Kiteboarding: begining to stand up

21 october

Got out to test my board which arrived on Friday but there was hardly enough wind to fly the kite. First off I went to Elliot heads but northerlies just don’t make much wind there, was a lovey beach day though.

Archies beach was much more wintry, but the water was warm and so we had to navigate around the swimmers. I reckon ive got the hang of driving the kite with one hand now. This weekend the forecast finally has something other than a 10-15knot northerly all weekend. But I’m planning to visit dad in Biloela instead.

24 October

The call went out that there was enough leftover wind from the day before to try kiting before biblestudy. I had just had a haircut so I could test that out at the same time.

There was enough wing that I struggled merely standing still. Tony more than me would have benefited from a smaller kite, he hast as much ballast as me. Decided that we need to try the board in the Elliot before the ocean, but I did put it to good use in holding down the kite whilst setting up and packing up.



27 October

Went to bilo thinking of surfing on lake callied, but it was all muddy and sticky and not enough wind, so I went for a sail on dads cat instead.

12 November

Looked like a nice beach day so went to Elliot heads at Eduard’s suggestion. It was an easterly at 15-20knotts and I’m not so scared of that wind now. Also the tide was still rising but pretty full. It seems that tacking and holding my body like a board was not a good way to prepare to lean to stand up. The better way to learn standing was to fly downwind really fast with my top half out of the water. Because that is what it felt like when I eventually got to stand up for a decent amount of time.

So yeah I had one big run with the board. I was going along the shore, slowly getting closer to it. The waves (`20cm high) I didn’t want o catch because that would have made the run shorter. I didn’t have enough room to tack. Where the river bends and I would have had heaps of room again I didn’t want to go, so I jumped off the board ad flew the kite high. It gave me a lot of speed but when I landed on the beach I was able to stop moving fairly quickly. The dismount was a bit scary.

I was able to get quite a bit of speed but I kept the kite doing figure eights right on the edge of the wind envelope so that I coul go slow. It was a balancing act of going fast enough to keep upright but not going down wind much and thus running out of water.

Just need to get Tony to have a go now and get a photo of myself.

Kiteboarding: the next step

8oct

So its not the gusts that make flying a kite difficult it’s the lack of wind. I’m yet to fly in too much wind and have gotten the hang of avoiding/compensating for gusts. Also I tried surfing (regular surfing) the challenging part is to jump onto the board the easy part is standing on it and maintaining balance. But I doubt I can drive a surfboard (that hasn’t any straps) and the kite at the same time. So I defiantly need to acquire one. I like the idea of the mini-surfboard things and racing with dad but everybody else seems to have a twin tip board and do jumps.


Following up on this I decided to buy a board, it turns out that the surfboards are not mini at all and I’m supposed to get a 6 foot board. Well that made the decision much easier. I went with this from kiteline. They were able to deliver last time and the board was on sale and fairly generic.


I’m going to set the goal of the 17th of November to be able to tack and jibe. By that weekend I should be ableto sail with Dad on Lake Callide.

Kiteboarding: Journey begins

14th
Kite arrived, went with a new Fuse 12m from Kiteline. Because then I knew it would arrive and even if I do bust it the first time I use it the lines should last for ages. I’ve also got the green North harness which is probably the right size.





15th
Went to Elliot heads, the tide was out and coming in and the wind was ~5knotts so nobody else was there. Cameron asked me what everything was for, whilst I was asking myself the same question. This day with the help of Tony I figured out how to unpack the bag and activate the safety catch. Flying was rather unsuccessful, due to the light winds. So this was a great opportunity to setup and pack up without chaos.


16th
After church had another bash, this time the unicorns were in the ocean so ~12knots of wind. Pumped up the kite a bit more and actually flew it in a controlled manner, didn’t crash at all this day.


22nd
Back at the Bowes beach, this time I launched the kite and had took the lay of the lines while Tony started off. He was a lot more confidant from practicing with his stint kites and almost immediately got a bit of air time. The larger jump would have been ~2m above the surf and ~15 in length. On the other hand I wanted to try kiting upwind with my arm out. I think I did Ok but moving along the beach it was a bit hard to tell. It started to get a bit gusty and I crashed the kite into the water a few times.


Re-launching was a doosey I moved rather fast downwind on my belly and the sand took a few layers of skin off the last knuckle of my long toe on my left foot. All in all a successful day. Also I can now get the kite into the bag on the first go.



30th September
Back to the Bowes beach near Crawford Park, I didnt know that is what it is called, still doesdnt fit right either. Pretty confident in setting up and packing up mow. Also met a bloke that knew what he was doing and decided to try surfing with one of Tony's old surfboards next time. I'd also decided to buy a board to help hold the kite down whilst packing it up.


See Also:
Finally a Decision