Over the bank Holiday weekend I headed down to the SWATK event in South Wales being held at the Gower. This is a beach I have always wanted to session but never had the chance.
Friday morning I was working in the Flexifoil office but looking at forcast decided to leave early and head down and pick a friend up who was also down for the event as Friday was looking like the only day with wind! I loaded up the Flexi van and made my way.
The traffic was pretty bad and didn’t make it to the Gower till around 5pm. The weather was not great, ideal for kitesurfing but as my Friend had only been on water few times wasn’t sure about going out. They soon decided to take out a Neutron and mess around in the water rather than sitting in the van! This made me feel better about going out for a session on the 11m Hadlow Pro 09. What a kite! I have never had so much fun on the water in a long time! It feels like the good old days when flying Storms & Strikes! After an hour or so we headed to the chippy for some grub and then onto the campsite to set up home for the weekend. The rest of the evening was spent chilling with everyone and enjoying a few drinks.
Saturday brought small amounts of wind. Nothing great but enough to get a kite in the sky. As I walked onto the beach with a landboard and 6.5 grabbed from the van was not hoping for much but as the wind gusted through thought I would get some more gear, 8.5 & the buggy. Returning to the beach the wind had dropped. I went out for a bit of a session and the wind did pick at points, enough to do some freestyle but not a lot.
That evening we had a BBQ and chilled in the SWATK tent with a few drunked comments from myself of which none will be reparted!
Sunday was a typical sunny day, no wind! We just chilled and messed around on the beach for the day! That evening we went for some food in one of the local pubs. I was looking at the forecasts for Gower all of which were very dismal for the Monday and saw that back home it was 20mph cross-on. This was 9pm and I decided I was going to drive across the country over night to get a session.
Sadly I was looking at “Tuesday” not “tomorrow” like I had thought but I did not find this out till I was near London!!
I headed straight for home rather than kipping in the van at the beach for no wind! However Monday afternoon got a call to say the local beach had seas breezed so I jumped in the van and headed to the beach. When I arrived it was pumping so quickly got sorted and went for a session on the Hadlow once again on the water! It turned into a sunset session lasting for several hours!! Stoked! My mistake had turned out to be the best decision as it had rained in Wales & lots of traffic on the roads of which I saw none of!
The following weekend I went down to the Exmouth kite fest, I left Norwich at 10.30am and did not get to Swindon till 5pm and with heavy traffic on the M5 decided to go in and meet a few friends for a drink before making the rest of the journey that night. This soon turned into a few too many so ended up satying the night there. Having left the club at 2.30/3ish it was a nightmare getting up at 6 to make the final 3 hour journey! I arrived in Exmouth and headed for the beach for a quick morning session but the wind was not great! One thing it did do was clear my head!
Team Flexifoil Demoing in Arena. Picture by Burts Kite Cam
At the event we were there to do some demos and help with the Taster Sessions, sadly not many people took the taster sessions up so we did the demos to show what power kiting was all about!
Saturday late afternoon/evening we went Paint balling for Neds birthday! This was a great crack and bloody good laugh!
Saturday evening I was knackered so went in town for a few drinks before returning to the van to get some sleep!
Sunday was the same as before, do a few demos and talk to people about the power kiting! Mid afternoon I packed up and made my way home!
