Kiteventure

 Solid 20 to 25 knots, nice wave faces which quickly turned into ramps.  Loving the new kite with the new bar, the new bar has made a massive difference.  Very stable during rotations.  Was able to do 2 double back rolls perfectly which I was wrapped with. Got slammed a couple of times - one whiplash and one ball bash.  Very happy though, super fun.

 Snuck out for a cheeky kite.  Great wind and no-one on the beach.  Awesome to be on the water again, a bunch of jumps on the nugget until it really heated up and jumped on the twintip.

 Weather has been rubbish but managed to get out early in the morning.  The water wasn't flash, but wind was great on the nugget.  Lots of rotational jumps and kiteloops.

 Cracking session on an excellent weekend of surf and kiting.  Unfortunately safety popped out for no reason (and popped in again) so time for a new bar.

with James and Stu.  Cold and great.

 Too good to pass up.

 Hit the chode for the first session

 Went out to the chode - to the right hand side of the kite shack.  Chode = wider than it is tall, referring to both the break but also the island pillar.  Saw 2 manta rays - one flat on the water as I rode out and one flapping its wings on the water further out to see behind the breaks.  Great fun waves and flat water.  Definitely one to pursue more.

 Started to look around some of the other breaks.  Out to Gangbangs (coming from all directions), out to Bagus then over to Ufos for some flat water and big jumps.

 We've been sleeping well - going to be at 9pm - which has been amazing to give us full power when kiting.  Still needed a break so we went snorkelling in the morning instead.  Drove through the monkey forest, 2 snorkelling session then back to kite in the afternoon.  Small kite again !

 Swell still huge, Bagus amazing and honing in.

 Swell is huge, bagus going off

 More and more fun at Bagus

 Forecast looking great from here on in.  Small kite tide perfection and waves getting pretty big.

 Wind blew up wonderfully for a small kite session.

 toured around all the regular sites - ufos and bagus.

 Kited with James until some big gusts came in.  Wonderful to get some big kickers near the pier and go big with the 7m.  42 knots hit and it got a bit hard to handle so we called it a day, just as Styles, Mark, Ant and Rich arrived.  Very cold on the hands at first but it got better as the sun broke through more.

 After a work trip to Singapore, Abu Dhabi, London and Switzerland was a bit hard to get a session in.  Plus the wind drops off a cliff this time of year.  Got down to Seaford with James for a glorious session in the sunshine, beautiful little waves and rock solid wind.  Didn't do any rotational jumps as I'm being cautious before the big trip.  Lots of loops though !

 Great sea breeze sprung up - perfect 22knots fading to 18.  Lots of fun on the new kite, nailing front rolls now, transitions and loops.  With James, Stu, Mark, Rich, Ant.

 James had his first session on his new kite, I've got my new red boy up and going, Styles and Mark also hitting a perfect 20 knots with some nice little waves.  Fun session and equipment held up !

 Fun session at Hampton on the new kite.  It's really great for rotational jumps as it is so stable in the air - worked on rotations both ways.  I'm getting used to the way it flies too - really needs a yank to do a kite loop so gradually my backroll transitions are getting better. Later in the session I went for a frontroll on my non preferred and right at the apex - with me facing the other way - the safety popped.  I wound the kite in and scooted in - but couldn't find my board for a while afterwoods.  Unsurprisingly it went with the wind further along in the bay - luckily Mark spotted it.  Another cracking session but these bar failures are a worry !  Considered buying a new bar but exchange rates are rubbish so I'll wait a bit.

 Awesome day, sup surf in the morning with Darren, Nige and Hamish.  Kiting in the afternoon with Mark, Stu, ant and Chris Lev.  Saw Chris take some massive stacks on his wing foil.  New kite is very stable in the air but needs a bit of a yank to move, which I'm still getting used to (probably better this way!). Poor Styles ran into a bunch of fishing lines at the end which is no fun.

 Went out with Mark at Hampton.  Tested the bar repair with my old kite - all good.  Legends at SHQ (Pat) had fixed up my bar after the depower line snapped.  Some nice big air and riding out a bunch of gusts.  Saw a seal in the small surf - amazing.

 Cracking session at Flinders, over 25 knots, small kite, great waves that just kept lining up.  Rode heaps of fun waves, awesome.  Went down with James and was joined by Rich, Stu, Ant and Pete.  Totally knackered now, was out for 2 hours and did close to 60 kms.   I'd tuned my lines on the old bar (new one is in for repair, had to source a depower part from Brisbane to SHQ) and it made a huge difference with the kite flying normally again.  

 Old bar, old kite.  Was quite a different experience.  Kite was jellyfishing, wind was strong.  Some nice air but I always felt a bit on edge not having the best stuff around me.  Seems very hard to find replacement parts for my bar - which is tres annoying.

 New kite and met up with Chris Leverkuehn down at Hampton.  Styles, James, Anthony and Rich all came down.  Was out the back getting big air - perfect wind for it.  I'm finding I have to yank the new kite a bit more to power through loops than the last one - but the bonus is that it is super stable in the air which should make for great rotational jumps.  Got in behind the breakwater to rip through and hit waves at speed for mega launches.  Was doing a backroll kiteloop and something snapped - the entire kite depowered.  Wound in the lines and had to sit on the kite and sail in.  Was taking ages as it looks like I was able to hold a tack pretty well !   Broken depower Garage sail of lines Turns out the entire depower had snapped so I've taken it to SHQ for repairs.  The bar and lines are still in great condition so don't think I need a new one - they are retailing at about $1000 (which is totally insane) so thank goodness for that....

 Probably about 18 knots at first so I put up the 10m but it came in nicely so it was big air time.  Heaps of fun.  Garry joined, then James rocked up at the end.  Waves weren't as good as yesterday but still heaps of fun.  Some nutter went crazy at me about making hand signals and rotating signs - he wanted to have a fight on the beach.  Amazing how you can get that angry in such great wind.

 Very quick 30 minute session in great wind and fun sized surf before picking up Sonny from work.

 Hit Hampton at about 5pm, timed perfectly with a nice sea breeze on.  Met Mark at the beach but it dropped a bit, forcing me a fair way offshore to keep a line.  Practiced the darkslide low jump, still a bit more practice to do yet.  Anthony joined later, fun session.

 Cranking seabreeze at Hampton.  Joined by Mark, Mike and Stu.  Some big jumps, a quick run down to Green point, a whole lot of fun.