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Cape Town diary

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Hugh2
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Posts: 1665
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:38 am
Kiting since: 2005
Weight: 180lb/82kg
Local Beach: Clinton Lake in East-Central Illinois
Favorite Beaches: Cape Hatteras and Cape Town (also sailing around the world, this season crossed the South Pacific)
Style: freeride
Gear: Cabrinha Nomad 5.5, Naish Pivot 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, Duotone Dice 12
Long Ocean 136, Eleveight Master C+ 136, Naish Global 6'0", RB Sixty 3 Matador 5' 8", Slingshot Hoverglide H5 foil and Alien Air 4' 6" and Converter boards
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Re: Cape Town diary

Postby Hugh2 » Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:45 pm

This weekend we decided to go to Witsand, a small village at the mouth of the Breede River, about 4 hours drive east of Cape Town, which I have visited many times in the past decade. I enjoy this drive on the N2 as it crosses much of the wheat-growing area of the western cape, and it was the tailend of the harvest. The variety of birds is wonderful, from the magnificent blue cranes, South Africa's National Bird, down to tiny red bishop birds. There are even migrants from the northern hemisphere, much like me and many other kiters, such as White Storks and Steppe Buzzards, as well as the largest living bird, the ostrich. We arrived around 2PM, with the wind already filled in, and hiked down to the lagoon. As most kiters know, this is a famous flatwater spot with the easterly wind coming straight onshore in the bay, crossing a sand spit, and then offshore on the lagoon, allowing for lots of trick practise in warm water (search YouTube for kiting and Witsand -
I launched on 10m and TT and promptly rode upwind to the ocean side, as the only trick I know is jumping, and I prefer the ocean. It was not easy as the tide was rushing into the lagoon, so it took several tacks to get out, but the reward was medium size waves to jump off. Repeat and rinse with directional and TT all afternoon, although it got easier towards the end of the day as the tide turned and the wind built a little so a single tack got me out. Most of the rest of our group of 9 stayed in the lagoon, but I enticed my friend David out for a session in the ocean, and others followed later. There were only perhaps another six kiters all day. This river is most famous for its fishing as well as massive bull sharks that steal fisher's catches, but have yet to attack a kiter, which is just as well because one of our group had to attempt a self rescue in the middle of the lagoon and instead got towed to shore by another, spending far more time in the water than I would be comfortable with. I lost my board several times on the oceanside, and always made a point of getting back to it quickly as there are likely great whites out there too. We spent the night at Barry's Accommodation, my favorite place to stay at Witsand, occupying their dormitory room and two others. They also have pricier houses that overlook the lagoon. After a pleasant dinner at a new restaurant in town, Ellie's, we got a good night's sleep.

It rained all night, and I wish I had headed out when I woke at 5, but instead waited for the others so we only got going at 8, headed for Struisbaai near Cape Agulhas, which I have visited three times before without kiting, and this was to be the fourth because by the time we got there it was raining with little wind. Eventually we gave up and drove back to Cape Town, but David had noticed that Windguru (but not other wind prediction sites) had updated their forecast to indicate that the SEaster would build in late afternoon at Kite Beach. So we headed to Dolphin Beach yet again. I got out immediately around 3:30 on 10m and TT and had an amazing session with the beach to myself and regular medium-size swells coming in with long period, allowing for maximum speed before launching jumps. Sadly I did not have my old iPhone with the Surfr app with me, so have to claim 10m jumps! Just as I was coming in for a kite change there was an accident onshore. I had noticed this pair of a guy and woman flying, or at least attempting to fly, a 9m Duotone Dice on the beach. I paid little attention to them as I rushed to get out, but he seemed to have some kite control, while she had little, and they were doing semi-hot launches that seemed a little out of control. By the time I came in I was struggling to hold my 10m, which means it was blowing way too hard for beginners on the beach with a 9m, and indeed she got launched and dragged tumbling down the beach, luckily unhurt. In the past I have intervened when I thought I was seeing something dangerous, and wish I had done so before going out, however the people involved seldom receive such advice kindly. This time I instead approached an older man watching them who turned out to be her father, and urged him to get them to take lessons, recounting to him a similar accident I witnessed at Kite Beach two years ago where the woman was knocked unconscious and ended up in the hospital. I tried to talk to the guy when they returned to the car park, but he was an arrogant jerk not interested in any advice. By then the afternoon had turned into what the locals call a Black SEaster, with dark clouds and rain around Table Mountain and the wind picking up strongly, so I pumped up my 7m and had a directional session, however with the extremely cold turquoise water and my regular falling off I got cold and quit around 5:30, preferring to watch a couple hotshot directional riders who turned out to be Duotone-sponsored pros executing Airton-like jumps and wave shredding. All in all a good weekend of kiting, and more forecast for this week.
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a99 (Mon Dec 06, 2021 12:02 am)
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a99
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Re: Cape Town diary

Postby a99 » Mon Dec 06, 2021 12:03 am

Great diary, but i think you can include some photos or shot video, it will make you diary more a live.

Hugh2
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1665
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:38 am
Kiting since: 2005
Weight: 180lb/82kg
Local Beach: Clinton Lake in East-Central Illinois
Favorite Beaches: Cape Hatteras and Cape Town (also sailing around the world, this season crossed the South Pacific)
Style: freeride
Gear: Cabrinha Nomad 5.5, Naish Pivot 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, Duotone Dice 12
Long Ocean 136, Eleveight Master C+ 136, Naish Global 6'0", RB Sixty 3 Matador 5' 8", Slingshot Hoverglide H5 foil and Alien Air 4' 6" and Converter boards
Brand Affiliation: None
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Re: Cape Town diary

Postby Hugh2 » Mon Dec 06, 2021 6:31 am

Thanks a99, not much into video and only a few pics, sorry. Here’s a near-deserted Dolphin beach the other day, the sunset I mentioned earlier, breakfast Saturday at a fake farm cafe, a farmers gate with real skull and crossbones worthy of the special 2021 Naish kites, and me headed out yesterday with Dolphin Beach to myself.
Attachments
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These users thanked the author Hugh2 for the post (total 2):
a99 (Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:41 am) • magnusod (Mon Dec 06, 2021 1:09 pm)
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Hugh2
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1665
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:38 am
Kiting since: 2005
Weight: 180lb/82kg
Local Beach: Clinton Lake in East-Central Illinois
Favorite Beaches: Cape Hatteras and Cape Town (also sailing around the world, this season crossed the South Pacific)
Style: freeride
Gear: Cabrinha Nomad 5.5, Naish Pivot 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, Duotone Dice 12
Long Ocean 136, Eleveight Master C+ 136, Naish Global 6'0", RB Sixty 3 Matador 5' 8", Slingshot Hoverglide H5 foil and Alien Air 4' 6" and Converter boards
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 98 times
Been thanked: 284 times

Re: Cape Town diary

Postby Hugh2 » Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:44 pm

The forecast for today did not look promising, light SW, which I typically hate as it is directly onshore in Table Bay and relatively weak. My friend David suggested we should go foiling, initially up at Langebaan, then Melkbosstrand, and finally we settled on Dolphin Beach yet again, about mid-afternoon. Luke Thomas, the owner of a local kite brand, Lacuna Kites, joined us. Their foils are shown in the pic below. Luke is of course an expert kiter in all departments, and headed out no problem, easily riding over an incoming set and taking off to the north end of Bloubergstrand. David followed a little less confidently, but also made it straight out and joined him. The two of them then rode up and down the bay from Sunset Beach to Doodles restaurant (bad pic below, just after Luke had crashed on toeside), while I picked up plastic trash from the beach, having missed the local beach cleanup on Saturday. Luke screwed up a gybe and dropped his 9m Lacuna near Doodles and could not relaunch and drifted into shore where the shore break prevented him from getting going again, so I drove down and picked him up. When we returned David was taking a break so I had a shot, but on my directional (I can foil, but going on an unfamiliar foil in those waves and onshore conditions did not seem like a good idea). I was seriously impressed by David's 12m Duotone Dice SLS. It is an amazingly light kite and flies really well, pulling evenly through the stroke with no hint of backstalling, unlike every 12m I have owned. Even though the meters at both BKA and Milnerton Aquatic Club indicated speeds averaging only 11 knots I was able to ride comfortably and eventually without working the kite at all, easily working my way upwind. Sadly it is not exactly a cheap kite. David then had a second session, and his combined track is shown below (thanks David), totaling 50 km! We had quit for a braai before the wind picked up a bit as shown in the graph. Tomorrow is forecast to be a strong SEaster and I am looking forward to demoing a carbon version of the Eleveight Master twintip from the BKA shop.

BTW, David explains that the numbers at the bottom of the graph are a representation of the gustiness of the conditions, numbers in the 20s in green indicate steady conditions, while 30s and up indicate increasing gustiness, which is usually associated with the SEaster going a little too east.
Attachments
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These users thanked the author Hugh2 for the post:
a99 (Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:16 pm)
Rating: 3.03%

Hugh2
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1665
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:38 am
Kiting since: 2005
Weight: 180lb/82kg
Local Beach: Clinton Lake in East-Central Illinois
Favorite Beaches: Cape Hatteras and Cape Town (also sailing around the world, this season crossed the South Pacific)
Style: freeride
Gear: Cabrinha Nomad 5.5, Naish Pivot 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, Duotone Dice 12
Long Ocean 136, Eleveight Master C+ 136, Naish Global 6'0", RB Sixty 3 Matador 5' 8", Slingshot Hoverglide H5 foil and Alien Air 4' 6" and Converter boards
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 98 times
Been thanked: 284 times

Re: Cape Town diary

Postby Hugh2 » Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:50 pm

Sorry but I can’t figure out how to right the foil pic
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a99 (Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:16 pm)
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Matt_TYRCZ
Medium Poster
Posts: 163
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:20 pm
Local Beach: Virginia Beach , VA
Favorite Beaches: First Landing State Park, OBX
Style: booting, kiteloop, freestyle
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Re: Cape Town diary

Postby Matt_TYRCZ » Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:56 am

great read as always !!! thank you

Hugh2
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1665
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:38 am
Kiting since: 2005
Weight: 180lb/82kg
Local Beach: Clinton Lake in East-Central Illinois
Favorite Beaches: Cape Hatteras and Cape Town (also sailing around the world, this season crossed the South Pacific)
Style: freeride
Gear: Cabrinha Nomad 5.5, Naish Pivot 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, Duotone Dice 12
Long Ocean 136, Eleveight Master C+ 136, Naish Global 6'0", RB Sixty 3 Matador 5' 8", Slingshot Hoverglide H5 foil and Alien Air 4' 6" and Converter boards
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 98 times
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Re: Cape Town diary

Postby Hugh2 » Tue Dec 07, 2021 6:20 pm

Thanks Matt. The forecast for today was a strong SEaster, as usual building through the afternoon. Some of David's friends who work on USA time chose to ride in the morning and got a nice session in during a peak in the wind. I waited till lunch, then launched 7m at the Milnerton Lighthouse on strapless directional. The wind was a lot stronger there than indicated in the graph below which is from Kite Beach, as it builds from the south. I met up there with an old transplant friend from Austria who lives here now and is an excellent strapless rider, Stefan, and his wife Bianca. Launching at the lighthouse is often daunting because one is close to the beginning of the wind coming over land, so it is gusty. Today was not too bad as the direction was SSE, if it is full-on SE then it is very tricky. Even so it ranged from 0-30 knots, with my kite dropping from the sky in one lull while some of the gusts ripped me off my board into the extremely cold water. But one warms up nicely when out of the water as the wind and sun are warm. My home spot of a little lake in East-Central Illinois is also gusty so is good preparation for these conditions. I always stay outside for a while till the gusts get a little dampened, about where an old ship's boiler remains from an ancient shipwreck, then I start riding waves. Almost nobody was out at Sunset Beach, and the waves were still nice, albeit small. By the time I got to Dolphin Beach the waves were being torn apart by the wind, but David and his friends launched there and I passed them in a hurry to get to Kite Beach. There I landed and swapped my surfboard for an Eleveight Master carbon twintip demo. It's a really nice board so I told Lanral at BKA I would buy it. Swapping back to the surfboard I quickly caught up with David and co, who were having a nice time boosting, while one of them, another Stefan, was also riding surfboard and, being a surfer, was ripping up the waves. I bemoan the fact that although I was a teenager on Nahoon Beach in East London I never learned to surf, despite a premier surf break there called Nahoon Reef. Once again we continued around to Big Bay, sadly without encountering any dolphins which sometimes accompany me on this stretch. As usual Big Bay was a mess, so we continued to the lovely crescent-shaped waves north of there and spent some time tacking back upwind for a wave ride, while David was boosting big time. I rode outside to intercept a large flock of cormorants which were doing their "leapfrog" thing, flying to the front of the flock to hunt for a while and then repeating. I was hoping to see dolphins, but again no luck. I forgot to mention that last week from our flat with binoculars I saw numerous whale spouts on the horizon, far out in the bay, and today's Daily Maverick newsletter online had a photo of them, apparently a pod of around 50 humpback whales. We quit at Eerstesteen again around 4:30, and as that last section is definitely the best when the waves are small and torn apart by the wind at Kite Beach, it might be just as good to ride in place there and accept the annoyance of having to tack upwind for each wave ride. Now the wind is truly howling out there, the bay is alive with "white horses", and we will have a noisy night in our flat.
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These users thanked the author Hugh2 for the post:
a99 (Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:16 pm)
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Hugh2
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1665
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:38 am
Kiting since: 2005
Weight: 180lb/82kg
Local Beach: Clinton Lake in East-Central Illinois
Favorite Beaches: Cape Hatteras and Cape Town (also sailing around the world, this season crossed the South Pacific)
Style: freeride
Gear: Cabrinha Nomad 5.5, Naish Pivot 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, Duotone Dice 12
Long Ocean 136, Eleveight Master C+ 136, Naish Global 6'0", RB Sixty 3 Matador 5' 8", Slingshot Hoverglide H5 foil and Alien Air 4' 6" and Converter boards
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 98 times
Been thanked: 284 times

Re: Cape Town diary

Postby Hugh2 » Tue Dec 07, 2021 6:26 pm

Here’s the view from our apartment which is directly inland from Milnerton Lighthouse, south to Table Mountain and north to Blouberg, just before I headed out midday.
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These users thanked the author Hugh2 for the post:
a99 (Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:15 pm)
Rating: 3.03%

Hugh2
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1665
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:38 am
Kiting since: 2005
Weight: 180lb/82kg
Local Beach: Clinton Lake in East-Central Illinois
Favorite Beaches: Cape Hatteras and Cape Town (also sailing around the world, this season crossed the South Pacific)
Style: freeride
Gear: Cabrinha Nomad 5.5, Naish Pivot 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, Duotone Dice 12
Long Ocean 136, Eleveight Master C+ 136, Naish Global 6'0", RB Sixty 3 Matador 5' 8", Slingshot Hoverglide H5 foil and Alien Air 4' 6" and Converter boards
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 98 times
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Re: Cape Town diary

Postby Hugh2 » Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:19 pm

Here's the wind meter at the Milnerton Aquatic Club on Rietvlei, just inland from Dolphin Beach. Agrees well with the BKA Windguru meter above for speeds, but direction seems a little off.
Screen Shot 2021-12-07 at 8.19.30 PM.png

Hugh2
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1665
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:38 am
Kiting since: 2005
Weight: 180lb/82kg
Local Beach: Clinton Lake in East-Central Illinois
Favorite Beaches: Cape Hatteras and Cape Town (also sailing around the world, this season crossed the South Pacific)
Style: freeride
Gear: Cabrinha Nomad 5.5, Naish Pivot 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, Duotone Dice 12
Long Ocean 136, Eleveight Master C+ 136, Naish Global 6'0", RB Sixty 3 Matador 5' 8", Slingshot Hoverglide H5 foil and Alien Air 4' 6" and Converter boards
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 98 times
Been thanked: 284 times

Re: Cape Town diary

Postby Hugh2 » Wed Dec 08, 2021 7:14 pm

Another SE day, but in the morning I did a hike in the hills behind Silvermine Nature Reserve with my sister and a group of older folk called the Wednesday Walkers, a group my Mom belonged to for many years till she was 85 (pic below of view down to Hout Bay). I had lunch with an old friend from WITS University Mountain Club from the late 1970s, then headed out at Dolphin Beach on 7m around 3PM, having just bought the Eleveight Master board I demoed yesterday, an early 66th birthday present. Inspired by my new board I finally managed to get a 10m jump (pic below from the Surfr app), and it was not a fluke as I had 8.9 and 9.8m jumps as well. And I remember the jump, it was a little past Mystic house where hotshots were doing board-off megaloops with rolls. Interestingly, the app suddenly started calling out the jump heights just as I landed, in addition to the usual vibrations indicating each 5ft (I think) of a jump. The sound is turned off on my phone so I don't understand this, and had not anticipated it. I need to study the Surfr app website again - just did and there is a bare mention of the phone speaking the jump height, but I have no idea how to ensure that stays on. A second novelty of this downwinder was seeing a sea turtle, the first I've seen in all the years I've kited here since 2006. There are records of sea turtles being around here, but they far more frequently are found in the warmer Indian Ocean, or further north in the Atlantic. It was too quick a sighting to identify species, and the turtle dove after I almost rode over it (I thought it was an exceptionally large plastic bag at first). Continuing downwind I eventually met up with David and co at Eerstesteen where they were riding in place, hung out with them for a while, but I was tired and quit to sit in the sun till they were done around 6:30, as I could get a ride back to Dolphin Beach. All in all a good day, tomorrow will be more.
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