17th May 2009: Kitesurfing

I've been meaning to have a go at kitesurfing for years and I thought that, coming to Auckland for a year, I'd finally get the chance to have a go. You see lots of people doing it on the beaches around here, and the conditions are great: warm water, regular sunshine and lots of wind. As it happens it wasn't until Fred said he'd tried it that I finally organised it, with the weather here having turned distinctly autumnal.

The place we went for lessons is on the South coast of the Manukau harbour and has a huge deserted area of waist-deep water. Perfect for learning to be dragged at speed by an enourmous kite. They look big when you see people using them, but they look even bigger when you're attached to one. We've been playing with a 3 square-metre trainer kite for a while, but there's a big step up to the 8m kitesurf kites.

The first lesson is all about learning to control the kite and getting used to the power by "body-dragging" without a board. I got on okay with this so hopefully next time I go I'll get on the board and do some kitesurfing proper.