Had Monday off up here in windless SE QLD and flew down Sunday night, staying with a friend to kite the big winds and swell at Cronulla. I selected Cronulla as closer to the airport for the return journey Monday evening!
I was at the beach around 9:30am and the swell was very manageable for me in the head to head and a half size and wind was gusty but again manageable on my Drifter 7m. I kited for more than two hours but had a few moments of madness getting ripped off the board (strapless) and getting that full waterslide effect of a high speed body drag...I depowered/repowered a few times but is it me or does the kite really feel that sluggish depowered???!!!
I was conscious of no one on the beach but the sandy bottom and plenty of beach downwind didn't really spook me until I really felt the Drifter was simply too big with some sea-bound tacks having me letting go of the bar and being unable to hold my Trigger's edge... and the force of the spray droplets hitting/stinging my face (I had clear Seaspecs on) really gave me that feeling of shutting things down and not risking an equipment failure or worse of course hurting my good self.
Anyway I slowly re-packed my gear, had some late lunch and was killing time at Northies and decided to head to the airport and hope for an earlier flight and thought I would have one last look at the ocean malestrom that was Cronulla that afternon.
I pulled up at the carpark just North of the man-made seawall and a fellow had just pumped up his 2012 Reo 6m and his tethering gear and was setting off down the grassy slope for the sand and the surf.
I launched him , (Pete was his name) and off he went in what was the craziest conditons I had ever felt...earlier my board and bar were almost completely buried by sand in the time it took to self-land my own kite (by pulling the safety) get to the kite, remove the four lines, muck about a little with the loose safety line to aid re-winding around the bar and get back to the bar itself...freakin' wild!
I fired off a few images from my phone and thought everyone might enjoy them...I watched Pete through binoculars and saw his best wave a larger than double-overhead (judged from him standing tall after taking the drop) right-hander and connecting a couple of top turns really arching his turns against the now 40-knot conditions and relying on his strapped in feet for sure!
Good report. Always worth packing the gear and chasing the charts!
Is that Plummet on his 6m?
Select to expand quotesurfingboye said..
Good report. Always worth packing the gear and chasing the charts!
Is that Plummet on his 6m?
Waves are too small for plumdog
Select to expand quoteWillyO said..surfingboye said..
Good report. Always worth packing the gear and chasing the charts!
Is that Plummet on his 6m?
Waves are too small for plumdog
That's some good solid winter storm 6m conditions...... ! good effort. I'm hunkering for some winter storms. I'm wollowing in sweet fa wind this week.
Dunno about the cat 2 cyclone call...theres still seagulls flying in ur photos 
Defo short line weather tho
That would have been challenging - particularly on his own !! Id love to have been there - it looks epic!
gcdave, interesting comment about the seagulls, there was a massive flock of them just in front of the carpark...the heavy conditions didn't seem to concern them at all!
I realised on the drive to the airport I should have used the video function on my phone but simply forgot about it.
I commenced my 24-hour adventure having seen the seabreeze charts indicating the big winds were on their way and didn't really look at my BOM app for possible rain etc...when I kited earlier on the Monday there were plenty of breaks in the rain squalls so conditions were heavy, but not too crazy, and I have kited on the Sunny Coast a couple of times when the ocean looked like all the white caps had joined to turn the surface into froth!!! I have even previously experienced sand almost cover my board and bar, re-rigging after a downed and inverted kite during a downwinder from Currimundi to Pt. Cartwright!
Unfortunately for Sydney the conditions just got heavier and heavier and I definitely thought to myself whilst watching Pete, "Shoot, this feels like standing on a beach during a cyclone!" and it was only the next morning, Tuesday, I heard Carl Stefanovic refer to the storm as a Cat 2 Cyclone, an East Coast low (I always thought the systems had to be sub-1000 to be a low!!!???)...anyway I was hiding from the wind beside his white van trying to hold the phone still to record the images using his side mirror as a tripod to steady my hands. A few other cars were turning up and mad tourists like me were hopping out of the car to feel the force of Mother Nature...and one bird was out, hair flying, taking selfies and pretty much letting her full body weight "fall" into the wind and the power was just about holding her, preventing her from toppling over!!!
On the drive to the airport I saw some trees had fallen over, Botany Bay was totally chopped out and the rain was starting to really kick-in (when Pete launched the rain was not too bad and that was the time to get the photos), I mainly sat in my hire car with the binoculars and windscreen wipers on the rest of the time I was there.
Pete did eagerly mention, "But mate, tomorrow is the day" meaning Tuesday, with seabreeze on full brown arrows the entire day and that he had been waiting for the swell to pick up that Monday before heading to the beach. I wonder if he headed out that day???
On a side note, I did get to the airport and was able to get on an earlier flight (by 30 minutes) and shared the flight with the QLD Reds rugby team (returning from Sth Africa) and was seated next to a former Wallaby captain, so I took the opportunity to give him a few pointers on forward play in the modern game
Oh yeah, and that flight was a little delayed off the ground, so by the time I landed back in Brissie the good wife had two sleeping kids in the car and had circled BNE airport a number of times and was well ticked off by the time I was picked up...nothing like riding the emotional roller-coaster in one day, the penthouse to the dog house
Select to expand quoteHoger said..
gcdave, interesting comment about the seagulls, there was a massive flock of them just in front of the carpark...the heavy conditions didn't seem to concern them at all!
Seagulls can handle Cat 5. They floated when Yassi came through here. They just meh at nature.
Select to expand quotegkawo said..
Seagulls can handle Cat 5. They floated when Yassi came through here. They just meh at nature.
Huh....
Cyclone Yasi went through Altona???
When?
Wanted to decrease staff costs this winter so I let the boys out for a "lunch break"... They unfortunately came back.
http://www.kitepower.com.au/blog/woo_record/
13.8m/45ft!! 
Hey Dave, just saw this post… it was me, Brad, thanks for the launch and write up.
I ended up kiting up to cronulla point and got a few waves there until a really heavy rain squall hit, it ripped me off my board and tea bagged me for a bit, was lucky my board blew down wind of me, i can only assume it was the 100kph gusts that where coming thru. I down winded back to my car and the super heavy rain was bouncing back off the water making the surface unseeable and it felt like i was carving up powder snow, my tether worked great.
The next day the wind was too strong to go out until 3pm the wind was more south and the swell had picked up to the highest ever recored sustained swell off sydney. It took me about 20mins to make it out the back, the waves were not normal, rather then swells they seemed to be massive lines of slop or chop probably because the system was so close to the coast. I waited for set waves and got one right and one left, the next time i tried to get out the back my bar was ripped out of my hand with much force… I decided i'd had enough. Was a week to remember, felt a bit guilty having fun when others where having a bad time with it….
Brad, yep that was you, sorry I fluffed your Christian name.
I remember you climbing some walls of whitewash that Monday, kite in the water only once and I think you only lost your board once that I saw too!
I am kicking myself I forgot the video function on my phone...oh well, hopefully you guys down there can find a spot for me in the line-up next time I am down in Sydney.
I set up at Dee Why mid January but the winds were not strong enough (surfed instead), but got to kite at Old Bar on the drive down and then Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour on the drive home to Brissie a few days later.
Cheers Brad, Dave.
