Hay Meerkat,would be great to have ya come over to the Sunny coast for a squiz, check out the fury felines of your species drink some real beer,please make adjustments to your driving habbits(stay on the left side of the road)and driving in reverse is illegal on QLD highway's

surfingboyo said...

is there any place like a largeish sort of beach to self launch and land from at weyba.

No. Too many trees. You'll have to do a drift launch or walk out a bit and get someone to launch you.

STONEFISH??? Are you sure about that? I know that there are heaps of Rays because you pass over them on the board all the time and they freak out and take off with heaps of sand being disturbed.. big buggers out there as well.

But stonefish? I thought stonefish only lived around reefs and rocky bottoms? Hmm, seems I have a bit to learn. As a matter of interest, if you stand on one what do you do (other than die) to sort it out? I often go up there alone and no one else out during the week, any thoughts on how not to cark it?

I think Blownaway is right but the stonefish are few n far between,more ray's than anything...freeked my son and I last year,everywhere we stepped seem to be a ray,only small ones but enough to give us the willies,so we invested in booties with a 'sole' available at any surf shop....cumfy in the board straps aswell.....funny thing haven't trod on a ray since wearing them...touch wood,anyway's Weyba is still a convenient venue to practice skills and there is usually someone around to assist in launching etc....weather ordinary at Noosa again today, keep ya's eyes on the charts !

Looks like there is a plan to get together Sunday judging by the postings on our team message board. Nothing doing today though, don't want to go out as I might get wet. Don't have a fur coat like meerkat! Only joking, at work all day but looking forward to Sunday if the wind picks up!

Never seen a stonefish in several years of kiting at Weyba (heaps of rays), but it is the right habitat for the estuarine species of stonefish. Few years ago witnessed a kid step on a stonefish at a nippers carnival at Redcliffe. Full scale medical emergency as the child was in major difficulty with agonising pain and breathing problems. Caused the beach to be closed and the carnival ended prematurely.

Booties are not complete protection against stonefish as the needle sharp spines can pierce a sandshoe. "Wounds from the stonefish produce unbearable pain, muscular paralysis, shallow breathing, cold, white, clammy skin, shock and cardiac arrest, and the victim must receive medical attention as soon as possible. The venom is denatured by heat. So the standard first-aid treatment is to place the wounded area in hot water until the venom is rendered powerless. Stonefish antivenene has also been developed".

If kiting alone at Weyba midweek AND you stand on a stonefish, the 200 metre schlurp back thru the mud is gonna seem like a long way!

Ditto here chook - my kids have never been keen to go into the murky water at Lake Weyba - they didn't need to be told!

Just a suggestion (got the idea from DiDi actually) but I think to encourage more (especially us with skids.......oh I mean kids) we should also have some sort of "Mothers" (and Fathers) kitesurfing group, some go out for a bit while the others watch the kids and then swap half way through the day. I find it hard to go out with you guys because the days that you are all going out ALWAYS seem to fall on the days that my hubby is working (on the weekends). This way I could bring the kids and they get a day out and I get a break (and so do the others)