kiteingcolin

Just finished packing, taking 2 twin tips, kites 8/10/12/14, in compression bags, pump /bar/short arm 3mm suit, crash vest, harness, small tool kit and repair kit, beach lounge chair for Pauline with big beach mat, beach towel, two I pads, 2 head phones, 3 lap tops, 2 DVD hard drives, 2 bluetooth boom bass speakers (no neighbours) loads of chargers wires and plugs, 4 phones, half a dozen books for Pauline,30 DVDs, first aid kit and lots of Anadin for hangovers, summer togs for us both,4 tubs of factor 15, 3 mini jars of blackcurrant jam with bits. total weight 70kg, one big kit bag of 31kg and 2 suitcases of 20kg and 19kg, (2 kites are in one of the suitcases) this weight does not include our 2 cabin bags of regulation size and one under-seat bag(lap top bag) paying £ for Speedy boarding gives you seat number and one piece of under-seat hand luggage, there was a £70 charge for the WINDSURFER, YOU NEED TO BOOK A WINDSURFER IN!! one kitesurf kit only gives you 20kg extra, one windsurfer gives you 32kg 20kg is no where near enough for near 2 weeks kit for me. We have a new 4wd Fiat 5ooX waiting for us at the Airport, Carbena Medeno are supplying this and are one of the very few firms that don't rip you off for extra insurance rubbish that costs the same as the "cheap" car hire. Pay more in the first place, get a newish car with all the insurance included from the off.£292.15 euro for 11days, a good price compared against the cheap 8 year old opel corsa of basic grade, that cost 148 euro and 140 euro extra when we picked it up, that we did not budget for. we sent in a complaint letter and gave them a rubbish review on trip advisor, (along with hundreds of others)

its not an Audi, but It is also German engineering excellence.

Flying out of Liverpool at 4am on Sunday morning, Easy-jet, wooo hoooo! cant wait, won't get to sleep tonight, all packed and ready to go, booked a farewell meal tomorrow afternoon- just Pauline and myself, fine detail checked and ticked- Pauline has packed all the soft stuff- clothes and the like, I have packed the important stuff- kite gear, all electrical bits - I pad, speakers, plugs, chargers, phones, DVDs, credit cards, driving licence, cramp tablets, sunglasses, factor 15, binoculars. Not excited at all! Mick We watch the paragliding guys on the low wind days, they are nuts! but it's great to watch them close up. the twisty round thing they do is the best bit for me, if they get it wrong it all goes weird, I find myself twisting round as they go for it, defo not for me, far to risky.

jumped in, 2 click bars now sit on my lounge table, ready to be packed away for my upcoming holiday on Sunday, £1000 is a big lump of dosh, but I have sent back four 2015 North quad bars in part x, one is brand new, but I will still have to stump up a big wad of cash, yikes what am I doing? I have just opened up a bar bag and stroked one of my awesome click bars, good god they are awesome. I am blown away by their quality and technical detail, but I have always loved engineering excellence.

I might just send a holiday blog next week from FAMARA Lanzarote. not your standard all inclusive. in fact all inclusive is not available. hotels are not available tarmac is in very short supply villas vary from dusty out houses to really quite nice (ours fall into the later bracket) on the upside -- the beach is sandy, huge and 50 yards from the car you need a car! cars are cheap! so is the 6 bed high quality villa for 2 of us, its £540/week) bubbly and hot tub thrown in! local restaurants are few, one is a fish and steak lovers dream, and I love fish. Pauline loves alcohol and steak, in that order, so we are sorted! wind is normally strong waves are normally big but not intimidating, no shore-break. what can go wrong? follow us for 10 days from this Sunday.

wow! the waves look great, great sessions make the bad days seem a distant memory. we just need more great days.

its just happened and if you missed it, oops what a bummer! Saturday was Hot, wind was 30-35 mph,(8 mtr for me) water conditions were perfect, great waves, speed course in the flat lagoon before hi tide, fast as fast, and boosting heaven in the wave sections, location on Saturday was Blackrock Sands, North Wales. Today, Sunday at Rhosneigr,north wales, wind 25-30 mph,(10 mtr for me) eye burning sunny, warm wind, waves were stunning, many over head high, flat wash out sections were up to 40ft wide, utter heaven, fast as a fast thing on the flat sections between the waves, sometimes over 2-300 mtrs flat out fast, close to shore, the waves were picture perfect throughout the bay. Incredible 2 days, best ever. 7 days countdown to holiday at Famara, Lanzarote, hoping for big winds and waves:)

seen it, touched it, tried to break it. it's a thing of beauty, the engineering, detail and quality takes your breath away. £500 Arghhhhh. good god, that's a lot of dosh! I have to have one, but I also want an Ozone 17mtr Zepher, a holiday in 10 days,(booked) a new roof on my garage(booked for this week) a decorator to do the full house new carpets new bar it is!

thanks for the info Dave. two things you mentioned, one was you thought the bar pressure on your model was on the heavy side, that is something I cant do with. so trying one is a must as I have heard the new model is light on the bar, but that is a subjective view so may not be what I call light, and in my experience when you are using a big kite a heavy bar can spoil a session.

I will not say any more on the fact that today was one of the best days ever. apart from- my feet are so sore I was thinking of going to see a doctor, but the walk in centre could be a problem, as I can't walk in. My bum muscles are so done in, getting out of the car must have looked like I was drunk to my neighbours. I grabbed a yogurt from the fridge and as I tore the lid off my ribs cramped up, making Pauline think I was having a heart attack, a Crampex tablet had to taken with a large shot of whisky, both are recommended by me. my hands look like I have been windsurfing all day, red raw with little blisters. 5 hours non stop high wind mayhem, so so good! I will shut up now

I keep dropping the hint to Pauline that I would love to own the Ozone 17mtr Zephyr, every time I see one it looks like it works well, and the black red one looks great. Its my birthday soon so need to know if this is a great kite for light winds, if its a lemon I will end up selling it, and that's not a good idea if its a birthday pressie. anyone?

so sorry to report. It was very windy very warm well worth taking the day off for. only one downside - a mountain of email to trawl through from those who thought I was in a meeting all day.

Its looking so good for tomorrow I have booked myself the day off:) sunny, windy(30mph), and a few waves.

now I understand a little bit more about what you and Carrie like, I am convinced you will like 2 other locations I believe offer the same sort of adventure. The west coast of Ireland, for periods of over 10 days and the Isle Of Man, from 3 days to 10days, take a bike, motor or push type and stay for longer. Mick As for your bucket list, I have been to the Nurburgring,(on a Bike);]

Brilliant! it was better than watching TV any day. Scotland is awesome! Thanks.

That's it, I will get back into this holiday blog sort of thing, its great to read and get absorbed into, it almost feels like your there as well, looking at the beaches and scenery even the view from the ferry made me think about sea sickness, views of the beach had me deciding if I would set up over on the left or right, and what kite you would put up, how you would deal with the conditions- twin tip or race board, would my car cope with the roads in to the beach, on that subject and looking at the tracks SonnyRider had to drive over we have booked the new fiat 500x 4 wheel drive car to cope with very similar conditions on our next trip to Famara, we nearly wrecked the Astra we hired last time. love it!

I enjoyed that group of photos,I lived in fort William for 18mths so the roads and views to the west coast beaches and Skye are familiar and great to see again, really good quality photos as well.

I do believe its true, for example our company had a internal on line forum where folks could go and share views and ideas, and of course moan a bit, but we have binned it due to the easy and much faster way the WhatsApp group app works, so fast so easy and instant photo sharing, have you tried to show a pic on here recently? clunky and slow and so many hoops to jump through, same as our old works forum, so it comes as no surprise we voted to dump it in favour of the WhatsApp group facility. I have just joined another kitesurfing group who use this to communicate, tried it over the last week and its great, the phone pings every time a new message is sent from someone in the group,the only downside is the amount of messages near hi tide time as members get excited about who's where and when and hows the wind type of questions. Saying this I still believe there is a few valid reasons this forum should keep going, as the wider events and news around the UK is good to dip into, and of course Micks words of wisdom and wit. New kit news, and warnings of places and people to avoid. I would love hear from anyone who has bought the new Brunotti inflatable foil board for example,which looks very interesting. have we a group using the same WhatsApp facility at New Brighton?

if you crack going downwind I might buy 1, as for gybes , if you crack that one then I might buy 2.

not in June, but once in August and then September last year, and it looks like I will be there this October. it can get very windy and with big waves, but no shore break. loads of camp sites, right next to the beach, from basic to posh, food from simple to very ooo la la. les Huttes beach is a massive horse shoe bay, sandy with shallow lagoons, and a very large reef just 150 yards out that can throw up some massive sets, or at low tide some mirror flat water with 2 ft wavelets at the reef that act as launch ramps, which when hit at maximum speed create the loudest yeeeharr's ever heard:)

Ireland can be a lonely place to sail, many beaches are wonderful, but often very empty, you do need to know where to go, and ask the locals where they will be, many forums to hook up to. mind you the Scottish beaches can be lonely places as well, but there are many more kitesurfers up there, so more chance of someone around. I have lived and worked in both locations, being Manx I can remain neural and objective. the Scottish offering was more to my liking, at times the massive beaches on the west coast of Ireland were intimidating, and so lonely. mind you some like it quiet. for me though the winner has to be France, Les Hutts, look it up! 850 miles from Manchester, one overnight stop.14 hrs easy drive.

no chuffin wind! Off to Famara (Lanzarote) on Thursday, so not to upset.

Its looking good tomorrow at hi tide,12pm (ish) around the north west beaches of Liverpool, however the direction is very limiting as far as selecting a suitable beach, its looking more and more like ESE direction, so Granny,s bay in Lytham st anne's may well be my choice, unless anyone knows a better location. I was looking at West Kirby, but the direction might just swing to far east as it needs to be at worst SE. dry suits have now been washed clean of salt water and drying on the line ready to be put away until December. summer is here! edit- its turning back to favor West Kirby,

Years back I was still using a reel leash, and had done since 2002, in 2000 - 2001 I used the coil type leash. due to the nature of kitesurfing back then your board came off your feet many times during a session, poorly designed windsurfing style straps were one reason, and the fact you came off many times due to the kite just simply overpowering you due to little depower, resulting in many crashes not unlike that of a skijumper, taking many meters to finally come to a stop, and then up to 5 mins to finally get your kite back in the air, as easily relaunchable kites were not yet invented,in fact having your board dragging behind you during attempted relaunches was a benefit, and at times you would be a hundred yards from where you crashed before the ruddy kite could be coaxed back into the air. the oceanas reel leash was then usefully engaged in long distance sails out to sea or to other beaches, flares in crash jacket pocket, phone in aquapak, and leash firmly attached. however the race board has gone, long treks out to sea are more considered, kites now launch themselves, and my leash has been lost in the dark corners of my garage. but it was a great bit of kit, I never did loose a board due to using it, never had a spring back, I cant see how that would ever happen with the reel leash anyways, I did snap the end of 2 real leashes when the board got caught on the bottom in waves, but the leash design ensured spring back could not really happen, and never did, but using any other type of leash is plainly ill advised, they will spring back, and my old coil one did a few times, only to give me a little bump but that was enough for me to change to a real leash, I do sit in the very small camp that would have no hesitation in recommending the real leash to all who are learning, or who need that little reassurance that their board will not be lost. I did make many mistakes when using my real leash, I have always boosted big and often, and this is not recommended as on rare occasions you may need to kick the board clear when high up, typically if one foot comes out after catching an edge on take off, the leash may prevent the board from staying clear of a crash landing. the only time using a real leash made me wary was when using it on my wave board with a pointy nose, as the rewind action of the reel pulls the board slowly back to you, but fast enough to make you think you did not want the pointy bit banging you in the ear or teeth as you turned around to grab the board for a restart. I loved mine, it saved many boards, saved many an exhausting body drag through waves, saved many sessions from ending due to chilling down after cold water flushing.when challenged by others on the beach as to my decision to use one,then I looked down at their board shorts and smiled, but never made comment. Now whats all this nonsense with the habit of removing your grab handle?how the hell can I easily retrieve your board with this thing missing, I have a few times but it was not easy, in fact I had to carry mine and put the handle-less board on my own feet to get me back to the distressed owner.

I have been there twice, well twice in two weeks, you have taken the shot looking out to the right. Straight across or more to the left I remember the rocky shore few hundred yards away, one of the areas was called bird shit island, and and did it stink! I remember it being home to flipping giant jelly fish, the smelly out crop of rock, and my fastest recoveries ever after a wipe out, The thought of thrashing around in them waters was scary. I never did see the beach busy, 6 or 10 people at the most,