The South African Adventure Holiday series has just drawn to a close for 2014 and as ever it has been an eventful time spent out here in South Africa. Ostriches, kitesurfing, springbok and braai’s are just a handful of words that spring to mind.
This year Jo Wilson Coaching ran 2 x 2 week long adventures out here in South Africa both with an extremely similar itinerary. The main aim for the trip is for everyone to kitesurf their socks off and have my coaching and guidance along the way to enable each person to push their own level, learn some new skills to handle varying conditions and new tricks to give them a kick start for the upcoming kitesurfing season back at their respective homes in the UK, Oz, the States or Spain which name a few of the countries where everyone had travelled from.
(South African Adventure Crew 2nd - 15th February 2014)
(South African Adventure Crew 23rd February - 8th March 2014)
First of all let me give you a quick summary to the lowdown in South Africa at the moment. It is an eventful time with the recent passing of Mandela. The country is in mixed opinions on what to do and people seem less sure about the ANC and their choices to run the country. With Mandela still alive the people would never vote against the ANC and so many people although losing faith before Madela died decided to stop voting as opposed to vote against them, but now with the recent passing of Mandela the politicians have ramped up their action and are forming partnerships with various ‘lesser’ parties in attempts to gain the majority vote and provide change to South Africa.
(Headlines after the passing of Nelson Mandela)
The currency is the weakest it has been for over 10 years which makes it extremely cheap for Europeans to visit, but something needs to be done to re-instate faith in huge industries such as mining and exports. These are the headlines that hit the papers on a daily basis intermixed with the trial of Oscar Pistorius. More positively a lot has changed in Cape town over the past few years. The city has had an uplift since the world cup. The transport network has improved and Table View where we stay during our second weeks looks proud and smart with its incredible view of the mountain. Crime rate around where we stay is low. There are opportunistic crimes which take place, but common sense of locking the doors and windows before you go out while not leaving your camera on the front seat of the car while you have a session are a few of the factors that you need to bare in mind but you would never do that in the UK either. Conditions wise the air temperature over here varies from 25-35 degrees every day. Its warm enough to not think about the temperature. Boardies and a t shirt are fine. The water is refreshingly cool and a wetsuit is necessary providing sun protection and an element of impact protection. The wind blows around 5 times per week. It varies from 15knots first thing in the morning all the way up to 40 knots after 4pm. You are rarely short of an awesome session. For these reasons the South African Adventure Holidays take place every year.
(Rich going for the hang time in front of the camera)
The adventures are broken in to two parts. Firstly we spend one week in Langebaan - a sizeable lagoon where the the conditions on the whole are fairly similar each day. The water is flat and the wind builds as the days goes on so we usually start with a session on bigger kites such as 12m’s and 9m’s in the morning followed by a session on smaller kites such as 9m’s and 7m’s in the afternoon after a relaxing lunch. This year we had the dependable South Easter winds blowing on a regular basis, but we also had a couple of days with wind from the opposite direction - the North West which evened out the balance for those people who like to trick going to the left and those who like to trick heading to the right. At some point everyone could throw down their tricks for a close up view on the video camera.
(Looking on to Langebaan where we spend much of the 1st week kitesurfing)
We stay in a beautiful 5 bedroom holiday house with a huge balcony that borders each persons bedroom and the view looks on to the lagoon which means we don’t miss a white cap or a sunset either.
(A view from the terrace of the balconies surrounding each bedroom)
The house is perfect for braai’s in the evenings and lazy breakfasts in the mornings. The set up is incredible and I rent this house every year.
(A stunning Langebaan sunset visible from the balcony at the house or the beach where we launch and land)
During this stage of the trip the freestyle coaching is intense. Its the time to work on new tricks in the safety of the lagoon and really push your own level. The groups are made up of a maximum of 6 people which means you can all work on your own individual goals. The crew were of varying levels working on tricks such as higher jumps, jump transitions, back rolls, front rolls, blind riding, surface handle passes, air handle passes, unhooked kite loops, tail slides and strapless surfboard freestyle such as strapless jumps, tacs, jibes and duck tacs. A real mix and great banter on the beach between sessions.
(Nick riding his bindings in Shark Bay)
Most people come on these holidays knowing no one, but each person has a sense of adventure and a spirit for these kind of holidays and before long it seems as though everyone has known each other for a long time.
(New friendships made on the South African Kitesurfing Adventure Holiday)
Hearing Dave ‘woop’ for every attempt at a tac, seeing Alex smile for every landing and crash, watching Bee grow her confidence to take on the unhooked raleys, seeing Nick work on pop shovits with his wake skate and watching Mike and Greg challenge each other to the surface handle pass are just a few of the great memories I have from the first South African adventure this year. Seeing Rich having nailed his front rolls from Brazil and working on raleys during this trip, watching Miranda’s jump transitions gain new heights, seeing Clay go for the unhooked kite loops, watching Nick come in to his element as the full force of the South African Winds hit and watching Fi become more confident with the sport as a whole were just a few of the memories that make me smile from the second South African Adventure.
(Kitesurfing at Branvlei damn when its blown out in Cape Town)
For me, I have been kiting now for 13 years. I live and breathe it, but I no longer feel I need to be on the water every moment of the day, but I can’t bear to be away from it. I love people, happy faces, determined minds and together this makes the perfect combination to run kitesurfing coaching holidays!
(Miranda having a great time in amongst the waves in Table View)
The second part of the South African Adventure takes on a whole new level. We pack our bags, up sticks and move to another stunning self catering 5 bedroom holiday house 100km’s a way down in Blouberg! We have views that watch the atlantic swells roll in and we can see Table Mountain, Cape town and Robbin Island.
(Time to relax around the pool at the house between kitesurfing sessions)
This stage of the trip is more about guidance and giving everyone the right advise to be able to ride in amongst waves and various wind speeds too. Often it is people’s first time amongst bigger swell so its a challenge in itself and its during this week that we calm down on the freestyle factor and instead take each day as it comes. The beaches are spacious and there are no rocks around, so its a great place to push the limits but always feel safe that you can get a launch and land whenever you need it on the beach. Everyone motivates each other and I am there to provide coaching and video the action. It truly is epic and makes you feel alive.
(Filming Amy riding in Table View)
It is unusual for Cape town to be windy every single day - thank goodness because there is so much more on offer. For both trips we had 3 or 4 days of no wind and we maximised on these moments to take on some of the sights that we all considered an African must see. A day trip on safari where we saw rhino’s, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, elands, springbok and more made us feel that we were truly in Africa,
(Despite their long necks the giraffes are incredibly hard to find)
We went for a ‘cultural’ experience to the vineyards and winery’s, an educational trip to the townships and an action trip to the Cable park named just a few of the no wind activities that we got up to on the ‘rest’ days.
(Waterford Winery for wine tasting with chocolate - yum)
Although the main aim of the trip is to give you a solid basis on how to improve your kitesurfing and increase your fitness there is definitely an element of taking in various other things that Africa has to offer. This trip remains one of my favourite on the agenda. Action packed, non stop fun!
I am out here in Cape town for one last week and the wind has continued to blow, so now its my time to get my own action. For me I work on my freestyle when the wind is a bit lighter in the mornings and then I switch on to the wave board in the afternoons. It makes a great balance and challenges both disciplines of the sport. Although I will be sad to wave goodbye to South Africa for another season I am really looking forward to heading to Egypt in the summer.
(Coaching Vicky in Soma Bay, Egypt)
The next coaching series will take place in Soma Bay, Egypt throughout June. The conditions are very similar every day with a flat water playground to ride amongst. The wind blows from first thing until around 4pm and the hotel we stay in is set up completely for divers and kite surfers a like. Its a great place to relax after a hard day on the water. With such similar conditionson a daily basis Egypt is a great place to run coaching holiday. We can put a strong structure to the course and it makes it easy to focus on specific tricks based on your level. It is relaxing and functional all at the same time. There are still around 3-4 places left at some point throughout the month of June so if you are interested then please do check it out and get in touch but for now - until then happy kiting and see you on the water.