Cowabunga …???

I feel old.  I’m creaking.  I know exactly where my muscles are… they’re in my neck, shoulders, back, and arms .. the rest of me feels like jelly.

Yes – I’ve taken up Kiteboarding.  Probably the oldest person on the water in these here parts,  at the ripe old age of 40 & Change.

I say on the water … yesterday I spent 2.5 hours on a blisteringly hot beach (the .5 is important .. as I didn’t make it to 3!) being taught how to fly what is commonly known as a Training Kite, but should be known as 2 meters of hell on the end of a string.  Wind is very powerful you know.  I learned to control the thing between 10 & 2 (clock analogy), between 12 and 2, then 1, then 10, then back to 12 then 11, and every thing in between…. while at all times the wind was trying to catapult me into the stratosphere/Murder me/drown me/drag me over scratchy sand.  I even learned how to sit on the ground – throw the kite from left to right, then use the power of it to pull myself up to a standing position – GET IN!   I can walk with it.  I can keep it level at all points of the wind window – and I can land it (often really hard) and fly the thing from a landed position.

I can fly a big F-off kite.

Today .. I learn to fly the Kitesurf Kite – 10 meters wide – strapped at the waist into a harness that is worse than anything a Victorian woman had to deal with.  Trussed up like a chicken.  But I’m told that my arms will get a ‘little’ break, as the wind power is distributed a bit lower (ie – my expanding middle) – so that’s a relief.

Things are going well – and the trainer knows of my 6 years of wakeboard experience so thinks I may be ready to at least body drag today, if not, water start by the end of the session.  Body Drag !?!?

I’m sure I’ll be able to nail the board element of it.  The wind – well .. that’s another thing all together.

I’m getting there though.  Loving every painful minute.  Harnessing the power of the wind makes me feel really keyed into the Universe.

WoooHooooo – what a ride !!!

Till Later My Lovelies.

❤