Postby Hugh2 » Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:21 pm
The moon is half full, shining through my window above the lights of Cape Town at midnight. I can’t sleep, I’m planning a long downwinder. Here’s how I imagine it. I’ll start at Milnerton lighthouse in front of my 10th floor flat. Maybe this Saturday if the SEaster comes in early and strong. The choice of kite will be difficult, 9m would be powered up early, but maybe too much later and I would have to bail, so probably 7m at full power to start, can be depowered later and still fly well.
The launch here is sketchy with offshore and gusty wind. I self-launch and quickly steer the kite over the water so if it hindenbergs I can re-launch from the water. Grab my surfboard and head out through the clean waves. Go a couple hundred yards offshore then gybe back, losing ground quickly to get beyond the windshadow of the golf club buildings. The waves are really clean here because the wind has not messed with them yet, so grab a couple long lines. Have to dodge the boiler from an ancient shipwreck, then on to Sunset Beach where there are already lots of windsurfers shredding the waves. A mostly Euro scene, with a few good kiters too. They like it here for the slightly offshore conditions and good waves. I usually go around them, and on to the long curve where Marine Drive hugs the beach.
The wind is side-shore here and the waves are still good, so I try some bottom turns and cutbacks, falling off a few times, body-dragging into the beach to recover my board. Then it is Dolphin Beach, perhaps the favorite kiter spot but with a tiny parking lot, so not too crowded. Kevin Langaree posted a great Kevlog on YouTube from here a week ago on a truly awesome day. I hang around a little to see if anyone I know is kiting there, but no. On to Kite Beach at the start of Bloubergstrand and Tableview, crowded by now, got to watch out for the beginners and the experts, the latter doing megaloops. I think about stopping for an icecream, but keep going. There’s a nice section after that, down past Marine Circle that is not crowded.
Then have to pass the gauntlet of Mystic House, where there are often some arrogant youngsters showing off and complaining as you ride “their” waves, but ignore them and ride on down to Doodles Restaurant where the last bunch of kiters launch. Shortly after that have to decide to get out before the rocks, or slalom around a few first. Then it’s out to sea around the rocky point to Big Bay. I love this section, which I think most downwinders think is a pain. I go far out and if the wind is relatively light I ride heelside with occasional turns to toeside, but if the wind is strong I ride straight downwind toeside with the kite in front of me, careening down the swells. Occasionally some dolphins ride along (see the previous Kevvlog!). Then the turn into Big Bay, with some big swells coming through.
I ride one in, but don’t linger here. The wind is gusty from all the buildings along this shore, and there is an old understanding that kiters will stay downwind of the windsurfers here, although the signs that say this are long gone and some kiters do ride here (and of course the King of the Air competition used to be held here). Instead I head down past the surfboard riders who are riding in place, onto the best part of the trip, where the waves are completely different from Table Bay. Here, instead of long lines that often close out, the waves form half-moon crescents. At their peak they can be double the height of the waves on Bloubergstrand, but if you time them right you can scoot right along down the line and out the other side. If they are big I will chicken out as I have gotten hammered here a few times.
Eestesteen, Derdesteen, Kreeftebaai and Kelpbaai, the fun goes by too quickly, with only a couple other downwinders for company, and I am down to Haakgat. This is the only real point break along this shore, generated by the kelp, and so the hotshot windsurfers and kiters are lining up, each taking a wave in turn. I slalom through the lineup and choose some swells further down to ride, but chicken out before they break, because the shore break is violent here in Holbaai and if I crashed I would find it hard to get back out again. This is where I usually stop, dump my kite to the safety leash on this broad beach, and catch the bus back. But this time I want to keep going. So I head back out to sea for the second time and ride around the rocky point that is the boundary to Melkbosstrand. There’s lots of kelp here far out, so I will stay well offshore, and the town generates a big windshadow, so I don’t come back in early. But eventually the waves beckon me in and I imagine riding long lines, headed towards Duynefontein.
I stop just before the fence for the Koeberg nuclear power plant, flag my kite out and pack it up. It will be a long walk up to the bus stop at the very end of the MyCiti 214 route. I will wait patiently for the bus, the driver not concerned at all about an old guy with wetsuit half off, surfboard in one hand and packed kite in the other. I sit on a step not to get a seat wet and enjoy the almost free ride back to my car. Google Maps says it is about 25 kilometers and I’ve never done the whole thing before.
Last edited by
Hugh2 on Mon Feb 11, 2019 7:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- These users thanked the author Hugh2 for the post (total 3):
- Sun (Fri Jan 18, 2019 4:05 am) • jumptheshark (Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:06 pm) • k2thiago (Sun Jan 20, 2019 5:02 am)