My sister and I went to a cottage in a private nature reserve just east of Hermanus for Tuesday and Wednesday. It was like winter, cold, windy, raining, so we had a very quiet time, enjoying all the little birds that frequented the bushes and a tree in front of the cottage, plus as dusk fell the various bats that emanated from a bat house attached to the roof. So good to see bats again, we've lost them all in Illinois to "white nose" fungal disease. Hermanus has a great coastal walkway that extends from Grotto Beach, where we usually kite in the lagoon, which is now open to the ocean due to all the rain they have had, and hence empty where folks usually kite (see pic below, taken from the spot where the pros usually jump launch), all the way along the seashore between the houses and the cliffs and beaches, with only one part missing. We had an 8k walk along it and back in intermittent rain, plus a short walk on the mountain, and a drive out to Danger Point lighthouse which is visible across Walker Bay, where the Birkenhead English troop ship ran aground in the 1850s with massive loss of life (pre-lighthouse).
Back in Cape Town today, the forecast was again for a strong SEaster and it blew all day. Friends got decent sessions in the morning, then it faded a little at lunch. I got to Dolphin Beach around 12:00 when it was pretty reasonable and headed out on 7m and directional around 12:30, but was soon being pulled off that. I tried riding TT for a while, but was having to ride with the kite fully trimmed down, so swapped to 5.5m, but again I don't like jumping with that small kite, so even though I was now in control, all I could do was mow the lawn back and forth. So instead I went back to the directional to ride some waves at least. Basically it was survival kiting for me so I finally quit around 2:30, to go watch the pros. Kevin Langaree was putting on a show north of Kite Beach in front of his apartment there, massive jumps that seemed to go on forever, his first heliloop often taking him back up again for awhile, and a second heliloop to land so sweetly. And of course, he was on a 9m, it's just sickening the way these guys can hold down such big kites. But not everyone, I watched a guy go down and pump up a 9m Switchblade at the same spot but as soon as he launched it he thought better of it and landed it. He changed down to 7m Switchblade, but then made a mistake I've made too many times, which was to struggle to relaunch the kite in the waves after having crashed and rolled it. Inevitably a big wave caught the kite and with his body resisting it, tore it in two. I've done that at least three times, and have finally learned that if you don't get the kite back up quickly, and the waves are big, you simply have to release to safety and drift to shore and reset. Sadly for him, Paul Lagesse at Second Wind Kites, the superb repair guy here, is gone for the holidays as of today, so he will be stuck without that kite till January. Tomorrow looks like the SEaster will only kick in late, so might be a morning for a hike.