Trant

Back in "the day" I was flying my 20m Aero (!!!) at Long Reef, Sydney when I f**ked up and dropped the kite and lost my board. Standard relaunch procedure back then was to either a) Swim towards the kite so it rolled on its back Lazy people pulled the lines in a couple of meters then let go, the slack allowed the kite to roll onto its back Naturally I'm lazy, so pulled in the lines a couple of meters. As I let go, the following things happened 1) One of the steering lines wrapped around my ankle 2) A wave hit the kite and somehow relaunched it Now, 20m Aero kites don't turn very fast, so I'm being dragged ankle first by the slowest kitelooping kite you'll ever hear about. Whilst heading towards the rocks downwind of me, the following things came into my head 1) My foot hurts 2) I wish I had a knife to cut that line 3) Those rocks look big 4) I hope my foot falls off before I hit those rocks 5) I wonder if it's possible to kitesurf with just one foot. 6) Some sort of prosthetic would be useful for one footed kitesurfers Luckily, the kite finally hit the water before I hit the rocks, then I unwrapped the line from my ankle and headed in. Bit of achiles tendon damage, but nothing too serious Lessons learnt - don't be lazy! Over the years I've hit a beach hut, been dragged over rocks by a "released" kite with a snagged leash, snapped 4 lines at once (thankfully on a 5 line kite) and, on one memorable occasion, been rescued by a band of boy scouts when I was stuck on the rocks at Long Reef. Oh, and I also learnt the hard way why it's a bad idea to wrap the 5th line around your hands as you're reeling in a released kite. Just call me Mr Accident Prone (or something less polite)

Re : shipping. Ditto, I used "half a container" the first time I moved over but that was paid for by the company. The last time I moved to Aus I simply shipped 4 boxes of essential stuff and sold my furniture etc. It's amazing how much stuff you realise you don't need! If you fly via the USA/Canada (and take a nice holiday on the way), you're baggage allowance bumps up to 40kg over two bags. Most airlines will accept one of these bags in "sports" dimensions. This is what I did on my way over last time, stopped off in Vancouver to visit family and then onto Sydney via LA. It means I got my kite gear and the missus got two bags to fill with shoes/handbags etc.

I'm a Brit who moved to Sydney from London for 6 years, then back to London for a year and then back to Oz. I'm now in south NSW near Jerivs Bay. I'm a software developer. In my experience, I've found the work ethic is quite different, people are happier to arrive earlier in order to leave early, and more people are involved in sports than London so it's not uncommon for people to work around sport. Don't get me wrong, people still work hard, there's just less faffing around and so more actually gets done in less time. I may simply been lucky with the companies I worked for though. I don't know about the nature of your work, but recently I've managed to get work from my London contacts so I can work remotely from home. It means I can kite during the day and catch up with the UK via Skype in the evenings, might be worth talking to your boss about the possibilities? Kitesurfing wise, in London I had a 2 hour car trip to get to my favourite beach (Hayling), which was occasionally a wasted trip. When it was windy and sunny, I was often sharing it with 40+ kiters. Now I have a 10 minute drive to my favourite beach and a busy day is 5 other kiters. Quite often I'm alone. Would I have met you at the Londoner's kiting drinks? I can't remember a Craig, but do you know Bri, Adam, Wookster, Alan, Fred etc?

Thanks Chris, my 15 minutes of fame. The dogcam was my wife's idea to keep me sane whilst the wind wasn't playing ball, the camera was a present from her. I love the tutle-cam, very cool! I like the the idea of an Alex Sans POV cam, not so much the budgie smuggler version though!