May 2007 Diaries

Date: 14^th-17^th May 2007

Location: Barra, Hebrides

Mission: Explore this beautiful island

Date: 14^th-17^th May 2007

Location: Tiree, Hebrides

Mission:  Hang on the 6m Ion2!!

We saw dolphins on the ferry on the way to Tiree.  Got off the ferry and headed straight to Crosspol for a session.  Tiree is much flatter than Barra with wider beaches.  Both are really nice for different reasons.  Had a fun light wind session in the little waves.  Helen Thompson then lent us her parent’s house as they were away so we indulged in having a warm house and shower!  5 in the morning the wind kicked in and Sheryl crawled out of the bongo roof which was side onto the wind and into the house!  Ad and the boys were staying at a camp site and their big kit tent had decided to take off in the middle of the night so they had had to scramble out and jump on it.  We headed back to Crosspol and clung to our 7m and 6meters!  I was on the 7m Atom at 1^st and loving being maxed for the 1^st time in ages! When I couldn’t hang on anymore I came in a swapped for a 6m Ion2.  Hung on to that for a while when Rob’s wind meter saying 46knots was then decided to call it a day!  The rain kicked in with the howling winds and we headed for a café for Matt to finish some video interviews.  Helen came and found us then gave us a bit of a tour of the island.  We headed to the local pub that night and had some fun getting lost taking a short cut across Gott Bay! Very wet feet!  We cleaned up Helen’s parent’s house and said our goodbyes.  We all chilled in our usual corner of the ferry on the way back.  Ad still wasn’t feeling very well from jumping on the tent the windy night and struggling to hold a sentence reminding us what we had to remember for the forthcoming Angel’s weekend.  Back on dry land we split off in couples of vans and headed back.  We unfortunately followed Rob Hills and had a bit of detour around Glasgow!  Ah well, the scenic route!  Cheers Rob J

Date: 11^th-13^th May 2007

Location: Barrow in Furness

Mission: Barrow in Furness BKSA round 2

So I actually think my van is a tardis.  The 3 Angels with 2 dogs had planned to travel up to the Barrow BKSA then on to the Outer Hebrides to meet the rest of the Turbulence Team.  So that’s a lot of girls, dogs and new Ion2s from Flexi for a small white Bongo!  Then I had a phone call from a friend in South Wales saying South African based Sjouke needed a lift up to the event.  Well I could never refuse someone a lift so didn’t really think about the space issue and said yes!!  Well packing was interesting!  But thanks to Rob Hills who assisted our packing by emptying bags out and shoving knickers in wherever he could find a space!

So we were on the road.  It was quite nice as instead of the usual 6-8 hour journey to events it took us just over 3 hours, excellent!  We were greeted by the Expics van and a welcome cup of tea!  We re arranged the van a bit and all squeezed in to sleep!

Friday morning brought a welcome cooked breakfast from the BKSA Winnebago and no wind!  But we weren’t fazed and we emptied the van and pumped up our entire range of Ion2’s and Atom’s!  It was quite amusing as they created quite a stir from the local kitesurfing community who were all milling round discussing sizes!  We were only graced with a very small amount of wind so we amused ourselves by bugging Arran Hadlow for team photos!

Saturday morning was howling!  Was awoken by van awning banging against the van!  Oh dear!  Clamber about at the same time as Expics Ian across the awning and we endeavor to weight it down with rocks!  It was still blowing when it was time to get up but the wind steadily dropped as the morning went on.  They finished some heats of the guys, finished the juniors and got 2 and a half heats of us, Pro Ladies in.  There were just 3 of us so we had a general agreement to get them to use the points they had managed to get to make a result.  We had all been underpowered in shallow onshore conditions but hey, better to get a result!

Saturday night was pie and mushy peas in the Gentlemen’s club institute place followed by rather good rock band.  All good fun!!

No wind Sunday so we pottered about packing up then set off on our way to Scotland with Expics Ian and Marizu.  We stopped in a car park by Loch Lomand and blagged our way into a posh resident only hotel bar for a drink!  Nice!

Jo

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Date: 14^th-17^th May 2007

Location: Barra, Hebrides

Mission:

There was a queue of Turbulence vehicles eagerly awaiting to board the ferry in Oban at the start of what promised to be a awesome week long trip to the Outer Hebrides.  We were lucky to have a very smooth ferry crossing over to Barra and  even spotted a playful school of dolphins jumping alongside us, it was amusing to see everyone rushing out on deck to get pictures.  We were so relieved to find the ferry had showers as we were unsure as to whether we were going to have access to any form of running hot water during the trip.   This meant we would be able to shower at least three times in our planned 9 day trip.  We were greeted by Nick and Kay of Bara Power Kiting who were the perfect guides for the trip.  We visited some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, the  turquoise water, untouched white sand and lush green mountains making this a  spectacular kiting location.  There was no wind the first day but we were blessed with blue skies and sunshine so took the opportunity to explore this beautiful island,  Nick and Kay took us to so many beautiful beaches we didn’t know what direction we wanted the wind to blow.  We saw seals at Seal Bay and Kay took us to probably the most beautiful of beaches on the Island which she calls ‘her’ beach where we spent the afternoon playing with the Sting and chilling out.  The Island is very peaceful and is a great place to unwind on non windy days.  It was fantastic to see the vast clusters of stars at night but the clear skies made for a chilly nights camping requiring two sleeping bags and a duvet!  The following morning we visited the three schools on the island to give the school kids a chance to try out some of the gear, the buggy went down particularly well, we even managed to get the whole of one school on the buggy at the same time-there were only seven children who attended this school!   The wind kicked in shortly before we finished the last school so Johara and I took the local newspaper reporter to the beach for her first taste of power kiting on the 1.7 Punk Sting.  It had been great to see so many smiling children’s faces that morning and we had now introduced yet another chick to kiting!  The afternoon was spent on the beach with Martyn Hogg having his first session on the water since his injury in Morocco,  Rob Hills doing some spectacular buggy jumping off the dunes and visiting the hospital with a few broken ribs!!  We said our farewells and boarded the ferry to Tiree.

Zoe

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Date: 14^th-17^th May 2007

Location: Tiree, Hebrides

Mission:

We were quick to disembark from the ferry and headed straight to the beach for a session.  We were met by Tiree based Helen Thompson who very kindly offered us a house to stay in for the rest of our trip which was more appreciated than you can imagine, particularly with the gale force winds we received during our stay.  The evening session was a really fun session, it was quite a strange experience being able to see right through the waves as they were rolling, I even got spooked by my shadow as I could see it on the ocean bed the water was that clear!  I was awoken the following morning by the howling wind,  Sheryl had slept outside the house in the Bongo roof and had evacuated at 5am to take cover in the house, some of the lads had opted to camp and had been awoken by one of the ten man tents taking off and running the smaller two man tents over!  We went back to sleep until a more reasonable hour and after a quick coffee headed to the beach for a well powered 6m Ion2 session.  What an amazing session it proved to be, with only the girls and Marizu having small Ion2s being able to take advantage of the conditions.  We visited a really nice café called Caebargh for a warming pot of tea and received a very friendly welcoming there.  On boarding the homeward bound ferry it felt as if the trip had gone really quickly, yet again kite surfing had taken us to some beautiful places and we had made some fantastic new friends.

Zoe

Date: 14^th-19^th May 2007

Location: Barra & Tiree, Hebrides

Mission: Turbulence Team Tour

The journey to Oban to catch the ferry was really beautiful with a stop off on route to sleep at Loch Lomand where the Bongo tried to suffocate me and Zoe while we were sleeping, we forgot to open the air vent J.  The blue skies and stunning scenery meant that we couldn’t resist getting the pink sting out to play before we headed on up to catch the ferry from oban to barra.  The 5 hour crossing was a bit of a surprise as I hadn’t really considered that we were going so far, but when we arrived in barra it was definately worth the trip.  The clear blue waters, white sandy beaches and stunning scenery made for a really awesome location.  We met up with Kay and Nick who run Barra Power Kite school and are fantastic hosts.  They took us to all the best beaches and kept us well fed for the duration of the stay.  The wind wasn’t great, but was enough for one of us to do some damage with Rob kiting off a sand dune and breaking a rib!  The boys managed to get out on one of the stunning beaches, and I got to take out Jo’s new 12.5 ion 2 on the promise that I wouldn’t lose it.. Hmm 20 mins later I was swimming in having ditched the kite on the only two bouys that seem to be on the island, Murphy’s Law I believe ;-). 

            So four days on Barra and then another 3 hour crossing to Tiree where the wind promised to be good.  We arrived and where asked by the boys if we wanted to go kiting or set up camp first, I can’t believe that they bothered asking! We raced to the beach and I took my shiny new 10.5m ion 2 on it’s first real session, with rolling waves and clear water it was great.  We kited until it got dark (amazingly about 10pm) before a local kiter took pity on us and gave us her mum’s house to stay in (Thank you Helen ;-))  The following morning was wet so the planned early start changed to a mid morning start, and the wing was mental.  I cautiously took out my 6m on it’s first session and was so pleased with how it flew in the nuclear winds.  We were out for about an hour with the wind steadily increasing to 40 knots before I gave in and the wind strength forced me off the sea. I never thought I would be able to ride in those strength winds but the 6m is fantastic.  We went to the local pub on the last night where we drank far too much whisky and stayed out far too late, walking back to the house with Helen to guide us on the “short cut” across the beach in gale force winds and horizontal rain!   

Sheryl

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Date: 11^th-13^th May 2007

Location: Barrow in Furness

Mission: Barrow in Furness BKSA round 2

Four girls, two dogs and one very full Bongo set off on a 9 day adventure beginning in Barrow.  We arrived late on Thursday night to a very welcomed hot chocolate in the Expix van.  There was no wind Friday but we enjoyed a day on the beach pumping up our brand new quiver of Ion2 kites and getting some pics with the famous Mr Hadlow, although he was having none of it when we suggested some pics of him wearing our wings and halo’s!  Saturday morning took us by surprise as we were woken around 5am by the sound of the Bongo Orning blowing away! It was certainly a lot windier than the 10mph forecast so we were all excited and really looking forward to watching what promised to be a well powered comp.  Unfortunately it was high tide and as the tide went out the wind steadily dropped but didn’t go before most of the comp was ran and we all got to try out our new kites.  Jo did really well coming second in the Women’s Pro’s but the ladies amateurs was black flagged due to the disappearing wind.   Saturday nights party was held in the hall at the local sports social club, it reminded us of across between Phoenix nights and the club scene from Kevin and Perry.  It turned out to be a fantastic night with some continuing into the following morning.  Sunday we said goodbye to Showkey our South African friend and continued our journey, we stopped at Loch Lomand for the night and spent the following morning playing on our pink Flexifoil Sting before making the journey to Oban to meet up with the rest of team Turbulence on the ferry to Bara.

Date: 11^th-13^th May 2007

Location: Barrow in Furness

Mission: Barrow in Furness BKSA comp

After racing home from work on thurs and madly packing the bongo with a little help from Mr. Hills we headed off to Barrow.  It was a good drive and we only got misplaced once looking for the campsite.  A warm drink from the ex pix van at midnight was very welcome and then came the Bongo initiation with me, zoe and mystery up top and jo and sarky down below it was amazing how we all managed to sleep comfortably.  We awoke Fri morning to no wind L but set about setting up our shiny new kites that had only been delivered the day before.  A girl can never have too many kites we think, and the stack of shiny new ion 2’s on the beach (thank you flexi J) drew some attention from wanna be owners.  With other flexi riders also in attendance we set about trying to get the boys to pose in angel wings and halo’s for our photo’s but they didn’t seem to see the funny side and refused the outfits!  We got some good shots with everyone and the new kites (see the flexi site).  We folded ourselves back into the bongo fri night hoping for wind the following day and our prayers were answered at about 5am when the wind came, blowing away the catering marquee and collapsing the awning!  Waiting for the tide to go out to start the comp seemed to take forever but when the pro men took to the skies it was an awesome sight watching them pull off some really cool hard moves.  Zoe got out to try her new 8.5 and I got to play on the 10.5 which was really really cool.  However the wind steadily dropped which meant that the pro ladies and the juniors were the only category that managed to get results, with the hope that the pro men and amateurs could compete the following day.  The party sat night really kicked off with an awesome band and good spirit from all at the event, good food (;-)) cheap drink and a crowded dance floor made a fantastic evening with many dreading the photo’s.  Unfortunately there was no wind on Sunday either so chilled out with other riders in the sunshine before heading off to Scotland on the Turbulence Team Tour.  All in all a fantastic weekend despite the poor wind conditions, can’t wait for the next one!