Cape Town diary

[Hugh2]

Thanks a99! Today was yet another light SEaster forecast, with stronger winds forecast down south, although nothing like yesterday. I chose to stay north, but David and friends went down to Witsands, and sat for a while hoping the wind would fill in, eventually heading down to Platboom in Cape Point Nature Reserve, where they got an OK session on 9m kites. It never really filled in with the Cape Point meter showing 24 at 2 and 4PM. Up here the SEaster started relatively early, around 1PM, but never got strong, as forecast. I went down to Kite Beach in hopes of a directional downwinder and launched 10m, which was actually a little overpowered with just mowing the lawn, but worked well for carving downwind on every wave. I rode really fast, all the way down to Holbaai in an hour. The waves were small, and near the end were breaking on the shore, so I could not ride those. I got hammered at Holbaai in massive shorebreak by a set of larger waves, having to bail off my board and let it survive while I ducked four breaking waves using the kite to pull me through. Bus arrived as I did, so all good getting home. It was a really hot day here otherwise, so getting out was refreshing. Not much else happening, I was the only kiter from Doodles onwards, and only had the company of a few seals. By the time I got back perhaps a hundred kiters were out along Bloubergstrand, nothing like yesterday which almost seemed as busy as pre-covid. The only other novelty was a guy on an 11m 2008 Best Waroo, still in great shape and turns out he has a whole set of 10 of them in various sizes, carefully looked after and not needing valve replacements, pretty amazing. I sold most of my Waroos some time ago, still have my original 14m as it is not sale-worthy, plus 16m Bularoos that need new valves and are not worth it, plus a 6m Cabo. My 12m TS and 14.5m Kahoona were stolen from my garage during covid. Wind meter below is from the Milnerton Aquatic Club on Rietvlei, just inland from Dolphin Beach, where the windsurfers and wingers who are not ready for the ocean train, because the Windguru site maintained by the BKA shop is down.

[piccio]

Hi Hugh what about covid? Safe around? Green pass needed? Ciao

[Hugh2]

Hi piccio, no issues with covid for me. No passes required, just lots of alcohol sanitation at stores, restaurants, etc. and of course masks required everywhere, even on top of Table Mountain! You need a negative PCR test within 72 hours of arrival (airline would not let me fly with just a rapid antigen test, and they check at the arrival immigration, if you don't have it they will charge you for a test and if positive put you in quarantine at your expense for at least 10 days, so don't risk it), and you are supposed to have insurance for covid, however they did not ask me for that, but maybe because I am dual nationality, so enter as a South African. While the Omicron spread is clearly amazing, if you are triple vaccinated you should not have an issue even if you catch it. Two kiter friends are recovering from covid, although I'm not sure they had Omicron, and I don't know if they were vaccinated, but they are having a bit of a struggle recovering. 10 days now and one went kiting today and said he could not jump, really felt the after effects. Other one still recovering.

Today the forecast was a medium-strength SEaster from noon onwards, and again it was accurate. I was first out on all of Bloubergstrand on 9m and got some nice jumping off the medium-sized waves with decent interval between waves and little wind-driven chop, but still only 8 and 9m jumps. The wind built quickly and around 3 I swapped to 7m, and two friends of David's, Mike and Caitlin, arrived and wanted to do a downwinder, so we set off. On the section north of Big Bay I managed to get my second 10m jump, it felt really high. But to put me in my place, Caitlin, who is a petite woman and only started kiting in February of this year, on a 6m North Orbit got an 11m jump as her new record! My only consolation is that I landed most of my jumps, where she struggles to land her bigger jumps. We got back on the bus around 6PM, so that was a long session. One molamola and several seals along the way. I've yet to see a penguin on this trip, let alone dolphins or whales.

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[DonaldM]

Nice read once again. Haven't seen any penguins on the capetown side in my 1,5 months there a couple of years ago. They live around cape point. Whales neither, that would be awesome!

[Hugh2]

Thanks Donald. I've regularly seen penguins in the past years, although usually a little further out, which I sometimes do when I start at Woodbridge Island/Milnerton Lighthouse. I once rode all the way to Grainger Bay following the Volvo Ocean race boats, and saw a bunch out there. Usually you see a pair, I imagine you would see more in False Bay where the major local colony is at Boulder Beach. And of course summer is not whale season, but from my flat I've seen pods of whales out in the bay with binoculars, turned out they were humpbacks, rather than the southern right whales usually found here. But I did once get to kite in the summer following a whale up the shore, that was pretty amazing.

Today the forecast was for medium SEaster again and this time it blew all day. It's David's last day as he flies to the states for three weeks tonight, so I kited with him and some of his friends at Dolphin Beach, from around noon to 2. I found I was tired from yesterday, so took it gently, best jump 9m again. Started on my 9m Pivot, 2018 model, and soon was being overpowered. David let me try his 9m Duotone Dice SLS (regular readers might recall I twice have tried his 12m and loved it). I was less enamoured of the 9m, it was a lot more twitchy, but I see how these guys can hold down larger sizes than me, even at full power I could easily ride upwind with it. Timing jumps and landings was a little tougher, but since David has a high jump of 14.7m on this kite, and was killing it today, and guys like Lasse Walker absolutely fly on these kites, clearly with finesse it is possible. I went down to 7m for my third session, it's an old 2015 original Pivot model and leaks a little now, but I still love it. I seem able to jump higher, albeit not as floaty, with it. This is in keeping with the observations of local hotshot Michael MacDonald, who recently posted a video on the topic, below. Wind was really steady and with low tide the waves were generally forming nicely with good period. Somehow there was a little section of beach just north of Dolphin where the waves were really perfect and three hotshots were exploiting it to do some awesome jumps with tricks, albeit some equally awesome crashes. A price I am no longer willing to pay. Later I sat at Kite Beach for a while, watching a different gang of hotshots, as well as a lone beginner on a 5m kite. While he was surviving, it was so painful to watch. He rode oh so slowly out and back, each involuntary launch off a small wave an adventure, clutching his bar to his chest and not letting the kite breathe at all. But kudos to him for trying, that's better than my first attempts here in 2006, which I am too embarrassed to relate.

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[Hugh2]

Yesterday was a little frustrating and I was tired so did not write it up. I went for a downwinder, however the wind was fluky beyond Doodles, and the run beyond Big Bay was not nearly as good as usual. Today a similar forecast, for a medium SEaster so my sister and I first headed down to Cape Point for a walk to Venus Pools, but since it was high tide the pool was filling repeatedly and hence was cold so we did not swim. Then to Olifantsbos where we found an unusually large herd of eland and another herd of bontebok, plus eight swift terns, spectacular birds. It was blowing really hard out there, as is often the case, but it eventually filled in at Dolphin Beach around 3, so I went out to 10m and TT. There was a guy on a 14m kite doing Toby-style tricks in the light wind, but the rest of us had to stop periodically waiting for the wind to come back. By 4 it was reasonably steady, but with almost no waves the chop was bad. I did get a 9.8m jump which was sweet and floaty, but mostly tried to work on transition jumps when coming into the beach, the objective being to be able to jump back over a broken wave, however there is more finesse to it than it looks as I really struggle to get height and land heading back out again. I usually end up still going forward too much and landing on the broken wave as I try to head back out, which is a mess. The pros make this move seem so easy! Otherwise the major entertainment was the same guy who doesn't know what he is doing, trying to teach a complete novice to fly kites on the beach. What a cluster, constantly diving the kite into the sand and water, why oh why will these guys not take a lesson. It's been three weeks since I first saw him nearly injure his girlfriend, and he's nowhere nearer being able to kite. As I quit a woman came up the beach all excited, claiming that she saw a shark out there, so I had to reassure her that it was only a molamola, and next time she should sit down in the water next to it and enjoy this most unusual fish. This week sadly looks like no SEaster and only weak westerlies, so I feel sorry for the visitors who have only come for two weeks or so.

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[dracop]

Thanks for posting both the data and your perspective. In the past when Ive gone to CPT Ive gotten alot more 40kt days with 30kts being the light side.

To be fair, Nov/Dec are not peak windy season. They are months where wind is on/off and periodically you get an extreme beaufort event during that time frame. January has the best mix of daily wind with occasional strong Cape Dr events. By February, the wind smoothes out - lower wind speeds but there everyday and less gusty.

In my prior trips i have had many 40 kt days and several 50-55kt average wind days. I am usually the only one capable of holding down a 10m aside from KOTA on short line riders. Weight + Big Air preference means I really like super strong winds.

20kts in the AM is when the chicks ride!

I had scheduled to go next week but that travel plan is looking dicey atm.

[Hugh2]

Hope you can still make it, Dracop, although the wind this season has not gotten even to 40 knots, and last week and this are patchy.

I chose to do a road trip last week instead, my usual East Coast trip, traveling via route 62 through the Klein Karroo. I tried to drive to Die Hell, but as warned the very rough dirt road was too much for my little old Toyota Tazz. The first 6km took an hour, and I could not face another 36km, so bailed. Addo Elephant NP was good fun as usual, with lots of elephants, photos below. Then I headed to Cape St. Francis on Friday for a forecasted strong NEaster, which is what we got. Rode 9m at the St. Francis River mouth, mostly on the lagoon that fills up nicely at high tide, and in the ocean in onshore conditions. It's much like riding at the Breede River mouth at Witsand, but a lot more crowded being the end of the year with lots of visitors like me. Generally 20 kiters and a couple wingers and windsurfers all the time, probably 100 total through the day. Then I went for a solo session at the Gamtoos River mouth, which is on the other side of Jeffreis Bay and requires a bit of a walk over dunes to the ocean, but the reward was strong sideshore conditions suitable for 7m and some jumping over and off the large waves rolling in. Then today was a strong SW, and I could have gone to main beach at Cape St. Francis, but headed back to Cape Town instead with a break at a village east of Witsand, called Stillbaai, for a a 9m session on surfboard with some nice swells coming in, along with about 10 others. Not a bad road trip all in all and pleasant to be able to ride without a wetsuit.

[Hugh2]

[Hugh2]

This is St Francis River mouth and lagoon