The Kitemare.

Being in the Southern Hemisphere has it's perks but the close proximity to Antarctica isn't really one of them. You see New Zealand is about as close to it as you can get and Antarctica is a windy place that likes to share its breezes with us. So whenever wind coming from there (e.g. from the south) comes to Wellington, the temperature drops by 5-8 degrees, the wind picks up speed and generally makes it pretty unpleasant.

SO! What better weather to go kitesurfing in! To be quite honest, after 3 weeks of unnaturally calm weather, I had a jones on for some kiting, regardless of the conditions.

The conditions were looking good, at least as good as winter Southerlies get. Forecast was for approx. 20 knots of wind, bitter cold and some light rain. Throwing all my gear in the car (including new gloves, my booties a thick, full body wetsuit and my oh-so-sexy neoprene cap-with-ear-flaps) I headed out to pick up T and M and off we went for our first ever kite at Petone.

Petone's not a great beach it turns out. Despite having a nice football field to setup our kites, the beach itself is mostly shells (can cut a kite to shreds), there's tons of logs and other debris and a tree line about 10-15 meters up from the waterline.

The wind started off very light. In fact, we sat around debating if it was even worth rigging up. In the end, having the biggest kite (thus having the lowest wind requirements) I decided to rig and launch. Out on the water, with about 14knots of wind, I was having a good time of it. The water wasn't too cold (probably 10-12 deg) and the waves were reasonable.

Then Trouble started. The wind started building very quickly gusting strongly as it came over the hills. Within 15 minutes it went from 14 to 20-25 knots. Gusts were pulling kiters off the water.

I managed to get back to the beach, but once there things got worse. The wind was so strong that no matter what I did, I was getting dragged. Fighting a losing battle, I was pulled through (and over at times!) the debris, my kite getting snagged on an old stump. Dislodging it sent the kite in a mad kite loop (basically, the kite will start spinning rapidly, creating TONS of power) and quickly cleared the tree line.

I'd had enough, I pulled the safety on my kite, the bar flew out of my hands and the kite crashed down behind the trees, into, it turns out, a model railway layout. Luckily my friend T had seen it all happen and was rushing to grab the kite and make sure I was ok. I was uninjured, I had no idea about the kite, my lines were caught in trees. Suddenly, another kiter signaled to me that he was in trouble. Like me, he'd been tricked into rigging too big a kite and was about to replicate my experience. Unclipping from the safety line, I ran to his rescue while T dealth with my kite.

We got him landed more or less safely (I got some rope burns on my ankle from his lines) and we both headed to where my kite was to assess damage. Surprisingly, there's very very little. A few pinholes in the canopy (easily fixed) was all my big kite sustained.

It felt like i'd been fighting the kite for 20 minutes, but really it was more like 5. It's incredible, when you're in trouble, how much time slows down. At no point did I feel like I was out of control. I knew what to do, how to do it and what would happen when I did. I have my instructor, Kavae from ONU Kitboarding School to thank for that.

I learnt a couple of very important things however:

1. when in doubt, rig the smaller kite first. If you need more power, THEN go to the big kite.
   
2. Kitebuddies are your lifeline. At the end of the day, we all look out for each other and will do what it takes to be safe.

The day ended well, however. After deciding Petone wasn't for us, M and I raced up the coast so that I could get "back on the horse" as it were. We ended up at Raumati beach, which was STUNNING. Gorgeous sand, no obstacles for miles and lots of other kiters out on the water. A reasonable session later, any fears I had were erased and my love of this sport confirmed.