Aussie Lads Score Big Cloudy

We are working hard (in between kiting our brains out) on getting issue 08 to the printers in next few days…

Here’s a snap shot of one of the great articles we are featuring… Oh and this issue is THE POSTER ISSUE – lots of wicked full page pics you can plaster all over your dunny wall… Can’t do that with your ipoo’s now can you kids!

Daniel Patterson looking relaxed on this bomb

The Coral Coast – By Daniel Patterson – From Issue 08

The Coral Coast has some awesome locations and conditions for both Surfing and kitesurfing. The main draw behind these kitesurf trips for our crew is the allure of the Holy Grail “Cloudbreak.” Cloudbreak is on every surfer’s bucket list, and it’s no different in the kiting world. Who doesn’t want to get barrelled at one of the world’s best breaks with or without a kite? The difficulty with kiting this break is that it is very popular with surfers. On smaller days there can be 50 plus surfers in the water all day long. Hence the reason why our crew has nicknamed it ‘Crowded break’. Surfers tend to get quite intimidated when kiters are coming flying through the line up towards them, so there only needs to be a handful of surfers in the water and then you can’t kite it, you need to keep the peace and respect the surfers.

Phillip Mcfarlane toying with a blue bull dozer…

Realistically the only opportunities to kite this break is to wait for a large/long period swell, with a high wind forecast. The swell needs to be around 10-12 feet at 15 seconds plus, with at least 20 knots of wind in a favourable direction. The huge swell scares off all the beginner-intermediate surfers, and the wind is too strong for even the pros to paddle into. With these extreme conditions, we usually then end up with the place to ourselves and then it’s time to test out our boat launch skills, grow some balls and step it up.

Matt Green cheering on Dan with an impeding lip about to thunder down

The top end of Cloudbreak gets sphincter clenching huge, but tends to not hold shape, further down the line at shish-kebabs is the sweet spot. It is cleaner and more consistent, and you can expect solid barrels from anywhere up to double-triple overhead. In these conditions, your equipment is your lifeline. It is essential that your kites perform and are reliable. You seriously need the confidence that you can rely on your gear to not only get you into these bombs, but to drag your ass out through the back of the lip on a closeout barrel, and out of the path of any other freight trains that are following. This is why I can depend on my Ozone Reo’s; they have one of the best builds and tightest quality control standards on the market. The kites have no pullies for a direct feel, with fast turning speed, good drift and depower capabilities and a simple no bullshit 4 line bar setup. Most importantly they are stable, predictable, and reliable. Unless you can afford to have a jetski on standby, you are on your own if your equipment fails or goes down. It’s just too dangerous when it’s this big to run the boat through on the inside between sets to try and pluck you to safety.