Well, well, finally a chance to bring you up the date with the reappearance of the logbook and the recovery of some minor memory lapses by the staff…..these things happen….
The last week of January bought some tremendous South Easterly winds our way with a major challenge for the new flyers. Johanna and Jacob stepped up to the challenge of the strong gusty winds (20-30knots) with the extra difficulty offset by the advantage of feeling what it is like to have some serious power in your kite.
On the 26th of January Dereck, Travis, Tom and Matt hit the shores of Deepwater National Park at Wreck Rock in sweet 15knot S’Easterlies all body dragging with style and most importantly, having a blast and expressing regret at having to leave us, the area and the kiterush behind them to carry on to not-so-exciting adventures but…they did leave with a bundle of posters to distribute on their journey….thanks guys….you rock!!!
On the 30th George, Craig and martin took a group lesson in 20-25 sou’easters on the 1770 sandbar. After a gusty 3hrs they left sporting tired muscles, big grins and level 1 IKO certification.
Amy came out on the 31st for a full-on experience in 30knot rip-snorting sou’east wind action at Middle Creek in Eurimbula National Park. Amy handled it marvellously , started on hook with the 3 metre trainer and never dropped the kite once!! The strong winds enabled her to accomplish body dragging with the 3 metre!! and Amy is…….coming back for more…see you soon.
Due to the gusty conditions on our doorstep and some extremely high tide action - we have been chasing the clean winds for the benefit of easy learning - so most of our lessons have been conducted in the surrounding areas of Eurimbula and Deepwater National Parks, providing students with an extra look at the beauty of the area and the wildlife at no extra cost - lucky buggers.
The first week in February saw Vanessa and Tarjen (vanpackers) up and running with Vanessa learning the ropes quickly and getting hooked much to her boyfriends delight - no kite widows this week!! Go-get-em Vanessa!! and we had Mylene and Andrew from Gladstone tripping down to Wreck Rock with the 15knot wind dropping out early in the session so they are coming back to finish up their lesson soon. Thankfully the incredible beauty of the drive through Deepwater National Park consoled them somewhat.
Today we also had our first injury on the job with our resident assistant, Jerry from Germany, improving his limited street cred by scoring an iconic bungy scar above his eye……from pretty boy to ruggedly handsome in an instant……look out girls!
From the 6th till the 9th we had the Broadwater Bonanza Weekend ….
On Friday, Richie, Luke, Jerry, Cedric and Judith and Rolph, independent riders from Switzerland, hit the Haven first, all riding and practising jumps in perfect 15-18 knot sou’easterlies on the Estuary, the only calm water for miles. Luke took a spectacular stack to become limp luke for a day or two but hell, those kiwis are tough…
On Saturday Patrick Ryan from Gladstone joined us for some private training with Luke and our newest kitesurf junkie Kieran hired the 10mtr and 14mtr Banditos to try out the variety of rides, he likes the big smooth one…. and special thanks to Richie for his fancy fingerwork on the Macbook Pro serving up a great kitesurf video with all our resident stars so we could watch it over and over and over and over and over again.
With all the girlfriends in attendance, fire twirling, hula hoops, guitars and stacked BBQ and open fire, Saturday night took it’s toll on a few of the crew but Patrick returned on Sunday with determination and a hangover to battle it out on the estuary again.
He also performed several vehicular rescue missions throughout the day - a true all rounder….thanks Patrick…..can I have my pillow back now? Jade sparked up the trainer kite as did 10 yr old Cody who was body dragging AND got up on a surfboard unstrapped ….
….. look out kitesurfing community, we have an early starter.
Quick note…..we can offer this to you too ….. this amazing place has it all ….. primo cabins, surf beach, estuary, deep and shallow water, stingrays, fishing, shellhunting and oh yeah, kitesurfing ……
Sunday saw most of us heading for home, happy and sunburnt but Judith and Rolph wouldn’t leave and stayed an extra night so they could have the place all to themselves …. I bet they missed us though ….
A sad note for us - Luke is now a Level 2 IKO Instructor after completing his 160 hours of student training. Good-on-yer mate!!! So he is ditching us for bigger and better things…..you’ll be back gimpy!!!
