Tomorrow, weather permitting, Ali Quinn and Louis Tapper will be kiting across Cook Strait to raise money for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter. Chopper rescue services can mean the difference between life and death for thousands of New Zealanders every year. You can't get a more worthwhile organisation to support than the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

A donation to Westpac helicopter means the service will continue to help all NZers safely enjoy activities in the outdoors. Please give generously, any donation would be much appreciated. I also need your help to forward this email onto your friends and colleagues. We need your support to make this happen so please forward it on, go on do it!!

Hey and if you donate to Westpac helicopter you have a chance to win super stuff!! You will go into a draw for a 3 month membership from Habit Gym and there are two lots of 2 hour kiteboarding lessons from Wildwinds shop. If you won a kite lesson, beware you may get the kiting addiction and join in the fun..!

Spot Messenger have sponsored some fantastic satellite tracking devices, that will be used to track our progress in real-time across the Strait. Check out our progress at: yakers.co.nz

Make a donation to Westpac helicopter...and we will make it across Cook Strait.

To donate go to: www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/kitethestrait/

Good luck guys! bit light right now, lets hope it kicks in this morning

yeah adding my hopes for a speedy crossing.

good winds and flat water.

How Cool!!

Good luck, I've always wanted to do this.

3 News - Pair attempt to kite surf across Cook Straight

www.3news.co.nz/Video/Pair-attempt-to-ki...0/Default.aspx#video

Congratulations to you both on your successful record breaking Kitesurfing crossing of the Cook Straight.

Progress Tracking here>>>

TV3 Footage here>>>

You both did a great job in giving a great impression on the news about the sport of KiteSurfing and raising money for a great cause.

Please post the stories and pics from the crossing as I am sure we would like to hear how the 6+ hours crossing was really like.

Well Done Guys!!!

From Jase and CJ
The KiteForum Team

a good link to someone's pix here:

www.peregrino.co.nz/kite_the_strait

Just a quick post to say Ali and I did make it across and we are stoked with this achievement, especially given the light wind conditions we started and ended with.

Thanks guys for all your support and donations. If you haven't done so already please keep the donations flowing in www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/kitethestrait/ .

It took us an hour to grovel out of Makara before we headed out on our way. The 2.5 m shark swimming off the head of Makara certainly kept my senses sharp while Ali finally made his way out. We had periods where the wind died completely and the pressure was definitely on with TV3 there and news media wanting to know what was going on.

Both of us were having to work hard to keep upwind and maintain a bit of speed. Unfortunately Ali was struggling to stay upwind and ended up in a place where it wasn't possible to come back from. I spent a fair bit of time on the Perano Head side getting to a point where I could touch without a wind shadow. It also set me up for a steaming run back across, well, until the wind died and I ended up groveling in 8-14 knots of wind from 3:30 until 5:30

The wind died out, 3 mile from Makara, to around 5 knots so it wasn't possible to continue. I was ready to break out the Speedos and swim the last bit, but the boat was getting close to being out of fuel after having driven 140km.

Coping with the wind variation was key today and the combination of the new Cabrinha switchblade IDS kites and long boards really helped us out. I am personally feeling pretty good after having kited 7 hours with only stops in the lulls. It will be interesting to see how the body is tomorrow.

This crossing would not be possible, without support from a number of people who have generously given up their time today. Big thanks to you all.

Thanks to Dion for the photos of our settup at Makara. www.peregrino.co.nz/kite_the_strait

I will post some more photos and story when time permits.

Yep we both made it, albeit about 8 nm apart.
I'd borrowed kevs board which was way better than mine would have been
but still not quite a floaty as louis big barge.
i struggled a bit in the light winds and couldn't point as far upwind
as louis so eventually ended up south of troy channel, louis hit the
mainland exaclty as planned at perano head about 4 nm north of tory
channel.

Once out of the bay at makara (total nightmare in light wind dead
onshore and lots of kelp) we got good wind for about 40 mins then it
dropped to zero and we hung out with kites in the water , the wind
came back but it was only about 10 -12 kts , we both had to work the
kites but louis was a bit more efficient and managed to stay on the
planned heading. i worked my way slowly south into the shipping lanes
regularly hitting < 5kts and dropping the kite

We were about to pull the pin on my tripand the boat was on the way to
get me when the wind came back and i got going again. After a the ok
from the coast guard and quick scurry acroos the mouth of tory channel
i ended up about 500 yrds of the coast up against some big cliffs. the
wind started getting funky and i had the stongest gusts of the trip
and a coulple of lofts then it all died about 100 yards out and i swam
too shore.

Meanwhile louis was in good pressure further north and trying to tack
up wind to give him a chance at a quick touch , turn and trip back to
makara. Eventually he touched land at perano head and keen for more
headed back towards the north island.

I was way too far south to contemplate the return trip and the cliff
landing hadn't been nice to my gear so the boat came down and picked
me up.

Louis was ripping in steady 18 -20 on the way back and we struggled to
make ground on him, its way harder work doing 15kts in a 20ft boat in
rough seas than it is doing 20kts on a kite.

With the magic of vhf, spot and telecom we tracked louis down 2 hours
later - he was about 7nm northwest of makara. We knew it was 10kts
lighter on the wellington side so he he had taken a wide northern
circle looking to approach makara downwind as the wind dropped of. He
was making very hard hards of it in about 8 kts when we found him. He
preserved for another 1 1/2 hours relaunching every 20 minutes but
eventually the kite could stay in the sky so we pulled the pin 3 nm
northwest of makara.

It was quite cool at times bobbing away by yourself in the middle of
the starit waiting (praying) for enough wind to relauch, but next time
i think well wait for a gruntier forecast.

Ali

well done guys. Great effort. Big feat and youd be pleased you made it across.