Kiteventure

Met James, Eric and Pete at 7am at Aspendale for a session.  I love aspendale - beautiful clear water, small waves and white sand.  The wind was a bit up and down - kind of frontal - but when it was on, it was nicely on.  No real progression today, it was a bit dodgy to try anything new, but heaps of fun.  

That was perhaps the most variable session I've ever experienced.  After waiting most of the weekend for a decent set of wind with no hail, a small window opened on Sunday afternoon. Pete, Stu and I dashed down to Mentone.  Just as I arrived a squall set in.  Given that the day had been so up and down, I took out the small kite - and within seconds I was glad that I did.  About 30 knots hit, with rain, but great to be well powered on the small kite. From there it was all over the shop, 25 knots one minute, 10 the next.  Got some big air, but struggled with rotational tricks given the variability of the wind.  Still managed to push through for 1 hour 20 minutes, just loving being out on the water.

Lucky punch of wind from 4 to 5 on a totally unexpected day.  Headed down to Hampton with James, Pete and Eric.  A nice 18 knot breeze was blowing, so I tried the usual sequences - riding blind (fail), backroll to toeside (fail), jumps with kiteloops (yeah!), backroll kiteloops, rotations, backrolls, butterslides it was all going on.  Tried unhooked raleys and was overcome, as ever, of the power of the kite when unhooking.  Got a galey in I reckon, but the whole thing definitely needs some work. Things were going sweet until Pete got a bit excited with doing downwind kiteloops and very very nearly took me out after 4 in sequence.  He crashed his kite to avoid totally cleaning me up - and got dragged in to green point.  He seemed happy enough with the adventure, I packed up and ran off to Greek Easter.  Magnificent session.

Met Stu at Mentone, but I could only get there at 630 which meant I had about 20 minutes before the sunset.  Setup real fast and had a beautiful session in the dying light in about 18 knots.  Did some rotations, but wasn't keen for any looping given that it was dark and I was the only one out there.  Was still glorious running through the surf, I stayed until about 8pm,  by which time the only illumination was the full moon.  Great way to end the day.

After a beautiful morning of surfing and suping (using Pete and Mike's extensive equipment warehouse) we waiting for the afternoon session as called out by predictwind.  Funnily enough it only predicted wind at Inverloch - a south easterly when everywhere else it was blowing northerly. Sure enough it came in, so Pete, Amelia, Mike, Eric and I headed out.  The key was staying out of the channels and on the sandbar, the water wasn't moving as fast there and you could stay upwind with some effort.  It was glorious - not just because of the wind - but the setting sun, sandbars and uncrowded beauty correlated to make a fantastic session.  I finally summoned the courage to do jumps with kiteloops, which turned out great.  I pulled off 4 in a row - not that bad really - particularly in light winds.  It really capped off a tremendous couple of days. Waiting for wind Picture courtesy of Peter Campbell

After a lighter wind session, predictwind came to the party and delivered pretty much spot on 4pm.  With perfect wind, the whole inlet to discover and beautiful flat water, its no surprise that I stayed out until I had cramps in my upper legs 3 hours later. Put up the 10, took out the twin tip as the tide was going out and the sand bars were bound to start creating some little hazards.  The flat water created across the sand bars was just magnificent, very low impact but I had to exercise caution when jumping.  The outgoing tide meant that it wasn't easy to go upwind, but if you stayed out of the channels it was much better. Pretty much all of us made the mistake of going right across the inlet to the venus bay side, getting stuck in a wind shadow and also a fast running channel.  I was keen to go out to the surf but it appeared that the wind was only really charging in the inlet itself.  Had a heap of fun watching Mike, Eric, Stu and Amelia carving it up. ...

After a hearty breakfast at Kilcunda, where the crew of Stu Styles, Anthony, Mike, Eric, Amelia, Peter and I chomped down on avocado breakfasts, we headed off to Inverloch anticipating a 4pm session.  Heading straight to the inlet we were stoked to see kites already in the air - so we setup almost immediately.  Pete blew up both the zero and the flite 14.5m. After watching Pete charge around on the zero, I grabbed it for a go with my twin tip.  It is still a nightmare.  It flies in light winds, but the slightest gust pulls you over the front rail fighting to stay on a line.  Needless to say I got blown a fair bit downwind, and felt like I was in a panic the whole time. Not so on the flite, which I tried soon after.  It looks like a kite, and flies like one too, good consistent pull and very reactive.  Pete had gone off on the inflatable sup to rescue Stu Styles, so I grabbed the sector 60 and had a fantastic time charging around the inlet.