Saturday, December 06, 2014

Kitesurfing strong gusty south easterly at Mentone

Session 304. Paul, a visiting Canadian, contacted me via this blog and came out kitesurfing with us at Mentone today.  He is a keen kitesurfer and lives in Ontario.  I picked him up and Mentone station where we also had some excellent coffee and bagels at Huff Bagelry.  Good bagels are not always easy to find in Melbourne.

Tarren was already on the water having lots of fun.  Stu dropped by to take some photos.

The wind was strong at Mentone so I took out me Lithium 9 and the Nugget.  I was having a good time strapless and even landed a few small jumps.  Jumping strapless is a weird sensation and the landings are touch and go.  Hats off to Mitu Monteiro, Airton Cozzolino and Ian Alldredge for the amazing strapless moves they do.

Paul was up and going on my Naish Haze board and cruised upwind for some Port Phillip Bay solitude.

I am still grappling with concept of doing a duck tack, let alone attempting one.  I was overpowered occasionally in the stronger gusts so I eventually came in, swapped my board for the S-Quad with straps, and reset the rear lines to the last knot.  Jumping time!  I did some big ones, with the wind yanking me skywards.  I landed a few, and kicked off my board a couple of times too.

Stuart and James showed up a bit later and joined in the fun, along with some other kiters.  The wind was very variable.  It picked up to 25 knots and gusted higher.  We came in tired and satisfied.  Paul was very happy to get in a session while on a work trip too.

Postcript: The wind later picked up to 30 knots gusting up to 45 knots!
















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