Dutchies on the tail end of the swell before the hordes arrived.

Started in the kite area with a fun little wave and then up to the usual spot.

Tried the weed twins and happy with their performance.

Kaos 5.3, Rider, Makani weed twins

3 categories

Leighton Beach, WA, AU

Round 4 for me of the NM comp, nice to have Stringer along for company

More wind than predicted, a good 20 knots, probably should have used the 6.6m.

Started with the Vector Rockit and swapped to the Venom (more rake) as I had a full-speed crash at the end of one NM due to a weed spin out.

Isonic 86, Hot Sails 7.3, Vector Rockit 34 (fastest NM), Venom 32

2 categories

Pelican Point, WA, AU

Nice sesh on the river. Lots of people out. The windsurfers where crowding out the kiters today, good to see.

Tried out 2 new, 2nd hand fins that where given to me by my brother. Quite happy with the 34 in my 101 but the 32 in my 86 took a bit of getting used to. The faster I go the looser it gets, bit wierd.

Best speed was on the 101 out in the moguls.

I tried for a peli mogul nm to backup JJ but the sunday stink boats where making it pretty hard.

101Is, 34 Talon & 86Is, 32 Talon, 6.3LB

Pelican Point, WA, - Futura 101, 7m, 38cm

Had heaps of fun today. The other side of the river seems closer and closer. Patrick was swapping boards and doing speed runs.

Pelican Point, WA, iS111, CR7.0, Volt 40

Not really in the groove early on but found a combo that felt ok and had some fun for the last half hour. Grumpy was going well and good to see Obelix out too.

Pinnaroo Point, WA, AU

Peel Inlet, WA, AU 85 Sonic, 6.4Koncept 28 FO weedy

Today's story:

Went to Mandurah with the intention of joining in the drags but things held me up and races were well underway by the time I arrived. The wind was a bit light too, and having not brought my biggest gear I decided to wait and hope the wind filled in a bit. I hung around and chatted for a while and got to meet  Bono who came back to Novara especially to meet me, thanks! It was good to meet you too! The racing finished about 4 and most decided they were too tired to continue. Fortunately some other latecomers (Evets and Stroppo) decided to keep me company. Thought I'd go for a nautical mile but the wind was really not strong enough for good speeds. There is a bit of a hiccup in the nm where I suddenly discovered a white post off to my right and realised I was crossing a corner of the infamous rock garden! Yipes! I gybed out in the boat channel and when I next came in toward shore I discovered I was in alpha land and was soon joined by Stroppo and Evets for some gybing practice. The markers are all well and good but they don't help if you can't finish a gybe dry!  I made every mistake in the book today but eventually landed a few. It was getting late and I was keen to walk back to the boat ramp (because I was a bit nervous about the rock garden) but Evets was keen to sail back (he was a bit nervous about the cobblers) so I put on some more outhaul and joined him in tacking back. On my first run back to shore I was on the lookout for those white posts marking the rock garden. I saw one, and thought I'll turn before I get to that. I turned, and to my horror saw another marker further out with Evets sailing on the outside of it! I was IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROCK GARDEN!!! Yikes! and then CLUNK!! as my fin hit a rock.   I still had 25 m of rock garden to negotiate! Fortunately that was the only rock I made contact with, but it made such a loud clunk I thought my fin might have been ripped out. Fortunately it was just the tip, and G10 so a bit of sanding should do the trick. I think bigger rock garden markers are required. They are too hard to see!

I got back to the boat ramp to find Elmo, Stroppo and Evets all waiting for me to make sure I got back in OK.   Thanks too to the nice boatie who hung around when I was waterstarting in the boat channel to make sure I got going OK. I feel like I had a host of guardian angels watching over me . They weren't watching over my phone though, my aquapac sprung a leak and I think I may have drowned another one .

Surprise, surprise! I just checked my results and discovered I scored a second best alpha and nm today! There's an unexpected bonus. Pity I wasn't properly powered up for the nm.