Hi all,
i thought i would would share with you all why I did the across the bay and my experience doing it.
You can see my reason why here
www.facebook.com/pages/Across-the-Bay-to-Conquer-Cancer/418371941550110After my wife got diagnosed with breast cancer late last year I was looking for way's I could raise money and stumbled across a post on Sea breeze talking about Kite Across the Bay to conquer cancer.
The concept sounded great and was something I thought I could really get into given my passion for kiteboarding, adventure and my wife. (In the reverse order or course !)
I have been kiting for a few years but never done a downwinder or gone much further that 1.5km off shore so I decided to do the half crossing for my first attempt .
I caught up with Cesar for a couple of training session before the event. The first one got me really excited and my adrenaline pumping. It was from Brighton to Altona beach with just three of us Cesar, Nik S and myself. The day was grey, cloudy and when we left the beach it was blowing about 16kts.
The first time you get out into the bay it's really quite eye opening. You can't see any land ahead or behind you , the waves are huge and rolling, and it really puts you out of your comfort zone. All types of thoughts were going through my head...what if the wind drops and are there things with really big teeth below me - I have never been so unrelaxed kiting in my life. Right in the middle of the crossing I lost my board and couldn't see in anywhere, lucky for me Nik S saw me bobbing around, he found my board and brought it to me (cheers mate). As soon as I got to the other side and landed my kite I got a chance to enjoy what I had just accomplished...I loved it.
The kite back I was much more relaxed, I was increasingly confident and I had a felling of accomplishment even though the weather had changed for the worst. When I was about 2-3km's from Brighton a storm came in and it was getting dark. I had lost some ground due to light winds but with the storm came some stronger winds. In the end I had to do about 10 runs back and forth to get upwind to the beach. There is something I love about kiting in the rain and wind, It gives you a real sense of the elements and as I got back to the beach it was getting really dark. I thought to myself how F@&@ing awesome was that......and that was just a training run.
On the day of the big event I caught up with the crew for the half crossing. Paul G, Gus P and my designated kite Buddy Peter C. The day was totally different to my first training session, It was sunny and hot, and at this point there was not a breath of wind. As most kiters know you spend a lot of time on a beach looking at the trees, your favourite weather app but mostly just staring out at the ocean waiting for white caps....this was one of those days. It wasn't really an issue as the sun was out and It gave us all a bit of time to get to know each other. Gus was constantly checking in and coming back to us with news that the main group, doing the full crossing, still had no wind and had not left yet.
At about 3pm the wind started to blow. The group still haven't left Rosebud but I couldn't wait any longer. I grabbed my board and kite and went for a play...geez it was good to get on the water. The excitement and nervousness was building as I still had not done a proper downwinder. I read that riding downwind was a different technique to riding upwind but I found out it comes pretty naturally. It was still another couple of hours before we finally got the call that the other guys had left Rosebud and were on the way. We were getting updates every 20 mins or so about where they were and we would gaze out onto the bay to see if we could see them. Gus was the first to see the leading group...they appeared as tiny black dots in the sky almost to far out to really exist. We had two life guard boats come and escort us on the first stretch for the beach to Ricketts point. In this section the wind really picked up and most of the guys were a little over powered but as soon as we were around the corner it was nothing but rolling waves to slowly surf along. I'm not sure if all downwinders are like this but it was awesome to cut back and forth up and down these little rollers. I kind of lost track of time, where I was, and what I was doing out there and it gave me a time to enjoy life and forget things for a bit. In the end I think it was about 1:30-2:30 hours but I'm not really sure, I could have done it forever and it would have made a great ground hog day. I did cut up wind a few times just to keep it from ending to quickly.
The day was seriously awesome and thanks to everyone's effort the event raised a huge 30k for a cause that is very close to my heart and even closer to my wife's who is riding the (best ) wave to a full recovery. This year I'm doing the full crossing.
Cheers
Nick Heine
cesarphysio
> 9 months ago, 29 Sep 2014
