This past weekend was the WA State Titles kite comp, I entered just for the fun of it. On Saturday, the wind was nukin, and I managed to win my heat and qualify for the main event to be held the following day (8 qualified out of 16).

Come Sunday...the wind was really marginal, I couldn't even stay upwind on my 13...and was up against one of the seeded riders. Yeah...couldn't flash any F16-sbends-to-blind-to surface passes (yeah right!), so I lost my heat, oh well!

But I had a good time anyways. Great atmosphere & organisation, congrats to Dan Anderson for winning the contest, he deserved it (note: Dan learned how to pull L3's the day before the contest, and landed them during the event!).

WA State Titles Kite comp - Woodman's point

Canadian friend of mine, Aaron. Kiter, lives here in Perth, works in the mines as an engineer: 1 week on, 1 week off (not a bad schedule!)

Sydney here I come!! Next week, right before my return to Holland, I will visit Sydney for a couple of days...courtesy of my company. We will be discussing...doing business in Australia. I will leave it at that, to avoid the wrong expectations. Wish me luck!

This week's update - a lot of people have asked me "when" I am going to update the blog, well, there really is not much of an update. But anyways, here goes.

So I've been really enjoying my time here in Perth, kiting, working out, partying, hanging out with friends, great lifestyle. Never bored...

Next week I may go down south to the Margaret River area, everyone keeps talking about the place, it's not far from Perth (2-3 hours drive), so why not do one final road trip. Will update blog with pics, of course.

I return to Holland next week, departing on Saturday the 4th of March, and arriving on Sunday morning the 5th, in Amsterdam. Will be home for a couple of days (pay bills, check the post, etc.), and then Carin and I are off to Texas, for the second leg of the trip. Looking forward to it!

One major update: at the end of April, right before I return to Holland from Texas, a good friend of mine (Ben) is having his Bachelor's party in Las Vegas! Yes! So me and about 10 of my best friends from university will have a long weekend there - you can imagine what we will be up to.

Last week went on a four day road trip with Javier, a friend (met in Perth) from Tenerife, Spain. Our plan was to head up north and reach Exmouth as a final destination, however, plans changed in the end: it took too much driving!

We visited Geraldton, Coronation Bay, Monkey Mia, Carnavaron, and the Red Bluff/Gnarloo area. North of Monkey Mia was seriously remote, with signs on the highways stating things like "no water for 650 kms" (!), fortunately for us we had no break downs or problems. A definate highlight was swimming with the dolphins in Monkey Mia, they cruise around 1-2 metres from the shoreline, with no care for people around...impressive.

We saw some really nice areas, postcard-perfect in fact. The downside was the heat (45 degrees), flies (this one really was a nuisance, see pic), and lack of wind for kitesurfing (but that's part of the sport). And the driving was long and rather boring, on a mostly straight road.

So for now, back in Perth until my departure next month, no more roadtrips...Perth has everything in one place....and...without the flies!!

Emus...I thought they were ostriches until I was corrected by the Ozzies...anyways, these guys walked over to check out our motorhome, guess they wanted food (which we didn't have).

The flies!!!!!!! Driving me crazy, had to get this fly net for my head.

Monkey Mia - turtle hanging out at the dock.

Red Bluff - remote, remote, remote....

near Gnarloo

Monkey Mia: swimming with the dolphins, unique experience, was a lot of fun.

near Shark Bay - we were thinking about kiting here, didn't do it in the end.

Gnarloo area.

Monkey Mia

Nanga Bay - paradise

near Shark Bay (didn't see any sharks, by the way)

Nanga Bay

Nanga Bay - awesome place, turquoise water waist deep for 100 metres, perfect wind, had a great kite session here.

Shark Bay

Watch out for the animals! There were loads of dead ones on the side of the road, hit by cars. No night driving in this part of the country...

Somewhere between Geraldton and Carnavaron: placards at a rest stop

Middle of nowhere, literally: gas station. For service, had to ring the doorbell on the old ladies house.

Monkey Mia - Javier with incoming dolphin.

Monkey Mia - dolphin

Monkey Mia - dolphin, 2 metres from shore.

It's been a rather "busy" weekend...with the usual dose of kiting and a bit more partying, today woke up at 11:30 AM, needed to recover :)

Tommorrow we head north, with a final destination Exmouth area. Supposed to be some seriously awesome kite conditions, like those you would find on a postcard, with waist deep, torquoise water for kilomtres. Trip should last 4-5 days, will post pics upon return.

Hope weather is getting too many people down in Europe; here it's a roast, today 37. A bit on the unusual side, tommorrow should get back to 30. Better the heat in Oz...than the freezing Euro weather, any day.

Sunset over Perth

Captain's Log: today was supposed to be the day Jonny would arrive from Austria. Alas, that will not happen, he unfortunately was assigned a term paper, this week, from his university, and it is due March 1st. Doubtful he would be able to write about anything (other than kiting and fun) if he had come to Australia.

So, decisions, decisions...Perth area is really awesome, there are loads of kitesurf locations, good infrastructure (gyms,restaurants, bars, cafes, internet, etc)...and plus there's my friends. So, should I do another roadtrip or not, hmmmmmm....

Yesterday I met a friend of a friend, he's from Tenerife, also a kitesurfer, and wants to do a roadtrip. Maybe we'll do it next week, go up north to Gero/Coronation/Monkey Mia/etc. Today we discuss it, and will post details.

Almost the mid-point of my Australia vacation! Oh no! It's going to be hard to leave here, that's for sure. Well, at least there's other things to look forward to, afterwards :)

Pinnaroo Point

Pinnaroo Point, near Hillary's, about 20 minutes from downtown Perth. Had a nice kite session here: friendly locals, powder white sand, torquoise water.

The view between Scarborough and Cottlesloe beaches, two main Perth beaches. Not a bad sight, considering this is minutes from a main city.