Kite surfing - Sunset downwinder to Dolphin beach

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Forces-of-Nature » Personal Diaries » Kite surfing - Sunset downwinder to Dolphin beach

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Owner: Jonny
Member

Member#: 394
Location: North West
Registered: 06-10-2003
Diary Entries: 350

Mood: waitin for the next blow!

10th January 2007
Kite surfing: Sunset downwinder to Dolphin beach
Wind Direction: S
Wind Stength: 15 knots
Surf / Sea State: 3ft surf
Air Temperature: 28C
Sea Temperature: cool
Weather: Sunshine
Max Speed:
Distance Covered:

Thought I'd be cheeky and got a lift of Dave in his clapped out old Beetle that almost broke down a few times on the way to Sunset beach.
The idea was to rig there and do a downwinder to Blouberg central and walk back to the backpackers from there.
After forgetting my pump, I had to walk about 300 metres upwind to some other kiters and pump up my kite. Eventually I got onto the water and headed downwind towards Blouberg, staying upwind woulda been hard in the marginal conditions so glad it was a downwinder.
Was trying out all sorts of new moves in the marginal conditions and got spanked when I did a downloop near the shoreline to toeside which didn't go to plan. Happened at the worst place as I was getting drilled by the surf and then the I lost control of the kite and crashed it hard into the shallows. Kite deflated immediately so thought I had burst the baldder.
To my releif I hadn't when I dragged it out of the water, one of the pipes linking the LE baldder to the middle strut popped out of the valve so I put that back in and once again borrowed someones pump to get back and running.
Had a few more good runs working my way downwind towards Blouberg and then tried a jump when gybing about 800m out. I landed in front of the kite which meant it stalled in the light conditions and featherd down. Tried a relaunch but it wasn't to be as there was hardly any wind. One other guy tried to assisst and then suddenly the kite deflated again which wasn't so good. Luckily this Dutch kitesurfer took my board in first and then came back for me so I rounded up the kite and gladly took the tow back in otherwise it woulda beena good 45 min swim I was that far out.
To top it off, A huge humpback whale appeared 100m away from me further out to sea displaying its huge dorsal fin and sending a big splash in the air. Quite a few people on the beach saw it as well. Quite an eventful afternoon for me and gald to be back on dry land.

It later emerged I had infact had a slight leak in the LE bladder not sure how it was caused but was only about 5mm long so easy to repair.
The clips on the tubes to isolate each strut from the LE bladder didn't do there job as the struts deflated which was a bit of a disappointment. The GK clips are a bit cheap and nasty compared to Cabrinhas and Slingshots Isolation clips.

Toys Used: