I have just bought a property at Barwon Heads and plan to move there shortly after living in the UK for the last few years. Really want to up my game and get radical in the waves at Raffs and Thirteenth Beach.

Can anyone with local knowledge of kiting in good surf in Victoria recommend the best brand of kite to guy.

I am kiting on a 9m and 13m Ozone Instinct but both are a bit old and really want to step it up a gear back in Barwon Heads.

checkout the new ozone reo.

It will totally depend on how you want to ride the waves......

If your intention is to ride a surfboard ( park the kite let it drift and surf the wave ) your kite and board requirements will be very different to what you would want if you are wanting to just play in the waves........... which is what 99.99 % of people actually want due to conditions.

Personally I am at a loss to understand why half the people even bother riding surfboards in the waves. ( apart from cross off conditions ) ...99%of them just get dragged back and forth through the line up ...taking one line when they are on the wave. The last few times I have been out at 13th I couldnt help but laugh there have been two or three blokes on surfboards.... basically looking like kooks with pathetic lip hits ( if at all ) and due to the prevailing onshore conditions most of the time they are riding 1m in front of the wave not even on the face. They ride 200m on one line without even a turn, the reason they cant turn properly is that the wind is onshore and the kite is pulling them in front of the wave. to hit the lip they have to turn upwind causing a loss of speed, then when you hit and begin to break out the fins the loss of traction means the kite pulls you forward and away from the hit zone resulting in very very little impact........ this can be slightly overcome in onshore conditions if you ride unhooked ....as you can use your arm to gain an extra metre or so before the kite pulls you forward off the lip....basically you turn into the lip with the bar in close as you hit the lip you let your arm out this will allow the kite to stall or drift slightly allowing you to hit the lip without being pulled forward.

Hope that makes sense....




Unless you are driving off the bottom turn and hitting the lip consitently (ie: surfing )and in the right conditions ...... you would be far better riding a TT or Mutant in the waves. If you find that the TT struggles to hold into the face of larger waves ( ie : slides out ) you can either go for longer fins or a mutant ( which generally has longer fins )

wave riding Kite wise.... for me the most important function is relaunch speed and turn speed. but with a bigger emphasis on relaunch speed.... if you do drop your kite, you only have a 13-15 seconds to get it relaunched before the next wave hits.
I would probably steer away from 5th line kites in the surf as they have a tendency to twist up around the 5th line when they get rolled in the surf..... my old Fuels had whats called a " wave grenade " which was basically a pin which when pulled would release the 5th line and prevent it getting tangled around the kite ( but it then left the line dangling out of reach ) I have now removed the 5th line from my Fuels alltogether but relaunch is slow so I only use the SB in the waves...it has been rolled many many times and I have flown it back to the beach inside out, inverted upside down and the lines through each other.

harry potter said...

Personally I am at a loss to understand why half the people even bother riding surfboards in the waves. ( apart from cross off conditions ) ...99%of them just get dragged back and forth through the line up ...taking one line when they are on the wave. The last few times I have been out at 13th I couldnt help but laugh there have been two or three blokes on surfboards.... basically looking like kooks with pathetic lip hits ( if at all ) and due to the prevailing onshore conditions most of the time they are riding 1m in front of the wave not even on the face. They ride 200m on one line without even a turn, the reason they cant turn properly is that the wind is onshore and the kite is pulling them in front of the wave. to hit the lip they have to turn upwind causing a loss of speed, then when you hit and begin to break out the fins the loss of traction means the kite pulls you forward and away from the hit zone resulting in very very little impact........ this can be slightly overcome in onshore conditions if you ride unhooked ....as you can use your arm to gain an extra metre or so before the kite pulls you forward off the lip....basically you turn into the lip with the bar in close as you hit the lip you let your arm out this will allow the kite to stall or drift slightly allowing you to hit the lip without being pulled forward.

Hope that makes sense....

Harry you've just shattered the egos of the Torquay Waynemen pro team

The most important part is that the kite can depower pretty quickly and a lot without loosing responsiveness and keeps parked without pulling, so you can catch your wave and completely depower it so you can ride the wave and don't get pulled from the kite. This way it won't happen like harry potter was saying that you end up in front of the wave all the way.

For wave riding I would reccomend a small size kite with easy setup (no pulleys no problems in wipe-outs) and very quick relaunch. A surfboard is also reccomended.

I'm usually riding North Rebels 10m & 7m (because of the huge stability and depower) with a surfboard North WAM (with straps).

For Surf riding you want to have the smallest kite you can afford for the wind conditions of the time so you'll need at least 2 kites with big depower capabilities and a board with volume such a surfboard so you don't nose dive.

If no surfing waves, a you can get away with pretty much anything.

Nobile NHP with 55mm fins
( I found with the smaller fins you tend to slide out on the wave face )

^^^^ Try demo a 2011 Cabrinha Custom, with the extra rocker and channels i find it works well in waves, also in the flat.