Cape Le Grande

Some photos from our epic kite at Cape Le Grande in Esperance are here

Cape Le Grande pics

Here the green line shows where we did a downwinder. The scale show it was a tidy 15km. The wind was blowing slightly offshore which made for some pretty good waveriding, though it made the wind a bit gusty coming off the dunes.

When our friends headed down the beach in the 4wd to our final desination, we didn't realise how long the bay was. When its starting to get dark and you're in the middle of nowhere it was a good feeling to see the headlights of the 4wd.

Blown away

I finally broke the dry spell on Sunday with a very quick kite in the windiest conditions I've ever been out in. I didn't check the charts till the next day, and it was showing about 25-35kts the time I was out. I don't think I've been out in more than 30kts before. I took out my 8m sonic and had it on full depower. When the gusts came through I could barely hold it down. Some other guys, who would weigh a few more kgs than me, were out on their 7m kites.

Before I headed out I was sitting in the car waiting for a front to pass. I noticed a kite out of control and thought someone had let it go onto one line. But it kept getting higher and coming closer. I realised it was loose and jumped out of the car to try and catch it. Fortunately the bar and lines got caught on some wood bolards and the kite stopped in the middle of the road in front of a car! When I was talking to the other kiters later, they said it happend real quick. Two kites were on the beach and the lines from one were bumped. A good reminder to be extra careful when the wind is that strong.

Naish info night

On Friday evening SOS hosted a meetup to learn about the new Naish Sigma series kites. Two of the Naish reps were on hand to talk about the new technology in the Sigma series, and had a couple of kites to show as well. They gave a good speil on the kites, and the couple guys that had been able to have a quick ride on them during the week rated them as well.

Interestingly the Aussie distributor guy said they weren't even going to import the new Torch, they thought the Allicance kite would more than fufill the needs of kiters wanting that type of kite. They also discussed how the different models relate to each other. The Helix, Code and Cult are basically the same kite design aimed at different price points by eliminating some features on the cheaper models, and the Allicance is the odd one out, but on the same level at as the Helix, being a 5-line system aimed more toward the freestyle guys.