In case you've been living under a gigantic rock this past month, Kitestock - Australia's biggest kitesurfing event took place last weekend in Dongara, WA. This year, forecasts threatened to cancel the event, with super light SE winds predicted and rain. Did that worry anyone? Nope! Over 280 people showed up to celebrate the wind down of the summer kitesurfing season in WA.

The event went ahead, with conditions ranging from 0 knots, to 20 (or so) knots and usually offshore. Thankfully WAKSA (Western Australia Kitesurfing Association) had a few support boats on hand, which did all the running around to pick up those kiters in trouble, destined for Africa.

Many kitesurfers rode every day, for once getting a chance to test the larger equipment from the manufacturers. 12m kites and surfboards were the weapons of choice for most, with the occasional 17m kite spotted - mowing down unsuspecting stragglers in the gusts.

Others opted for a bit of a surf - Saturday was not too shabby, and those who had access to Stand Up Paddle boards were having a great time in the knee to waist high beachies. The Dongara water is so clean, the ocean floor a fantastic white sand, it is a pretty awesome place to chilax at.

As usual, shenanigans at the pub seem to be one of the biggest highlights of the trip, there was a a HUGE kite pump (who when he arrived at the pub, people were heard saying "The pump is here").

The Pump almost took out the 'best dressed' but, unfortunately for him, he was cancelled due to the theme being Carnival. The winner had an amazing peacock carnival design fashioned out of an old kite. All the struts pumped up, the leading edge removed, and strapped to his back - great effort.

Many sore heads both Saturday & Sunday morning as kiters with too much energy from no kitesurfing burned it up at the Priory hotel. Things got pretty wild on Friday night with one individual ending up dancing totally starkers! But we'll leave the stories for the forums. You can check them out here.

Industry support was once again fantastic, with an insane amount of prizes being handed out - kites, boards, sunnies, accessories, clothing (even two flights to the Cocos Islands for a kitesurfing holiday). Over the weekend demo kites were strewn all over the beach, free for any kitesurfer to take for a spin.

Like every year, there's discussion of having another event at the start of the season which will be aimed at giving the retailers a chance to demo all the gear (while its still new!) . But we'll see how that pans out over the year! All we know, is that next year Kitestock will be bigger than ever thanks to WAKSA, I'll be there - you should be too!

A big thanks to all the WAKSA volunteers who put on such an amazing event that ran smooth as silk, despite the lack of wind. Regardless of wind or not, it was a roaring success and always succeeds in bringing the WA (and interstate) kitesurfing community together.

Read about what you can't remember from the event here

Read the informative stuff here

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