superlizard said...

Tan said...

Working out who Saffer is - kind of self explanatory. We are working on a monogrammed cape for him which should make it easier. Goes with his red helmet.

i can't believe i still haven't met saffer face to face, and djdojo, and few others... after several years kiting in altona... not sure if i've met koma and harry either... what kites you guys ride?
but i do know mrPlow (he does huge boosts), and also fecal (launched your kite last night)... and the guy who teako was talking about, and other locals... reckon we should do altona bbq one day...

Were you on a Grey and black fuel on Saturday when the wind was light and everyone was on the beach?

superlizard said...

no... not using the fuel this season... using the liquid force hi fi - brown/gold colour with black/white tips... usually i kite mostly between romawi st and the rock wall on the west end, or even past it sometimes... only stay closer to the pier when it's not too crowded...

i don't really bother kiting in light winds though...

which is your kite?

Its a 13m green Rev2 or a 9m red and white Furia. I launch the other end but I'm normally where the trees are rather than close to the pier.

The reason I asked about Saturday is there was about 12 knots on the ground but about 17-18 knots in the air so about 20 people sat on the beach with their kites while about 3 of us spent the first hour kiting until they finally hit the water when they realised the wind was stronger than it felt and we didn't actually weigh 12kg's.

I'm easy to spot, I do generally underpowered pussy loops and have no style.

^^^^ white rashie over your head?

if so, then i'm pretty sure i've kited past you last night close to 6 pm, i was also kiting close to the apex park, but then had a massive stack during half committed front roll, smashed flat backwards into the water at high speed (possibly shallows, but can't remember)... lost all my reflexes after that and decided to call it quits for couple days...

anyways, i'll look out for your kites next time i'm out...

djdojo said...

hi gents (and ladies with male seabreeze personae),

i was out yesterday from about 5-7pm on a white and orange switchy. i'm probably most recognisable by my superhero rashie which covers my whole head except my face (yes i'm a ranga). unless it's quiet i tend to ride further out, and roam up to apex park now and then.

have finally joined the mako facebook group and plan to be a bit more social when my schedule and a mako event line up. i would be up for an altona-seabreeze-anonymous-users bbq at which identities are revealed. maybe lunch on a day when a later seabreeze is forecast?

ciao, brendan

There is also a mailing list for MAKO here:

groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/makoaustralia

If you want to do downwinders or arrange sessions or weekends away the googlegroup tends to work better as it sends out an email to everyone on the googlegroup mailing list.

superlizard said...
i can't believe i still haven't met saffer face to face, and djdojo, and few others... after several years kiting in altona... not sure if i've met koma and harry either... what kites you guys ride?
but i do know mrPlow (he does huge boosts), and also fecal (launched your kite last night)... and the guy who teako was talking about, and other locals... reckon we should do altona bbq one day...

I'm pretty sure i've seen all you guys/girls out on the water but with the crap wind we've been having and late work finishes im in far too much of a rush to get out on the water to sit and chat!
I've just swapped over from an orange Alliance 12 to a green/black/brown Torch 12 as my main kite. Also fly a big old black/purple/orange Fuel 15 for the lightwind duties and a little orange/grey Alliance 8 for high wind duties.

I might see if i can attach a little flag to one of my lines with 'koma' on it. That way you know what name to yell before "... ya tosser!"
I was probably getting in people's way the last few weeks as i've started riding an unstrapped surfboard whilst i get my twintip straps sorted. Apologies to the guy that i swooped a few weeks back - i was too busy noob'ing it up strapless to notice you were incoming!

superlizard said...

^^^^ white rashie over your head?

if so, then i'm pretty sure i've kited past you last night close to 6 pm, i was also kiting close to the apex park, but then had a massive stack during half committed front roll, smashed flat backwards into the water at high speed (possibly shallows, but can't remember)... lost all my reflexes after that and decided to call it quits for couple days...

anyways, i'll look out for your kites next time i'm out...

I was on an orange Ocean Rodeo yesterday, riding at the west end most of the time.
Had some fun with those front rolls as well.. should not be rocket science after being comfortable with double backrolls n stuff, but I managed to almost kiteloop a couple of times and then decided to drop a cannon ball half way through.
Can anyone recommend a decent/cheap impact vest or padded shorts for the juwels?

Thanks for the tip! My problem was actually the kiteloop not the downloop, but I think either way you are right that the mistake is trying to pull youself through it as opposed to taking off more vertically by using the back leg.

I also found them a bit easier when riding against the swell direction or even with the assistance of a wave/chop, because you tend to jump more vertically with less forward momentum.
Cant wait to try kiteloops/pussyloops without style, but only with full protection!

we use to park our cars and ride where the park is and circus is ,away from people swiming and other water users ....power lines.... roads....
But the council blocked us from parking there about 4 years ago, so we had to move closer to all the above.

Altona is a full house every day just about and each year it's getting worse

What has happened to this thread? It started off as a dig at me and now everybody just wants to catch up for a chat and BBQ's.

I'm feeling left out will anybody give me a cuddle

I usually fly a green and yellow 09 switchblade but at the moment I am flying a orange Nomad and before the Switchblade I was flying a Flexifoil ION3 which I'm shore everybody would have heard me whinge about.

I will await my cuddle

I'm getting warm and fuzzy

Any other offers

djdojo said...

Enough cuddles, I get disoriented if I feel too good for too long. Back to the complaining for me at least.

Who were the morons launching with kites pointed to the trees yesterday? Green and yellow Naish seagull, there were two of them or ridden by two different people? Spoke to one of them, a german-sounding woman, about this and she seemed to understand (after her kite nearly drifted into a tree) but then saw other incidents as I was on the water and packing up. One guy indicates he'll land someone's kite then runs over and grabs the trailing edge as it comes down. Nearly had a kite wrapped around him and full of wind. Please don't let your friends land or launch people unless they know what they're doing!

For any lurkers (I think the posters on this thread know what they're doing) who aren't sure, launch with your kite towards the water. If anything goes wrong you have more room downwind of the kite and it will pull you towards the water, rather than the trees, powerlines etc.

If you're really not sure, go back to school.

Here we go. Print these out and put them on the guilty party's windscreen

superlizard said...

i can't access that site ..

anyone knows of a cheap printing place that does bulks for a discounted price?

Its based on www.youparklikeanasshole.com and the original was http://www.youparklikeanasshole.com/notices/notice_1.pdf

I still think we need a kiting version of the website

Tan said...

Saffer said...

Laurie always complains about the whining so here is a group hug for you

umm...do you want me to give you guys a few minutes alone? I can leave the forum for a while.

What? You women complained about equal rights and the moment we put a picture up of guys in touch with the emotional side, you jump to conclusions.

You women just have one track minds, all you think about is sex and treating us like pieces of meat when all we want is to be held

Saffer, I just love your sticker..........LMFAO, but it could work a treat. With the leaflet you might also have the local conventions on the back side. The word just has to get out, and if leaflets like these are required then I like it as long as it is delivered with some sort of a positive vibe and useful info. In general people do want to do the right thing, there will always be attention seeking jerks, but hopefully they will get over themselves when they realize that no body kn cares.............people don't admire others, just themselves.......as proof, look at the huge effort people make to video themselves on the water these days.........................its all one big narcissistic masturbatory exercise to validate ones own existence.............but we are nothing, nobody really cares, its just passing entertainment but one thing is for sure, you will die and no body really cares whether or not you managed that handle pass or big boost.

Long live kiting in the Melbourne cesspool.

djdojo said...

For any lurkers (I think the posters on this thread know what they're doing) who aren't sure, launch with your kite towards the water. If anything goes wrong you have more room downwind of the kite and it will pull you towards the water, rather than the trees, powerlines etc.

If you're really not sure, go back to school.

Hmm I was always wondering about that viewpoint, and in the kite school they also used to tell me to launch the kite pointing towards the water. Well I generally find it safer to stand as close as possible to the water or even better in the water, which usually implies that the kite is pointed to the land.
I think the most common issue that can happen is when the kite drops into the powerzone. (e.g. when encountering a lull, some line snag, the launching assistant messing up..) The worst case would probably be a death spiral. So when you stand with the back to the trees in a side onshore, the powerzone is right in the trees. And standing closer to the street, it also gives you less time to release in an emergency.

Sure the kite pulls you towards land the moment you launch it (and because of that, you certainly want some space downwind of the kite), but I cannot really think of a scenario where you can't easily steer the kite to the other side of the window. And if something prevents you from doing that, e.g. inverted lines, then the kite is most likely dropping into the powerzone anyway, and in that case you want to stand as far away as possible from the street.

Certainly you don't want any obstacles in your flight path when bringing the kite up - like almost touching the light pole, which I have seen already..