I was out of my comfort zone on my 8 meter kite this arvo. Going to fast and been lift up with out any input. Some guy on 10 meter North kite was killing out there. Altona beach
Yep, looked great out there, shame I missed out. I'm free tomorrow if anyone wants to meet up for a session, pm me if keen, I don't really care where.
Lol was an insane session, definitely sketchy but fun all the same, I had my 8 on max depower and I still kept getting pulled off my edge when the gusts came through. Tried a couple of boosts but that got a bit sketchy so stuck to mowing the lawn ha ha ha...
Select to expand quotecastill0jf said..
the video is from far but here it is
?rel=0
WTF? How did he put that in the tree?
Select to expand quotecastill0jf said..
not sure.. the tree save him of getting injure... cheers
I was well powered up on my 7... and you on an 8. If I recall the Cab is a 9m.
rickets was good but very choppy. jeff from smook was shredding and aron kenny was throwing out the freestyle moves. On again today
I hit barwon heads on my 7m, way overpowered but riding in boots gives you much better edge on them windy days.
That kite in the tree looks like a 10-11? seriously?
Hey guys, took the dogs for a walk along Altona beach this morning and there s a board left there on the sand pretty much directly in from that kite in the tree
Select to expand quotenope said..
Hey guys, took the dogs for a walk along Altona beach this morning and there s a board left there on the sand pretty much directly in from that kite in the tree
Any chance you picked it up? im sure the guy would love to get it returned. might even get a slab or some wine if your lucky.
thanks for jumping on the forum and letting us know,
Select to expand quoteSaffer said..castill0jf said..
the video is from far but here it is
?rel=0
WTF? How did he put that in the tree?
He was overpowered and he managed to land the kite on the safe side. However, unnecessary thing he did was activating the safety release and let the bar go away during his landing attempt.
There comes the Cabrinha safety system into action which I always have a big question mark on. Up to 2013 models when you activate the first quick release in your Cabrinha IDS bar you will be still attached to the kite with the TWO front lines and the kite won't flag out and depower completely like most other brands. So the kite bounced back before the other guy was able to reach it and it went all the way to the other side of the wind window and crashed softly on the tree. Our mate was watching it helplessly cause the bar was too far from him. Good he kept his cool though and didn't release the safety leash cause otherwise the kite might have passed over the trees and caused big troubles behind.
Even with someone to grab your kite you should always allow enough room for your kite to go where every it wants through the window, that beach has more then enough room for that.
Trying to land a kite on even the safe side and then pulling the release is just asking for destruction.
I was trying to land my 7m in those winds yesterday on my own and had to resort in a release because it was just way to windy for the kite to fall onto its LE, was a big area with no one else around.
Select to expand quoteHasinena said...Saffer said..castill0jf said..
the video is from far but here it is
?rel=0
WTF? How did he put that in the tree?
He was overpowered and he managed to land the kite on the safe side. However, unnecessary thing he did was activating the safety release and let the bar go away during his landing attempt.
There comes the Cabrinha safety system into action which I always have a big question mark on. Up to 2013 models when you activate the first quick release in your Cabrinha IDS bar you will be still attached to the kite with the TWO front lines and the kite won't flag out and depower completely like most other brands. So the kite bounced back before the other guy was able to reach it and it went all the way to the other side of the wind window and crashed softly on the tree. Our mate was watching it helplessly cause the bar was too far from him. Good he kept his cool though and didn't release the safety leash cause otherwise the kite might have passed over the trees and caused big troubles behind.
By 'him' you mean 'I' right?
Select to expand quotesuniboy21 said..nope said..
Hey guys, took the dogs for a walk along Altona beach this morning and there s a board left there on the sand pretty much directly in from that kite in the tree
Any chance you picked it up? im sure the guy would love to get it returned. might even get a slab or some wine if your lucky.
thanks for jumping on the forum and letting us know,
Went back and picked it up - will put up some details on the lost and found section.
Yeah I was out at the resplendent St. Kilda last night about 6.30-7.30pm. I was out on my 9m ... only one out on the water (other kiters around). Now that doesn't happen often!
After all these years of struggling with going up wind, I found it impossible NOT to go up wind as pulling the kite round the window was the only way to take the power out of it!
There were some lovely bullet gusts coming through... and I'm pretty sure I beat my PB boost by about 3m!
Just a shame I went to all of the effort of attaching go pro, and forgot to turn it on...
Select to expand quoteharry potter said...
From the vid the kite looked too big for the conditions ... What size was it?
Was a 9
Mentone/Parkdale looked fantastic last night - perfect cross shore with quite big wave rolling in.
Shame I missed it!
Select to expand quoteHasinena said..Saffer said..castill0jf said..
the video is from far but here it is
?rel=0
WTF? How did he put that in the tree?
He was overpowered and he managed to land the kite on the safe side. However, unnecessary thing he did was activating the safety release and let the bar go away during his landing attempt.
There comes the Cabrinha safety system into action which I always have a big question mark on. Up to 2013 models when you activate the first quick release in your Cabrinha IDS bar you will be still attached to the kite with the TWO front lines and the kite won't flag out and depower completely like most other brands. So the kite bounced back before the other guy was able to reach it and it went all the way to the other side of the wind window and crashed softly on the tree. Our mate was watching it helplessly cause the bar was too far from him. Good he kept his cool though and didn't release the safety leash cause otherwise the kite might have passed over the trees and caused big troubles behind.
That is ridiculous - he didn't manage to land it - look at the video!! Once the kite started to lodge in the tree it's obvious that he should have pulled the safety!! He had no control and if the kite had kept going he wasn't going to stop it - the next stop was the power lines...
It was difficult conditions for sure - Fawkner puts the gusts then up above 35knots - so I have sympathy, but there is no point blaming the gear!
That video reminds me of when a kiter at St. Kilda pulled their QR when round the bay was on a couple years back... the kiter in question didn't have a leash the kite was heading straight to beach road... It would have been carnage (and bikeage).
Pleased to read these comments... as a relative newbie (approx 15 sessions) and lightweight (62kg) I went out yesterday for the first time at Altona, hoping the wind would be smoother than St K, but found it pretty stressful! Used my 9.5 Kahoona as this is my smallest depowerable kite, and was way overpowered on full depower. Eventually got mowing the lawn happily out back but was exhausted after about an hour. No dramas apart from struggling to retrieve board at one point - big thanks to the guy who threw it downwind for me, so relieved! 
Hope it's not always like that at Altona! Not quite beginner conditions I guess... lesson learned.
Followed it with a quick sesh at St K which was calmer overall but soooo gusty - overpowered one minute and falling out of the sky the next.
Are the SE'lies always like this?! 
Select to expand quotehowesy said..
Pleased to read these comments... as a relative newbie (approx 15 sessions) and lightweight (62kg) I went out yesterday for the first time at Altona, hoping the wind would be smoother than St K, but found it pretty stressful! Used my 9.5 Kahoona as this is my smallest depowerable kite, and was way overpowered on full depower. Eventually got mowing the lawn happily out back but was exhausted after about an hour. No dramas apart from struggling to retrieve board at one point - big thanks to the guy who threw it downwind for me, so relieved!
Hope it's not always like that at Altona! Not quite beginner conditions I guess... lesson learned.
Followed it with a quick sesh at St K which was calmer overall but soooo gusty - overpowered one minute and falling out of the sky the next.
Are the SE'lies always like this?!
Altona isn't really learner friendly (in my opinion)... many obstacles and (well documented) wind oddities that have seen some serious accidents.
If anything happens near the beach or whilst you're launching/landing, don't wait for it to be too late before you pull the QR!
Select to expand quotehowesy said..
Pleased to read these comments... as a relative newbie (approx 15 sessions) and lightweight (62kg) I went out yesterday for the first time at Altona, hoping the wind would be smoother than St K, but found it pretty stressful! Used my 9.5 Kahoona as this is my smallest depowerable kite, and was way overpowered on full depower. Eventually got mowing the lawn happily out back but was exhausted after about an hour. No dramas apart from struggling to retrieve board at one point - big thanks to the guy who threw it downwind for me, so relieved!
Hope it's not always like that at Altona! Not quite beginner conditions I guess... lesson learned.
Followed it with a quick sesh at St K which was calmer overall but soooo gusty - overpowered one minute and falling out of the sky the next.
Are the SE'lies always like this?!
Southerly winds are always dependent on whether they are frontal or sea breeze. Frontal is gusty, sea breeze is cleaner. The stronger the wind gets, the more gusty it becomes.
SE at StK is always gusty before it comes over the buildings on the left which creates turbulence.
As Salty mentioned, Altona is not beginner friendly due to the margin for error on launch. If something goes wrong, you're in the road or power lines before you have a chance to react. Do a search on Altona and coma and you'll see two incidents in the last 2 years that have bad outcomes. If you kite at Altona, you should be comfortable staying upwind and preferably able to kite without looking at your kite because there are hidden sandbanks depending on the tide. Once you are comfortable staying upwind, it's a great place to kite because you can move upwind away from the crowds and have more space to learn tricks.
This goes back to altona...
It's now getting pretty crowded these days... a bummer is newbies who flood the good water and leave there kites at 12.... and then wonder why their kite has been ran over (Don't get me wrong more than happy to have beginners there, I was one once too, I understood other people wanted to ride so when they came close I stopped what I was doing and put my kite down to 9 or 3 and then once I was clear (and the better riders will give you space) I tried riding again))
And on another note...
There have been a few kites in the trees recently (fair enough we all make mistakes) though, some say thank you for saving their ass. others don't & you know who you are really poor form especially having some of the guys even doing your lines on your bar for you.
Select to expand quoteSaffer said...
As Salty mentioned, Altona is not beginner friendly due to the margin for error on launch. If something goes wrong, you're in the road or power lines before you have a chance to react. Do a search on Altona and coma and you'll see two incidents in the last 2 years that have bad outcomes. If you kite at Altona, you should be comfortable staying upwind and preferably able to kite without looking at your kite because there are hidden sandbanks depending on the tide. Once you are comfortable staying upwind, it's a great place to kite because you can move upwind away from the crowds and have more space to learn tricks.
Thanks all for the comments and advice. I went out with some trepidation, having read up on the hazards there in this forum. Also I've been working in the Alfred hospital for the last 6 months and so was aware of the most recent serious accident. My hand was never far from the QR!
Am able to stay upwind and had no issue doing so yesterday, also was flying lowish in the window so don't think I was out of my depth or causing trouble (although happy to be proven otherwise by any observers!). However I was overpowered, and hence went in once I started tiring as knew mistakes could have serious consequences...
I think I learned a lot yesterday, managing difficult conditions rather than trying to learn toeside or pops, so whilst challenging it was good experience. Looking forward to going back in calmer conditions, once my abs have stopped hurting
