Pics from Saturday's Downwinder in Melbourne...
The van arrived at West StKilda around 8.30am loaded with boards, paddles, and what appeared to be illegal Mexican immigrants packed like sardines in the back.
Here is the line up - Pins and Glides and other assorted weapons.
Big Dave shows a clean set of heels.
From left, Bee, Oliver and DJ on the run through the West StKilda marina.
DJ cruises through the harbour
I tried to give an impression of the conditions in this photo - lots of cross chop with the wind coming from NNE while the current was more true north. The swell wasn't huge but certainly got bigger than this the further away we got from StKilda.
Dave had disappeared over the horizon, but then turned around and paddled into the 35 knots to rejoin us at the back of the pack. Here he is cruising with Bee.
Bee showing some good form for her first downwinder. Unbelievably, she never once came off the board. I think I took an unscheduled swim about 10 times.
Dave picks up a nice little runner. He thought I was in video mode so he really played up the style. Sadly I didn't capture that.
DJ doing his best Bill Wyman impersonation.
A very rare instance where I look back at Camo Hosk (he's usually at least 500 metres out front)
This is round 2 - we hadn't had enough after one 11km run to Sandringham, so we turned around and went again. The wind was forecast to drop by midday but we could quite possibly have gone a third time (well those with any energy left).
