The craziness is underway in Cape Town

[Eckhardt]

another Dutch guy I don't know on an orange Orbit, as well as Roderick Pijls on a Peter Lynn Escape. Someone I don't know was riding an unusually high-aspect-ratio kite, a black and red 8m Ten Velox

Guy on the orbit is probably Jan Zoon, one to keep an eye on. He won the Dutch big air championship last year. Jumping over 30m aswell.
The one on the velox probably is Eddy Lansink.

[BudhaNl]

Eddy cleared 30m on that Velox as well this weekend.

[Hugh2]

Thanks Eckhardt and Budhani, always good to know who these guys are.

Today was tricky with a weak forecast for Bloubergstrand, so in the morning we headed to Witsand since the forecast was for strong winds, albeit with too much East in them. And that was the case around noon, with extremely gusty strong SE wind. My friend Ken and I traded off on my 5.5m Cabrinha Nomad for a while, but the lulls between massive gusts were quite difficult. Around 1:30 we tried a 7m Pivot, but the wind was dying. The place was swarming with windsurfers, far more than I've ever seen before there. We had a nice late lunch in Scarborough, along with lots of windsurfers! Back to Kite Beach we unfortunately missed the peak due to all the traffic, along with Kevin, Lasse, and Nick who were standing around talking about it and hoping it would truly fill in, which it did not. But we rode from 6-8 on 9 and 11m (Ken is a big guy), and watched the sunset. The waves were almost non-existent, so boosting was hard. Sadly tomorrow looks worse, both at Witsand and Bloubergstrand.

[jj83]

Almost identical experience Hugh Arrived at Witsand around 10am trying to miss the crowds and the only kiter in the water was my friend Daniel who said it was unridable at that time (he broke his depower cleat from the severe gusts). Waited until 3pm for it to fill in which it didn't - few guys went to Muizenberg which also wasn't working. Back to Dolphin and scored a surprise light wind session from around 5-7:30pm.

[Hugh2]

I think there were quite a few disappointed kitesurfers at Witsand on Monday, jj.

We headed 4 hours east to Witsand at the Breede River mouth on Tuesday, despite a drizzly forecast. Taking time for sightseeing along the way we arrived a little late, but still got a pleasant late afternoon session on 9/11m, mostly in the ocean but the flats in the lagoon were good for some speed kiting (I don't do tricks, but a couple other kiters were). We stayed overnight and returned yesterday via Cape Agulhas, but sadly the forecast 25 knots at nearby beautiful Struisbaai was only 15. So we missed yesterday's long afternoon at Bloubergstrand, below, and are hoping for something today.

[Hugh2]

The forecast was not very strong today, but anytime it shows a southerly it is likely to turn out well, and that was the case, albeit it had an unusual SSW aspect to it, making the wind slightly onshore at Kite Beach (see below), and sideshore at Woodbridge Island where we launched in the morning for a pleasant downwinder to Doodles. We once again went on 9/11m, but by the end the 11m was too big for my friend Ken. After lunch at Carlucci's we did a downwinder from Kite Beach to Haakgat, fully powered on 9m and getting some good jumps, albeit the waves were small and not much for riding, even up towards Haakgat. For some reason not many other kiters were out, and nobody from Big Bay to Haakgat. Water was a gorgeous turquoise and not too cold, but no interesting wildlife along the way. Next few days do not look great in forecasts, so I'm not sure where to ride. Maybe back to Witsand/crayfish factory tomorrow afternoon.

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[Hugh2]

Things are not looking so crazy in Cape Town. This past week was a struggle to find strong winds, and the next week looks similar. We visited wine country inland on Friday, but determined to find wind yesterday, so along with scores of other kiters ended up at Hermanus which was forecast to have 20-25 westerly. But after sitting around for a while, enlivened by meeting and chatting with Sam Light, we bailed and ended up getting a brief session on the Botrivier lagoon, but it was not very satisfactory, good for 9/11m for about 30 minutes then dying off. Those who stayed in Cape Town might have gotten a weak NW session on Bloubergstrand, see below. Perhaps some locals might have gone inland to Brandvlei Reservoir, which had pretty good NW, but I did not even think of it.

[kajtarn74]

Hi. Enjoy reading your blog. Have you ever tried Strandfontein 300 km north of Capetown? Looks windy the next days but i cant find any info about the spot

[Hugh2]

Thanks kajtarn, I have not been there, but the Spots page on Kiteforum is your friend - https://se.kiteforum.com/kitesurf/spot/Strandfontein. Suggests SW works and that's the forecast for early this week indeed.

[robclaisse]

Keep an eye on Langebaan. Today was good S/SE all day from 10am. Yesterday was good N wind from early until midday and Friday was good too. Definitely looking like the Langebaan forecast is good all week for S/SE winds compared to a rather sketchy forecast for Blouberg.