I set myself a personal goal of kitesurfing from Perth to the North-West Cape (more than 1300km) a few years ago.
After 22 years service in the Army, I know of many veterans who suffer a variety of health issues and decided to use this adventure to increase the awareness of these problems.
I know we all suffer "donor fatigue" but please consider donating to help those veterans who put their lives on the line to serve their country and now need our help. Help me help Soldier On by giving what you can to this cause by visiting:
https://soldieron.giveeasy.org/campaigns/kitesurfing-perth-to-the-north-west-cape/
Once you have donated you will receive a tax receipt straight away to your email address. All donations made from this link will go straight to Soldier On.
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Once underway (Friday hopefully) you will be able to monitor my position in real time at sjy.id.au/nano/ thanks to my son Scott who developed (still developing) it.
Cheers,
Ian Young
good luck along the Zuytdorp cliffs region , quite a challenge, good on you for giving it a go even if you don't make it in one run.
Ill treat you to a feed at Horrocks if the timing suits you to stop in for a break on the way past. Great adventure, will defintly be following your progress. As Nick said, kalbarri to shark bay is going to be a big challenge.
Had thought of doing the Perth to Gero run over a few days but never got my arse in gear. What I have learnt from 60+km DWers is that reef booties will save your soles, never thought that the base of the foot could get that sore!
Interesting to know, what board will you be using, flat rocker?, fin selection, straight downwind speed, distance from shore (this plays a massive part with kite position on extended runs especially Dongara-Gero), kite selection (wave kite/high aspect).
If you need advise about the coastline I can help you for Dongara---Horrocks, Coral bay---Exmouth cape. PM
Looks like it "Mission On" for tomorrow!
Hey, if anyone has any local contacts along the coastline who may have access to boats, especially Kalbarri to Carnarvon, please PM them to me and I'll send them along to Ian to put into his satphone memory. Never hurts to have too many back-ups on a mission like this.
That's a mission worthy of support. Check this out: Dave Robertson first to complete NZ Coastal Classic on a Kite Board... t.co/GBuBLvZwRm
no offense but the best number this guy needs is the marine/coast watch rescue,
Got all those already. But never hurts to have backups...
The Kalbarri Visitor centre has a list of all the charter boats operating out of Kalbarri. It changes seasonally. There's quite a few cray boats operating out of Kalbarri too, but you would need to be in emergency mode to request help from them.
Ian is on page 3 of the West. The article says he expects to reach Exmouth in a week. A week!!! What a nutter, that's an unbelievable pace. I was thinking the mission would be a month or more.
Very gutsy timetable. Good winds Ian.
PS. If the support team is interested I'm in Wedge this weekend. Our shack is right on the beach. You're very welcome to use the kitchen/BBQ to cook Ian an energy fueled lunch. Or even if you need to use the shack as a bivouac, its not a hotel but it beats camping in the dunes.
Youngy is on his way. Set of from a closed beach due to sharks at Brighton.
Anyone know who the guy is shooting with the smartphone? GWN7 are looking for some vision for a story on tonight's news. If you know anyone who shot video or has some photos they can use for a story, pls pm me ASAP.
Thanks
Rob
soooo going to race this guy from Point Moore to Corro's
He's just checked in North of Wedge. About a third of the way to Gero now.
Dead set!? That is an unbelievable pace he is setting. Ian is a machine. Is he resting at target rocks tonight or continuing on towards Cervantes?
He'll make jurien tonight at that pace and good wind tommorow so a good chance of Gero tommorow! Unreal!
He'll make jurien tonight at that pace and good wind tommorow so a good chance of Gero tommorow! Unreal!
He's just passed Cervantes at 5:30pm. Definitely make Jurien by the time the wind dies...
pretty amazing effort so far, ill be tracking his progression tomorrow hoping to keep him company for a stretch of his adventure, hes got some pretty challenging conditions and terrain ahead, were going to get our 1st 30knt winds soon, but looking at the pace hes setting he might be north of us by then, as for challenging hes a very difficuly stretch ahead around zundorp and dirk hartog, I personally know hes got approx. 80klms of coastline which towers above him with no chance of landing or rest, its an amazing effort for a great cause,
He will do it, probably ride toeside most of the way.
Good on ya Ian hopefully you'll be back for the King of Carnac next weekend.
Wow, this is turning into one of those Forrest Gump running things
Good on you Youngie, you crazy mofo, I'll be sending some bucks in Scotts direction
Good winds
Veebs
Just spoke with Ian at 10:30am. He's in Jurien, finishing a coffee.
A bit sore and battered from nearly 9 hours on the water battling some pretty beefy swell of nearly 4m for most of yesterday but, as expected (if you know Ian) he's as fresh in attitude and motivation as ever and ready to hit the water again.
His goal is to reach somewhere around Dongara by evening, but there probably won't be enough time and wind to reach Geraldton today.
Kites and other equipment, with the exception of a couple of hours unexplained outage on the GPS tracker have been all good.
Ian passes along his thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement.
If you haven't already done so, head over to the "Soldier-On" site and make a donation to help out our Australian veterans!
https://soldieron.giveeasy.org/campaigns/kitesurfing-perth-to-the-north-west-cape/
Cheers,
Rob