Friday was looking like the start of a big weekend. Scott & Carina were at home by the time I knocked off work so they jumped in the car for a trip to Elliott. Ben had Pr Greg and Joseph along for the ride too. Fair few kites out with some spectacular jumps going on.
Ben and I headed out to the mouth and got stuck into it. I'd been watching boosting vids so I was keen to try a straight up boost rather than load & pops. Took a little bit to get the timing right but seemed easier and much more height immediately.
Scott had a small go on Ben's before he headed off and managed to get up at a slow pace. After Ben had packed up Scott had a go on mine and managed to do a couple of turns to compliment a solid set of runs. He's progressing well! Might have some snowboarding experience coming to bear on the turns as they took me a lot longer to nail.
Archie's ESE 15-18 Kn (30min)
Woke up early Saturday and hoped for wind. Yep! Headed down and was in the water by 5:30am while Scott took out the surfboard. Was weird tacking upwind and going South and took a little getting used to hitting all the waves on the opposite stance. Tested a couple of push-offs but need a LOT of work going right. The swell was huge, and turning to catch the swell lines paid off with a couple of nice faces to carve up.
Elliott Heads SE 18-22 Kn (1h)
Got down to Elliott at about 2:30pm but it looked to big for my kite. Lots of sand being blown and no-one out on anything bigger than a 10. Played around with the trainer kite for a bit and it felt good enough to try the board. First run felt so very close. I could pull myself up but just couldn't get onto the plane. A keen kid helped me get the board back for another go and this time I got up and going for about 40m. Couldn't track upwind but mighty happy that it's possible to kitesurf with a 3 metre trainer kite. Lot of work on the arms though without any harness. Tried another run but the wind had died just a little and couldn't repeat the performance.
Ben had arrived at the same time as Scott and set about launching his 12. He seemed Ok with it and Andrew reckoned his 10m wasn't giving him all that much. Encouraged I grabbed my 14 and went out. Lots more boost practice and some of the best for the weekend. It feels a lot higher than off the waves and I'd be happy to call it 2.5m+. Scott reckons I was higher than a bodylength up so that's good enough for me.
Elliott Heads ENE 12-16Kn (1h)
Quick trip down on Sunday too, but it looked pretty placid and blowing more Northerly to close out the main launching spots. First run ended up a fair way downwind and had to walk up the island to get going again. The wind came in surges to be good going for ~2 runs before dying down to ~12Kn and struggling to stay up. After a couple more island walks we called it a day to get ready for the LAN. Ben grabbed his phone for a quick vid after he landed.
I hit a good gust and thought I could boost, but drove it too hard upwind and started to rotate when I launched. Tried to go with it and nearly made it (although I'm quite certain that even if I got the rotation right I'd have still ended up on my back). Somehow I ended up on top of the board, so after saving the kite it scooted me along for a while until I could gather it in. After watching the vid it looked like a botched send too. There's no way the kite should have peeked into shot as I was launching. Rather fun anyway. Would do it again.
