|
Update 3
Phil What can you say …. Really ????? The trip of a lifetime. So many great people from so many places – the stories never stop. Pity more of them aren't true. The weather has been unbelievably uncooperative but the good times just keep on coming. One of the real highlights just has to be watching the euros faces as they look out across our aussie beaches at waves Im sure they never believed possible. The northern NSW coast is unbelievable.
Hey mike and meges here……… We have had an awesome trip. We have been busying ourselves practising our “tandem kiting” which we hope to perfect, sailing, swimming, drinking and having a shit load of fun. Yesterday was amazing and was the best kiting mike has ever had! The GPS read 200kms of kiting over a 38km direct down wind run. We had three awesome hours of flat water and three awesome ours of surf! It was stand up tubes and and just bloody awesome! We are sad that our down winder odyssey is coming to a close as we near the end of our adventure L We want to say a massive thankyou to Selena, Chris and everyone involved in Monkey Kites. And to our mums…… please wash our sheets, make our beds, fluff our pillows, ready the bath and prepare a home cooked meal in preparation for our reluctant return home in a few days time.
Julien Lots of things have happened in a few days. First I've had an incident: I cut myself on rocks while rescuing Ben and his kite in Red Rock. This awesome flat-water spot was dangerous as a strong current was going towards the rocks on the shore, and he had his kite down and the current was pushing him towards the rocks. Joerun and I managed to catch the kite and put it on the sand, and then several of us pulled the lines to get Ben back to the beach. Tahiti helped me with the first aid and thanks to him we cleaned the wound and stopped the blood. Selena and I looked for a doctor with no success so I went with Greg and Ben to Coffs Harbour hospital early evening. Unfortunately I had to wait until 3AM to have my 5 stiches. The wound is now closing very fast and I have been able to run on the beach after 2 days and was able to kite yesterday on the flat-water spot. It was great as we had no wind since Red Rock and morale was getting low. We all had fun. Many showed off their tricks: kiteloops, no foots, blinds… Unfortunately still being a bit painful I could not really learn tricks or work on my jumps. Today we are on a magnificent spot: long beach with waves and a flat-water spot. Unfortunately we had no wind. Nevertheless we had some fun sand boarding in the dunes that are immense. The view from the dunes is also breathtaking as we can see 360 degrees around. Australia really has amazing beaches, and their best is that there is nobody!
Teky [camera guy] Like a welcome storm to end a drought, yesterday saw a downwinder to put a rictus grin onto 30 riders, coming after days of storming that may well end a long drought in this country. Rain is great for the farmers, not so great for the riders. But after bus cabin fever, tension and lord of the flies-esque man hunting the downwinder was just the remedy for the malady in these rider's melody. Was also a good day for me, driving ahead of the pack, running about bush tracks on a headland scoping out vantage points, jogging back to get gear and finding the kites already upon my position. So ensued a frantic half hour of running with gear and rolling off footage of kiter's offshore from magnificent landscape. Sweat and sand and fun.
Jeroen & Richelle (Just married!) As a married couple we are still looking for some wind, has a fight about who deleted the pictures, we are angry as the other is snoring in a small tent and blame each other for the terrible rain we had the last couples of days. But it feels good to be married! We were so happy yesterday to do some kitesurfing. We both started as a married couple (grumpy about the tangled lines, who can use the pump first, who want to launch first etc etc) on the flat water spot, which was amazing beautiful. We both did our first kiteloops (we both crashed as married couples do together), and we had a really good time. In the afternoon Richelle did the Downwinder and Jeroen took his responsibility as a driver and checkpoint. The downwinder was great, but not easy. The swell was enormous, but marvellous. I had a really good time playing in the waves. Sometimes the waves were so big, that I really didn't know what to do (but I survived, only a blue bottle jelly got me… the bastard). Thanks Mickael and Nicky for being my buddy and bringing my board (just ahead of the headland)! So let's hope there will be some more wind the following days, because it is a great event. Thanks to everybody from the Monkey kites team and I am so proud of Jeroen (because he hates camping and we are already camping for 10 days in the rain!!)
Andreas (aka monkeyboy or gromie) Lately the wind and weather has been crappy (lots of rain and no wind), so everyone has been kind of grumpy (wet tents and sleeping bags), but yesterday it was just perfect! Super flat water, steady strong wind, and sun form a blue clear sky! Everyone was happy to kite again, and I kited all day! Really lit on my 11 sq m. kite, trying all sorts off crazy tricks wiping out SO many times. At the end of the day I overstretched a muscle in my hip, and since I had kited without a rash guard and sunglasses all day I was extremely sunburned! When I woke up the next morning, my face, eyes and body was all swollen because of the sunburn, so I had to stay in the shadow in the camp all day. Luckily for me there was no wind, so I didn't miss out on anything. A bit sad that there's only 3 days left of the event… I've met so many cool people and it's so sad knowing that I'm probably not going to meet most of them again L Even though the wind and weather hasn't been too great (and most of the trip has been done in the bus), I've had a wonderful journey! Hope I meet some of these people again later!!! PS: Thanks to my sponsors; Dagbladet and Relaunch, who made this trip possible!!!
Ben Kearney (Tassie) A really great couple of days, a few with no wind but great surfing at Minnie Waters, Crescent Head and Old Bar, some great sessions and really good waves. Then yesterday we had our best kiting day of the whole trip with super flat water and sun in the morning followed by up to 2m waves and a huge downwinder in the afternoon. I rode the biggest waves I have ridden on a kite and had perfect cross shore strong wind the whole way on my 13m tribe. It pushed my wave kiting into places I have not been before and was a huge thrill! I would like to thank Selena, Chris and little Amelie from Monkeykites for making this great experience possible it has broken new ground for where kitingsurfing can go and has inspired everybody that I have met on the beach. The people on the trip are an amazing group, that reflect the incredible cross section of personalities who are addicted to this sport. Bye for now…Ben
Shane ‘babwe' Van L. This place is cool! Well, the temps are darn hot - But when you get to spend time with these characters called kiteboarders - Most things seem pretty cool! In this place we get to cross over the divide The one that hides between us. We get to spend such a short time together
Then we move on in our search
For wind, waves, warm waters….
All the things that allow us to ride.
The ride that leaves behind the ties
The ties that bind us down
The down that makes us search
For the cycle of the ride. Here I miss my friends and family
But I find new mates and I learn to keep on learning. Have fun!
Mickael 5 days of kite for the first 6 days, 1 day of kite for the next 6 days!!! But what a day (at least 7 hours : 4 to 5 hours of freestyle on a flat water spot + 2-3 hours of downwind). The downwind was quite long and difficult, I was riding in pairs with Richelle and we were both glad to complete this long and tough downwind. The flat water session was really awesome I gained a lot of control on double back loops and passed a few front loop kite loop, and quite some one foot jumps. Apart from this only brilliant day we tried to keep busy during the non-windy days. We went see waterfalls in the rain forest where I have been beaten by 3 blood suckers, and we did some snowboarding in sand dunes :) It was fun but not as much as kiting... We're now praying for the wind to come back.
shiva polefka 7000 miles on a plane, interminable days on our buses, a few dozen bottles of 30+ spf sunscreen (“sun cream”), days of waking to rain, eating meals, drinking out of boredom, and going to sleep again to rain, endless gear management (theres well over 100 kites in our expedition), finding space of ones own only within a book and an ipod, heated group negotiations with 6 different variations of Commonwealth English. after multiple days without wind, these logistical details began to feel like the definition of the trip. Tuesday morning began with squally rain, arguments and wheat biscuits, as usual, but by noon seventeens were getting pumped up and riders staying upwind at the flatwater estuary near Old Bar Beach, by two we were rigging tens and sending it (in 18 inches of water… land flat!). got to see some great riding from nick cormack, shiplee, a couple locals, and a big goofy grin on jebs face as he and i mowed the lawn with reckless abandon. With it holding at 20+k from the northeast (the kind of wind the ozzies claim is normal for this time of year), the downwinder was on. we crossed the dunes from the estuary and proceeded down coast… 45kilometers of wave riding joy in 73degree water (I hope josh and diego got my downwind buddy corwin “the animal” hardham on tape… his waveriding was both amazing to watch and pushed my own to another level). Sunset on the water, with another few k to go. I finished feeling delirious, fatigued and ecstatic, arriving at Forster Beach to big smiles from Selena and Syndey, helping hands from Jeb and swigs of cold beer from Shane. It was one day of kiteboarding, but the session of a lifetime, an experience that redefines my relation to the sport and re-relegated all the organizational details to details. With luck we'll get another day like that, but even if not I will go home on Sunday happy. Deepest thanks to Selena, the love bus, and the rest of the awesome folks here… love and appreciation to Rama and Joeben for making this trip happen, to elise, to the ‘rillaz, to ma and pa. I've got several hundred pics so get ready for a slideshow / sp ……………………………… Stephen: After what seemed like endless days of no wind, we were all surprised by a brilliant day on Tuesday. We got a full day's kiting on flat water at Old Bar, then a 3 1/2 hour downwinder to Forster. The point-to-point distance was about 40km, but with all the tacking and wave-riding, Ian measured 120km on his GPS. I was stressing a little bit before I started because I wasn't sure whether to use my 13m or 9m kite. Most people were on smaller kites and the wind seemed to be building all the time. I eventually stuck with my 13m and was glad about that because I was lit the whole way. I learned something about headlands that day: When you kite around a headland, don't ride in to shore to catch waves until you are far passed it. After one of the headlands, I kited in to ride waves and forgot about the turbulence caused by the wind moving over the headland. My kite suddenly fell out the sky with nothing I could do to control it. It landed on the water like a scrumpled up tissue. I thought there was no way I was going to relaunch it. Fortunately after a minute or two of tweaking, pulling, shaking, and nudging, the kite relaunched and I don't think I've ever felt so relieved. It would have been a very long and dangerous swim into shore, followed by a ridiculously long walk in the dark, had it not relaunched. That was our one day of good wind. Yesterday we had more no wind. We are getting a guided tour of all the most beautiful kite spots I have ever seen – with no wind to kite them. All we can do is hang on to the hope that we'll get some wind in these last 3 days ahead. Nicolas a.k.a. Tahiti Old bar, Tuesday. First session in 7 days… Everyone was waiting for it and kited till his muscle hurts and his whole body cry for rest. Personally I was thinking of Benn who was speaking about this fu*%^ing great flat spot in Old bar… Another time my friend. I was very impressed by Mohammed style in great hangtime flights and styling one foot. I may call him the Egyptian falcon… Whatever, the day after, no wind and a funny session in the sand dunes. And at this time we were able to say You should have beeeen here yeste'day! (watch the endless summer movie, you will understand). The forecast for the last days are not really good. I wait for the big party in Collaroy Saturday and to go with the young bloods in Melbourne for the nationals as their personal trainer.. Poor of them!!!
Jeb China Whaaaaaheeeeeeyyyy…. Finally after a tortuous 7 day wait for wind, Old Bar delivered the session of a lifetime for me: a morning spent buzzing a tidal lake under my 21sqm, followed by a pre-lunch session on the 14sqm.
I managed to clock up over 48kms ‘mowing the lawn' as Shiva puts it (hammering back and forth, & doing kindergarden style jumps in the deep water spots) before the wind settled and the prospect of a downwinder emerged: Last off the lake after faffing around with a 10sqm (3 kite sizes in one day, they all performed impeccably) it was a sprint across the dunes, tripping over myself in an effort to catch the fast disappearing pack… The ride from Old Bar to Forster was unforgettable. In about 6foot of swell, charging down the coastline and experimenting in the surf (well, ‘tickling the surf' it is perhaps a more apt description of my wave skills) I clocked up another 78kms of absolutely unforgettable riding. There were moments of panic crossing the headlands: the swell would build up to perhaps 8 foot of surging, sucking menace over treacherous reef… so the only option was to beat a hasty retreat, head further out to sea and keep the 10m powered enough to break through. I'm still replaying the ride in my minds eye: it really was wonderful to be part of this train of kites travelling down through misty haze and flowing swell…. a War of the Worlds style Kite-Invasion. p.s. My Dad had flown in from the UK en-route to Melbourne to spend a couple of days following the event, and somehow brought a 20knot tail-wind with him: henceforth he shall be known as the ‘Wind-bringer'
|
