Hi Guys,
Yes, we are aiming to run the whole event on Saturday...
Be at the beach ready for the briefing at 11am... with the plan that we'll start heats as soon as the wind kicks in and kite all afternoon until we have a winner!
Almost quit my job when they tried to tell me i had to work saturday [}:)]
!!! Ive got kites to launch ffs! 
I'm trying to get out of a family gig on Saturday to come up for the day just to watch and help out if needed.
Its shaping up to be a blinder of a day.
The WAKSA Wedge Island Wave Comp is shaping up as a great event - we've had more than 40 people indicate they are going to compete which is great news.
The $20 entry fee covers WAKSA member participation in the event, as well as the costs for having the event filmed and edited - WAKSA is going to produce a short video of the event so everyone can see WA's best wave kiters in action!
Divisions are Amateurs, Juniors, Womens, Open, Masters & Grand Masters. These are consistent with AKSA divisions.
Wind and wave permitting, the comp will run from 11am through to 6pm with presos in the evening (probably at the pub in Cervantes). We have trophies* for winners in all divisions and Kite Addiction have donated a prize for every competitor.
The comp site is 3 km's north of the settlement. Go to the beach at Wedge settlment, head north along the beach for 3kms. There is a reef and a small bay that sets up some nice banks. WAKSA checked out the comp site last weekend and things are looking good with a left breaking off the reef closing out and a right and left peak just north, all reforming on the inside.
You will need a 4WD to get to the comp site - or line up a lift with someone you know. You can get a 2WD to the Wedge settlement but you need 4WD to get along the beach. There is a 2WD carpark just in front of the beach entrance at the Wedge settlement where you can leave your car and meet your lift etc.
Wedge is a harsh and windy place - and there are no shops or services. Once the wind starts, the fine sand starts whipping down the beach and gets everywhere. So bring your own food, water and shelter. WAKSA will have basic shelter setup for judges and competitors.
Essential details:
Date: 13th November - tomorrow - a downwinder on the other day is general consensus!
Accommodation: Cervantes - camping or houses etc.
Evening entertainment: pub in Cervantes
Entry fee: $20 per person
It's all happening tomorrow:
www.bom.gov.au:
Jurien Bay to Mandurah:
Saturday: E/SE winds 15/20 knots shifting S/SW 15/20 knots by noon and
increasing to 20/25 knots during the afternoon. Seas 1.0m to 2.0m. Swell easing
to 2.0m.
Sunday: SE 15/20 knots shifting S/SW 15/20 knots around noon and increasing to
20/30 knots during the afternoon. Seas 1.5m to 2.0m. Swell to 1.5m.
See you at Wedge from 11.00am tomorrow.
Congrats and thanks waksa for a great day.
Great waves, more than enough wind, good vibes
Had lots of fun
I'm going to try and high pressure hose the sand off me now
2 heats.... 2ed places still not good enought to get to a final aaaarrrrrrr
dont you just love comps
still a great day up at wedge bring on another one WAKSA WE LOVED IT
i still cant feel my eyes
Yeah that was good fun, thanks to all the organisers, judges and helpers, those are testing conditions up there, the wedge sand in combination with sunscreen makes good car under body compound
WAKSA Wedge Island Wave Comp
Great location, an a sensational day had by all. Wind & waves came together to provide fantastic conditions for all competitors. Pretty sure sand blasted eyes will take some days to recover for anyone who was there.
Approximately 50 kiters participated in the event on Saturday, making the day one of the biggest competitions in recent WA kiting history.
Thanks to all competitors who made the trip to Wedge and a monumental "Thank You" to Russell Curtin for driving the event, and to Ingrid for her assistance to Russ.
Official release of placings will be made as soon as possible.
Who's up for next year?
Hold tight AE, the whole event was filmed. Well done to all involved, Was a great event in testing conditions
PS: if anyone left behind two folding camp seats, please PM us & we will arrange return.
Awesome day,
And what about the organisation, you guys & gals are just getting better and better
Many thanks from the Walkers.
p.s. due to my lack of skills without straps, special thanks to Russell & Tony for the lesson in being a totally unbiased judge, the beer helped toooooo 
Massive thanx to Russell Curtin for getting the event off the ground and the massive organisation for the event. Also Tony , Juddy and the waksa crew that organised the event and put in the hard work on the day. Great turn out and everyone had a great weekend!
Nice pics Matt. As everyone else has said, thanks to Waksa and especially Russ for all the hard work put in.
Congratulations to Ry for taking it out.
here here....cheers Russ and partner, Juddy and everyone else that helped get it up and running. Was fun and great to meet a few new ppl.
Congrat's to Ryland and all the other finalists in their respective catagory's.
a great day for sure!!! really enjoyed the vibe and teh crew. great community and overall what wedge is all about. good people fun waves nuking winds, hehe didnt enter this year but watched all day and had a down winder. watch for next year ill be taking the honours in the opens. much better organised than thought it would be! was real proud to be a kiter yesterday. thanks to all the organisers grat job
cheers harry
One of Saturday's competitors was Mark Pattinson - possibly Patterson?
Mark, if you read this post, please contact WAKSA regarding your membership - waksa at waksa.org.au
Great comp, excellent work Russ and all WAKSA crew, ran like a new Ferrari, driven by Gleno on the new 30km road from Wedge to Cervantes. Perfect heat lenghts, great change over and well balanced results. Super windy in 25 to 30 knots in late arvo, I was 100% depowered on my 7m Rebel in my last 2 heats, never had the 7m even 50% depowered before. Hey I left my 6m at home on Friday arvo what a dic.........k 
. Great vibe on land and cool vibe on water in heats between riders. I sucked a few kgs of fine white Wege Island sand from my Prado Sunday arvo and the eyes and ears still have sand seeping out today. It was a TOTAL WA BLAST. 
I only see photos of goofies carving it up.
Interesting to see how well natural footers go in WA comps held in S-SW winds. Im sure some will place, but to win, perhaps quite difficult against the likes of our solid goofies.
I think its going to be a great challenge for WA natural footers to put on a good show on their backhand. Step it up a notch.
Like in surfing its great to watch someone go off on their backhand and the feeling of a sick backhand reo, barrel, close-out smash or floater is rool nice. In kitesurfing, even more of a challenge.
I guess unhooking is the key?
^^Interesting observation default, it would be good to know, when we get the official placings, how many guys were on their backhand.
Im fairly sure there are more natural footer than goofy footer kiters but also fairly sure there was quite a few more goofy footers placing in the comp.
I was just discussing this at the beach this arvo and saying that I might try to ride goofy a bit more but after 30 years of surfing natural foot it is going to be bloody hard to change.
I think the answer may be to unhook to free up your body so it's more like surfing but it's not that easy (for me at least 
) in 25 - 30 knots.
One thing I will say is that (again for me, natural & strapless) it got more difficult as the wind picked up during the day.
When my heat (the old blokes) was on conditions suited me great, unfortunately I had a kitemare and bombed out (after 18 months my kite decided to get a puncture on the day of a comp 
), luckily for me there was a repecharge heat.
By the time the finals were run it was really starting to get windy and IMO it would have been an advantage to be able to ride goofy.
Were the three place getters in the opens all goofy footers?
Dont change a thing you had one of the better styles and flow on your backhand along with Fab from Yals and guys like Glenno Moora were making it look to easy. AWSOME JOB from Russ and his wife and the rest of the crew...the produced video will be cool.
An interesting fact 20 maybe 30 percent of strapped kiters in Open comp were riding switch, all are natural surfers who kite and have kited backhand full time in the past, but with 100 percent SW winds in Perth, switch is a super fun style to get into. Switch unstrapped is pretty fun and doable, but remarkably difficult to master at a comp level. Switch is the Challenging cousin to your natural stance and when we switch kiters get to kite a west / NW wind - on our natural stance - it's better than ........
In a comp, in my opinion if you ride switch that's your choice and suck it if you bomb out. Overall impression of a kiter is the way forward, who gives a **** if the style is difficult to master. The finals show overall impression always floats to the top.
