Dirk & Nancy Down Under: 32) The E-ticket ride

OK - this is the ticket - the WILD ticket of beach life on the Gold Coast. The raw, naked exuberance of screaming along under a 12 m canopy of wind-driven acceleration....(picture is "mai kaite". You have to say it that way "mai kaite")

It was telling at my first lesson (and boy you NEED lessons for this!) that the second sentence out of my instructor's (a tattooed Maui Thai kick boxing practitioner) mouth was "you know, as you get older, your reflexes are not quite as fast..."

Yeah, yeah - buddy, you have no clue who you are dealing with. ("cry in the dojo, laugh on the battle field"). Bring it on! It was a 18-20 knot wind day at Currumbin Beach and I was glad to be just flying a kite -- as the rocks of the jetty looked like a bad place to end up if you lost control.

So I was just flying a kite - right. It lifted me off my feet a few time and at one point bounced me about 25 feet across the beach (due to "poor reflexes" no doubt). It was only an 8 meter toy too! I could finally bring it down to just touch, hover it 2 m off the sand, walk up and down wind without getting dragged around. He was satisfied that I was still breathing and not prone to serious "senior moment lapses.." so he said it was time to try "body dragging". Yummy - sounds like fun. Into the water to get dragged around by powering the kite through figure eights on the edge of the "power zone". As I did this my body planed up on the water, got dunked, pulled up again, dunked again - I now know exactly what it is like to be "teabagged". So I kept at it until I crashed the kite nose down and wind and current dragged me to shore - end of the day.

Lesson 2 - that first company (Gold Coast KiteSurf -- which still has my money for prepaid lessons!) suddenly quit answering email or returning calls. Their shop is closed. Hmmm - maybe they moved to Bali?

Anyway, I found another group of great folks at Surf FX and headed out into the Broadwater to a sand bar - great place - (photo of "Guy" explaining the "wind window" . Great instructor BTW) nothing but the odd houseboat to collide with, long shallows, steady wind and no stray children under foot. So when I asked THIS instructor (Jamie) if he was a wave rider, a jumper or a trick thrower he said "I am just a cruiser - I am almost 36!" Jeesh! Why don't you just hand me a walker hey!
Another big wind day right at the top end of safe beginner conditions, more tips on kite control, more body dragging. I still could not get a constant pull from the kite - but the kite was getting under control. I was using a 7 m kite - pretty twitchy.

Lesson 3. No fooling around here - wind is coming up and I am flying my own gear- a 12 m Cabrinha Switchblade 3. 12 m kite in 20 knots - OMG - that thing is really "muscley". I watched Guy cruise it upwind to the end of the sand bar (I walked) and pop some big air jumps - lot of "grunt" in the kite! He declared it a "sweet" kite.

But he wasn't willing to baby an old timer ("you're doing better that some of the young guys") Great - I thought I WAS one of the young guys. I think Boulder warps your perception of what you should be doing at certain times of your life. (Here athletic activities are for people under 35 - then you take up gardening, or lawn bowling or something. Maybe buy a recliner and watch footy). These guys - all three instructors, seemed to have a bit of amazement and skepticism about old dude trying an "extreme sport". No strength, no endurance, no reflexes you know? (In snowboarding I am a "grey on a tray". I wonder what the kitesurf equivalent is!)

At any rate you sit in the water, board goes on your feet, try and keep the board in front of you as you sweep the kite overhead from 10pm-2am (WAIT - didn't you JUST tell me not to do that? That's where people get lofted and slammed? You think *I* have memory problems? Oh never mind...) - hey this is just like pointing down the fall line. The kite is pulling that way, the board is trying to go this other way. I am the weak link between them. No problem. Sweep down from 12 and turn back up to 2 - zip - I am up an a plane and suddenly whizzing along the surface .... WAY too fast. Spectacular wipe out - that has got to hurt. Do it again and I am up and running! Who-eee! this is a rush!! Oops, just a bit fast and skipping like a thrown rock so I drop the bar and crash. Sitting in 2 ' of water, laughing like a maniac, pumping fists in the air - THIS is doable!

I kept getting longer runs, kept crashing (some perverse part of me just wanted to prove that "the old dude" could beat the crap out of himself and keep coming back for more...) Running along with your kite 2 meters off the water, blue skies, little cirrus clouds. Sweet!

So I am hooked - at least until the inevitable "lessoning". Nancy has given windsurfing a go and is deciding which to pursue. She might have been a bit put off after my first lesson when I told her it was "way scary" - I mean you are tied to something that will blithely and thoughtlessly drag you into immobile objects! In windsurfing you can bailout because you are not directly connected. But water sports are a must here - other than the sheer fun of it, the Big Hot is coming and spending time on the water will be a must... She realizes that I will be out trying to get good enough to start doing ocean "downwinders" (Start up N and visit all the beaches as you cruise S as far as you care to (and can get someone to come get you!) So unless she wants to run shuttle she must join in the mayhem! (anyway - we have been told that windsurfing is the sport "with the most excitement for the least risk of getting splatted")

Drat - 3 more days till the weekend..... "going so fast it is like the water is standing still..."

PS. Guy thought I might be sore. Hasn't the kid heard of "Vitamin I". Jeesh....