Kiteventure

Location : Hampton Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 16 knot southerly Fixed my kite at SHQ - unbelievable really, when I went in for the pulley replacements last time they put the old style pulleys on my kite.  No wonder it broke ! Replaced the front pulley with an eyelet, and got all new style pulleys for the rest.  Went out at Hampton with Jeremy - wind died off whilst we were out so had to run back from Green point to make an appointment with Tina.

Location : Hampton Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 25 knot southerly My kite has a broken pulley, so I borrowed Tarren's trial Cabrinha drifter.   The drifter has no centre strut and turns real fast.  I got caught out taking off - I turned the kite through the sky as I would the switchblade and this thing just pivoted fully powered and smacked me into a wave.  I wasn't wearing my impact vest so I bruised my ribs in the process.  The kite was fairly powered so I did some long floaty jumps - it seemed to launch into jumps differently from the Switchblade too - at much smaller angles.  The kite is super twitchy and turns a bit too fast for my liking, any kind of grab and the kite is shooting off somewhere.   Riding waves is where is excels - the fast turning speed and the ability to stall the kite and ride were fantastic.  Having said that, I won't be buying this kite. Jeremy borrowed an Ozone edge after finding problems with his kite, but I...

Location : Port Melbourne Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 20 knot southerly Another awesome wind day.  Tarren and I set off from Port Melbourne, again scooped around the corner onto South Melbourne beach where some beautiful waves were breaking.  Had a ball in the breaking waves before heading up to St Kilda to check up on James.  He's going well in one direction now - won't be long now till both are happening. We headed back to South Melbourne - those waves were just too good.  Pete joined us later in the session. Heading back to Port Melbourne I got some air and heard the ping - broken pulley again.  Fortunately I knew what to do from last time - quick release and wind in the centre lines.  Tarren got a bit close at the end and got tangled in the lines which made things a little tricky.  Very glad to have only jumped a fair way out so that I had a chance to get the kite under control before hitting the beach.   Time to replace the p...

Location : Port Melbourne Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 15-17 knot southerly Just a bit fatigued after a big week so not a big session.  Wind wasn't as good as the night before, nor was the swell.  Managed a good crash whilst attempting a frontloop transition, otherwise nothing to report.

Location : Port Melbourne Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 20 knot southerly I was pretty tired but just had to give it another shot - and am I glad !  The wind was spectacular - nice and consistent, the day beautiful, Tarren and I hit Port Melbourne at around 4:30 and had an absolute ball.  Went the other side of the pier to the South Melbourne beach - lots of nice waves to play around in, flat sections and rolling swell out the back.  I had a massive smile on my face the whole time - I just love playing around in waves.  Took one massive hit to the balls at some stage - but even that couldn't dampen my enthusiasm.  We ended up staying out for about 2 hours. I consolidated the board off by landing another one, tried the forward loop transition which is getting ever closer and even landed a backroll to toeside - but by no means consolidated yet.  

Location : St Kilda Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 25 knot southerly What a month it is turning out to be.  Absolutely incredible amount of time spent kiting - and the wind has been playing along perfectly.  Got out with Tarren and James.  James really got up and going today - he is basically away which is fantastic.   It was real windy - I used the opportunity to try some new stunts and the regular stuff - with some big success and some hard landings.  Managed to land a back foot board off on my preferred side - stoked.  Got 720 through a backloop and decided late to go for 1080 - bad idea - fully powered kite going backwards is never good.  Also raley's with gusts end up with you kind of hanging and drifting which is not so great either.  After about 40 minutes I was totally spent so chucked it in for another day - I think I'm still feeling the effects of the marathon session on Sunday.

Location : Hampton-Altona Kite : 10m Switchblade Wind: 20 knot southerly It has been an amazing 3 days - kited all 3 days - 4 hours on the first day, 2 on the second and 3 hours today.  And had a big night on Friday, and did a lap of Lysterfield on the mountain bike with Jamie and friends.   So how could I top the weekend off ?  With a fantastic kiting session and a bay crossing from Hampton to Altona. The session was magnificent - nice and warm, beautiful water and perfect wind.  Managed to land a board off (back foot) but didn't have quite enough power on landing to pull away - its close though.  So a couple are real close - front loop transition and board off. After waiting for Tarren for a fair while, I decided to follow Pete out when it looked like he was headed for the beacon.  Pete stopped along the way and said something to me - I didn't really understand but I figured he was heading for a crossing.  The wind seemed good and alt...