us strap boards onto the roof - which looked very dubious at first - but worked a treat.  After about 1.5 hours we arrived at Panorama Ekkas - a fantastic setup right on the beach.  Max was friendly and amazing, he'd organised a ride for us really quickly to the kiting beach so our dream of going kiting on the first day could become a reality. The ride to the kiting beach was interesting - heaps of potholes, very slow going in the car.  Just over an hour to get there - but we were greeted by an incredible beach, fantastic wind and smiles all round.  It was about 27 knots - heaving - so we went small kites.  We - Stu Styles, Pete, Ant and I - mucked around in the beautiful shallow flat water for a whi...

 30 to 35 knots to greet James, Pete, Rich, Garry and I.  Great waves out the back and stacks of fun on the 7m.  Lovely and warm with the new beany and 4:3 wetsuit, makes such a difference!

Met James and Pete at Seaford - but wind wasn't fantastic so James pulled the pin.  I went out on the nugget first up, had a good time until the wind dropped to zero.  Had to float in for about 2kms.  Upon arriving on shore, the wind picked up again, which let me tack all the way back to Seaford from somewhere almost to Frankston.  Wind picked up enough to jump onto the twin tip for the last 40 mins.  Saw grey shapes in the water then dolphins jumping around.  Pretty amazing. Also amazing that people were swimming as if it were summer.  Bananas ! Was out for the first time in my new 4:3 - wow what a difference.  Massive fan.

 Cranking session at Sandy point on the small kite with big frothy surf.  Joined by Mike, Pete and Adam.  Flat water was amazing, waves were fun but mostly foam.  Such an awesome spot.

 Mike and I went down to hampton to grab what was supposed to be a north wester.  Turned out to be north east and fairly offshore.  Very fickle close to shore but fine once you got out a little bit.  

 Hit up Seaford with Pete, Mike, James and Stu.  Good to launch again without putting a kite in a tree.  Went out on the 10 and it was sweet.  Had a ball.  Tried the curled fingered gloves but they still fatigue my hands way too much.

 Lucas from Perth was keen to go for a kite so through the kindness of all we rustled up some kit for him.  I went out on my 7m and the nugget so that he could get out on the 10.  Worked a treat and he had it well in hand.  My kite is still great even after the tree incident (phew).  Great to be down the coast on a 21 degree day - wow.

 A window opened up early in the morning for a kite with a good 25 knots hitting taz's front beach.  I'm still a little bit trepidatious, but was awesome to get the kite in the air again and get on the water.  Had an absolute ball.  Heaps of air, waves and fun by all.  Taz is still working through a shoulder injury that flared up after suping with us - hope he comes good soon.

 Haven't been out for a while, I didn't really set my lines up right or get the kite angle right.  Went into a death loop right on launching, I got faceplanted into the sand before I could take any action and the kite went into a tree.  Luckily the bladder wasn't punctured but I've got 4 decent rips in the canopy to fix.  Bit of a scare but I did a lot wrong so not super worried. Rigged up the 7 and had a cracking session.  Riding waves toeside all the way to Frankston, then back to Seaford pier in the channel by the beach.  Rinse and repeat.  James and I had massive smiles the whole time.

 Missed out on a northerly yesterday, and have been pretty busy surfing with Sonny, so was keen to get up early and grab a pretty average forecasted wind.  Took the nugget which was a saviour - it was between 13 and 17 knots so at times getting air, others just struggling to keep moving.  About to head to Tathra and Sydney with no prospect of wind up there so take what you can get huh!

 Met up with Taz, Stu, Dobbo and James down at the Pines.  Great wind and waves were a good size.  Had fun at the Pines, went up to Point Leo but it was high tide and a big mess up there.  Came back to Zappas which was amazing on the kite, had a ball tucking into great little waves.

 Met up with Dobbo, Stu, Pete, Ant at Shoreham in a good 20 knot plus wind.  Strangely enough there was no beach and no wind at Flinders just up the road, but heaps at Shoreham.  Fantastic waves, probably the best we've ever had on that section of coast.  Heaps of fun surfing waves at Shoreham, and even better when we went up to Honeysuckle.  Caught heaps of awesome waves and tucked under a couple, was surfing on my non preferred when I crashed, strap broke, looped the kite and became very aware of how shallow it was when I brushed some rocks.  Took ages to get my board in the strong wind, before ploughing back to Shoreham. Had a go of Dobbo's jaime - was also an excellent board.  Now to get my straps fixed.

 Full adventure with a trip across point danger - which was pretty dangerous with the water just covering the reef and some nasty rocks poking out.  Once on the other side - mayhem.  Big big waves, I managed to catch one in which was fun - but very difficult to get back out.  Hit a reef with my fin, surfers everywhere, swimmers everywhere, and big surf ready to clean you up.  And cross chop - you'd get on a wave and crap would be coming at you from every direction.  I got it somewhat under control and beckoned to James not to go in any further.  Poor Stu didn't get the message and got pushed in to shore - having to walk back along the beach.  We'd eventually planned to get down to Bells but after this little adventure that was definitely not on - way too big.  Got back across to cozy corner and breathed a sigh of relief to get back to normal swell and repeatable waves.

 What a relief to hit the beach in a solid 20 knots.  No debate about kite size, nice waves rolling through so we all got out and had a lot of fun.  Bit of a weird break - it didn't really seem to be breaking anywhere consistently, just waves breaking all over the shop.  The best break seemed to be quite close to shore, so I ended up hanging around there quite a bit.

A great south easterly forecast had us all very excited.  Big plans were made - including a bremlea to point impossible session, then a round trip to Point Lonsdale.  Of course, the wind had other ideas. I shared the trip down with James and Pete, Tarren and Stu joined forces, Adam bought the camper, Anthony and Dobbo arrived solo.  Wind seemed strong at Bremlea, but on hitting the beach it was more like 15 to 16 knots.  Quite a struggle most of the time just holding a line - the big surf was moving a lot of water on shore so it was constantly pushing you off.  We had about 15 mins of decent wind, the rest was just hard work.  Eventually we abandoned and went for brunch in Torquay to setup for the day.  Poor dobbo had to bail early for family stuff so a tiny bit of Bremlea was all he got to see.

 Was the first to the beach, it looked pretty decent but thought I'd enjoy a big air session.  And big air it was, oscillated from 25 to 35 knots, got airborne quite a bit and enjoyed the break further out with the long never ending wave.  Was joined near the end by Rich, Job, Luca and Mike also eventually got out.  Glorious spot, glorious.

 James and I arrived at the beach to see Stu having a ball in the small swell off Hampton.  We hurried out, joined by Ant and proceeded to hit the big rollers.  Heaps of fun - discovered a nice little wave in the more northerly groyne and tore it up.

 Stu and I headed down to flinders with a big wind forecast and just enough swell. Arriving we could see already that we were in for a treat, great wind and waves were clearly breaking out on the point. Out there it was great, tide was way in, most rocks underwater and some amazing rides.

 Got out after work with Stu and another dude from Beaumaris.  Wind was not gusty but kinda variable.  Got some good air and got asked for tips afterwards from a beginner.  There was a weird pipe washed up on the beach, goodness knows from where.

 Bit of everything today, but eventually got out to the break for some magic waves on the nugget.

 Not heaps of wind but enough to be miles out in the bay.  Still managed to invert the kite after attempting a 720.

 And suprisingly - no traffic, hardly any kites (3 in the air) and 20 knot southerly.  I'd forgotten how great a setup it is.  Did lots of rotational jumps, landed one forward roll, tried a double forward and tried a triple back.  Had a silly crash and inverted the kite which was annoying.  Quite a few loose dogs which made coming in to the shore a bit of a hazard.  All up a joy to be back.

 James and I tore down to Point Leo after work, and hit a perfect 20 knot breeze.  No waves really, but heaps of flat water, which was best just beside the reef.  Great for doing little runs and boosting big.  Had some fun where we just alternated jumps as we headed down the coast to 2nd reef, then on to Pines.  Nothing was better than the initial spot though - so we headed back up and mucked around there until James broke the binding on his board. Cracking session and wonderful to be down the coast.

 Perfect wind at Hampton, a bit over 20 and just magic to do all sorts of things.  Landed a back double, but had real problems landing front roll, over rotated heaps.  Also worked on one foot out.  A gem to be out with just James and I on the water most of the time.

 Magical on the nugget in about 16 knots - enough to try all sorts of new and old rotational tricks with a bigger board, heaps of fun in the small chop with Mike and Taz.

 Very windy - so much so that the small kite is bending in and out of shape - with Stu, Pete and Mike down at Flinders.  Shared a ride with Stu down.  We were expecting a bigger swell but unfortunately wasn't quite as big as we'd hoped, still lots of fun to be out there in the wild.  Unfortunately Stu had the safety blow, then had a bit of trouble winding in the kite a long way out.  When he did wind it in, he tried towing on one line - which also subsequently blew leaving the kite blowing in on its own steam.  Pete grabbed it, I grabbed Petes board and we did a bit of a rescue.  Always adventure at Flinders !

 Spent close to an hour at Ricketts - saw rich and job from a distance - before heading off with Stu, Mike and James on a downwinder to Brighton.  Very consistent wind, heaps of big jumps.  Not really landing forward rotations well today, not aggressive enough coming out with the leading hand.  

Tina and I headed down to Hampton whilst James and Stu set off on a downwinder from Ricketts to Hampton.  Didn't expect it to be quite as windy as it turned out - 25 to 30 knots.  Got into the calm marina and repeatably got a long run and the big swell coming through and launched into orbit.  So much fun ! Ended up with Stu, James, Ant, Lukas and Tina on the beach.  Sweet session and no kiting points lost.