Kite surfing + Me = Never (or so I thought)

The old adage of never say never, never entered my mind when a couple of years ago Mike, my friends’ brother sat and passionately talked about it while visiting us, and I thought to myself, that is not for me.

Low and behold, 18 months later, Mike and his wife Susie having done a trip around Central and South America, Mike wrote a book about their experience, basically a ‘Safari’ with Kite Surfing, and not animal spotting as the normal person would think.

I have read that book, and was totally absorbed in it from cover to cover!! My right brain (or was it the left part) screaming at me…. NO you do not like extreme sports, but the other side, whispering enticingly .. what a way to see a whole continent or two…..

! hmm .. I wonder is I could kite surf…. and I am not even a fan… but the book took a grip and now it is on my list of things I still want to do.

The book is filled to the brim with stories on the Kite Surfing community throughout Central and South America.

There are unique places to stay and where the ‘in’ crowd are Kiting (is that even a word – well now it is) and even some other places to visit whilst enjoying the sand, sea and sun. Instead of getting your daily three R’s you are getting your daily three S’s with a whole lot of exhilarating fun attached.

Not much is mentioned about the main touristy areas, which is fine as there is so much information about those, that you don’t need this. This book has places in it that will keep you searching for hours on a map to try and find it. From kiting in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala to kiting in Pipa, Brazil which is surrounded by ‘ magnificent beaches with seas full of dolphins, backed by steep cliffs.

The book is also filled with amazing photos, which Susie mostly took whilst Mike was busy with………… as you guessed, kiting. The ‘kite surfing’ slang did not leave me wondering what was meant and very often I would have a quite giggle or a huge bellowing laugh at the antics which these people got up to, or rather tried to avoid, but couldn’t.

The book contains sections covering : the layout, wind and water conditions; Getting there and around; Where to crash ( sleep for the non South Africans); Après Kiting (food glorious food) as well as other options besides kiting.

An extract from the book…

When our four hour bus journey from La Paz ended and a voice piped over

and said “Los Barilles”, we actually thought the bus driver was joking, and

didn’t get off. Then we noticed that no-one was laughing and decided to ask

the little old lady next to us in our broken Spanish “Que pueblo es por favor?”

I still don’t know if that is actually correct but we got our answer. Indeed this

was Los Barilles.

All Susie and I could see was this desolate landscape with a few dodgy

looking structures, the odd cactus and some shoddy looking animals. My first

thought was “Oh oh, Susie is going to give me an ass whooping for dragging

her to this off the beaten track place to kitesurf.”

Kite surfing is a reasonably modern extreme sport only becoming a mainstream sport in about 1998, although a lot of work and fine-tuning took place from about the beginnings of the 1970’s. It is a wild and exhilarating sport and not for the feint hearted, but this book is well worth a read, even if you are not interested in the actual kiting. Me I loved it.

If you would like a copy, I will be selling them, just mail me at : evakujawa@googlemail.com and I can arrange for one to be sent to you and advise you of the costing. Currently the book is going to press.

Do you judge a book by it cover?

My daughter Roxanne gave me a book for Christmas called, 'This Thing of Darkness', by Harry Thompson. I looked at the cover and it looked rather ominous to me, with a dark greens and gloom and rocks and a lonely ship with a smaller canoes around. I thought to myself, oh my, a horror or thriller, just what I am not in the mood for.

Not bothering to read the blurb I put it aside and forgot about it, for a short while. Not having gotten many books and having read through all the ones I have, I was desperate for something to read, so I picked this book up and turned to read the blurb.

‘1828’ – ooh – I love history – reading on … ‘Brilliant young naval officer Robert FitzRoy is given the captaincy of HMS Beagle, surveying the wilds of Tierra del Fuego, aged just twenty-three.’ - ok… wonder where that is…. ‘ He takes a passenger: a young trainee cleric and amateur geologist named Charles Darwin’ – OH – ‘This is the story of a deep friendship between two men, and the twin obsessions that tore it apart, leading one to triumph and the other to disaster …’ Now I was definitely interested ….

I started to read …….. and read I did and I could not put the book down. In bed at night for hours on end, walking along the corridors at work, walking to and from the bus stop, the book never left my hands. Crying and laughing, feeling the warmth of friendship and the heartbreak of taking different paths in life, I read and read until I came to the end, all to soon I might add, of an 852 page masterpiece.

Not only had I learnt of places that exist down at the bottom end of our earthly home, but also of cultures and people that are not well know. Fauna, Flora and the bravery of young men going off into the unknown left me with a feeling that I was on those voyages, accompanying FitzRoy and Darwin through one of the most amazing times of their lives.

Anyone who is interested in History, Darwin, Travel – this is a MUST read.