Being dragged around has never been more fun – kitesurfing in St Kilda

#9 – Swallow salt water by trying to kite surf at St Kilda beach, April 12, 2014

While Melbourne is not as blessed with natural beauties as Sydney is, it has a lot to offer in terms of culture, coffee places and life in general. Nevertheless, we have a beach and I like it. One of Harriet’s biggest complaints is, that it is not a surf beach. Fortunately, some clever person came up with an idea of surfing without waves: kitesurfing, which “… combines aspect of aspects of wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport”. Maybe calling it an “extreme sport” is taking it too far, but judging by the number of kites that you see on a windy summer afternoon in St Kilda, it seems pretty fun. By the way, just last week I’ve been told that if you want to be part of the in-crew in tech venture funding, it’s no longer enough to wear Happy Socks (that’s so 2012), but you need to be proficient in kitesurfing.

So I put it on The List, not really sure whether that was a good idea or not, especially since I wasn’t really willing to commit enough to it to spend the full $400 on the five hours it takes to learn it. I just wanted at least to test the waters. Luckily, the local kitesurfing schools offer teaser courses that teach you basic control of the kite and do some body drags in the water without the board. My first insight: this sport is highly weather dependent. When there’s no wind or the wrong wind (offshore wind is apparently the wrong wind), there’s not much you can do. We had to reschedule the lesson twice, which was a bit frustrating, but nothing anybody can do about. So finally, on Saturday I had my big day and entered the realm of kitesurfing.

Since a wetsuit is no normal possession when you’re from Northern Germany – although water temperatures would more than justify it – I got one from the shop. When trying it on, I had to think of one of the Tui Beer ads, that ran in New Zealand a year ago. I pushed through, got myself into the rubber skin and out onto the beach. You first learn with a training kite on the beach, which brought back fond memories of autumn vacations spent in Denmark, where my parents tricked my enthusiasm by getting me a stunt kite. This was very similar, only that this one had much more power and that you had to do a lot more preparation before you launch it. You had to unfold it, untangle the chords, pump it up (if you’re working with a real kite) and then connect all strings and hooks in the right order. And that was my second insight: This sport takes a lot of preparation before you get going and a lot of patience after you had your fun.

We spent the first hour preparing the training kite and flying it on the beach, which was already quite fun. But as soon as we got into the water with the big kite (14 meters), it got even better. We used our beach-learned knowledge in the water to let the kite drag ourselves around a bit. Once it worked, it was enormous fun although my brain was in overdrive: being dragged around, trying to control the kite and at the same time feeling the cold water entering the wetsuit. I had a hard time focusing on the kite and blocking out any distractions. But it all worked out and I had lot’s of fun. Even more fun: We didn’t have to dry, clean and re-pack the kite.

So, what’s the verdict, will I increase my level of cool and become a kitesurfer? My answer is an honest “I don’t know yet”. It’s quite an investment to get started, you’re pretty dependent on wind conditions and on the day it takes a fair amount of time to get started and to pack up again. On the plus side: Once your kite catches the wind and drags you in the directions you want it to drag you, it’s pretty amazing. Maybe I just get myself some Happy Socks.