#13 - New spot up at Palm Beach - shoddy wind again though
Kiting 2005 #13 (Sun 19 Jun): Sunday was the second kiteday of the weekend. Me 'n OnTheCusp went up to Palm Beach. Again it was s'posed to be an early start but one of us was in dire need of bacon sandwiches and other cures before we could begin. Not a problem though as the wind didn't really get going til late afternoon.
We met up with KeenKayla, who even out-geeks me I reckon on the kite-obsession thing. To the extent I think she may even be impressed with this whole blog thing (it being difficult to gain much enthusiasm from my mates). She arrived without water kites though which is a bit dubious. But is equally keen to run (fly) before she can walk, already talking about IKO instructor courses. I've been gibbering on for a while about the course in Boracay which teaches you up, but takes a month which would be difficult with work. Keeny tells us she's at the going upwind stage, and jumping but with no control, following on form her successful few weeks in Fiji, as opposed to OnTheCusp's windless week.
We had some fun with the land kites, I got to fly OnTheCusp's 4.5m for a while.
Wind was offshore, west to norwesterly, so for water action it was the Pittwater side. I had couple of goes but it wasn't quite blowing enough and the kite was prone to leadballooning, while I was a bit nervous about the proximity of the car park in what was direct onshore. Given my lack of ability on the upwind side that gives me little room for manoeuvre.
OnTheCusp did much better, living up to his name he showed us some reasonable upwind board action, returning to his point of departure at least twice.
It was a good day despite my not getting too much time in the water. Met some new people. Hanged out at what is admittedly a much prettier place than Kurnell. And finished with a top curry.
My discovery today is this site, where these blokes have put up the designs to make your own kite: http://web.media.mit.edu/~saul/zeroprestige/kitemake (Cuspy - this could be something to do in the nowindtime we were discussing yesterday).
This is the other thing I've discovered today, a hybrid foil/inflatable kite. very cool?? http://www.ikiteboarding.com/article_detail.aspx?id=146
