How kitesurfing dreams come true...The exploration, Part 2

by Emilie Marx
(Part 2/3)

I found a boat, a captain that I privately trained for the position, and as soon as the wind turned up, we went.

Strong of my safety back up, I invited my riding mates along: they happily played guinea pigs on my various expeditions.

We felt like pioneers in a way.
We were experiencing an aspect of the sport we never had really looked into so far and we were having a ball.

I popped into some professional photographers one day I had planned a trip: I offered them to come along.

I was stoked: I had 4 riders, 2 photographers, a catamaran, a reliable captain, a dinghy, a superb waterproof camera borrowed especially for the occasion and the forecast looked good.
We were all ready for a perfect day.

As we got to the spot, the captain fell off the dinghy with his brand new i-phone in his pocket….
Within the following twenty minutes, one of my rider’s kite turned out to be leaking, and just as I was rigging mine, we heard the detestable sound of a bursting valve.
“Here goes number two” I thought, gutted.

The number two turned out to be my own kite, now looking like a flapping rug…

Why me, why now?
I was devastated: here I was on my paradise spot, with my fellow kiting buddies, my team of cameraman ready to shoot and no bloody gear to do my great downwinder….
Tough moment of loneliness….

(Note to self: add gear back up to your list…).

One of my friends kindly offered me to use his kite: I thought the day was saved!
But that would have been without the intervention of the law of series….

Just as I started the downwinder, the camera I had been lent slipped out of my hand. I had put a little floater on it in case this would happen: I had just about time to turn my head around to watch it sink right down….
Oh great.

Me and the camera in happier times…

-Remark to manufacturers: who on earth sells waterproof cameras that don’t float …-

So that the plate could be full, the wind died halfway through the downwinder (to pick back up just as we were getting back on the boat…(had a feeling of déjà vu somewhat…)) and then, as I tried to rig again from the boat, my lines got tangled in every possible catching piece available and it took three pair of hands, an hour and a whole load of patience to go through this spaghetti session.

Some days are just like that, aren’t they…

The weirdest thing out of this is that we all had a wonderful day -And I’m not being ironical.

The photographers got their shots, I got mine, everyone had fun and we managed to make the most of every situation -I got to ride again after our pasta degustation.
Our smiles on our faces on the way back comforted me in my original idea and I knew I was on the right track.

I was starting to see how delicious this could be minus the fuck ups….

But there was still a lot of work needed to get there...

To read the end of “how kitesurfing dreams come true…”