Kiteboarding Lessons
Upon arriving in Puerto Princesa by bus from El Nido, I had some decisions to make. I had only four days left on my visa and I already made the decision to meet up with my El Nido crew in Boracay because, well, YOLO and you never really know how long a goodbye will last.
I broke down my options: 1) leave the country and head to Palau or Truk for some wreck diving that I missed out on in Coron then return 5 days later, or 2) get a visa extension for 30 more days and stay in the Philippines.
After looking at flight prices and schedules, meeting a kiteboarder who knew of a great kite school only 30 minutes away, and, um, loving the Philippines, I figured getting the visa extension would be my best bet. This is one of the many perks of traveling with no set schedule. Decision made.
I spent the evening with Sarah- an energetic, food loving, spiritual, and easy-going backpacker from the Australian outback, and Julian- a smiley, minimalist type of backpacker from the south of France who was happy to tell me all about kiteboarding, something I’ve wanted to learn for at least a decade now.
The next morning I walked to the bureau of immigration where I was told to walk back to town to make copies of my passport and get a photo taken, then walked back to the office, paid the $65 USD fee, got a new stampy-poo and was happily on my way to search for some street meat lunch and plane tickets to Boracay. I walked about 10 miles total throughout the day and ended up eating dinner on the baywalk with an adorable, friendly and curious 23 year old Indian kid who had just left his home country for the first time ever. I love listening to people’s life stories, especially when they are as interesting and optimistic as Sunil’s. At one point he said, with a huge smile on his face, “I learned English on TV mostly, but we don’t speak it in India. Now that I’m traveling, I can practice more. It's fun to say ‘fuck.’ I never get to say that at home!” The things I take for granted…
The following morning, I took a jeepney up towards the intersection for Emerald Beach, then took a 10 minute tricycle ride to the water. It didn’t take long to find the Palawan Kite Club, sort out a price for lessons ($320 USD for 10 hours of one-on-one instruction), and start flying! (Well, ok, not flying quite yet…)
Day one consisted of getting a small kite up in the air for some control practice on the beach...
...then learning how to set up and launch a large kite and flying the large kite with a harness for some more control practice.
I found I had to reset my muscle memory from flying little kites out at the local airport in Wisco on windy days because of the harness. Typically to gain more tension you pull your hands in, but in this case, with the power lines attached to your waist and only the steering lines in your hands, you have to push the bar away to gain more tension. I face-planted a few times.
By the end of the day, I was excited for another lesson. All I could dream about was doing jumps and learning tricks. Ha! Slow down there, champ. Basics first...
Little girl at the hostel helping me study.
Day two was slightly more exciting and a LOT more frustrating. My instructor, Nebs, was a patient, knowledgable young guy, but a lot of times I struggled to understand him. I have been extremely impressed with Filipinos' fluency in English, but, naturally, when you are discussing something technical, there will be technical terms involved, and a language barrier will hinder the process. I had to work really hard to control my own patience a lot of the time.
The wind was low and body dragging practice was tiring. Unfortunately, this made it easy to lose tension and let the kite fall into the water, which was a struggle to relaunch. By about the tenth time that happened, I angrily chucked the bar into the water (which didn’t get far, seeing that it was attached to the harness around my waist) and swore, but Nebs just laughed lightly and said “It’s ok, it’s normal. Always happen for beginner. You are doing good. Try again.” That was all the encouragement I needed. I grabbed the bar and practiced the relaunch technique he taught me… again.
Body dragging practice. This is basically where I put the kite at a 45 degree angle on one side and let the enourmous 18 meter wind catcher drag me through the water by the harness, which would wedge itself so far up my butt cheeks I thought I'd never walk straight again.
Still having fun!
Learning to relaunch.
Almost got it...
Not quite... All the practice in low wind was useful, though, because on day three I easily got the kite back up after the few times I let it hit the water.
Nebs showing me how it's done.
Way, way more graceful than I.
By the end of the day he had grabbed a board and let me try to get up a couple times. The results were less than adequate. I headed back to the hostel exhausted, but excited for my third day of lessons. To brighten my day, I was greeted by Sarah and a few new friends and we all strolled down the beautifully lit main street in search for a delicious sushi dinner.
Day three was equally as frustrating as day two, but infinitely more rewarding. There wasn’t much wind when I got to the beach, so I read and napped while we waited for it to pick up.
After about an hour and half Nebs said, “ok, wind looking good, let’s go!” Sweet! We harnessed up, grabbed a board, launched a 16 meter kite, and waded out into the blue. We hiked upwind (which would become the norm for the following 4 hours) and did a little review of skills, then he set me free on the board.
The goal is to be able to get up on the board and gain enough speed to be able to turn and ride upwind, back and forth in a zig zag pattern (beacuse you will end up downwind regardless). Easier said than done. Luckily, at this location, the water was between knee and waist deep a good distance from the beach, so when I’d get up, try to turn, lose speed, crash onto my face, and stand up to see that in eight seconds flat I’d managed to travel 100 meters directly downwind, all I had to do was position the kite directly over my head, grab the board, and walk backwards wading through the water until I reached Nebs, who would say something like “your body position not good.”
After what seemed like an eternity of riding, turning, falling, hiking back upwind, and trying to get Nebs to describe exactly what part of my body position I could make better, I took a pretty hard digger in some shallow water. The kite drug me across some rocks on it’s way down and when I was finally able to stand up, all I could do was start crying while I wiped the blood from my left leg. I was pretty far downwind though, so I relaunched the kite, found the board, and stifled my tears on my hike back upwind before I got close enough for Nebs to see my weak side. When I finally got back to him, I handed the kite and board over for a rest and some observation. This proved to be a great idea. I knelt down in the water and rested while Nebs cruised back and forth in front of me, giving me tips and pointing to different parts of his body positioning with each pass.
A few minutes later, with renewed energy and a better idea of what I was doing, I waved Nebs over and assured him I was ready to give it another go. Life started to get a lot better. I got the hang of getting up and gaining speed, which allowed me to focus on shifting my weight on the board while keeping the kite positioned to turn upwind. A little while later I was cruising back and forth, heading upwind!
I later learned this is referred to as the "poo stance" and is pretty standard for beginners.
Another tiring hour of way more fun practice, the sky started getting dark and the sun stared going down, so we had to call it a day. Nebs took a few more quick turns and jumps on our way back in.
Gotta let the boys show off a bit ;)
Kiteboarding ended up being a test of my patience, perseverance, and physical ability, and in the end, it was all worth it. I had replaced the salt water I swallowed with my blood, sweat, and tears. A fair trade, I think, and I came out with a new skill which I can't wait to try again!
Besides, dudes dig scars, right???
