Kiteout

Youri Zoon, Nick and Kevin get an invitation to Nitro City for the last chapter in the Hidden Lines series.

Make My Day 5 Mauritius / One Eye

makemydayepisodes.com

Link to map

Parking:

There is a parking lot right at the beach that is metered.  The city does patrol the lot so feed the meter to avoid a ticket.  

Launch / Land:

You can setup, launch and land directly infront of the parking lot, but you need to do it past the walkway.

Wind:

http://windalert.com/spot/1439

More Info:

http://www.sandydan.com/sports/kitesurf/beaches/belmont/index.htm

My Experience:

I am ashamed to say that I have never been to Belmont Shores until this weekend (Sept. 1, 2012).  At first sight from the highway we saw so many kites out.  I didn't try to count, but it looked like there were 30+ kites out there;  a very promising sign. Unfortunately, they were all starting to head in due to the wind dropping.  So, when we got there only a few kites were out.

Debating whether I should go out I started talking to some guys that obviously kite here all the time.  They didn't know if they were going out either due to lack of wind.  One of them made the comment, "if the wind was good and now it's not, it rarely gets good again this time of day".  They all seemed to nod in agreement confirming that I might not be kiting today.

My wife Cory is always good about encouraging me to just check it out.  So, we made our way closer to the water to see what was going on with the wind and what other people were thinking.  As we got closer the wind started to pick slightly and a few people with larger kites (18m and 20m) launched and got out there.  After about 15 mins of talking to two other guys, the wind picked up and more and more kites started to go up.  

Seeing that this might be my only chance, I quickly went back to the car, grabbed my stuff and setup as fast as I could.  In short order I had my kite up, trimmed, and ready to launch.  Before entering the water I remembered that there are quite a few sting rays here.  So, I shuffled my feet as I entered the water to avoid stepping on a stinger.  

Since the wind was coming out of the north west there seemed to be a bit of a wind shadow near the shore that made it a little harder to get out there.  As I was sitting in the water with my board on my feet I was getting pushed around a lot by the chop. It took a couple dives of my kite to finally get enough power to get me up and out of the shadow and into some good wind.

Out there the wind is pretty consistent and I never experienced a gust that caught be by surprise.  The water was choppier than I thought it would be, but that just meant there were more kickers to jump along the way.  It didn't take long though before the chop got to my legs and wore them out.  I think I only lasted about 45min, where at Fiesta Island in San Diego I could go for a couple hours.  Coming in I overshot my landing upwind by a full life guard tower.  So I ended up having to walk my kite back.

It was getting later in the day, so once I got back to all my stuff we called it and started to pack up.  

UK riders (UKcrew) Tom Court, Aaron Hadlow, Sam Light, and James Boulding hit up Australia, Dominican Republic, Hood River, Fuerteventura, and the Philippines.

The Airush Lithium was praised in the all around category in 2012 and this year looks like it could be a repeat. Bas Koole and Oswald Smith, in Langebaan, SA show off a little of what this years version looks like.  airush.com/2013/kites/lithium/ 

2012 Reviews:

http://www.kiteboardingreview.com/kitereviews/8-airush/159-airush-lithium-2012

When ever I travel I always check to see if there is a place to kite. When planning out a trip with my wife to see her brother and wife in Cortenay BC I noticed that they were very close to a pretty popular Vancouver Island spot called, "The Spit" (officially called "Goose Spit").

google maps

It had been 6 months since I had last kited.  When telling other kiters this it almost felt like a confession to a priest, "Dear father, forgiving me for I have sinned.  It has been about 6 months since my last kiteboarding session."  I was pretty much willing to bring my stuff if there was the slightest chance there might be wind there.  After doing a little research about the location and what types of wind to expect (http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/comox_spit) I decided to bring my stuff. During this time of year (end of May) the wind didn't look too strong so I decided on bringing just my 13.5m kite. While at the airport I would learn that a second kite would put me over the weight limit and cost me some cash.

We got to the island Thursday evening after a very scenic flight from Vancouver to Comox and planned on checking out the spot the next day since it looked like it might blow. The next day it didn't look like it was going to happen, but I brought my stuff just incase. When we got to the spot the wind was 7mph max.  The kite was not going up today, but it wasn't so bad.  The view from the spit was amazingly beautiful.  

After a good long walk around the spit we packed it up and headed back.  We knew that there might still be wind on Sunday or Monday.  Saturday night I saw that Sunday was supposed to be pretty good.  I checked when the peak was going to be and when the tide was going to work.  When we woke up the next morning I could already see that the wind was picking up from the leaves on the trees.  I wasn't sure how much of this wind we were going to see on the spit, but the weather station was reporting 17mph!  I wasn't sure if this was true or not since the forcast only showed it was supposed to be around 12mph.  Maybe this was just a gust, who knows.

A little after 9:00am we packed up and headed for the spit with my brother in-law and wife.  As soon as we entered the spit I knew it was blowing more than 17mph.  On one side there were very large white caps and when we got out you could feel how powerful and consistent the wind was.  I pulled out my wind meter and it read a top speed of 26mph!  This was about 8mph more than I could handle with my 13.5 meter kite.  I was excited and disappointed all at the same time. At this point I would have paid any amount of money the airline wanted to bring my second kite, a 9M. So, here was all this wind and I couldn't use it.

My brother in-law and wife convinced me to setup my stuff just incase the wind died a little.  After doing so, another kiter came out to setup his stuff.  I walked over to him to introduce myself and ask about anything I should be aware of when kiting here.  He said there was nothing really except for the fact that the tide was going out.  I then told him my predicament with my kite being too big; and like a typical Canadian he offered to use his kite.  There was no way I could do that, but instead asked if he could tell me how it was out there once he was up and going.

After a few passes he yelled out, "give it a shot!"  Crap, I knew he was going to say that. I rigged up the rest of my stuff and had my wife launch me.  I don't think I have ever launched my kite in a smaller place.  The area was about 15 - 20 ft deep, but I got my kite up without any problems.  After my kite was up I depowered it all the way, but even with it flying at 12 o'clock I could tell this was way more power than I could probably handle.

I was scared for more reasons than one.  The wind was blowing off shore, which meant if I fell and couldn't get my kite back up I would be drifting for a while until I hit another shore line.  Also, there were boats moared pretty close which made the area for kiting pretty small.  All of this on top of the fact that I was going to be completely over powered in a spot I have never kited in. So I decided to go for it.  I was probably the scariest kiting I have ever done, but a ton of fun.