Saturday, September 18, 2010

Clean water and cool temperatures at Gnotuk with kitecam

Session 104, 18 September 2010 

Kite Switchblade 10
Wind 20 knots, W
Time 10:00 am to 12 noon

Stuart and I headed to Gnotuk and arrived at 10am with a good cold SW wind blowing.  Tarren arrived soon after.  Stuart rigged up in world record time after a week in the office looking at wind charts!

We got some good kiting in for the first hour and had the place to ourselves.  A couple of local kiters showed up, then the wind dropped, so I headed to the beach and walked a short distance back to the car.  There were a few

I swapped the Optio W90 for the new Kodak Playsport ZX3 waterproof video camera to try it out for the first time, then headed back out on the directional board.  The wind was a bit light however so I played in the small surf and ended up downwind at the Edithvale Lifesaving Club which has a nice small cafe right on the beach.

The wind backed right off so we packed up around noon and headed home.

Editing the video from the ZX3 proved to be a challenge.  It records in MOV file (Apple Quicktime) which my version of Adobe Premiere Elements (4.0) doesn't support.  Converting it to AVI or MP2 is not easy.  One option is to upgrade to Adobe Premiere Elements v8.0, or maybe I will just sell the camera.



Aspendale and Ricketts Point in the background 



A squall out in Port Phillip Bay









Thursday, September 16, 2010

Surf at Hampton in cold strong wind, wo hoo!

Session 103,  16 September 2010 

Kite Switchblade 10
Wind 20-30 knots, SW
Duration 3:00 pm to 4:00pm


A large high pressure system over the Great Australian Bight is combining with an intense low pressure system over Tasmania to funnel strong cold winds across Victoria.  In Tasmania they reported 16m waves along the west coast today!

Some squalls were coming as I rigged up and headed out.  The shore break was a bit tricky but I got out OK.  Lots of speed, and only another windsurfer about.

The wind had whipped up a 0.5 to 1m swell which was fun to surf.  Who would of thought a few years ago we would be surfing (albiet with a kite) literally on our doorstep?  There is immense variety and challenge in kitesurfing.

I popped a few jumps and did some nice speed runs as well as mixing it in the surf and shorebreak.  Eventually two other kiters came out, about the time the wind picked up to around 30 knots.  I was nearly overpowered and having trouble depowering the kite, with the depower adjustments dangling too far away just out of reach.

I can never remember which is depower (black or red?); I think Cabrinha has changed their colour coding between my original Crossbow and the later Switchblades.  Tip: either burn the depower colour/knob in your mind or add a bit of cord to identify it!

Here are my kitecam shots; some zoomed by editing.














Sunday, September 12, 2010

Another gusty northerly at Brighton late in the day

Session 102,  12 September 2010 

Kite Switchblade 14
Wind 15-25 knots, N
Duration 4:30 pm to 5:30pm

It's getting warmer.  I was late on the water and headed out just after three other kiters came in.  I depowered the kite to better handle the gusts.   A few jumps but I was careful to keep to avoid crashing.  It wouldn't be fun if the kite got blown across to Portarlington!

Nice session.