Owner:
ajdesq
Member
F-O-N Champion 2003
Member#: 6 Location: Registered: 24-07-2002 Diary Entries: 209
Mood: Living to kitesurf :-)
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20th June 2007
Kite surfing: Normans Bay, Pevensey Wind Direction: SSW Wind Stength: 15-20kts Surf / Sea State: Lumpy Air Temperature: 24 Sea Temperature: OK Weather: Sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Was getting a bit frustrated at first as I just couldn't get the trim of
hte kite right... it would drop out of the sky at the edges but yank me out
of the water at other times. Using the Protoy was a no-brainer due to the
chop, and as the tide was coming in of course I didn't use a leash.
Eventually I got the trim of the kite just right and it was sweet... for
all of about 2 reaches, although I was getting really frustrated that after
a year I'm still having trouble getting/staying upwind.
About 100m out my board came off, and as much as I tried to bodydrag back
the tide and wind took me downwind at a much faster rate than it took the
board. After about 15 minutes with the board completely out of sight I
dragged back in and started looking... and looking... and looking. Only
trouble was, the tide had come in enough to cover the sand as I was
hobbling painfully over large pebbles. After about half an hour I decided
to deflate the kite, walk back up the shingle 300m to my sandals, get some
water down my neck and go back to keep looking. I trudged up and down the
shingle to Cooden and back for seven hours, from midday to 7pm. At about
6pm, totally exhausted, I lay down on the shingle for a snooze. Then I
walked back for the last time to the campsite, totally despondant.
Walking past a house on the beach, a yappy dog came and charged at me,
hotly followed by its apologetic owner who was enjoying a fag in the
garden.
I told the lady that her little dog was the least of my worries as I'd just
lost my kitesurf board. 'Oh, I think I have it in my garden' she replied.
She'd been out at about 1.30pm walking, had found my board about 500m
downwind, but of course at this time I was back at the caravan getting some
food and drink and getting out of my wetsuit. As she'd not seen anyone out
kitesurfing, and there was no-one on the beach, she assumed the board had
been out at sea for weeks and decided to take it home as a garden ornament.
She nearly fainted when I told her it had cost me nearly £500.
Had I not persisted in my search, or stopped for that snooze, or been
charged at by the dog, or if she'd not gone out for a ciggie all at that
time, I'd never have got my board back.
So.... fate, or what?
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