Of course it's going to be good today, I can't get there lol

Aiming for tomorrow afternoon though. SB forecast looks nice, fingers crossed it stays that way.

Warehouse, now that we're both able to get up and going (for a short time!) I imagine we'll progress quickly. It'll be much easier to learn the next parts as we can hopefully try things, get instant feedback, and keep going; instead of trying, wiping out right away, then having to pick up the kite, body drag back to the board, eat a snickers, etc, before being able to try again.


That's my theory anyway!

JMS, if the wind sticks around ill head out and am happy to meet up with you. Just send us a text if you head out and where you are goin go to be.

Sounds like you are progressing quicker than me mate.
I still only 50/50 water starting and being able to keep riding.

Yeah, best thing one of my instructors told me was just leave the bar alone. Once you do your initial dive and are standing, just leave it alone. Half the time you can just let it do its thing and it will sit where it needs to to pull you alone, then just lean back and edge the board. Obviously you are going to have to work the kite a bit in light wind but that initial get up and going the kite will generally do by itself.

I haven't had the chance to try a self launch/land (other than pulling the QR) always been plenty of people around and too much wind for me to try.

I am hopefully looking at heading to BB this arvo if the wind picks up, forecast doesn't look good but will be checking the BOM observations from lunch onwards.

As for figuring out which way is down wind, I hope you figured that out before launching. If you are getting a bit turned around in the water what I do now is just do a little soft start. Basically i take the kite from 12 to either 1 or 11 depending on which way I need to tack, just enough power to drag me softly in the direction i need to start, I look for a land mark in the distance under my kite and bob's ya aunty thats where you want to point to start. Once up you need to edge and bring the nose back a bit to keep tension etc but that's how i find my start now.

Yeah mate, I am planning on heading out tomorrow for sure. Been 3 weeks since I last got to kite, dying to get back out and make a fool of myself

Yeah, my lines got tangled too when I took my kite in (left them in the waves for too long after unhooking), so I spent ages sat by my kite sorting them out.

I'm not sure if I'm getting up and going half the time, but it's sorted enough that it's not an issue. Most of the time when I fail I just fall back in again, so can start again with minimum dramas.

I always logically know which way downwind is, but I still haven't built up a feeling for it. Myself and another guy were finding it easier to come back to shore than go out last time - my theory is that with the cross onshore wind I was trying to stay too far upwind when going out, but not when coming in.

I'm not coming out today - I've got lots of work again (hooray!) and a birthday party in the evening. Monday is looking good!

Oh, and last time I was out I had my board rescued for me by someone - thank you! He told me that in light wind it's often easier to just swim backwards to pick up your board, but I didn't get a chance to test it out.

where do you live warehouse? i may be able to give you a lift if you are on the north shore

Hi all

I've just moved to Sydney and can't wait to get on the water, as it has been a while.

If anyone is going out tomorrow I'm and really keen to meet up.

Just reply or PM me.

Cheers
Martin

Hi, Any beginner at Dolls Point on Monday? Cheers Tobias

jms said..

I'll be out tomorrow, but most likely at Kurnell.

Hi Jms...
Great to meet you. Why Kurnell over Dolls etc. I was reading not suitable for newbies/learners... How do you find it?

I was thinking Kurnell because the city beaches might be a bit busy with non kiters due to the long weekend, and because the weather forecast isn't showing massive amounts of wind and Kurnell gets an extra few knots (I think).

Looking at the wind direction today, it looks like the wind might be ever so slightly offshore for Kurnell, so I might well go to the other beaches. Tricky conditions for me today, as I can get up and going now, just end up losing a lot of ground downwind!

It was good to meet you too Kitebike! Thanks so much for letting me have a go on your kite, it was very interesting seeing what difference dropping down a few sizes made.

Really? I'm mostly just thinking back to the day where you spent all morning ripping at Kurnell, and I was chilling at Ramsgate thinking there was no wind!

I dunno, I've only had two sessions of being able to get up (with a failure of a session sandwiched between), so we'll see. Maybe my old windsurfing skills are FINALLY starting to help, although the movements do seem fairly different...

I'm off to check out Dolls, see if I can catch up with Schulerbible.

Hahaha, yeah there is that slip second where you realise how fast you are going and you are like WOOHOOOOO this is aweso......oh fk too fast, no contr*splat*

I don't bother with the shoes, just one more thing to worry about, ramsgate side is ok, it's over a kurnell most down the eastern end that you get the urchins that will ruin your day.

Sounds like you need to start getting into the habit I do now when I stack. The second you start feeling yourself about to faceplant, bend your kness backwards to tuck you feet into your butt. One of my instructors told me this one, what it does is makes your thighs take most of the abuse from the water and pulls the board out of the direct drag of the water reducing the chance of it getting pulled off your feet, you generally will curl your toes up when you do this as well which will also help hold the board on. Then you just keep your knees bent with board tucked behind you and body drag on your stomach until you get the kite to 12 and once settled, reach back to your board with one hand, take it off your feet, bring it around front and water start again. Worse case scenario, if you hit the water hard enough the board comes off your feet anyway, with your toes pointing backwards, it will just slip off and not bend your ankle back at the same time reducing the risk of you hurting your foot. Once you have some experience and can send the kite a little I have also seen guys do this where they just send the kite, pull themselves up out of the water, swing their feet back underneath them and off they go all in one foul swoop, this also had the added benefit of looking uber cool and made you forget about the stupid crash they just had hahaha

If you are taking off so fast down wind it sounds like you are doing the same as me and not edging enough. Once you have the initial burst of speed and are planning, that is the time to lean back, put a bit more pressure on the back foot and left your front toes to bring the nose of the board around and head more cross wind (and eventually upwind).

I have all my gear in the car so plan on heading probably to 1st or Hollywoods after work. Planning on getting there bit before 5 (depending on traffic), wind looks like it is going to be cranking so this should make for an interesting afternoon

Interesting session yesterday, had to do my first self rescue which turned into my first failed self rescue and me swimming for a solid 10-15mins back into shore towing a fkn heavy kite, the fact my harness rode up around my chest and wasn't letting me get a full breath in wasn't of any help either haha. Thanks JMS for your help too mate, much appreciated.

Other than that I got some good runs in finally after 3 weeks off, although I felt all thumbs at some points. After so long off I almost felt back to square one again, making silly mistakes etc. I was able to test out my xmas present from my boys though (gopro line mount) so will post a vid up soon.

Was good to finally meet ManlyKiter as well

OK, now I know how it feels to be overpowered! The kite was easy enough to control, and it wasn't scary, but I just couldn't keep an edge, kept zooming off at top speed, and it took the lightest of touches to get up and going.

I couldn't get a decent run in, so after a couple of runs I packed up and came home.

On the plus side, I do now have a silly looking hat, and spectacle straps!