Saturday 11th May - Kitesurfing - Benone

What a great day today. The conditions were good, although variable throughout the day, sunshine with the occasional shower, some flat times, some huge waves, and about 5-7 kites on the water at any one time.

The wind was nicely cross shore, and enabled us to do a couple of nice downwinders. However on one, I had either not pumped my 9m hard enough, or sand was letting air out of the valve, and I had to abandon half way.

Still, a brilliant day, and even better people were there with cameras :)

Friday 3rd May - Kitesurfing - Benone

It has been ages since everything has lined up for me to get out on the water. Tonight the forecast was marginal, but it seemed to be blowing nicely at home.

I went to Benone shortly after tea, and the sand was blowing nicely along the beach. Once on the water it was clear the the wind wasn't too strong, on the 12 I couldn't stay upwind, but that was OK. It was fine for about two walks, then it was really quite calm, so I packed up and drove down to the river, where it was blowing nicely again.

I suspected it was a bit on the light side so I decided to go for a downwinder by myself. I parked up the beach, set up, and then drove off downwind a few hundred yards. I walked back to my kit, and launched, and went into the water. I like this method, it worked well. Once I was back to the car I packed up, and repeated, this time a little further. The only problem is having to pump up the kite each time - not so big an issue with a real downwinder as you get to go a lot further.

There were some nice kickers, nice flats. I didn't do much apart from cruise around, enjoying the waves, and  doing a few jumps. It was nice to get out, and as it turned out the weather was super too, having rained all day.