MAYDAY = masses of buggies piled on top of the Kite Power 4WD, and somewhere under a mountain of kites was my jeep, I did think twice about just scooting back down the highway with well over $40 grand worth of kites in my car. I will attempt to not cover much that has been said already. 
Arrived really early on Friday morning headed straight to the beach for a session, not much wind but still great to be out flying most people were heading up that evening. Caught up with a couple of the locals by about midday then Don turned up early in the afternoon and put up a kite also. The wind started to die so hopped in the jeep and went for a drive down to the shipwreck, the sand surprisingly was really soft and hard going considering all the rain we have had recently, just getting onto the beach meant navigating through and inland lake. Headed back up to Birubi Caravan Park after some shopping (the highlight being $49 case of corona)
Don came over for a few drinks and then gave us an astronomy lesson (sorry bout the astrology thing, at $49 a case its very easy to knock a few back) fascinating looking straight up and seeing what is really out there.
Finally people started arriving, Troy and the family turned up, then a truck load of Kite Power goodies turned up with Jon, Aaron, Matt no sooner had the engines turned off and quick hellos then Ben and Andy turned up from Canberra, it was game on, drinks, spanners bolts, drinks, wheels, more drinks buggies being put together, the front of the cabins looked like a parking lot, complete with anticipation of the next two days.
SATURDAY!
Whoa, woke up to a reasonable breeze on the ocean one by one as people came out of the cabins we looked at each other and just laughed, it was going to be a crazy day. The Kite Power truck had at least 8 buggies (possibly more) on the back of it, including the super truck that needs a trailer for itself, I was designated to carry the kites in my 4WD, the pile just got bigger and bigger behind the jeep and really didn't think they were all going to fit.
By the time we hit the beach the wind had kicked in, first thing we saw was Ben flying down the beach in the libre buggy..... flying or drifting it looked more like the fast and the furious kite style. The FS2 was not coming out just yet.
Jon had set up an awesome staging area on the beach with launching area and an barricade of cars up the other end incase anybody couldn't see all the gear (you would have to be blind I am sure) masses of kites laid out, people flying up and down the beach and the wind was hectic. we think the max gust from the morning was about 24 knots, you could have fooled me, it felt a hell of a lot stronger than that.
What Andy does with a Pansh is quite scary, somebody give that bloke a Blade he would turn into a blur.
More people started turning up the sky was now filled with kites and it certainly was not a relaxed session, launching and landing was hectic let alone flying past people with head on speeds of well over 110 km/h, great fun but no room for error.
I put my 8 meter manta Ben suited me up with his helmet cam, great little helmet cam that (I bought one today) had a few nice jumps with it on board came back, and Ben mounted it to the front fork looking back at me, must have been camera shy, went for a really big reverse thingimegigame and got my face and life handed to me on a rather unsavory platter, once a few realised I was ok they then got excited about seeing the footage!
Everybody was out flying, some people hitting the back country was awesome to see the kites against the desert backdrop it just looked like kite skiing in the mountains. Ben ran past a few times boosting in his wide axle libre buggy (hats off to you superb effort there), more people turning up as time went on more kites got unpacked and it was flying room only. 
The wind backed off a bit people running back to base camp to put up bigger kites. Everybody got super-sized, was great to see. Aaron asked me for the 10 meter Manta, before I even thought about it (wind was still strong) he was gone into the back country powering along, he definitely gets my vote for most improved...... what's next amigo? jumping, wouldn't surprise me :) 
Definitely a shout out to the two crazy ATB guys from the Gong who possibly set land speed records on the ATB boards and some seriously nice jumping too. Including flying a brand new FS Pulse which looked sweet. [}:)]
Its been mentioned already thanks to Jo for taking but Ben to the hospital and I have got to say he is one tough kiter as the next morning he whipped his arm out the sling and went for a fly! 
The libre dragster was free, just to put in in perspective I jumped straight out of one of the lightest smallest bent and twisted buggies on the beach and hopped into the biggest and heaviest thing on the beach, the instruction manual was missing, it had 3 wheels so how hard can it be, well it wasn't hard getting going and didn't need a seat belt (wasn't one anyway) as its like sitting in a coffin, I was having a great run down the beach till I realised this IS my coffin and how the hell do you stop this thing, slid it sideways with very little response apart from chattering from the wheels, option 2 put the kite high and dig a heel in.
Picture courtesy of John from Hunter Land Sailing
On the way back past base camp a girl ran up to the buggy and asked if she could go for a ride, sure why not, she hopped on the back of the buggy and we worked our way slowly up the beach, managed to anchor herself in my seat and was locked in, we turned around headed back down the beach in the SW and was doing well over 60-km/h we were running out of beach, pillion passenger still on the back, (I did check occasionally) and realised there is no way in hell i can put this buggy sideways two up to stop this thing, really running out of beach now, both feet down, thankfully its a heavy buggy and the front wheel didn't jack knife and came to a stop. Was an interesting buggy thats for sure, give me a short axle any day though, it just takes the extreme element out of it for my liking
The tide was coming in and we all packed up and headed back to the cabins.
Again its been said but the food was just amazing, thanks again to KP for handing out prizes and the T-shirts Jon had designed are uber cool (still not sure why I got the black one lol, black sheep?) who cares, Ill take it anyway.
We went through some footage (wait for the videos :) there were 10 guys around the screen the girl who had gone for a 2 up ride, with footage of her getting onto the back of the libre buggy, the room went quiet, somebody mentioned good job getting your legs around the buggy to which she randomly said "I used to do ballet & yoga" unanimous response " ahhhhhh........ mmmmmmm, cough cough oh really thats cool" you may assume the wives and girlfriends were out of earshot for that one.
I know the fire twirling thing has been covered but a huge shout out to Michelle who just got up there, lit them up and twirled like a woman possessed (considering none of the guys would have a go you get my vote for the no fear award) ha ha ha!
SUNDAY
Same deal, great wind, epic sunshine and everybody amped up for another day of kiting we certainly felt blessed with the conditions that we had been given for the weekend.
No time wasted everybody put kites up and was powering along, who ever the young kid was in the buggy (must have been under 12 years old) hitting the back country, I would not be surprised if he becomes some world champion one day, I could just picture him in 10 years time owning the kiting world his level of experience at such a young age was incredible.
The buggy train, ha ha ha, what a sight, 9 buggies in tow up the beach behind a 4WD for a downwind, Troy graciously hooked up the libre dragster to a libre buggy to fly back down the beach with ben we must have gone up the beach at least 7km dropped off and then flew back down the beach, a lot of people got there own person best times on that run, was great to meet JD and HP finally there are some really great people kiting in NSW it really made the weekend worthwhile especially the generosity of people flipping kites over and or assisting with launches and landings.
I spent the entire day on the FS2 12 meter, with some big jumps and serious hang time, hopefully some of it makes it onto the video, some people wanted a fly on the mantas, it was great to see people getting on with them so well especially in the back country, even nicer that they packed them up at the end of the day too (thanks to the guys from the Gong for that)
Stay tuned, there was lots of video taken hopefully within the next week it will start appearing on the net and I will be sure to link it to this thread.
Some special thanks to Kite Power for putting on the event and supplying all the gear (and a lot of the food on the saturday night) a really big thanks to Troy for originally organising the event and getting the PR from the local radio station and his general happy to help attitude. He is the backbone of Land kiting in NSW as far as I am concerned.
Thanks to all the people who came and introduced themselves really great to put faces to names and spend time with people that I usually just speak to on a forum.
Was great to see some blow-carts in action too, I am sure these guys are on seabreeze and hope to see you again very soon, the blow-carts look very cool. Really friendly guys, if your thinking about getting into it hit the land sailing section and introduce yourselves for sure.
We are going to make this an annual event, hopefully those that missed out can make it next time, the best kiting weekend I personally have ever had.
Cheers
Luke
if anybody has some more photos please post them up
Photo credits Jon from Kitepower, and Don/Scopeman for the ones above.
Photo credits for link below, Jon from Kitepower
picasaweb.google.com.au/jonashmore/2008_05_04StocktonBeachMayDayBuggyBonanza
Nice write up of the weekend's event Luke.
You'll definitely see more of Andrew and me at Stockton, what a place!
Hangin for the vid's
JD
Reading that was like being back there....great work Luke.
What a fantastic weekend it was, at an awesome venue, with great people.
Huge thanks to Troy and everybody else that set it up........... can't wait till next year!!!
Cheers Andy
You can download the hi res version and edit out the logo. Ethics are at question then.
mike
