Kitesurf in Sydney #26 - A top day on the waters of Botany Bay - Summer winked at us again
Saturday had been like last week - we got going early but by the time Cuspy & I had made the trip south, alas a beautiful calm had fallen over Sydney.[Proto & Chaos setting up, Photo by KT]
We got a treat in the evening though, the eagerly anticipated premiere of the stupendous N,G&A feature film of the main event of February: the Dangar Island, Peat's
Bite wedding fest of me & my lovely new wife. A top production - even featuring some "early footage" of Capn Chaos in action. Thanks guys.But what an amazing Sunday on the Bay.
The 5:58am text messages (early after the previous day's disappointment) said have a lie-in. I was full of flu so that was a blessing. But by 9ish, we were go. The arrows were lining themselves up for southwesterly. Me & the Proto legged it down to Brighton-le-Sands expecting to go to the Cap'n Cook bridge for the SW facing beach over there.
But the wind was 220 degrees, ie perfectly cross-shore on Brighton. And it was blowing. Weyhey. Proper bloody kitesurfing action.
Wind a bit off & on, but plenty for us to get going with the 16 Crossbow. Now officially out of its bag. And a bargainous purchase it was too. $1,150 second hand off the other Bay, the 2006 model, a bit of use, nothing wrong with it. It's $2,300 RRP ($1,900 new with discounts). Takes a bit of getting used to, flying very differently to the 12 Boxer that I've "grown-up" on. Slower, less easy to throw around (due to the size), but so much more control. Flies itself enough to be able to start messing around on board control. Love it.The missus came down with us. The last time she saw us being about a year ago, so she was expecting a day of tangled lines, kites falling out of the sky, no wind, disappointment, cup of tea in the van, and losing something-or-other.
As it was she brought the camera, and it took pictures of me doing my magic upwind. Cuspy & Proto doing their magic too. She was mightily impressed![Cuspy just avoiding smashing the kite on the water, Photo by KT]
Proto had to go early and pack for his trip to the homeland. So he's gonna be out of action for 2mths. Probably worried he'll come back to find me doing jumps. And able to surf!?
But Cuspy was down so me & him continued til the wind dropped. Up, down, messing around, lots of upwind, down by the Novotel shark net. Amazing. The thrill of flying across the water. Some turns. Some board control.
A full day of beautiful kitesurfing.
[Me in front of the airport and city, Photo by KT]
