Kiting 2005 #4&5: An excellent weekend down in Jervis Bay with Proto & his kitemissus. Saturday the wind was not so great but we got some normal surfin' in first so it wasn't total disappointment. Great place to surf - to learn to surf - is Caves Beach, in the National Park down that way. So for Kites we went in the afternoon to to George's Bay....This is the best place yet in NSW I've found to kitesurf...perfect for mere novices like ourselves...we launched from XXX. There's plenty of other places to launch from depending on the wind direction. But this was good for us. Shallow water. A sort of lagoon with somewhere only a small exit to the sea so no chance of being eaten by sharks or ending up crossing the Tasman. So the Sat afternoon we pissed around a bit, but didn't get enough wind for any serious board action. Though good progress made by G and general messing about.
On to Sunday. I spent the night in the van. Lovin' the van by the way. Pic coming soon! We rose early from our super-quiet camp site (called XXX). And headed off to meet Jen and John down at Caves/the other one next to it again (called XXX). Well blow me. The waves are shit for surfin' cos....the wind's up!!! So smug as you like we left the others to their shit surfin' conditions and headed back to our launch on St George's Bay. Northerly (I think - must check...Proto??). Anyway wind heading in direction of the boat launch on other side of the Bay. So it was an afternoon of Georgian Crossings which were fun. Forget this tacking malarkey.
Proto was first. He's officially cracked it now. Doing all sorts of magic on the board. We had the binoculars so we could see where on the other side (about 1-2km away) he'd land so we could drive round and get him. That worked well so we repeated the routine again and again.
My trip was reasonably successfull (for my standards)...I'm still not quite there. Can't believe it, given how long I've been playing around with this sport for, though hey ho). Anyway I made the crossing tacking around, messing around for the first time in ages with not a care - no dogs, no kids, no other kitesurfers or fishermen or boats or sharks or crab traps or bouys or waves or groins. What a joy.
So, without exaggeration here's where I'm at: I can get on the board. I can stay on the board but not for very long. I spent some time trying to work out why - it seems I mostly put too much weight on the front which then sinks. I'm also a bit chicken about going directly downwind so end up going sideways and not getting enough speed/momentum. Ican fly the kite well without the board. But the biggest bug bear is when the kite crashes and lands upside down on the leading edge I can't bloody relaunch it. Well, true to form this happened about two-thirds the way across the Crossing. But all was OK. I sailed her in to the awaiting G & Proto....
My second crossing was similar although this time I dropped the kite - again only the once but once is enough and too much and generally the end of it for me. It dropped and landed and went limp and I realised the bladder must've burst. Bollocks. So I'm in the deep part of the Bay now. No probs: pull the release / start winding up / using the board for buoyancy / tiring though. But then my saviour came. Rich (or maybe Rob) I think his name was (Proto - is that right??). Anyway he's the windsurf dude and had been our only company out on the bay that afternoon. He'd noticed the kite no longer in the sky and come to investigate. Well he comes zoomin' up and taps on his board. “Looking tired". Well bloody fantastic. I sat on the board and got my breath back.Not that there was any drama but it was nice to have a rest. And roll up the kite sat on the windsurf board. Well the good news was there was no puncture - only the stopper thing had come out. We did that rolling up thing then the dude decided he would windsurf us both to shore. Very impressive I thought, but it proved too difficult so we waved some kids down in a passing dingy and they took me and my raveled up kite to shore.
G got a go as well on the crossing. Proto decided he'd swim behind her. D|ck head, but good exercise! He took the flippers. They both made it alive.
Top location. St Georges Bay. Good fun doing the crossings. Though who's the knobhead with the windometer with his cocky remarks about, “well I think you should do it like this, not like this“. Well, mate I think you should get off the shore with your windo thing and get in the water. Mate.
Can't wait to go back down that way. Top trip. Nice one P & G.
 St George's Bay. Top Spot. That's me with the kite. |  The pelicans at least were enjoying ProtoCole's antics |
 He's got the clobber sorted out if nothing else! |  XXX put somethign here |
