Cumming Clan

There is little chance for me to be able to get out kitesurfing this weekend due to Chrismas parties and other commitments, and when I checked out the wind forecast on Seabreeze on Wednesday I realised that Thursday (yesterday) was going to be a good day for kitesurfing at Altona. The winds were predicted to be south easterly at 10-15 knots increasing to 15-20 during the afternoon… perfect for Altona. South easterlies tend to be a little offshore and unstable down south of the bay where I usually kitesurf, and getting to Altona for a kite after work is not feasible… so that left me with one option, take the afternoon off. I rang a friend who lives in Altona, not expecting him to be able to take the afternoon off as well, but he surprised me!
We got on the water just before 2 pm and the wind did not disappoint, it built from about 16 knots to over 22 knots and was fairly steady, not a SE as predicted but more South West. Altona works in SE or SW and there is plenty of flat water in behind the sandbanks and some nice chop out in the deep stuff.
I had a bad start, I launched my kite OK, but while walking out into deeper water my chicken loop unhooked from my harness and it took me a few seconds to realise what was going on. I almost got it hooked back on, but the kite was really powered up and started to drag me, so I released the bar, thinking damn now I am going to waste half an hour untangling and resetting my lines, but I was able to quickly run up and grab the bar, and start refeeding the safety through, the kite inverted due to the lines being all different lengths, and it tried to fly backwards and inverted… pretty scary, but I kept my composure and was able to recover it all and relaunch safely.
I was on the water for about 2 hours, mainly practicing some toe-side, basic transitions and some chop hop jumps. I am slowly starting to get the hang of the chop hop, I had a few where I got boosted by accident and ended up rather high, I usually ended up with a splash down, but I did manage to land a couple nicely.
A few beers at my mates before driving home made it a fantastic day in all!!
Anyway… till next time

Finally the tree stumps have been removed and the demolition is complete, I still need to do a final inspection before we pay, but it’s nice to have that phase complete. Our builder thinks he can begin the drainage work next week and even get the slab (concrete floor) laid by the end of the week. This is fantastic news as we did not think this would be done before Christmas. Our original plans had the slab and the major structural frame being complete by Christmas… but as they say… “Best laid plans of mice & men”. I have added all the latest photos of the house in the Gallery tab on the left hand menu. I will change the site layout in the future but this will do for now.

I managed to get home early (the temporary one in Carrum), and I decided what the heck why not try a midweek kitesurf. The conditions were really nice about 17 knots SW (according to the Frankston weather station). I went down to Kest Park but there was nobody there so I headed back to Progress Avenue. In the end I got out on the water by 6:15 and I didn’t come in until the wind started to drop around 7:20 pm, so a good hours fun, just what I needed. I self launched, using the sand on the wing tip method. There is not a lot of room and I needed to walk into the water with the kite on the edge of the dunes, but it’s safe enough. When Self landing you can use the dune to land on… however there is no room for error, if you lose it, the kite will end up in the bushes behind the dune. There was someone kiting further down towards Bonbeach and a guy learning a little further up from me. He was not able to keep a good edge and head upwind, so he did a lot of walking… boy am I glad I don’t need to do that anymore! I practiced a lot more toe side riding today, and trying to keep my turns as fluid as possible. I am still having trouble with jumps, I can’t quite get this POP thing worked out… and I can’t seem to get the kite to turn fast enough. I’m going to move the pigtails on the rear lines to see if that improves the turns… I managed a few little hops and then I got one big one… boosted up like crazy, felt like I was 15 meters in the air! Now I am stuffed… and off to bed!

I had a great session on Saturday, only for an hour but that was enough. It was 2:45 when I left home, the car park at Keast Park where I went last was packed with the 1st Seaford Scout group so I went down to Progress Avenue. Great Spot, easy access. More details soon.

Movember is over for 2008, now it’s time to tally up the money donated.  This year was not as big as last year.  Personally I raised just over $100 AUD and my team (nabCapital) team raised about $14,000 AUD.  work is going to match our fund raising effort so that will bring our total to almost $30k.  A great effort going to some worthy causes.  For more details check out Movember

This is Mission Control and we are go for launch.  Welcome to the Cumming Clan web site.  I have been tinkering with building this site for a few months now, trying different blogs and web site builders and struggling with a number of different hosting services.  I have now chosen Worpress to build the site and blog, and I must say, so far its been impressive. As for my hosting provider I am now using www.000webhosting.com - they seem to have a great service and all for free :))

Basically I am going to use this site to learn new web skills (yeah I am way behind in that department) and also to share my experience and adventures with family and friends… and well whoever else stumbles across this.