How kitesurfing dreams come true…. Part 1: The exploration

by Emilie Marx
(Part 1/3)

When Tal and Thierry offered me to do this blog, I decided I’d publish a new story at least once every two months.
Matter of fact, I’ve just magnificently failed to….
The positive news out of this is that I’ve gathered enough experiences over the past months to write half a dozen stories!

I just went though what I’d call an experimental phase: when I published my last story, I said I was going to explore.
I did!
These past months have been very exciting: I’ve put all my energy in a little dream of mine.
An idea already in my mind few years back -when I tried to set up a kiting school in Fiji.
The goal on the long run was to start offering downwinders and trips to unique spots.
No crowd, mobility, diversity: a kitesurfer’s heaven.

I failed to then.
But as one should never, never give up….. I didn’t.
It’s been a while now that I’m fully aware of the potential of Sint Maarten (I’ve been so spoiled I could allow myself to lose my mojo) and my original idea came back to my mind (in the same time as I found my mojo back!).

So I got curious, I wanted to find out exactly how do-able this could be: I left my comfortable local spot to go on an exploration.

One’s got to start somewhere, so even though I knew I’d have needed a safety back up on all the searches I did, I went on my own for most of them to start with.
-Note: not recommended at all!-

I had spotted few sites on the map which I was sure could be ridable on a certain wind direction. I waited for the conditions to be right, and started travelling along the coast –accessorily, on a day the wind really wasn’t that strong…

Gorgeous downwinder, blue sky, light but steady breeze, I was enjoying my delectable loneliness…

I noticed eventually there wasn’t a single boat in sight and thought that going on such an expedition without telling anyone wasn’t very smart.
That’s precisely when what I feared the most (along with the equipment failure) actually happened: I was some 2km away from the target beach when someone pushed the button and the wind died.

The closest piece of land was a cliff -with its welcoming rocks on which waves were breaking….
I found myself doing kiteloops to keep my kite flying, hoping I’d manage to avoid the half dozen reefs that were on the way to the closest beach….

I eventually made it, scratch-less, please (I put a cross on the calendar that day!).
I waited a bit to see what the wind was doing, and seeing no change in the sudden calm, I decided to pack up.
The very second I opened the deflating valve, the wind came back on.

Gutted, I grabbed a $30 ride back to starting point. Miscalculations don’t come cheap, do they….
I got back home with a bruised ego but also with another ticked spot on my list, as the one I ended up on turned out to be perfectly exploitable…. -Understood, with a safety back up on the way there…-

Once was enough though: I needed a boat with me if I wanted to reach further spots.
This was part of my concept any way, but I had thought at first that I could handle it on my own: this experience had proven I couldn’t.
It was time to go to the next step.

Checkout Emilie's kitesurfing cruise site: http://www.kitesurfarisxm.com

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