DB's Blog: Flying the dunes - Narrowneck & Kingscliff

On Friday the 30th of May I spoke to Leeroy P who said he was thinking of flying the dunes near Surfers Paradise. I had done this once before with Lee and Jonny and it was great fun so I was keen to have another go. You need at least 20 knts of Easterly wind for it to work properly.

So on Sat morning I went with Joel to check out narrowneck and Lee was to meet us there if it was ok. We got there and found the strength to be great, the eroded ridge was good, but the wind direction had too much South in it. So I said to Joel, "Let's just set up your glider, it's quick to set up and if it's no good we'll pack up and head down to Kingscliff." Joel agreed. Kingscliff faces more South than Narrowneck and should be better.

So as I set up Joels glider, a Channel 7 news crew turned up. Joel was straight over to them and before I knew it he was being interviewed by the nice looking lady reporter.

I helped Joel get in his glider and gave him lots of pointers on how to fly the small ridge without killing himself. He was so eager it wasn't funny. This eagerness was reflected by the female reporter who continued to try to interview Joel while he was flying by running along the beach with a microphone pointed skyward towards Joel. It was quite amusing. Joel was lapping up all the attention. I was just happy seeing Joel having so much fun, even though it was hard to stay up and getting back up the ridge took a lot of energy. I had a bit of a fly and decided it would be better to head to Kingscliff.

Joel flying Narrowneck

Joel on the small ridge at Narrowneck

Soon Lee, Marty and Enda turned up. Lee & Marty saw Joel flying a set up before I could tell them that it wasn't ideal and we should head further South.

So we packed up and all headed South to Kingscliff. The wind was still a bit too SE, but because it was a much bigger ridge it was ok. We set up Lee's Fun and Joels Sonic and took turns flying. It was great fun. Joel headed South, but the ridge got much smaller and he eventually landed on the beach and had to walk the glider about a half a Km back. Lee was having fun landing on top of the Ridge and catching Marty's zaggie glider. I landed on the beach twice, but managed about 4 top landings after a bit of practice. Marty had a fly of Joels glider and loved it. John and his missus turned up, and John had a fly of the fun, in my harness and scared us all when he was headed toward the water. But he managed to land in shallow water not wetting the glider. Although my harness was not so lucky. Well at least my harness gets it's first wash now. Joel tried a few top landings in the Fun which he enjoyed.