January 16th-25th, 2015
I returned to the kite surfing farm on a rare rainy day. Even though it was only about 60 kilometers with the combination of switching between four chicken buses and crossing the border, the journey took most of the day.
I returned to the kite surfing farm on a rare rainy day. Even though it was only about 60 kilometers with the combination of switching between four chicken buses and crossing the border, the journey took most of the day.
The following day I was down on the beach but Bob and his
instructors each had a student and some of them were leaving the following day
so I just played around on the beach with the small 2.5 square meter kite. The next day I was back in the water with
Costa Rican Frank helping me out. I
liked Frank’s laid back attitude and he was excited for me when I had my first
real ride on the board for about 30 meters, which was only after I did a “Jesus
Walk”, flying across the water without my board a few minutes earlier. Each day after that (apart from a day off to
watch the NFL playoffs) I slowly progressed in my skills although by the end of
it I still hadn’t learned how to transition (turning from one direction to the
other without going back into the water) nor could I ride upwind but those will
come with more practice, I now have the basic foundation of the sport.
During my training there was another couple who started just
after me. Pat and Danielle hail from
Squamish in Canada with Pat working as a rep for Norco, mainly selling mountain
bikes, and Danielle is a physiotherapist.
Squamish, north of Vancouver on the way to Whistler, is a hot bed for
kite surfing so this adventurous couple decided it was time to take it up. Near the end of our training we were operating
as a team, with one person helping to launch and land the other two people. That was super helpful for me as for a couple
of days I had had to pay an extra $30 for a helper, a local young guy name Eli,
on top of the $50 for renting the gear.
Danielle's first ride:
And maybe Pat's first Superman:
One of my earliest rides:
Bob and Danielle ecstatic about the progress:
Danielle and Pat in the water:
Danielle and Tyler coming out of the water:
Nice rainbow:
The lighting was brilliant...
While we were there Bob had his 51st
birthday. We had a nice dinner at Ulf’s Plaza
Copal restaurant at the farm and finished the evening off with a hilarious game
of “Cards Against Humanity”. The group
consisted of Pat and Danielle, Bob, Tyler, Frank and his girlfriend Melissa and
me. I was impressed with Frank’s ability
to translate some pretty obscure and vulgar cards into Spanish for Melissa, who
really enjoyed the game. I also learned
some Spanish words that would never come up in Duolingo! (a Spanish teaching
website)
Frank reading a question while Melissa looks on:
Bob on the left, Tyler, Pat and Danielle on the right:
Danielle got a really good answer card:
Getting a bit messy...
One morning, knowing that the tide would be too low for kite
surfing, Pat and Danielle, Jess and Nate (a couple from Maine who were Tyler’s
friends) and I went to Manzanillo Beach to do some snorkelling. It wasn't the best I've done but it was still
pretty decent. After that we returned to
the lovely Rajada Beach where we had visited the evening before for a lovely
sunset.
Sunset at Rajada:
This beach was the next one to the Dreams Resort and looked somewhat similar, but I would say that it was even more beautiful. Pat, Danielle and I walked to the far end of the beach to try some more snorkeling. The visibility was nowhere near as good and poor Pat swam right into a big jellyfish and was stung across both arms and his chest…ouch! Later that afternoon when we went to kite surf he soaked his rash guard shirt in vinegar in order to help ease the pain. He was quite the trooper as it must have hurt like a son of a… But I would later learn that Pat has endured a lot worse.
Sunset at Rajada:
This beach was the next one to the Dreams Resort and looked somewhat similar, but I would say that it was even more beautiful. Pat, Danielle and I walked to the far end of the beach to try some more snorkeling. The visibility was nowhere near as good and poor Pat swam right into a big jellyfish and was stung across both arms and his chest…ouch! Later that afternoon when we went to kite surf he soaked his rash guard shirt in vinegar in order to help ease the pain. He was quite the trooper as it must have hurt like a son of a… But I would later learn that Pat has endured a lot worse.
Danielle applying vinegar to Pat:
Pat and Danielle had one more week of vacation and decided
that they were going to head south to check out more of Costa Rica. The wind forecast looked like it was going to
get super windy in a few days’ time so I decided to accept their offer to join
them in their rental car. It was time to
get out of Dodge.
The farm:
Thanks Bob, Tyler, Frank and Stein for your excellent kite
surfing instruction…you have definitely got me hooked on the sport!
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