Sunday, January 04, 2015

Kitesurfing downwinder Beaumaris to Hampton

Session 312.  Another downwinder was on, yeah!  Stuart, Amelia and I showed up at Hampton to do the car shuffle back to Beaumaris. Grant was contemplating coming along on his windsurfer but had left some kit behind.

I decided to take my 9 as the wind seemed strong enough and I was using my Nugget board strapless - first time for a downwinder.

We launched and headed of quickly making good progress.  I did a couple of tacks on my Nugget to get it dialed in and all was good.



Its nice having the freedom to move your feet anywhere on the board but more caution is required to stay on it when racing downwind.

I stayed out past the Cerberus wary of the wind shadow behind it, then we regrouped and did some tacks into Red Bluff cliffs which is a lovely location.

I then headed along the beach, dodging the no boating zone, then did a long tack past the Sandringham Yacht Club and headed out towards Fawkner Beacon.  I was a long way ahead so I figured I might as well cruise upwind for a while. I travelled about a third of the distance to the Beacon then came back in.

Amelia and Stuart were coming past the breakwater so we all made it!

We did some runs to finish at Hampton with the wind picking up a few knots.  Amelia dropped her kite near the beach so I landed mine and swam out to grab hers.  Stuart retrieved her board, then had a few runs on the Nugget and was also impressed by its upwind capability.

There is nothing quite like a good downwinder!





















GPS log


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