Written and prepared by Caela Hanson

Winter Kiting isn't for the fainthearted! With the prospect of turning blue, it takes a considerable amount of personal effort and motivation to get out of your warm clothing into wetsuit & cold water.

However, cross that barrier and you will be rewarded. Any time flying a kite in a variety of wind conditions will teach you new things at any time.

This newsletter is being written by women for women, from beginner to pro level. Each season we shall be covering topics of possible interest and updating you on what's going on across Australia and New Zealand. So, if you're already kiting or want to get into the sport, we'd love to hear from you and what you've been up to.

Please email Caela or Therese at :
soulflykiting@yahoo.com

Winter Kiting

What else is there?

In the event, that no matter what, you just can't summon the strength to get into your wetsuit this winter, here's a list of other things you could do:

1. Enrol on a course about the weather. See sailingwithattitude.com.au
2. Build a Skim board (instructions soon to be on NSWKBA website)
3. Try your hand at Land boarding or Snow Kiting
4. Get into shape and strengthen up for the summer by going to Pilates or Yoga.

Kiting is a sport that you can often hear passers by comment on the fact that it looks really hard on your arms and upper body. This isn't necessarily correct. Upper Body Strength is dependant on how much you ride unhooked and overpowered. Women develop muscular strength differently to males, and this muscle mass is less likely to be distributed to the upper limbs. Therefore it will take a lot more dedication and training for women to develop the strength to do high-powered unhooked moves.

As a good rule of thumb you should never ride so that you would be completely over powered and out of control in the chances of your chicken loop becoming unhooked. (There are some funny and scary stories where this has happened, best told over a campfire) The strength needed in the forearms and upper arms to control a four-line kite is gradually developed with experience and time on the water. A bit of cross training focusing on the upper body can speed this process up.

Myth Buster - Kiting & Upper Body Strength

REGIONAL REPORTS........

SYDNEY - Caela Hanson

After the success of the first Girls Clinic in January at Dolls Point (see the latest editions of KBM and Stance Magazines), the girls are on their way to organising
the next event planned for early February 2007. With winter now truly set in, Sydney has seen only a few female kiters out there chasing the wind, and I take my hat off to them because the cold biting winds and cloudy skies aren't tempting enough to convince me to jump into that wetsuit! However, it's still great to be at the beach watching those brave or crazy enough and catching up with the other girl
kiters making plans for Spring/Summer adventures.

This winter so far we've kited Wanda, Dolls Point, Boat Harbour, Squids Ink and Picnic Point, the favourites of those being flat water where it suits all our standards. May those steady winds come sooner rather than later and with them bring some clear days with a touch of sunshine!

GOLD COAST - Therese Thomas

Having just moved, I was quite happy with how the Gold Coasts' version of crap wind compares to the crap winter winds of Sydney. With the right kite they are quite kiteable except for the pure westerlies - and I have not yet braved Wellington Point where booties are a must. Rumour has it there are many little
sweet spots north of Brisbane to explore. Rumour must remain rumour for the moment, because its been raining for a week!

What I've been most surprised by is the number of male kiters here who have
turned out to be fair weather fairies! There is the flattie goodness of the Broadwater and shear water which can be tricky in the anything with a westerly
in it, but most enjoyable is the hot chocolate at the Sheridan after the 3-4 km down winders from narrow neck to the sea wall when the southerlies blow.

Tannem Sands Comp was a big success, and Kite Week in Cairns was just what the doctor ordered for all those adrenaline deprived kiters moping about
the countryside. The forecast looks promising, but I don't know if I'm looking forward to hearing how much fun the goldie girls had without me!!

WESTERN AUSTRALIA - Jessica van den Berg

WA State Freestyle Titles February 25th-26th The WA State Freestyle Titles was held at Perth's golden spot Woodman Point. A new format was adopted to
encourage girls previously inexperienced in competitive kiting to have a go. The initial rounds were restricted to non-seeded riders only, and the winners of
these early rounds, armed with a little experience and confidence, moved into the finals against the seeded riders.

The format was a great success in all divisions, and 6 of the 9 female entrants had never competed before! They all learnt valuable lessons about competing; Elaine realised you can beat other people despite being younger and having kited for a shorter period of time than them. It boosted their confidence; Chrissy mustered up the courage to go out and compete despite it howling 25 - 28 knots, and many of them came out itching to learn new moves; go for it Caroline!

With a similar format planned next season, and the addition of a State Wave Titles, there is no doubt more girls and women will be trying their hand at competing.

Kitestock 2006
KITESTOCK 2006 ran over the weekend of 17th - 19th March at Port Gregory in WA. All up 120 kiters attended the event, with just over 25% of those being
women. In addition, there were a good 100 female spectators who began to show varying degrees of interest in the sport!

As part of the weekend various kiting clinics were provided that helped promote kiting and introduce more women to the sport. On Saturday eight girls and women spent the entire afternoon learning all about kiting, flying kites and getting out on the water as part of the kite-girls clinic. On Sunday 4 of them progressed their skills further, even though the wind was light.

Sunday also saw 8 younger girls take part in a 'come and try' clinic. The sense of achievement for many of the women was enormous, and their pure excitement on Saturday after the first afternoon was contagious. The instructors conducting the clinics were also blown away by the natural talent displayed by a couple of the teenage girls. Just for Your Information WAKSA currently has 45 female kiters
(13% of the membership) as members of WAKSA and WAKSA will be looking at increasing this number with further clinics throughout the new season

SA & VICTORIA - ? ? ? ? ?

Look out for and update of what's going on in South Australia and Victoria in the
Spring Sessions article due September. If you know of any female kiters in either
state who would like to contribute please get them to email soulflykiting@yahoo.com

NEW ZEALAND - Cindy Mosey

Due to her hectic schedule preparing for the Cindy Mosey Island Odyssey, Cindy was unable to send an update of what's happening in New Zealand for this issue, however sends her encouragement to all the girls to get out there no matter how cold......once you're out you never regret it!!

If you're interested in taking part check out:
cindymoseyislandodyssey.com.