Kitesurfing

(Been meaning to post this all year!)

Some words on kitesurfing

Thursday, I think
Today was the start of our second week kitesurfing here in Cumbuca, one of the best spots in the world. It is hard to believe that only last Thursday we were getting our first lesson, Saturday and Sunday before we were in the water and now we are both surfing along the length of this great tropical beach, every day is big, just like learning to snowboard, every day brings a new skill and a 100% improvement, and something lined up to master the next day, totally loving it and exhaused at the end of each day. We were wondering the other day how and when the idea to kitesurf came up, like everything else since we arrived here in Brazil, it seems that there was no plan but it all fell into place. Cumbuca is not far from Fortaleza, where we flew to, but it is so hard to leave, the conditions are perfect. A few years back this place was simply a weekend beach for the Brazilians, but kitesurfing has changed all that. There are a lot of surfers here, and they need their comforts I guess. On the other hand, it seems that not much has changed. Maybe because we are just hanging out with the locals.Why not, they are such beautiful and calm people, things meander along you can't help but chill and slow down. We stumbled on a pousada two minutes walk from the beach, it is a little paradise, lovely garden with rooms around the edges, hammock out front, and Etamoe making sure that all is well for us , he is a little buddha from the slums, such a gentleman and amigo. So, a week and a half into our trip, we are planning to travel up the coast, but have settled into such a groove here that who knows when that will happen. Kevin is such a perfect travelling buddy, so easy going, we are laughing ourselves through the days. The sun rises here about 6am each day, and sets at 6, no dawn or dusk, and we have been getting up with it, days start early, it seems to be the custom, down to the beach after breakfast setting up the kites and into the water. It is hard to describe jsut how good it feels, the constant 35 kph wind, the equatorial sun hitting 40c, the warm ocean, just you and your kite and board, in th middle of such beatuiful and powerful forces. We got 3 days lessons, a few hours a day, from Bjorn, a 19 year old belgian professional, ranked 21 in the world, total dude, really got us thinking about safety and what to do when things go wrong. Kev is definitely ahead of me, putting his stylish snowboarding skills to good effect, even pulled a 180 today, to be fair though, I was suffering from seriously burned feet all week, thankfully ok now, we had our first crossover today, I was surfing out and he in, yeah man, every day is big, can't wait for tomorrow, gotta master travelling on my weaker side and making turns, its all good, and so, in Cambuca we stay, no reason to leave just yet,

A few days later......

Now I have got all the skills sorted and are having so much fun, working the kites and really zipping along, this is so much fun, the changing seascape lining up kickers on every run, its gotta be as good as snowboarding, similar but different....... and its just going to get better and better......

More words on kitesurfing

I woke up on Monday, my last day of 4 weeks in Cumbuco, Kev left the night before, and discovered that I was a day late, missed my flight, another day in paradise, nothing like several missed connection and losing a bag in Heathrow to bring you back to unreality, who cares, I am so feelgood happy and at one after this trip, how can you put it into words. Cumbuco was our home for four weeks, unintentional but so hard to leave, the little Brazilian fishing village where people come to kitesurf, the constant wind, I fell in love with bibi, my kite, black and yellow like a bumblebee, it is hard to describe kitesurfing, each week brings a new level and something else to love about this sport. My limited experience was seeing some nutters out in the west coast of Ireland and the east coast of england, seemed pretty crazy, have you ever tried to fly a power kite, I found out during the summer with Alistear up the northumberland coast, dragged 100 meters through the sand on my heels before being tossed like a rag doll through the air, but now I am surfing through the water hitting the big waves, tweaking the kite all the time in tune with riding the board, unreal, speed freak, the sound of board on water and spray hitting you, slowdown and sit back, big slow swells rolling by soon to turn into big waves, you find yourself between two and feel lost in the water jungle. In the first week you are learning the skills, spend a lot of time losing your board and kite hitting the water, come on bibi, do it for me, body dragging using the kite and wind so you can retrieve your board, learning how to go in one direction, turning and coming back, we went straight to the ocean, like learning to board on new zealand ice snow, conditions can't get more difficult but you learn quickly. The second week is more controlled, all the time concentrating on kite and board, losing yourself in yourself, in brasil, in the water, all seeing oneness with the mother ocean. The wind there blows almost parallel to the beach, slightly on shore so you don't end up out in the ocean if you get into trouble, staying upwind is a basic skill , edging the board so you keep a line, in and out, in with the waves and out against them, jumping as you hit the edge, little natural kickers, getting some air, pull on the bar to power the kite and you get serious air, I was happy to leave this till I got a bit more experience. We met Kelly the Candian radical surfer in the second week and he got us excited with his talk of downwinders, basically you forget about staying upwind with the 200 kiters in the water and go with the wind, a 6km trip to the lagoon and get a buggy back, heading maybe 300 meters out to the big waves and then back again to the shore, getting nice air going out against the waves and then chasing them in, riding up and over the back of a big flat top, then surf down the front, incredible feeling. Closer to the shore you have to navigate five or six huge breakers, somehow slipping in front and onto the shallow shorebreak, turn and bash your way out. Kev was in his element, Radman in the air and me more often in the washing machine, basically, if you come off or a truck like wave hits you then you get swallowed up and thrown in circles with the breaker, hoping that you manage to keep the kite in the air or it too gets the washer treatment, not nice, poor bibi broke one of her lines, such was the power. I was digging the surfing though and started kicking my back leg to get a snowboarding-surfing style going, using the kite to power my turns and looking for big waves, unorthodox but so much fun. By the end of the trip we were doing a couple of downwinders a day, in the water for 4 or 5 hours. I could have stayed another month, I guess there is always next year, the trip was just too good, and so many people that made it special, Radman and Effe, Kobi and the dutchies, Sander and Bjorn at the Coconutchie, the crazy Germans Lars and Aslan, TicoMeister at the Pousada and brazilian Joshua, cooking and surfing and listening to sweet reggae music, living life to live, and a big up to Kev my kiting and traveling buddy, we got into a groove on the first day and kept the Cumbuco shuffle going for 4 weeks.

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