Kite boarding 101

16º 26.890s 145º 21.950w

Tue Jun 25 2019

One of the big attractions to the Southeast anchorage at Fakarava is that it is an absolute playground for those into water sports. I’m not talking about noisy ass jet skis and the like; nope, I’m talking about free diving, spear fishing, SCUBA diving, SUP paddling, and KITE  BOARDING!

There’s a lovely couple living on their boats here – Aline Dargie and Adrien Cartier Millon. They’re both kite boarders, but Aline teaches free diving and spear fishing, and Adrien teaches kit boarding, anything from beginners to insane tricks. Aline is originally from Boston, but you’ve never know it by listening to her speak. Adrien is from Heyeres, France, a lovely town just a bit East of Marseilles. I was going to run a flight test out of the military base there until the hangar floor collapsed and we had to move the operation to Istres. Both lovely towns, so no biggy! Aline’s little catamaran is named “Pizza”. Who doesn’t love pizza?

Kite boarding is one of those activities like golf or tennis that folks can continue with well into “advanced age” as we like to think of it. Not being of “advanced age” ourselves but seeing it out there on the distant horizon, there’s just no time like the present to learn a new skill, accept a new challenge, take on a new hobby. Especially a hobby that’s purely about celebrating life and the environment we’re living in.

Isabel and I had our first lesson together yesterday, and another today. We’re hoping to get one more two hour session in tomorrow before the wind dies and we run out of French Polyneisan Francs and have to go find a bank machine. I actually got in a lesson two days ago while Isabel observed from Adrien’s chase dinghy. It’s hard to describe beginning kite boarding to the uninitiated. If we climb into the way-back machine, there I was water skiing, wake boarding, and a little trick skiing, even trying barefoot water skiing back during college. If you’ve ever learned to slalom ski, you’ll know the feeling of being all squatted down in a seated position trying not to drink the entire lake or have it wash your eyeballs out of your head, and of course the occasional face plant that sometime rings your chimes.

Flying the kite reminds me a lot of skydiving and flying parachutes, sailplanes, helicopters and airplanes. When flown statically, it seems the kite barely has enough angle of attack to do more than keep it’s own weight aloft. When you pull on the control bar the angle of attack is changed by pulling the leading edge down, and the kite surges forward with a lot of power. Statically the turning controls are not very responsive, however when you pull the control bar towards you it’s like pulling the collective up on a helicopter and tremendous power develops as the kite surges forward. As that happens the left and right turning controls become extremely responsive. It’s a bit bass ackwards from flying an airplane where taking off (i.e. increasing lift) requires increasing the angle of attack by tilting the trailing edge of the wing down and the leading edge up. I’m still trying to work out the aerodynamics of the whole thing, but it’s great fun thinking it through.

I think what’s really important to me, perhaps to us both, is that as adults we’ve almost forgotten how to play. Finally we’re creating a life for ourselves that involves plenty of free time, and it’s important to remember how to play, and to find some fun activities to get passionate about. Kite boarding work out to be that adrenalin rush that I used to get skydiving, flying aerobatic aircraft, and racing sailplanes cross country. The opportunity to share the fun with Isabel makes it way better, and as we each learn and become more proficient, we’ll be each others “kite bitch” to chase with the dinghy and offer rescue services when the kiter loses the board, gets too far downwind and can’t get back, or simply wants a break.

I’m betting that not only will we need kite gear, but we’ll also probably have to buy a few more jerry cans for gasoline. Glad we got a fast dinghy with an efficient outboard.

Tonight there was an impromptu gathering on the beach with a couple of bonfires, one of which we let burn down to coals for cooking. There must have been at least 30 adults and kids whooping it up, cooking over the fire, and sharing extra food. Barry from SV White Shadow played his guitar and harmonica and did a few blues numbers. I forgot to ask if he used to sing with the Moody Blues. . .