Surfing and kitesurfing

Posted on July 10, 2007
Filed Under - leisure |

Went down to Fistral Beach on Sunday to watch a surfing competition, held in memory of a local surfer, Adam “Spike” Goode, who died a few years ago in a mountain-boarding accident. It was a pretty chilled contest really. The waves weren’t much good but the surfers made the best of it. In surfing competitions four surfers take part in a round, each wearing a different colour t-shirt - red, blue, yellow and white - so that they can be identified from afar. The red t-shirt is like pole position in F1 or the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. They get a certain amount of time (feels like around 20 minutes) to catch as many waves as they can and impress the judges with their skills and tricks. The guys competing on this occasion were light years ahead of anyone else in the bay, who were mostly holiday makers. At least I have no need to feel embarrassed having a go, as most other people on the beach can’t surf either! Annoyingly I lost my keys on this day, quite possibly on the beach somewhere, and ended up having to call out an emergency locksmith at great expense. It should have been a quick job, but the locksmith’s assistant, a 77-year-old Cornish guy with angina called Jack, broke a drill bit off in the lock and it took Mark the locksmith almost an hour to remove it! Jack was a sweet old man and we had a nice chat about the war but he did unfortunately stray into ‘bring back capital punishment’ territory.

On Monday I went for another cliff-top run to Watergate Bay and back. This time I took my camera and managed to get some decent snaps of the kitesurfers out on the water. It is difficult to get a shot of kitesurfer with kite; you need to zoom out a long way since the kite is high above them. The kites are very large and the boards look more like snowboards than surfboards, with straps for the feet.

I’d never seen kitesurfing before I came to Cornwall and I am fascinated by it. It looks incredibly exciting and these guys go pretty fast. It is really growing in popularity and if you want to get into the latest trendy extreme sport and spend lots of money on expensive gear, then kitesurfing is worth looking into! The kitesurfers who were out on Monday were zooming up and down the bay in fairly shallow white water not doing many impressive tricks or leaps, but it is still exciting to watch and they tend to stay upright for longer than surfers! There was also a guy doing a beach version of kitesurfing, using a two-wheeled platform. I don’t know whether this is a sport in itself or a progression towards full-on kitesurfing. I think the water version is more elegant.

I had a quick chat with the guy you see in the pictures in the red helmet. He’s been kitesurfing for a couple of years but doesn’t live near anywhere with consistent winds, so he can’t always get out to practice. Watergate Bay is good for kitesurfing because the winds are stronger and more consistent on the west coast and it is a long beach so there’s plenty of room. Red-hatted guy reckons it takes about 3-6 months to get to a standard where you can kitesurf up and down the bay, if you live near the sea and are comfortable with being out in the water. I would love to give it a go at some point, but I should try to devote more time to surfing first. There’s so much to do on the water round here though. Another popular pasttime is sea kayaking, which can be done off Porth Beach. All of these activities can be done in the winter as well, they are not summer-only activites. Perhaps it’s only boring in the winter here if you don’t have any hobbies!

Stumble it!

Comments

2 Responses to “Surfing and kitesurfing”

  1. Lynne Lewis on July 21st, 2007 8:27 pm

    Hi there, just came across your blog after returning from a holiday at Watergate Bay. You ‘ve made a great decision moving to the area its a fantastic place to live.
    I was also amazed to find a picture of my husband James kitesurfing on your blog (not wearing helmet)!
    I left London 15 years ago and definitely made the right move I’m sure its a decision you wont regret.
    Lynne

  2. gubernatrix on July 24th, 2007 11:44 am

    Hi Lynne, how funny is that! I hope he doesn’t mind being featured. He was very impressive - I spent quite a while watching those guys. Thanks for the encouraging words as well. Gubes

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