Spent most of the time with the camera this week, started off just doing my sister a favour for Christmas, but then a bunch of other friends jumped in front of the lens. I  may have spent the week indoors, but Sunday was all out side. It not only blew all day, the blue sky’s made it feel more like summer when you compared it to the last few weeks.

West winds and low tide all day isn’t what we’d be looking for of our beaches, its just short chop, so we opted to head over to Southend for the day. Pulling back the curtains at first light it would have been easy to just head back to bed, the air was still, but then desperation to get on the water takes over. Plus Dan Megginson was knocking the door down.

Shaun and I were heading for Uncle Tom’s, it’s further east of Southend’s Ray and is a kite paradise, and Dan wasn’t going to miss out. As the sea drops back from the beach the water depth ranges from a couple of inches deep to just over a few of feet, and if that’s not perfect enough, it stretches for miles.

Four hours later it felt like my arms were dropping off, the wind just kept building, it turned out to be way better than the forecast. If it wasn’t for the shallow waters I would have jumped on my windsurf board, it was more than windy enough.

I put a camera up in the kite to see what it looks like.  Should have spent a bit more time on the beach sorting it out; auto mode didn’t really cut it. We got a few picks, but I think a few changes next time out will bring better results.

Fortunately things had gone a little better during the week, it started out pure trial and error, but it started to feel like I was getting it as the time passed.