Due to the NW winds that are forecast for tomorrow, we will be holding the demo day at Kurnell.
We will be setting up at the Catamaran area, towards the end of Silver Beach Rd Kurnell.
We will be easy to see, Slingy Van and KP 4WD will be there from around 11am'ish
NSWKBA Tent and BBQ happening again too, free BBQ and drinks.

More details on www.kitepower.com.au

We had a good turnout today but the wind never really did it, plus what wind we did get was lowered by the ingoing tide, still many riders got to test the bottom end of the 14M T3, 13M Rev, 13M CB IDS, 14M Light, and all the big light wind boards.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

A very big thankyou to all the crew who helped us put on a great show yesterday,

Wind is already in the green arrows at Kurnell, so maybe today we can get some watertime on the smaller sizes, looking good now.

So see you at Kurnell,

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

Steve I would set up at the end of Kurnel past the locked gate on the grass then launch and walk the kiters across the road to the beach. Other wise it going to be a dogs dinner down at the yacht club

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Gone to dark side said...

Steve I would set up at the end of Kurnel past the locked gate on the grass then launch and walk the kiters across the road to the beach. Other wise it going to be a dogs dinner down at the yacht club

It will be a lot more controlled today Kevin. We need to be right in front of where we will be using the kites, for practical and safety reasons.
We will not take over the area and will be very considerate towards other kiters needs.


Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

Today turned ugly very quickly with the stiff North Westerly swinging South and intensifying within seconds (as predicted). Many kite surfers and windsurfers found themself in a lot of trouble being swept across the bay towards the airport without the ability to self rescue or return to shore. Furthermore, kite surfers were not wearing PDFs which are mandatory in NSW and the organisers did not have any support vessels on hand.

Support was left up to Kurnell Cat Club, a Kite Surfer who had a jet ski at home and MSB with the Coast Guard and Water Police tied up with other duties. Response time was very slow with MSB some distance away, The jet skier having to go home to get his jet ski and Kurnell Cat Club with their power boats locked away. The Cat Club did not race because they knew what was coming through.

Today, somebody could have died very easily and the repercussions could have been huge. Bullet dodged and hopefully all will learn a big lesson from this, have support vessels on hand during an organised event, perhaps sign on and off sheets and educate people in the importance of wearing PDFs

Cheers and safe kiting to you.

what an epic day
I think that alot of people are very happy that it turned out alright.
That southerly no body could have judged it was just unlucky

i was so deep in it and quite a while out. i got smashed i was on an 11 rev gusts reading up to 40 knots. i had no choice but to eject
i believe that 5 kites were abandoned due to life thretning conditions.

Big thanks to KP and everyone that helped out. That jet ski saved my life.

And im quite happy that the kites were all ok.

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TornadoALIVE said...
[br and educate people in the importance of wearing PDFs

Um you mean PFD's dont you?Personal Floatation Device.or are they personal device floatations

to quote the immortal words from Jurassic Park,
"at first it's all..OOOHHH and Ahhhhh....then there's screaming and running"

I find it hard to believe that a professional outfit like Kitepower would have a free for all demo event without a support boat!
WTF ?

Dodgy kiters at dodgy Kurnell in a dodgy Nor'wester with a dodgy forecast and an even dodgier Southerly buster .

Pretty dodgy if you ask me !

Hope everyone is ok.
This gust seemed to have come out of nowhere...

I guess PDFs would not be so helpfull out there..... Get a little water loged

Those who helped out did so as swift as they could and a big thanks to them, particularly the Coast Guard who got on the phone and rang around the Water Police and MSB. Their boat was 2 hours away up the Georges river.

FYI at the Cat club we regularly check forcasts and observations on the BOM site and Sydney Airport. Keep an eye on the Observations from stations South when a Southerly Buster is coming up.

crazy stuff

i drove past the airport to go 4x4ing and at the novotel it was a nice warn NW and by the time I hit the bridge over the georges river it was a full blown southerly! fastest swing ive ever seen for sure. its probably a good thing that it happened and no one was hurt because now people wont expect the wind to die from one direction before changing...

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Jacques said...

Hope everyone is ok.
This gust seemed to have come out of nowhere...

Yes, thats the problem with gusts.

The words that trouble me (being in the aviation industry) are: Swept across the bay towards the airport Sydney Airport

You guys had better hope CASA did not notice!

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TornadoALIVE said...

I guess PDFs would not be so helpfull out there..... Get a little water loged

Those who helped out did so as swift as they could and a big thanks to them, particularly the Coast Guard who got on the phone and rang around the Water Police and MSB. Their boat was 2 hours away up the Georges river.

FYI at the Cat club we regularly check forcasts and observations on the BOM site and Sydney Airport. Keep an eye on the Observations from stations South when a Southerly Buster is coming up.

Isnt the PFD rule only if you venture more than like 400m (or 100m cant remember) from shore?

But yeh not very fun.

It was perdicted on sea breeze forcasts, and what not, i was down in kiama, in the space of 5 to 10 minutes i went from W to S, and hit HARD in kiama

I hadnt seen a southlery like that in ages.

Obviously ALOT of people on the waterways got caught out, as i saw a line of 4 fishing boat, hammering it in to kiama harbour, that were a very large distance away.

Even just looking at this site you could see it hit ulladulla, point perp, kiama, then belambi - no suprises - it was even on the forecast yesterday.

Isnt Kurnell pretty much dead offshore in a southerly?

Am I the only one amazed that anyone was stupid enough to kite there given the forecast?

No one bothered to check the forecast? even the news said 20-30kts NW and strong southerly change. Seabreeze picked it from thursday I think.

What a pain for the rescuers. Maybe the next demo day should be at manly in a nice July westerly.

It was an excellent morning. Fun had by all. Most were out of the water before the southerly hit. People were warned to get out of the water.

Unfortunately the southerly (as they do) hit like a brick and a few got caught.

People kite when ever where ever. KP can't be held responsible.

That said if I had product out on the water, I would have my boat close at hand to make sure it all came home safe and sound.

I wonder did anyone end up kiting to Brighton as it was nigh impossible to get back to kurnell?

Marathon body-drag award goes to Aya (about 50-something kg on 7m kite) who was caught out when the southerly hit and had to ditch her board and body drag to Brighton in order to miss being blown directly onto the runway at Sydney Airport. Total transit distance according to my Google Earth calculations: 5.8km! Luckily, all ended OK and she was rescued by one of the guys from the Demo Day...

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You guys had better hope CASA did not notice!

I was belting around the runway in a ducky being watched by security as we searched for the last 2 kiters. We found a kite wrapped around the floating booms near the runway but could not see anybody attached. Luckly the MSB picked the French man up.

I guess we were just as guilty as I helped my best mate rig my windsurfer and belt out into the NWster before it swang.

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TornadoALIVE said...

Today turned ugly very quickly with the stiff North Westerly swinging South and intensifying within seconds (as predicted). Many kite surfers and windsurfers found themself in a lot of trouble being swept across the bay towards the airport without the ability to self rescue or return to shore. Furthermore, kite surfers were not wearing PDFs which are mandatory in NSW and the organisers did not have any support vessels on hand.

Support was left up to Kurnell Cat Club, a Kite Surfer who had a jet ski at home and MSB with the Coast Guard and Water Police tied up with other duties. Response time was very slow with MSB some distance away, The jet skier having to go home to get his jet ski and Kurnell Cat Club with their power boats locked away. The Cat Club did not race because they knew what was coming through.

Today, somebody could have died very easily and the repercussions could have been huge. Bullet dodged and hopefully all will learn a big lesson from this, have support vessels on hand during an organised event, perhaps sign on and off sheets and educate people in the importance of wearing PDFs

Cheers and safe kiting to you.

G'day mate

Seems like you have some of the facts but you certainly don't have them all, so if you don't mind I'll fill in the missing bits of your story.
I checked all the forecasts I could this morning before I left for Kurnell, and had a RIB on standby, which actually rescued 4 kites and a windsurfers sail/mast.
One of our members ( Neil Joel) was on the Coast Guard boat, and his partner was on the radio at Salamander VCG base at Kurnell (Carol).
I had already warned everyone on the beach that the southerly was coming prior to it hitting, but unfortunately it was one of those clear blue sky southerly busters, and the people already on the water could not see it coming.
Several people from the kitesurfing community immediately took action to help our mates, they went straight over to the Coast Guard and the to the Cat Club, boats were organised fast. A jet skier who is currently unkown to me (anyone know who?? ) was very helpful in the early stages. Then one of our members (Craig) tuned up with his jetski and also rescued kiters and gear.
Another member took off in his car for Brighton to pick up Aiya, who body dragged all the way across the bay.
A humungous big thank you to Vit (red KP resuce RIB), Craig (Yam jetski), Jonesy for getting Aiya, Bob, Allan and Carol from the VCG, the Kurnell Cat Club (red RIB), MRB sharkcat, and all the locals who kept their cool heads and made sure all kiters were rescued. Special mention to Rob Smallwood for the phone call to warn me to the oncoming southerly - thats how I came to warn everyone on the beach.

As a testament to how many boats and rescuers were on the water within minutes, all gear was retuend to the beach, and anyone who lost gear should contact Kitepower to arrange to pick up you missing gear.

So I think you can see that we were a lot better prepared than you have described, and we did have a rescue boat but we did not expect 15 kiters to be out kiting when the southerly hit.

Water people stick together and we all help each other in times of need like this.
I've personally compensated everyone for fuel ($100) and donated another $100 to the VCG for their assistance.

If people want to donate some coin to Vit for finding 4 kites and a windsurfer sail they can do that via Kitepower. Same if anyone wants to drop off something for Craig.

PFD's are not required in enclosed waters for kiters and windsurfers in NSW as far as I know, however everyone was wearing wetsuits and floaty harnesses, some were wearing vests too.

Overall it was an awesome day with some unplanned excitement in the later part of the day but the NW early on was a cracker. Alls well that ends well!!

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

Wow! Just looked at the graphs, there was such a sudden change in wind, its not even as if it went westerly and swung around... its just BAM huge southerly! After last week randomly gusting to 40 knots from sub 20 in the space of a minute (thankfully onshore). Kurnell is so temperamental!

On behalf of Coast Guard thank you for the donation
Neil & Carol

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Kitepower Australia said...

TornadoALIVE said...

Today turned ugly very quickly with the stiff North Westerly swinging South and intensifying within seconds (as predicted). Many kite surfers and windsurfers found themself in a lot of trouble being swept across the bay towards the airport without the ability to self rescue or return to shore. Furthermore, kite surfers were not wearing PDFs which are mandatory in NSW and the organisers did not have any support vessels on hand.

Support was left up to Kurnell Cat Club, a Kite Surfer who had a jet ski at home and MSB with the Coast Guard and Water Police tied up with other duties. Response time was very slow with MSB some distance away, The jet skier having to go home to get his jet ski and Kurnell Cat Club with their power boats locked away. The Cat Club did not race because they knew what was coming through.

Today, somebody could have died very easily and the repercussions could have been huge. Bullet dodged and hopefully all will learn a big lesson from this, have support vessels on hand during an organised event, perhaps sign on and off sheets and educate people in the importance of wearing PDFs

Cheers and safe kiting to you.

G'day mate

Seems like you have some of the facts but you certainly don't have them all, so if you don't mind I'll fill in the missing bits of your story.
I checked all the forecasts I could this morning before I left for Kurnell, and had a RIB on standby, which actually rescued 4 kites and a windsurfers sail/mast.
One of our members ( Neil Joel) was on the Coast Guard boat, and his partner was on the radio at Salamander VCG base at Kurnell (Carol).
I had already warned everyone on the beach that the southerly was coming prior to it hitting, but unfortunately it was one of those clear blue sky southerly busters, and the people already on the water could not see it coming.
Several people from the kitesurfing community immediately took action to help our mates, they went straight over to the Coast Guard and the to the Cat Club, boats were organised fast. A jet skier who is currently unkown to me (anyone know who?? ) was very helpful in the early stages. Then one of our members (Craig) tuned up with his jetski and also rescued kiters and gear.
Another member took off in his car for Brighton to pick up Aiya, who body dragged all the way across the bay.
A humungous big thank you to Vit (red KP resuce RIB), Craig (Yam jetski), Jonesy for getting Aiya, Bob, Allan and Carol from the VCG, the Kurnell Cat Club (red RIB), MRB sharkcat, and all the locals who kept their cool heads and made sure all kiters were rescued. Special mention to Rob Smallwood for the phone call to warn me to the oncoming southerly - thats how I came to warn everyone on the beach.

As a testament to how many boats and rescuers were on the water within minutes, all gear was retuend to the beach, and anyone who lost gear should contact Kitepower to arrange to pick up you missing gear.

So I think you can see that we were a lot better prepared than you have described, and we did have a rescue boat but we did not expect 15 kiters to be out kiting when the southerly hit.

Water people stick together and we all help each other in times of need like this.
I've personally compensated everyone for fuel ($100) and donated another $100 to the VCG for their assistance.

If people want to donate some coin to Vit for finding 4 kites and a windsurfer sail they can do that via Kitepower. Same if anyone wants to drop off something for Craig.

PFD's are not required in enclosed waters for kiters and windsurfers in NSW as far as I know, however everyone was wearing wetsuits and floaty harnesses, some were wearing vests too.

Overall it was an awesome day with some unplanned excitement in the later part of the day but the NW early on was a cracker. Alls well that ends well!!

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

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TornadoALIVE said...

You guys had better hope CASA did not notice!

I was belting around the runway in a ducky being watched by security as we searched for the last 2 kiters. We found a kite wrapped around the floating booms near the runway but could not see anybody attached. Luckly the MSB picked the French man up.

Ouch a loose kite near the runway? It would have been better if the guy stayed attached to it and kept it in the drink.

Accidents happen and no-one (even Laurie) can predict such sudden changes, it sounds as though numbers got out of hand but rescue boats were in place. However kiting near an aerodrome is not such a sh1t hot idea, especially when it happens to be the busiest one in Australia.

Airport regulators love exclusion zones and separation. if there was even a hint of an incident we would end up with a no kite zone around all aerodromes (something like ten nautical miles, just to be overtly cautious). Think about it.

If preserving city kite beaches does not interest you then self preservation should, I would hate to see what the wake turbulence of a 747 would do to a kite & rider but it would not be far off that pi$$ take You Tube kite / plane collision that went round a few months ago.

Nobody got hurt so I don't want to bang on but if, for any reason, you find yourself within 1Km of a direct approach to a runway end, drop the kite in the water and drift out of the way before attempting either a launch or rescue.

Cheers all

C

Sounds like it was lucky that there WAS a demo day on!

Otherwise there would still have been a lot of kiters at Kurnell for the NW,but no support.

Could have been real ugly.

NEVER trust the wind when its really hot.

funny that a victorian is commenting on a area he probably has`nt kited before and dos`nt actualy know how far the airport is from kurnell.
sounds to me that everything that needed to be done was.we love a sport that is potentually dangerous with the power that drives us being a vertualy invisable one.
life is like a box of chocolates.

Aya's body drag has to be a world record! 5.8km! Good hear she made it across and is safe and dry again, albeit a bit knackered I'll bet! That's a LONG way!





Well done everyone yesterday. That's one of the great things about the kiting community-- nice to see how everyone pulls together to help out when needed.

Cheers,

Rob

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vader said...

funny that a victorian is commenting on a area he probably has`nt kited before and dos`nt actualy know how far the airport is from kurnell.
sounds to me that everything that needed to be done was.we love a sport that is potentually dangerous with the power that drives us being a vertualy invisable one.
life is like a box of chocolates.

Totally correct, I have never kited there before, was not at the said event, and can only go on what has been posted on this forum. However I am familiar with Sydney Aerodrome and its surrounds.

If you take the time to re-read the post I am giving advice on how to behave should you stray into a flight path near an aerodrome. This applies to all aerodromes across Australia, Victorian or otherwise.

I am sure you love the sport however I am as equally sure that the regulator will take a dim view of any ‘potentially dangerous’ activity when there is even the remotest chance that it could endanger the lives of 200+ passengers.

There will be no ifs, no buts’, just a nationwide action without consultation or review.

Not A kiter (windsurfer).

Hats of to you guys (demo organisers) - running up the beach announcing the change was strong and imminent, went into rescue mode real quick for the poeple stuck out - lots and lots of people in the water to rescue, plucking out kiters and windsurfers left right and centre. Nobody hurt from what I could tell (other than some bruised egos) . Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling for us Wind/Water worshipers.

Can't praise you enough.

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TornadoALIVE said...

I was belting around the runway in a ducky being watched by security as we searched for the last 2 kiters. We found a kite wrapped around the floating booms near the runway but could not see anybody attached. Luckly the MSB picked the French man up.

I guess we were just as guilty as I helped my best mate rig my windsurfer and belt out into the NWster before it swang.

Yeah we were all guilty of having some fun yesterday, but we are a community and we work well together.
Incredible big thanks to you guys from the Cat Club for dragging your rib into the water and searching for downed kiters and windsurfers.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

I hope all are well after yesterday's little puff from the south. I also hope that Steve (Kitepower) and Dave (Slingshot) didn't suffer too much damage to your demo gear. My gear suffered some minor damage to a few kites, and many tangled lines, but also 1 board missing. I have placed a add in Lost and Found, but if anyone knows any info regarding a Naish 2009 Thorn 132 that went sailing by itself on Sunday, it would be appreciated.

A side from all that, a great day!

regards,

JB

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user said...

I find it hard to believe that a professional outfit like Kitepower would have a free for all demo event without a support boat!
WTF ?


Pretty dodgy if you ask me !

KP is a professional outfit, they had a boat and a Jetski>>>>>>>>Get your story straight!