Too many kitetrips and too few blogs...

So the two week trip returning us to all the friends waves and winds of the east coast of Austrailia went off without a hitch in the beginning of January. We had an absolute blast and kited all but one day of the trip. Lachlan, Gordo the lifeguard king Newcastle turned administrator for a huge section of coast, Stephan Cook, Alex, Mike and our crew of buds up in Coulundra gave us one heck of a Ausie welcome and literally opened their homes to us once again. We got less wind and surf than our last trip there but still had an absolute hoot surfing and wavesailing everything from Lenox Head to nightime kitesurfing at Byron Bay in front of the party town scene and hooting that seems to never stop. Warm water, fun surf, great people, wind and oh yeah, sport apreciation is higher on the list than the model number and year of the BMW you are driveing. This puts AU right on the top of the list of places we would love to live if they actually needed more surf rats.
We landed from that great trip to leave again on another San Felipe trip with killer conditions for five straight days with advanced students Walter and Raj. Some great paragliding/kitesurf days here in BU with a mountainbike and swim workout to break up the surf ski paddles, just about sums up the following four weeks... Then it was good clearing wind after clearing wind with just a few days of the last three weeks proving unkiteable. Mix in the new Caution Answer sle kite to test alongside the Venom 2's from Peter Lynn we have been testing and sending around the country, and you have one heck of a busy new year. The new V2's have more power, better turning and much more adjustment range through their rear straps than previous PL kites. They just feel much stiffer and tighter in the air. If you liked the Vones.. you will love the V2's.. We have guys who went SLE and Bow kites coming back to them. The spars are super duro large diameter aluminum tubes you could tame an aligator with and the colors even meet the criteria of our gal riders here with taste in such things.
The Caution Answer is a turning machine on an oversized (65 cm ) sonic style bar but is designed quite diferently relatative to the sonic than it would apear from much of the press. The Answer is of much lower aspect and deeper draft and thus likes to be leashed with tighter rear lines to keep the wind from getting over the top of the canopy. The stock 50cm bar was designed to accent the kite in a more C kite lei feel. The reviewers are choking all over each others superlatives on this piece of flying nylon. In a market now flooded with SLE and Bow kites from every manufacturer capable of sewing underwear, the necesity of picking out specific bow/sle performance criteria is imperative. We figured that by purchasing one of each of the new types of kites that we could just off the ones we liked least and keep trying new ones.. Oooops... wrong!! Each has such great points that we could not live without. The sonic is a rocking higher wind kite with crazy speed for someone of my weight in the 11 meter size. The 14 meter has huge bottom end and both kites are very quick on a longer bar. I was out in what would seem not enough wind to blow away an armadillos fart with the 14 on a 5'10" fish strapless and the good old Leo Big rodk surf slot and all to myself.. The thing really does have some grunt. The answer can get some of the apparent wind speed benefits with the long throw sonic bar but is much happier in the bondage of the goat bearded Santa Cruz boys short bar tight lined anti-bo, bow bar.. The Ocean Rodeo One has been getting good reviews from my buds down south so one of those is on the way to test as well.
Alidad, Vic, Heidi and the rest of the local and cross the USA venom gang have been loving the new V2's and even managed with their constant badgering to get most of my own personal quiver out of my hands. Next shipment in a week so my new personal quiver will be under the lock and key of the Izuzu safebox.. The ease of use and stability of the V2's is unmatched by any lei we have ever tried to date. It will probably stay that way as you can't eliminate the weight of a leading edge bladder and the support struts, etc. etc...
Underground made me a wunderboard (sorry Kiwi board didn't sound right) with just a few fish dimensions sent from my end. What a quick planing and wave ripping machine this is in almost all winds both high and low.. How did they do that with a fish? you ask...Well they droped the usual rail height by half and added a bunch of concave with sufficient nose only rocker in concert with the new furture system fish fins which are smaller than classic fish hatchet fins. A super flat rocker on the rest and WALA, da light wind machine that will hold through the strong stuff and perfect for flat kite lei and Venom application. What a freaking rocking board.. We will be turning over some of the kit we are testing as girlfriends do need designer sandals , etc...so be sure to ask about team people selling kit to get the latest, etc..
It's late and it's raining but that means possible ESE storm winds tomorrow, so some rain kitesurfing is in store...
Don't forget to sign up for our anual Memorial Day kite clinic down in Baja. Last year we had 60 crazie alumni and current students down there with us with great wind every day for six days. The Fourth of July and Labor day trip also blew every day and had great kiteboard wavesailing lesson sessions.. Of course we still do all the private lesson trips to other Baja wave spots and certain inland lake boat assited kite lessons throughout the summer and winter months as well as....errr....that's what we do and we love to see the smile on people's faces as they experience new facets of this great sport. Ok...so I grimased a bit while herniating my ab muscles for the umpteenth time in the process of pulling in downed kiters over the years... but inside I was smiling... So why can't people understand this is a job...hmmmmmm??? Some people pointed out that most those people rescued were not customers and bought their gear elsewhere... .. We need to get some business image marketing ideas from the ski guide/ski instructor people... They don't even have to know how to swim... But we don't have to contend with grizzly bears on the beach and that nasty high end ski lodge food.. At least the large people on the slopes with hairy backs aren't wearing speedos... No job is easy..
Pictures of past few month trips (excluding any speedo shots) , equipment, debotchery to follow.
Happy Spring everyone...
Traig