Kitesurfin' Kitesafari

Today I went kitesurfing, nearly. Neil, my instructor and Cecilia, who was also learning from Neil, and I hopped on a jetski and headed out across the bay. We set up kites, I got a safety briefing and a run down on keeping the kite in good condition and then we launched. I learnt relaunching and keeping the kite in the air, and then Neil led me into deeper water where I got the kite to drag me along on my belly. Then I learned how to drag myself upwind to my board. By this point I was getting pretty tired, and Cecilia's kite had packed up, so she took over for a while. Neil said "Right, watch this". It was obvious Cecilia had done it before, and she picked up out of the water and disappeared on the board. Well, for a few seconds anyway - she soon ducked back into the water. The wind was a bit patchy, but I did get a couple of goes at getting up on the board, but to no avail, and neither of us ended up doing anything like the bloke in the picture. I need more practice at wakeboarding I think, and I'll get it. On the upside, I'm now the proud owner of an instructive DVD and a pretty good quality wetsuit, so I'll be learning from home while I save up for my next lesson. And if I can find someone with an old surfboard I can borrow, I might give the wetsuit an airing before it gets warm again in October.

Huge, massive, colossal thanks to everyone at Abel & Cole for clubbing together to get me the lesson. You'll be pleased to know that the 3 hours you paid for overran to 5, so you got excellent value for money. Rest assured I'll be getting value from it and actually getting up on that board next time!