Kiteventure

Fantastic forecast, kids with my parents - bring on the kiting.  Pete and I headed down to Frankston and were greeted by 25 knots consistent wind, a nice little surf and beautiful water.  We played around for about half an hour in the small surf, then did a downwinder to Mt Eliza and beyond. Unfortunately I cut my hand somewhere in proceedings and it just would not stop bleeding profusely, I had to keep sucking the blood of my hand for fear of it leaving too much of a trail in the water.  I ended up having to turn us around, as it was becoming ridiculous.  It didn't stop bleeding for another hour or so - crazy stuff. Tried the indy glide - its very close - but stuffed up a few darkslides.  Great conditions for the small kite today.

Went down to Aspendale to grab the north westerly.  Almost had a mishap at launch when the left line wrapped around the bar, but managed to disentangle pretty quickly.  Just enough wind to stay upwind for about 1 hour, then the wind started to get patchy.  I headed in, but noticed a beginner dropping his kite quite a bit out to sea - probably about 200m out.  I walked back up to the beach to try and get out to him on the declining wind, but it dropped out completely.  Packed up my stuff, put it in the car and the guy has dissapeared.  The idiot had deflated his kite - effectively turning his life raft into an anchor - amazing. A guy with a kayak headed out, and I swam out to give him a hand.  He seemed to think that the breeze was blowing offshore and he needed to deflate - he would have been way better off sitting on one end and sailing the thing in.  Lucky escape from the darwin award.

Bloody fantastic to be back on the water after pain of the wisdom teeth. Wind was a bit sketchy down at mentone but great to be back on the water. James was happy to be out there, and stu got some practice in and got up and going a couple of times.  Tried Indy grab twice, doesn't look to hard but I haven't landed it yet.

After 2 sausages and some kick starter drinks we headed back out.  Grabbed the wetsuits this time as we were a little fatigued. The wind had died somewhat so we pumped up the normal kites, then had to sit on the beach as it faded completely.  We had decided to call it a day, deflated the kites then a kick arse south westerly came through at around 25 knots.  Pumped up the kites again and had a fantastic session.  Had a big air competition, and tried some of the moves I was reluctant to try in the surf.  Landed a 1080 backroll, front 360 transition, and almost got the toeside 540.  Had a big smash on an attempted dead man - I fell right on my arse from a large height.  The session was the absolute cream on a perfect weekend for kiting !

Broke with consensus and decided to head to Seaford, as we weren't keen to drive the extra hours to get down to Rosebud, especially considering the forecast was nw to sw.  We cut through to Seaford and got there in quick time, to find a perfect 25 knots on the beach and no-one around.  The expected chaos from the iron man was a non event, there was only half a lane closed on beach road, we parked in the woolies directly opposite the beach - with great access to a sausage sizzle and junk food.  Tarren and I headed out with the small kites as it was really pushing through pretty hard, white horses everywhere on the bay.  Great to be back in the shorts and 1mm too.  Did plenty of kite loop transitions, worked on the forward 360 on goofy, was fantastic in the little waves.

After stopping for lunch at Sandy point cafe, we headed back out for an afternoon session.  With Pete letting us know that it had picked up a bit we broke out the small kites.  It was soon obvious after heading out that this wasn't going to cut it, so we went back to the normal kites and had a few runs before the wind died out completely.  Happy end to the day though feeling well worked.

Headed down to Sandy point rather than Inverloch as the forecast was for north westerlies, swinging to westerly which would not really work at Inverloch.  We made excellent time - we got there at 9:30 after a 7:30 start after doing the Koo Wee Rup cut through.  The inlet was really high tide and not working at all - mostly offshore - so we checked out the surf beach.  Conditions were fantastic, nice waves and a perfect cross shore breeze of around 20 knots.  By the time we pumped and headed out it was approaching 25 - so we were well powered.  Had a magic time in the surf - didn't try and big tricks but did a lot of wave riding.  Copied the technique of the guy with a surf board, turning the kite and then following it.  Ended up having a 3 and a bit hour session with Pete and James turning up at the tail end.  Tarren unfortunately experienced equipment failure and ended up dragging 200kgs of seaweed onto his lines, a situation that looked benign ...