Kitesurfing Benone Monday 30th April

What a great country we live in. Got to Benone last night and it was blowing nice cross shore, quite steady, and big waves as usual. Not a person on the beach, should have been great.

Unfortunately with my limited time I decided to set up the 12 and was overpowered all the time. Also there was a really strong current going the same direction as the wind, which made it hard to stay upwind.

Also with the wind coming from the East, thats me heading out into the waves in the opposite direction to 99% of normal, and its like learning to ride through the waves all over again, really weird. Also had to pull the safety to land the kite, which resulted in the standard Naish BigLineMess ™

All in all not a great night, but could have been excellent :|

Saturday 14th April 2012 - Kitesurfing Benone

There was beautiful sunshine all day today accompanied by an air temperature of around 6 degrees. The wind was almost direct onshore, and so were the waves and the wind was relatively light, so it was difficult to stay upwind. However, when the wind had a bit of a swing it was possible to get a few ramps.

I tried a few backrolls today. First couple went not too bad, about 3/4 rotation, and wipe out. On the third attempt I landed hard directly 180 on my back against the water, it was like a snowboarding fall when the heelside of the board catches the snow! Then the wind was really too light to jump so I gave that up.

The wind swung around a little to the West, and as Susan had arrived I arranged to do a downwinder to the river on the middle of the beach. This was great, there actually seemed to be better wind down there. I did quite a few toe to heel carves, seem to be getting it better now. Also tried some toeside in the left to right direction and fell spectacularly a couple of times. However after a few attempts it was going better.

When I got to the stopping point the wind was stronger and I was doing some more carving turn practice, it was really nice, where you could basically do a figure of 8, really nice for practice. At that point my driver began to flash the headlights and at first I thought it was in appreciation of my great work, but then I realized it was time to stop...

Saturday 7th April - Kitesurfing Benone

It was windy all day today, killing me to stay away from the beach, so I finally made it down in the late afternoon.

I went to Benone, wind was marginal at best, but I began to set up anyway. By the time I was all ready the wind looked really poor, but I launched, and knew straight away that while there was plenty of wind to fly there was nowhere near enough to sail.

I quickly packed the half inflated kite into the car and headed down the beach towards the river, and when I got out down there it was blowing nicely. Within 15 minutes I was on the water.

It was a great couple of hours on the water, working on all sorts of things. Again the wind was good, maybe a little weak, but still fine, some walking required. I practised my jumping over waves, some toeside on the flats, carving turns and whatever else I could think of. On my last few runs I was trying some bigger boosts, and was managing not too bad, although as they say, it always looks huge to you, not so huge from land! This is the absolute best session I have had as long as I can remember.

Friday 6th April - Kitesurfing

Went for a session at lunchtime today, took Kate in the car with me so she could spectate. Went to Downhill, well over to the Benone side, enjoyed about an hour of perfect wind and flat water with nice ramps.

Tuesday 3rd April - Kitesurfing Benone

Headed to Benone on the way home from work today, nice hour on the sea before tea.