Pics from Phuket Thailand (July '07)

For lack of anything to post I decided to just post some pics taken from our trip to Phuket last year. Did some kitesurfing (but I forgot the locations) and tried to learn how to surf. Did the touristy things as well. It's a great place to go Thailand. I would certainly would want to go back and kite there some more.

an epic session...

After my recent post I just realized I haven't posted about last last Sunday's epic session (the first of many more epic sessions to come). There must have been at least 15 kiters at North Haven aka The Wall. That got me excited. I enjoy kiting more when there are other kiters around, not only is it safer but I also get inspired to do better. Anyways the wind was blowing pretty well that day, my 14meter was perfect that day. I decided to go use my old Airush decoy 135 board since the wind was good and that board let's me ride upwind better. I decided to just follow the other locals and ride the same direction they were going... I noticed several of them were riding very near the rock wall to take advantage of the flat water that the rock wall provides (it's actually a barrier of rocks that acts as a wall to block the waves coming from the other side...hmm did that make sense?). So I decided to go ride along that direction as well and boy was it awesome... I was gliding thru the water so fast, I dont't think I've kited that fast before. It was exhilirating. So basically that's what I did for the next hour or so, just ride beside the wall and go as fast as I possible could. I was also able to work on my toeside and transitions as well. I did a few jumps but kept losing my board, the footstraps of the Airush are too wide for my feet and I probably was doing it wrong too hehe. Anyway it was all good that day, no accidents or near accidents, my kite was up all the time and I didn't lose my board. It's been awhile since I've had a kiting day like this, I can't wait to go kiting again.

Stop, It's too big...

Thats what I kept telling myself when I went kiting last Sunday... Watching other people kiteboarding on a late Sunday afternoon, I decided to rig up even if at the back of my mind I knew the my 14M kite was too big for this weather. I didn't have a wind meter with me so i could only guess-timate it was blowing more than 20 knots. I setup my kite on the lowest knot and fully depowered yet I kept getting lifted from stand still (my kite at 12 o'clock). That inner voice inside me started to change tune to, "don't do it" and "land your kite or you could end up on the 6 o'clock news"... Thankfully Sherlyne had stayed a bit longer and I was able to signal to her that I wanted to land the kite, thou she herself struggled to hold on and land the kite, I was able to abort a possible disaster. Minutes after landing my kite a huge rain cloud appeard and the wind just amped up even more... The kiters who were there didn't seem to mind but then again they were on much smaller kites. So I packed up my gear and left the scene, disappointed at not being able to kiting. "You'll have another day, don't worry" the inner voice inside me said.