Mentone - the first south easterly for Spring

Session 147, Saturday 24 September 2011

Kite: Noise 12
Wind: 20 knots, SE
Location: Mentone
Time: 3:30 to 5:00
Board: Naish Haize twin tip

The first south easterly for this Spring, and it was nice.  I headed for Mentone and met Franz at the beach. We figured Altona would be quite crowded given the wind direction.

I couldn't resist a Kransky sausage with sauerkraut and mustard before the session from the sausage caravan vendor there.

It was really nice to have a side onshore breeze and some sunshine.  There were a few windsurfers out too.  Franz blew out a fin box which cut his session short, but he provided this photo of me kiting.

I did some nice jumps when the wind picked up, but there did not seem to be enough to do some good air gybes.  I did a few and barely got off the water.

There was a nice small surf close to the shore and some big rollers further out.  I attempted a backroll and succeeded in only doing half one - more commitment required.

At one stage there was about 8 kites on the water and around 5 windsurfers.  Almost crowded!

It was a nice long session at 1.5 hours.  Up on the grass I was packing away my kite when another dude landed his right next to me.  I don't know why he didn't just land it on the beach and walk up the path.  There were power lines and Beach Road only a few meters away.

Not much in the way of skills progression today, but a very satisfying session.

 

All photos