37) Fly Girl

Well Nancy has gone and done it - moved to the darkside. Maybe it was my incessant nattering about the lack (or overabundance ) of wind, my constant checking of http://seabreeze.com.au, or my pricing of flights to western AU where they seem to have perfect kiting conditions every day. But she has gone out to 'the bank' in the Broadwater (a large bay protected by Strakebroke Island) and started the steep learning curve for kite surfing!

It was her Day One - where is the wind window, where is the power zone. (above -Iain from Surf FX explaining the darker arts)
how to steer and how to sheet in/out on a practice kite. How to launch a kite, how to land (properly) a kite, how to not get lofted and end up someplace 'not good'.

I bribed the ferryman (Iain) so I could go out and practice in a fairly good learners area (no waves, few obstacles). It was a fairly lightwind day with some periods of gusty slop. I was less than successful and had two non-recoverable water crashes resulting in getting towed among the house boats in the bay by a non-launchable kite ("You Ok out there?" shouts the man with a stubbie resting on his ample gut as I am dragged past the rear deckof his housebaot in slow-mo..
"Yeah, I'm fine!. Bloody kite is flipped the wrong way!"
"Where ya frum?"
"Colorado - US" says I with my thick accent.
"Having fun?"
"Well, not right now!"
"Well, Its right fine - haven't seen a saltie in here in a couple of minths, so yu outa be OK!"

Great. No crocs in the lagoon. I knew that.
Didn't even offer me a beer....


Back on the beach Nancy flying a 6m Best - oops.


Nancy is crashing a 6m Best!










Learning to steer and NOT get ripped off your feet! (note Guy's hand on the back of her harness holding Nancy down!)
















We are stuck in a lull - apparently quite abnormal for the GC this time of year. We are moving toward cyclone season and should be having hot days with nice steady 20 knots side-shore (coming onshore at an angle) seabreezes.

Instead we have days of no winds followed by southerly gales and rain. Not good conditions to learn in even if there are only a few houseboats to collide with! It is also hard to get to a safe learning place - online forums keep warning about staying away from a certain seawall where a kite could crash in traffic resulting in - it does not bear thinking about. We will happily await conditions to get to to bar where one does not have to worry about tangling a kite with moving cars!

So we await another wind day and I will report on Nancy's progress with body-dragging (yummy!) and her first board day. Now that she is trying this, maybe the wind will favor us. The US election indicates we have turned a corner , right? (Hey - hope is hope...)
Maybe I'll buy her a kite for X-mas (shhh - don't tell her!)

And no pics of me in ignominious lagoon swimming - again! I will overcome!

(All pics from my new Pentax Optio W60 - waterproof! So more ocean sports pics in the future!)