More great kitesurfing at Beachport SA in strong southerly

Session 368. We headed for Beachport after breakfast in Robe (delicious pippies!). The wind was around 15 knots when we arrived but soon picked up.  I assembled my foil board and took it out into the waves for another humbling experience.  Once again I found it difficult to get out through the waves and body drag, even with the foil upwind.  The waves were turning the board in all directions.

I thought I would struggle with the weed and swell even if I did eventually get out so I came in and swapped the board for my trusty Nugget.   Then I spent some frustrating minutes resetting my lines before I was out and fanging around nearly overpowered.

The waves were good and the wind was strong - up to 25 knots.  Everyone was blasting around catching waves and boosting big.  What a place, its the gift that keeps on giving!

Stu lost a fin from his Secret Weapon and had a brief look for the needle in a haystack on the beach. I drove up the steep dune access track onto the beach and down to pick him up.  The Kitewagon handles the steep and very well.

We stopped mid afternoon with energy levels well depleted then headed into Beachport where we ate some lovely bratwurst with sauerkraut, had a coffee then started the long drive home of around 6 hours.

Kudos to Stu for scoping out such a good wind forecast at a great location.  We were all "kited out" on this trip!

Flailing with the foil board!

Its a long pier - over 700m!

GPS Log

Kitesurfing downwinder along Robe beach with good surf

Session 367. After lunch and a short rest we checked out the west side of the headland but the wind was cross shore and there was quite a walk to get down to the reefy beach, so we drove down the Robe beach. There is vehicle access and the sand is good to drive along.  We continued down until the wind picked up and the waves were bigger then setup and headed out.

The wind was a bit offshore so keeping the kite flying was a tricky close to shore.  Once out there was enough wind to get going. Some good wave sets were coming in. We took turns picking a good wave then riding it in.  I did some figure 8's with the kite to get on some waves.  The surf was really nice.

We headed downwind following the waves for a long and enjoyable session.

After a while I looked back at the distant cars and decided the walk back was long enough for me so I landed my kite, packed it away and left it with my board and harness.    The others were continuing on downwind.

I walked and jogged back to the car, which took a lot longer than I thought. It was a 2 km walk.

I drove my car back to my gear and just as Stu was walking up the beach, looking rather tired.  He jumped in and I gave him a lift back to his car, then we both headed down to get the other two.

We got back to Robe just on dark so we headed out for meal, each demolishing a large pizza to regain some energy.

We were all shelled after the day's activities.

Ready set go!

GPS Log

Kitesurfing Beachport South Australia - surf and a tour to Penguin Island

Session 366.  Four amigos (Stu Styles, Stuart Webb, Tarren Peters and myself) set off for a kitesurfing weekend to SE South Australia.  Departing at 5am we headed west past Geelong onto to Hamilton for a great breakfast, then through Coleraine, Casterton and Penola and across towards Robe.  Wide open roads with very few cars.

We stopped at Beachport for our first session, a fantastic location.  A local kiter was out having a good time when we arrived.

There was good solid wind and nice fun small surf on the beach.  After kiting the waves for a while we took of for a tour past the very long pier (750m) out to Penguin Island.

There were some buoys above cray pots set on reefs that we had to dodge.  Then we went out past the island to look up the coast towards Robe.  Lots of rock platforms and headlands - quite intimidating. We returned downwind and had some nice runs in close to shore.

Then I headed across the bay to the distant surf beach and picked sections where some really nice waves for breaking clearly and work my way back to the departure point.

This session rated 10 out of 10.  Great wind, location and scenery and some nice waves.

More to follow . . .

GPS Log