If you hadn’t noticed summer is nearly here and the sea breezes are already starting apparently (no-one has looked up what a sea breeze actually is I think) but there is wind none the less. This opens the floor to the first kitesurfing.com.au video competition!!

For this video comp you must submit a video (via youtube or something) of you or a mate kitesurfing on the most obscure board imaginable! I once used a plastic toy guitar with some degree of success. To qualify the video must contain a kiter, actually riding on the object for some distance lets say 20m or more and hopefully end in a large stack (will gain you points!)

Get creative, planks of wood are simply shit and isn’t going to win you anything, attaching a hydrofoil to something also doesn’t really count but I like it so enter it anyway!

There will be a prizes when I can find a willing sponsor / donor but worst case you’ll get the kudos of the kitesurfing community.

A VIDEO OF YOU KITE SURFING ON SOMETHING STRANGE, BIZARE, STUPID, INCONCEIVABLE.

 Below are the entry details.

• Kiter must ride for at least 20m to qualify 50m is best, a turn n return is awesome! – the further the more points however if its that easy to ride try find a harder object!!
• The kiter is the entrant not the person that shot the video! – There just ain’t no skill in shooting a video with a phone! more points for more creative film making tho!
• There must be an explanation of what it is that you are riding in the entry comment below this post.
• The object must be a non-pollutant! – I can’t stress this enough, dirty the sea I’ll come crap in your shoes!
• You MUST retrieve the item! – You can’t go nuts on something thats going to sink and leave it out in the bay, the winner and their steed will be presented the award, no steed no prize!
• The judges will be myself (Pete) and whoever I can get at the pub to watch them over beers.

How to submit your entry.

• Upload your video somewhere, if its facebook you need to post it to the Northern Beaches Kiters page AND then add a comment to the comments below to say you’ve entered on facebook with a link if poss, if needed get me the video and I’ll upload / host it.
• Youtube/vimeo entries are quickest, upload it and share the link in the comments on this post (not Facebook!) try and put a link this post in the comments on youtube.
• Use your REAL email address to post in the comments HERE!. They are hidden from the world and if you don’t use it I won’t know how to get hold of you for your prize!!

Competition dates.

• This comp runs from NOW until November 16th 2014! – That is plenty of time to get your stuff together.

Tips..

• Try and keep it safe.
• Points awarded for adding difficulty – waves, old kites, unsuitable attire etc etc
• Big crashes are awesome
• Small interviews in the video are good, describe what your going to ride, give it a name and then ride it!
• If you can get the whole beach in hysterics I’m going to like that.

OK, Any other questions drop us an email pete@kitesurfing.com.au

Have fun.. Wish I could enter…

REMEMBER – TO ENTER YOU MUST COMMENT TO THIS POST BELOW…..

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For those people curious as to why it didn’t snap a line sooner, and for those people that want to learn more about looping kites safely this is whats happening. When the kite is looping for the first 19 off minutes, notice how the kite isn’t actually flying anywhere, its looping inside its own length so it’s not generating any apparent wind and is pretty much stalling itself, then all of a sudden towards the end it starts opening up its turn and really starts whipping a good loop, that is where the power of the kite loop is being generated! A few mins of that and something had to give and sure enough a line snaps ending the almost comical 20mins of looping and probably saving the kite.

anyway, here is the vid..

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Recently I was joined into a WhatsApp group for surf in Manly and have found it really useful for finding out whats going on and getting updates of when / where people are going surfing and meeting up for socials.

Asking about I found there was windsurfing one and a SUP one on the Northern Beaches. So why don’t we have a kite one? Well maybe there is, but I’ve not heard of one so I’m setting one up.

If you’ve not heard of WhatsApp it’s very simple, it’s just a messaging app for iPhone or Android or other lesser smart phone, just find it in the app store and install it. It links to your phone number and only people with your number can see that have it installed. No facebook or Tinder required! and it’s FREE! One nice feature is that you can disable all group notifications so you can use it when you like or have it alert you the instant something is happening.

So, I’m creating a group for anyone to send wind reports, sessions etc.

To get on the list simply email me your name and phone number to pete@kitesurfing.com.au and I’ll add you in.

check out more at www.whatsapp.com

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In the early days from 2001 – 2005 there was “KitePix”, which was just a subdomain of one of my other pages where I’d toss up the odd photo gallery. Believe it or not, it’s still online: http://www.smallwood.com.au/index2.htm

(With a few exceptions) almost every one of those photos on every one of those pages was taken with FILM or transparencies, then printed and scanned and uploaded via an internet connection that was probably running at about 128kb/s, at best. The water shots were all done with a Nikonos 3 water camera, vintage 1975 that contained no light meter, no through the lens focussing (you had to pick your distance, set it and then wait until your subject arrived at that distance, then push the shutter). The light was set by knowing what film you had, what time it was, which way you were facing and what month of the year it was and how much cloud there was. You had a leeway of about 1.5 f/stops to get it right. Still, the hit rate was pretty good!               http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/htmls/models/htmls/nikonos13.htm

I originally registered kitesurfing.com.au on 19 May2001, then just let it sit around for a few years without knowing what I’d do with it. Finally, digital cameras came on the scene in a big way in 2004. I got a Nikon D100 and in July 2005 started posting photos on the kitesurfing.com.au  site. Ironically — not having any idea that I’d one day be living here, the first post on the site was a photo gallery of the 2005 AKSA Nationals which took place here in Geraldton WA.

You can view the first kitesurfing.com.au post on the WayBackMachine archives here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050712020534/http://www.kitesurfing.com.au/

The first proper page with links and background images and all that went up sometime later that year.

Then, there’s a big gap when there are no archives and the next archive appears in August 2006:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060820190254/http://kitesurfing.com.au/

A very young-looking Coert throwing some spray at Wanda in 2006

This post contains some of the very first photos of StandUp Paddleboarding, at the 2006 Mambo. Amazing how big it’s become in such a short time. If you feel like sampling more of the historical posts, you can find them at: ttps://web.archive.org/web/*/kitesurfing.com.au

Well, a lot of years passed and we packed up and moved west. At about that time some religious zealot hacked the page and deleted all the content and nothing much happened for a few months.

Then Mr. Pete took over things and gave the site a bit of class and brought things into the 21 century, which is what you see today. So, now that things have settled in a bit perhaps now it’s time to find out more about what you’d like to be seeing on the page going foward. I haven’t looked at the page stats in quite some time. At one stage we were getting upwards of 1,000 unique visitors a week and average visits of around 8 minutes. Those number aren’t huge, but those visit times are good, suggesting that what was there was valuable enough for people to stick around.

SO, here we are in almost July 2014 and it’s time to take a pulse of the community again and find out just what you’d like to see on the site.

Pete and I would love to hear from you.

To give you some ideas, here are some possible suggestions:

• More photos?
• More videos?
• More “How-To” articles
• More Weather Reports
• Wind Alerts
• Stuff to buy?
• Product Reviews?
• Visitor stories?
• Travel stories?
• Location  reports/analysis of specific Kite Spots?
• More photos of Pete having a pee?

TALK TO US! SEND US YOUR IDEAS. 

Email us by clicking this LINK .

THANKS, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Rob and Pete

The post A short walk through the past. PLUS: Tell us what you’d like to see on the Kitesurfing.com.au site appeared first on kitesurfing.

Over the past month I’ve seen 2 kites get wrecked on this puppy, numerous fins have been lost to it’s bite and I believe there is also some skin stuck between it’s teeth!

Last night I heard of the demise to another kite to this hungry monster! To those of you who don’t know where this rock is please see the image below from our ‘right of way part 1′ post.  It’s the yellow highlighted section at on the left of the image at the bottom that goes out from the beach!

Also be aware that it could be ‘lurking’ low in the water at high tide and a lot longer than you expect!

Why am I telling you this? Well as much as I love to see the kite industry kept alive in new gear and kite repairs its pretty dangerous and a PITA.. so you’ve been warned!

Nice one Davey!

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We’ve had a few requests recently to advertise kite related gear from a few of our local crew. I’ve always been a bit iffy on filling the website with for sale spam but I feel there is a need for it and it is something that Rob always did via his newsletter. To this end we’ve added the FOR SALE section. This will be a list of items that we’ve advertised so you can have a quick look if anyone local is wanting to shift some gear that you are in need of.

Unfortunately this being Australia and the interweb we must have a few rules.. (more rules!!)

1. Lets not take the p$ss. we’re not here to sell your pets and old smelly mattresses.
2. Lets keep it kite community related.
3. You should probably own the item you want us to advertise.
4. I’m not going to write your advert. I don’t have time! you MUST email all relevant info to us the way you want it to show.
5. You MUST include some decent photos (1024×786) and try to keep them under 500kb each (if you don’t know how to do this by now go back to pen and paper)
6. You MUST include a phone number or email address AND be willing to have that posted on the net. (I can’t keep them hidden etc) We have a comments section if you want to use that to get peoples details etc.
7. We accept NO responsibility for anything. It’s your gear not ours, we are not selling your gear just helping you advertise it.
8. You should let us know that your stuff has sold, we WILL remove your ad after time, at least we will remove your contact details from it if we don’t delete it
9. We are NOT replacing the seabreeze for sale section. I suggest you place your ad there also and maybe offer a better price for a local buyer.
10. If I think your kit looks old and unsafe. IT IS!! Get it in your head no-body should be buying old unsafe gear, don’t even think about it. Cut it up with a knife and throw it in the tip or make a scarf out of it.
11. Be descriptive, include the age, model, condition, colours, use, damage etc etc of any gear your trying to part with.
12. Did I mention that we are NOT responsible for ANYTHING!!!

Ok, now we are all on the right page. Send your ads to pete@kitesurfing.com.au and we’ll try and get it up. If volumes get WAY too high then we’ll look at something else. Below is a template you can copy and paste into an email..

Thanks

Pete

FOR SALE :

item title

DESCRIPTION:

your description goes here. year, model, age, condition, colour, what is it, size, damage anything and everything.

LOCATION

Where is it?

PRICE

let’s be realistic here

POST OR PICKUP

Hey we are all local aren’t we?

CONTACT

phone or email

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