Now that’s what I call a winter!

Testing in Australia

Now that’s what I call a winter – 2.5 months of kite testing in Western Australia

I flew the very first Mutiny Kite in perfect waves at Broughton Beach, South Wales on a windy October evening. So, when Henry and Oli invited me out to Western Australia to help develop their equipment it didn’t take long to check my passport had spare pages, kiss the British winter goodbye and find my moth eaten boardies.

Since learning to kitesurf in 2008 I’ve flown a lot of kites, in conditions as varied as you can imagine. Much like a lab rat is bred in a cage and then exposed to life threatening experiments, I’ve had the opportunity to test kites all over the world and meet the people who have enjoyed the sport for years.

After 20 hours of travelling, I remembered I wasn’t a branded sardine and peeled the sweaty seat from my jet lagged behind. Stumbling round like a dazed pigeon who’s just hit the windscreen of your van I was greeted by the blond and ever-so-friendly Australian quarantine girl and knew everything would be OK. Unfortunately Lancelin, the chosen test zone, was a 3 hour drive away and the boys had opted for the pea-shooter of the car hire arsenal. So after 10 minutes of beautiful Australian sun I was subjected to 3 hours of unbearable heat amongst a quiver of kite equipment that Ghandi would be proud of. Still can’t complain, it was snowing mud flavoured slush puppies back home.

Lancelin is an epic kite spot, it’s always windy! There are 3 main areas: Edward’s point to the south with an island and reef surrounding the shallow flat spot on the inside. You get waves everywhere out back and an ankle deep speed strip on the back beach – amazing. Then there’s Lancelin Island to the north, a massive bay sheltered from the swell by the island which is just empty perfection – watch out for the jellies though. Then smack bang in the middle, 100 yards outside our front door there’s the pier which points straight out to the most beautifully uncrowded reef break ever. Ideal for testing kites in every environment imaginable.

Over the following months the extensive selection of prototype kites, ranging from super depowerable space rockets to plutonium fuelled steam engines were put through their paces by the most eclectic mix of kitesurfers. From novices to experts, adrenaline junkies to free riders everyone was looping, crashing, launching, landing, boosting, popping and ultimately enjoying the latest Mutiny creations. I for one could not wipe the grin off my ‘Chevy Chase’ after my first voyage to the moon on the 9m F-series. But it wasn’t all fun and games, for those of us in the know about kite design it was the continued and varied experiences of the test team which would forge the ideas in Dr Rebbeck’s head and beneath that fluffy hairdo would appear the spark of genius that we all find so illusive.

Everyday we had something new to try out, be it a new bar set up or tow point position or my favourite the good ol’ primary safety test and relaunch. I’d been kitesurfing over 5 hours a day for 8 weeks with nothing but a week’s break in Bali with Mr Thorman, which hardly counts as rest, to stop my arms stretching. I’d watched fellow testers come and go, beautiful kites battered and bruised and numerous steaks on the barbie. We had exhausted every eventuality, these kites had seen more action than the entire Stallone back catalogue and my kitesurfing was coming along in loops and bounds. Unfortunately it seamed the gods had been saving my punishment for 10 years of windsurfing till one fine railey attempt at Edward’s Point where they decided my shoulder no longer wanted to be located in the conventional way. This put a bit of a dampener on learning to handle pass but opened me up to a whole world of old school.

Feeling biblical after studying the Jesus walk tutorial on you tube and after Henry’s 7 days of creation in the Chinese factory, the latest kite designs had arrived and we had 2 more weeks to get them tuned to perfection. We had a good system by now and within a few days all the kites were flying perfectly. The F-series was the most fluid free ride kite I’d ever flown and it has the boost and float of a jump jet. Once I’ve got the Lunar Cheese out of my ears I’ll be having me one of those bad boys. The P-series is another story, grunty and lightning quick like a raging bull on heat. Apparently perfect for double kite loop handle passes but I think I’ll keep my arms attached for now thanks, you’re welcome to have a go though.

I’ve only been back in the UK for 2 weeks and I hear the kites are still improving, I can’t wait for the Severn Estuary to thaw so that I can get down to Swansea for a second date with my sweet heart.

Yours Anticipatingly,

A cold and lonely Brit suffering from major kitesurfing withdrawal.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 11:16 am and is filed under Testing News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.