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Extreme Kites Labour Day Explorers' Weekend Friday March 8th - Monday March 11th Land kiters for two decades have been kiting Waratah Bay, kicking off from the Sandy Point foreshore. This time we're looking at exploring the East side of Shallow Inlet, launching from the Boat Ramp and traversing the east side in to Wilsons Promontory. Having never done this before, anyone joining us is advised to be equipped for all terrain with either Big Foots or MidiXL's. Alternatively having a ski-rope in case you need to pull through some soft patches if on Barrows or Midis may also be a workable option. Route Planned Tides Late afternoon/evening tides, with daylight savings still running we'll be able to kite well in to the evening. Accommodation Options Shallow Inlet Campground - $20/night (Unpowered Sites) Shallow Inlet Caravan Park - $40-$126/night (Unpowered Sites, Powered Sites and Cabins) Wilsons Prom Holiday Park - $65-$315/night (Unpowered Sites, Powered Sites and Cabins) Sandy Point Caravan Park - $55 - $65/night (Unpowered Sites, Powered Sites)

Kitebuggy flying under a Moustache!

My Sysmic S2 buggy is for sale. This is a great stable buggy in good condition. It has been washed with fresh water and sprayed with silicon spray after all beach rides, but predominantly used in-land on grass ovals. MidiXL tyres. Front wheel mud flap. The rear axle is removed quickly and easily with 4 bolts, enabling the buggy to be transported easily. It fits in the back of my Subaru Impreza hatch. With my buggy, I am including a number of free items to allow somebody new to buggying to start immediately having learnt how to fly power kites. Included for free in the sale of this Sysmic Buggy will be: The Sysmic 80 litre kite bag which can be strapped to the rear of the buggy. A helmet (one of the 2 in the photo) A Flysurfer Peak 1 9m depower single skin kite. This kite has seen a fair bit of use but still flies well. There are a few repairs to the leading edge. It includes lines and the bar that came with the kite. It is in a small backpack which can be used as a harness. However!! See next Size small ProLimit seat harness. Knee and elbow pads “Walk of Shame” Peter Lynn buggy tow rope. This is a real bargain. Happy to discuss with any prospective buyer. Be quick at the remarkable price of $450

Late model PL Buggy with all the upgrades done. Midi Wheels Siderail Pads Wide Axle 20mm rear axle bolts Spray guard $620 including Freight

Nice drone footage from today on Farnborough Beach at Yeppoon. Step-daughter's boyfriend Johnnie just trying out his new drone and camera. Ant out on his board and me on the Sysmic with 5m Method - a perfect winters day in Qld...?

A bit of land kiting action from the french where have I heard that track before

Hey, am new here but just wanted to share my entry to the sport as someone with the disability (paraplegic) Here is a little video of my recent experience on new brighton beach in CHCH, NZ. Have been lucky enough to have the help of Gav Mulvay to set up a buggy with hand controls and am having a great time with it. (thanks gav). It is a pretty simple and easily removable mod that seems to work great.

Day 1 (19 April 2015) We walk out of Bayankhongor and kite a few kilometers down a riverbed until the wind changes to headwind. Its 10km to Olziit where our course changes to a crosswind direction so we use our motor/generator setup to motor 7km, it worked ok on flat sealed road, unfortunately the next sealed road is thousands of km's away. The rest of the is was difficult going through spectacular hilly terrain with big thorn bushes and bad wind, not the easiest conditions to get used to new kites but happy to be underway. Distance traveled 34km. leaving bayankhongor Tergun bogd mountain, 4000m extra fluffy hand warmers

Mad Way Mongolia Wrap Up We have done almost twice the distance we set out to do and done about 1500km upwind, the route for the next trip will need to be longer and more ambitious. The wide open plains of the Eurasian steppes are great for high speed and long distance but I miss the challenge of crossing high mountain passes like we had on the 2014 trip. We spend 3 days in Holangol, its hard to stop after so many days of nomadic life. We are using our unloaded buggy's with the electric drive to get around town. We eventually pack up the buggy's and ship them to some friends in China for storage. We catch a train back to Beijing, Joe's off to Canada and im working in China for a few weeks. The buggy's have done over 5000km counting last years trip, the only trouble we have had is worn out brake pads and some bent panniers. The kites have taken a flogging, we ran out of repair tape long ago and they are covered in medical tape, we have broken many lines and bridles but they are still going strong. Kites used, most commonly used in blue- NASA para wings(npw model 21, 2 line) 1 square meter x2 1.5m x2 2m 2.2m 2.4m 3.75m 4.5m Low aspect single skins made from modified Peter Lynn UniQ plans- 2m 3m 4m 8m High aspect single skins made from PL plans- 4m x2 6m Foil kites- 4m ozone access 2010 6m ozone access 2013 4.9m PL reactor. We traveled 3693 km in 49 days We walked about 50km mostly to get to food or water We motored 15km Fastest speed 75kph using the 4m uniq Longest day 232 km We only had one day without wind. I would like to thank 2C for the handy solar powered light caps to use and give away. solarlightcap.com Bikelights for the powerful night lights. bikelights.co.nz Cactus Outdoor for the tough canvas thorn resistant supertrousers. cactusoutdoor Salcom technologies for the Inreach satellite communicator. salcom.co.nz Ashburton Powdercoating. Goods saddlery Ashburton for the seats. Heading to the pub.

Day 29 (17 May 2015) The morning brings head winds with big lulls so we tack upwind through the long grass but have only made 8km by 6pm. Suddenly there's a wall of dark brown cloud approaching, we quickly pitch our tents behind some rushes, the dust storm is on us in minutes, quickly followed by driving rain, then sleet, then snow. Everything is white by sundown, hard to believe it was hot and sunny 4 hours ago. Distance traveled 8.5km Total distance 2141km

Day 26 (14 May 2015) Wind arrives at 7 and we are cruising down a road under construction for 30km, then the road turns off towards another oil rig and the rest of the day is bumpy rutted tracks and extremely gusty cross upwind, we pick small kites to handle the gusts then cant move in the lulls, slow going and dangerous. we see a few foxes running around. Dinner is our standard meal of fried salami, cheese and mayonnaise on bread fried in butter, followed by a drink of hot seabuckthorn juice. Distance traveled 130km Total distance 2048km

Day 21 (9 May 2015) No wind for most of the day, we walk and kite to a fork in the road, we hear there may be a military base with a small shop down one of the roads, dont know which road yet. 2 cold Mongolians on a motorbike stop at our camp and we gave them a hot cup of tea, this situation is usually round the other way. Today it was warm enough to take off our down jackets, we have been wearing every piece of clothing we have day and night for the last 10 days. Distance traveled 32 km Total distance 1625 km

Day 20 (8 May 2015) Unpredictable wind all day, no prevailing direction, Joe lifted out of his buggy by a dust devil, he releases the kite which then gets lifted up and lands 500m out in tick land, Joe dresses up in all his wet weather gear and wades out to retrieve it. Two army guys stop us to check our passports in the evening, I got pulled out of my buggy while demonstrating buggying, much to everyone's amusement, then the army guys had a try, to our amusement. We stay the night at their nearby base and filled up on some much needed food and water. We pass the unsupported kite buggy distance record today, 1570km set my Craig Hansen and myself last year, that trip was mostly in high mountainous terrain, difficult but very rewarding. Distance traveled 55 km Total distance 1593 km

Day 18 (6 May 2015) No wind so walk to town for breakfast and supplies, Joes phone is missing, our phones are our only navigation aid and connection to the outside world so Joe backtracks to our campsite to look for it, no luck so he starts asking around town and miraculously tracks down the kid that pinched it out of his bag. This was the only dishonesty we encountered, Mongolians are generally very honest people. I say goodbye to the mob of lambs and goats that have been chewing everything on our buggys and we walk a few km out of town and camp, our first no wind day. Distance traveled 14 km Total distance 1343 km

Day 17 (5 May 2015) Kited to Javhlant for lunch, an annoying guy tries to guide us round town for money. We crossed the river and headed for the town of Tumentsogt, its 30km off our course but we have time and wind to spare. We soon found ourselves in a vast area of rolling hills and short green grass, we spent the afternoon hooning around and chasing deer, the wind is still cranking so we aim for the small town of Bayan 57km away, screaming down a wide dirt road until dark when the wind dies as it does most days, unfortunately 4km short of town. Distance traveled 121 km Total distance 1329 km

Day 16 (4 May 2015) Still northerly wind in the morning so we abandon our plans of going to Onon and head along the north side of the river. The wind is cross or cross upwind and steadily increasing, we start on 4 meter kites then 2.5 then 1.5, we hold onto the 1.5m kites as long as we can, both laughing at the huge amount of power these tiny 2 line kites were making, after hours of sliding sideways down an old road with huge muddy potholes we hve to change to our smallest 1 meter kites. Joe gets chased by a pack of dogs. The wind keeps getting stronger, colder and more upwind with low dark clouds, we shelter in our kites for a while and continued when the wind eases slightly. The sun drops into the small gap below the clouds and gives us a strange yellow light with black skies, sometimes I wish I had enough room and money and spare weight for a decent camera. We camp in a dry salt marsh at 11pm, the strong wind continues all night and all the next day. Distance traveled 83 km total distance 1207 km

Day 15 (3 May 2015) Leftover goats head for breakfast, warmed up by putting it in your tea, kited to city of Ondorhann through bumpy frozen swamp. Lunch, groceries and continue along north bank of Herlen river. We took a turnoff to go even further north to the Onon river, the birthplace of Chinggis Khann (Genghis Khan) but the persistent freezing northerly wind isn't helping. Distance traveled 56 km Total distance 1124 km

Day 14 (2 May 2015) Rain in the morning then good wind, we make 45km before it switches to a strong headwind with driving snow. We shelter in our tents until it clears in the evening then make a few more km before dark. We are invited into a ger for the night, it was going to be a very cold night so we gladly accepted, dinner is a goats head boiled on a dung fueled fire, we sleep on the floor with the children. Distance traveled 49 km Total distance 1068 km

Day 13 (1 May 2015)Gusty crosswind run to Darhan in the morning, the regenerative braking system is doing a good job of charging our batteries with excess kite power, we stop for lunch and groceries. Fast downwind run to Ulaan-ereg located on the Herlen river, stopped for dinner, luxury buggying today. Nice crosswind road through small hills in the evening, the sunset is spectacular as ever, we camp where road turned too far upwind. Distance traveled 120 km Total distance 1018 km

Day 12 (30 April 2015) Freezing headwind all day, cant zig zag upwind because of the long grass, stayed in the tent. I celebrate my birthday by eating all the chocolate.

Day 11 (29 April 2015) We learn of an abandoned soviet mig base 10km upwind of us so we zig-zag our way over smooth green fields to the area and found a ghost town with soviet arches and mig statues, I triy to buggy on the runway but got told off. We have lunch in the ruins then use our trick of kiting upwind in both directions then looking at our GPS track on the map and seeing where we can get to with our best angle. The only option was Darhan, 90 km away cross/upwind with no roads. The next 60 km is a nightmare of dense tick infested 1m high grass and unpredictable wind, we are stopping every 30 minutes to stop, strip, remove ticks and continue, not much fun in these temperatures. There are big herds of native antelope wandering around this area. at some stage we lost sight of each other but we eventually found each other and camp beside a road. Distance traveled 84 km Total distance 898 km

Day 10 (28 April 2015) Good strong crosswind from 8, we stop in a rough town for lunch, 10 Mongolian pies each. I almost had a head on collision with a motorbike on the way into town. In the afternoon the dry brown surroundings we had been traveling through for the last 10 days gave way to short green grass. We walk through the town of Choir on the trans-mongolian railway and head north in the dark, lots of powerlines looming out of the dark, hard on the nerves. Distance traveled 182 km Total distance 813 km

Day 9 (27 April 2015) No wind until 1:30, we leave town in super light wind, nice smooth terrain with a few hills. Distance traveled 38 km Total distance 631 km

Day 8 (26 April 2015) We awake to a sandstorm, it appears to be easing at 4pm so we leave town on 1.5m kites. After 10km the wind gets much stronger and sandier so we turn back, it gets even windier so change to 1m kites then 1m lines and return to the same spooky hotel. The storm howls all night, im glad we turned back. Distance traveled 19 km Total distance 592 km

Day 7 (25 April 2015) Good wind from 9am increasing all day. flying across vast featureless desert plains on small 2 line nasa kites, we pass through another ghost town beside an abandoned mine. The hot dry conditions and long distances between real towns are hard on our dwindling water supply. We arrive in the city of Mandalgovi in the afternoon, find a ghostly looking hotel and much needed shower. We decide we had seen enough of the Gobi desert and change our route further north to follow the Herlen river. Distance traveled 131 km Total distance 573 km