Christmas

Christmas has been beautiful in Perth. Christmas Eve we had a barbie on the beach while we watched an incredible sunset. On Christmas Day temperatures soared to a record breaking 44 degrees centigrade, (thats 111 fahrenheit for you oldies) making it the hottest city in the world, apparently! There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was baking hot! We spent the day on the beach playing guitar, swimming, digging a big hole, you know, traditional Christmas stuff! Boxing Day was more of the same, as was the 27th, but yesterday the forecast looked good and we headed up to Lancelin. I had some of the best waveriding of my life in waves that were often head high or more, and I was sailing really well, getting some great down the line rides! I even made a huge table top jump, which I literally couldn't believe! I was exhausted when we got back, but I'm having a nice chilled one today and heading back to Lancelin tomorrow, the forecast looks very good, theres a 10 foot swell, so the waves should be even bigger!

North

Nick's birthday turned out to be a great day! We had a surf in the morning at back beach, the waves were small by Nick's standards but perfect for me, I got some of the longest and best waverides of my life! I even turned down the line a bit on one wave. Then we went to the Camel Bar for a chilled out afternoon playing poolwith Matt. In the late afternoon a guy started playing live music on his accoustic guitar, he started with Neil Young so he immediately caught our attention and we went to support him. He was really good and went on to play pretty much all our favourite tunes. Bob Dylan, Credence, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, pretty much anything we requested. After that a couple who had also been supporting him invited us back to their place for a few more drinks. They knew the musician too, so we ended up having a drink with them in their garden. Strangely it poured down with rain for a while and one of their patio lights exploded. They had a talking parrot too. As we left they invited us to come to their house on Christmas Day for a big party, which was very nice of them, but our plans were to be in Perth.

The following week went something like this: We headed North on Monday, checked out Kalbarri, which was a pleasant little town with an impressive coastline on its doorstep. We went to the National Park and saw 'Natures Window', a famous rock formation in the shape of a window which frames the river below and is quite impressive. Then we headed on up North to Hamelin's Pool, just off the highway towards Monkey Mia. We camped there for the night and as we were sitting outside our tent in the dark we saw quite a few kangaroos venture out into the campsite from the bush. It was quite incredible to watch them hopping about and also relaxing and eating grass. Usually when you see them they are hopping away in the opposite direction.

The next morning we checked out these Stromalotites, weird living rocks that live in the sea. They're millions of years old and have been almost wiped out by competition from more complex lifeforms. But millions of years ago they caused the oxygen levels on Earth to rise by about 20%, making oxygen breathing life possible, so without them its likely we wouldn't exist. They weren't particularly pretty or amazing to look at, but still, they're rare and have a huge history. After that we drove up the peninsular to Monkey Mia, where you can get very close to dolphins at certain feeding times. We were too late to see them and were quite unimpressed with Monkey Mia, it seemed like a real tourist trap without much going for it except the dolphins. We decided to drive into Francois Peron National Park, on the tip of the peninsular out into Shark Bay. We had to drive along some pretty hardcore 4x4 tracks which was great fun and when we got to the lookout right on the point we saw rays, turtles and some big fish that might possibly have been small reef sharks. The view was incredible, but unfortunately we didn't see any tiger sharks, which is what w had been hoping for. We were still really glad we made the effort to go up there, it was much better than Monkey Mia.

We headed back down the peninsular to the highway, then pressed on Northwards. We made it all the way past Carnarvon and turned down the unsealed roads towards Gnaraloo. We camped at the Quobba homestead overnight then went to see the Quobba blowholes the next morning. The swell and tide wasn't perfect for them, but they were still working and were very impressive. Then we drove along the rough 4x4 track all the way to Gnaraloo. We checked into the campsite there, our pitch was great, fairly secluded with its own little driveway and fire pit. At last we would get to have a campfire! So many places have banned them! We went to Tombstones, the surfbreak there and watched some guys windsurfing out in the waves. We decided to save our energy for the next day. We lit our campfire and ate some Stag chilli and pasta. It was great sitting next to the campfire all evening. We turned in early ready for some hardcore windsurfing the next day!

The swell wasn't particularly big but the wind was very strong, so the break at Gnaraloo wasn't quite what we expected. The waves were relatively small and it was quite choppy between them. It was also very gusty. I was overpowered on a 5.2 so it was difficult to go for any down the line rides too. I concentrated on jumping and aerial gybes. It was quite fun and its nice to be able to say I've sailed Tombstones at Gnaraloo. I managed to put a small ding in the nose of my board doing an upwind 360 by the beach. Theres reef everywhere and I just caught the nose as I was coming out of the manouvre. We decided, as it would be a bad idea to use the board again without getting a proper repair, to head back south the next day. That night we had another campfire and toasted marshmallows!

The next day we drove all the way back to Geraldton, stayed in the campsite there again, and then after getting a few things sorted in the morning and trying to surf at back beach again (it was blown out unfortunately) we headed South again to Cervantes, where we checked into a campsite and went to see the Pinnacles, a field of standing rocks which is a big tourist attraction and is very impressive to see. I saw them last time I was in Australia and it was great to see them again. The next day we drove the rest of the way to Perth, checked back into the OBH backpackers and then went to the Christmas Sunday Session!

Now its Christmas Eve, in the morning, and I'm trying to feel Christmassy. But its over 30 degrees and the sky is blue, so its hard to get into the spirit of it!

Backloops!

The wind wasn't so great for windsurfing at Coronation yesterday, so I pumped up my 14 metre kite and went kitesurfing. The wind was a little gusty but manageable, not being so strong. I focused on trying to develop my control and smoothness with the kite. It all went pretty well, but as I thought about coming in and ending the session it occurred to me that I hadn't really tried anything new, or done anything hardcore. So I made the decision to try backloops. For those who don't know a backloop in kitesurfing is when you do a small (or large, but in this case small) jump and you look back over your front shoulder to rotate around your harness before landing, having spun 360 degrees under the kite. It sounds hardcore, but I have been told that it is fairly easy and is the first freestyle trick one should learn. I selected a small, steep ramp, put my kite high to support me and as I launched off the wave looked over my shoulder. I felt myself start to spin on my kite lines and it was great, but as I landed my board came off my feet. It was all rather painless so I decided to try it again. This time pretty much the same thing happened but I lost control of the kite and dived it into the power zone, causing it to yank me through the water. I managed to regain control of it before it crashed which was good. The third attempt was my best, I made the full rotation and landed on my bottom with the board in front of me, still on my feet, and the kite above my head under control. It was a long way off being a proper landed-and-sailed-out-of back loop but it felt great and boosted my confidence. I tried another three or four times, none of which were quite as sucessful as my third attempt but none of which were particularly painful or caused me to crash the kite. I cruised back to the beach super stoked and looking forward to trying more during my next session.

Nick and I had a fairly chilled night, we're trying to live on a much tighter budget at the moment. Today (Saturday) theres not much wind, so no windsurfing or kitesurfing. The wind is due to come back within a few days though. We went to try and find some surfable waves, but the swell wasn't too good. We drove along a beach and managed to get bogged, so we let some air out of the tyres. I didn't have my pressure gage though and I went a bit nuts on the tyres on my side, so when we got back to the road (the White Dragon powered out of the sand easily with less air in the tyres) we decided not to drive as far as the garage for fear of the tyres being damaged, or coming off the rims. Luckily a kindly Aussie guy came past and lent us his compressor. We have now bought a compressor of our own, for $18!! Thisafternoon I'm enjoying not doing a great deal, its been an action packed week, or month, so chilling out is nice. Tonight we're going out for Nick's birthday, which is tomorrow, but we're hoping to see it in at midnight. I'll let you know how the celebrations go in my next post!

Pause for thought

Well its about a week since I've updated my blog and far too much has happened since for me to describe it all. I'll try to give you a general idea. I had another couple of good sessions at Coronation, including the best kiteboarding session of my life (until more recently). Then I had a bit of trouble with the White Dragon, worryingly the day I was supposed to drive back to Perth! I managed to get it sorted quickly and cheaply though. I drove back to Perth, via Lancelin to say hi to Ben, Jenna, Simon and Kit et al. On arrival back in Perth I checked back into the backpacker hostel in Cottesloe. It was nice to see some of the people I met when staying there before. The next day I picked up Nick, my friend from Weymouth, from the airport. He had just spent a month in Indonesia and arrived very chilled out and sporting new dreds. We stayed a couple of nights at the hostel while we got everything Nick would need for camping and windsurfing etc then headed back up to Lancelin. We only stayed at Lancelin for one night then cruised all the way back up to Geraldton. There was some wind due and we wanted to catch it at Coronation. Since then we have had a couple of days of great kitesurfing and windsurfing and are looking forward to more today (Friday) and next week. The weekend doesn't look too windy but thats fine because its Nick's birthday on Sunday and we need to celebrate!

My kitesurfing has come on very well, I am now making the majority of my slide turns, most of my carving turns with my right foot forward, both heelside to toeside and back again. I've done some small controlled jumps, both popping off chop and jumping small waves. I've popped toeside to heelside too. I still feel pretty wired the whole time, and don't have the effortless control that the good guys seem to have, but its coming on well and I'm finding that so long as I'm powered up I can get upwind quick and pretty much go where I want to go.

Anyways, must go, but will try to update more often in future. Please excuse any breaks in transmission and presume that its because I'm getting lots of time on the water!

Separation Point Kitesurfing

It took a while for the wind to come up, but finally by about 3 o'clock it looked just about kite-able so I drove onto the beach at Separation Point with Matt and set up my kite. I was dubious about whether I would get going as the first time we launched my kite it pretty much fell straight out of the sky after a few seconds. I decided to take my 8'0" surfboard and give it a go kitesurfing strapless on that. I'd never tried to ride such a large board or one without straps before while kitesurfing, so I didn't really know where to start, but surprisingly I managed to get up and going! The wind actually felt better than I had anticipated, so I came back to shore and swapped for my normal kiteboard. The first run out and back was great, I managed to make some ground upwind and felt nicely powered up. The second blast out I decided to go for a jump! I managed to get myself yanked ito the air, board still on my feet, but I think I steered the kite too far in the other direction so I came down pretty hard and lost control of the kite, crashing it into the sea. I relaunched it easily and started looking around for my board. It was a few worrying seconds before I spotted it and bodydragged back to it. The wind had lulled a bit so it was more effort to get going. After that the wind was up and down so I had some great runs where I edged the board well and made ground upwind, and got much closer to success with my turns, but some other runs where I was really underpowered and the kite was unresponsive and I ended up downwind. All in all it was a good session, I went upwind when I was powered up, I got closer to my turns and I went further out and into choppier water than I have before. Also I didn't gt into any trouble, which is always a bonus when kitesurfing. Matt took some pictures of me too which I'll upload to facebook asap.

Tonight Matt is cooking up some Kangaroo steaks for us, then I'm getting an early one. We might go to Coronation tomorrow!

Conquering Coronation!

Seven years ago in Sydney I trained as a windsurf instructor with a guy called Kit Brogan. Until the other day I haven't seen him since, but he's been very busy. He's become a doctor, a good tow in surfer and a very competent windsurfer! He's also moved out to WA for a while to work, so we met up here in Geraldton on Monday. We headed up to Coronation Beach and he very kindly lent me a board and sail for the afternoon, an Ezzy 5.8 and an RRD 100 litre freestyle board, which was excellent. He was sailing very well, pulling off some nice loops. I sailed pretty well too, for me, landing some big wave jumps, some one handed, some with big donkey kicks, and my gybing on starboard by the beach was very good too. I did some nice duck gybes, one handed gybes, one handed lay down gybes, upwind 360's (which I'm usually better at on port so was chuffed) and also some pretty neat aerial gybes. My proudest moment was getting the closest I think I've ever been to pulling off a willy skipper! Thats when you jump, reverse the board in the air and land it backwards, continuing in the same direction. I wiped out, but it was very close. It was a great sail! Coronation Beach was where I injured my hand 7 years ago, forcing me to leave Australia early because I couldn't work, so I was really pleased to return and re-conquer it. It really wasn't so bad as 7 years of experience has made me much more prepared for the conditions.

Kit has since headed back to perth, via Lancelin, but another friend called Matt, who came out as a guest when I was working in Vassiliki and I randomly bumped into in Perth, has come up to Geraldton to windsurf and we have been hanging out. He had a windsurf yesterday in pretty marginal conditions, I didn't bother going out as it would have meant hiring gear, which seems pointless unless the conditions are good. Thismorning I recieved the final bladder I need for my kite and made (hopefully) the final bladder replacement. I'm all ready for some kiting action now, and despite the wind not looking too strong at the moment, the forecast is looking good for some flat water kite action at Separation Point early thisafternoon. I'm just waiting for the wind now. Come on wind!

Killing time

I'm short of time so I'll keep this brief...

Saturday was windy, naturally, and I couldn't get on the water. I thought about hiring some windsurf gear, but the wind wasn't really strong enough for me to get going on small kit until about 4pm by which time I didn't think it was worth spending $50 on hire. I chatted to the windsurf shop owner on the beach and he said he was closed Sundays, which was another blow! No watersports till Monday then, bugger! I went into Geraldton in the early evening for a beer and to see what the nightlife was like. I went too early though, it was very quiet, and I didn't fancy a late night so I headed back to the campsite and chilled out watching Peep Show on my laptop (a comedy, not a porno, for those that don't know!).

Today (Sunday) I'll most likely go to Sunset Beach and maybe have a surf, then maybe go to the cinema in the evening. A guy I know called Matt is coming up to meet me tomorrow or Tuesday, and with a bit of luck I'll have my replacement bladder Tuesday morning. Tomorrow I might hire some windsurf gear if its windy enough. Maybe midweek I'll pop up to Coronation and battle the beach I injured myself at 7 years ago! And the leavers said I should go to Kalbarri so I'll do that too, then its back to Perth by next weekend to pick Nick up from the airport. I'm looking forward to some more permanent company! And then it'll almost be Xmas!

Air doesn't like being trapped in a bag

I went down to the beach after doing my internet correspondence on Friday and had a chat to a fellow kitesurfer on the beach. Although he had found the wind a bit marginal he seemed optimistic about my chances of getting going on my 14 metre kite, and pointed out that I could always use my surfboard if I was underpowered. He had a point, so I wandered onto the beach with my kit and started setting up. I walked out my lines and inflated my struts and was just about to inflate the leading edge when pfffuuuussshhhhsssuuuufffp! That horrible sound of air escaping from the top of one of my bladders. Gutted. The one remaining bladder that had come with the kite predictably gave up and broke. Now I had to get the final replacement bladder sent up from Perth, basically meaning I couldn't kitesurf all weekend, let alone right at that moment. I was annoyed, but in the spirit of my travels I refused to let is bother me. I packed everything back up again and bimbled back to the campsite.

Some grub was needed, so i drove into town and picked up a little steak and a couple of snags from a butchers and then returned to the campsite once more to utilise their excellent barbie facilities. After eating I had designs to check out the Geraldton nightlife, but then something strange happened. I picked up my guitar and started playing. I started with a couple of Dylan tunes that I've been learning, then some finger pluckin' tunes that I've either made up or learned in the past. Then all of a sudden, without warning, I wrote a song. Just like that, in the space of about half an hour. The last time I wrote a song I was an angst ridden teenager, a decade ago! But out of the blue I just wrote a song, and it didn't sound too bad. I wrote the lyrics and chords down on my writing pad over the page from my scrawled screenplay plans and then used my digital camera to record it (it has a voice recording function). I copied it to my laptop and listened to it through headphones. Sounded alright. I couldn't believe it really. Then, spurred on I guess, I re-wrote the last song I had written, way back when I was 16 or something, but with a more positive slant. I was pretty tired so I forgot about going into town and got into bed. But I couldn't sleep, I kept finding the guitar back in my hands and I wrote another two, shorter, inferior but nonetheless listenable songs before I finally got to sleep. Weird huh?