Sunday, December 12, 2010

Hampton is a different beach in a north westerley

Session 114, 11 December 2010

Kite: Switchblade 10
Wind: 20 knots, NW
Location: Hampton
Time: 12:15 to 1:30

A strong north westerly hammered Melbourne on Saturday 11 December. Hampton Beach was an excellent location for this wind. While a bit gusty, it was strong and fairly consistent around midday.

The wind direction made the beach seem very different and the swell was rolling in an unusual direction.


I did my first backroll. I was a bit tentative but got around. I ended up with the kite flying in the other direction so I didn't quite get it right. I find it a bit daunting to commit to this trick, but those who can do it keep saying how easy it is.

I am also enjoying carving fast turns and ending up going toeside. These can also be done in sequence, which is a nice technique for going downwind, using the "turn the kite, turn the board" sequence. Its like a giant slalom.

No kitecam shots - the camera resets the number of photos to 2 if you start it without the memory card in it. I need to check the number of shots setting before each time I use it.







3 comments:

lee said...

i would love to ride the wind at that place man.

Tracking Tom said...

Hey mate.
Really enjoying your blog. Inspired me to start my own.
Noticing a few similarities between our initial posts.

Kiteboardingtom.blogspot.com

Thanks again mate.

Peter Campbell said...

Tom, thanks for the feedback. Great to hear you are going well.

If you find yourself out of the water and accelerating on the board to a wipeout (as I did) just push the bar out rather than hanging on for dear life (as I did).

You will slow and sink back into the water. Its important to get this control - then you can dial in enough power to get going on a tack - and to stop when you want to.

As your instructor says, kite position is the other big challenge. Too high and you will lose power, too low and you can get pulled off your feet and it can crash into the water.

Keep up to blogging, I will add a link to yours