A couple years ago I wrote a short account of most days here for a month or so and some folk seemed to appreciate it, so since I am here for two months again this summer, Omicron be damned, I will do it again. If you are not interested in the ramblings of a 65-year-old mediocre kiter, please just ignore this thread.
Today was my second in Cape Town (yesterday was SW wind and perfect for recovering from the travel - 30 hours and three flights from East-central Illinois) and getting my car running after standing for 21 months, plus renewing the license (2.5 hours in a line for a transaction that took all of three minutes), sorting out bank issues, getting my phone working, etc. The forecast was for SW early and SE late, so I joined my sister on a regular Wednesday walk with a group of a dozen older folk that my Mom used to walk with. Lovely 6-mile hike around the south side of Silvermine reserve with amazing flowers, lots of birds including a malachite sunbird and a group of four ground woodpeckers, and all the crazy sandstone formations of Table Mountain. The SEaster started around 3PM, and I joined my local friend David at Dolphin Beach. It was already blowing pretty hard so we pumped up 9m kites, mine a 2018 Pivot, of course as that's pretty much all I have these days, and had a good session. It's always an adjustment for me coming here, and takes a session or two to get used to the conditions again. It is far more intense than other places I kite. After about an hour I was fully trimmed down, so took a break and pumped up my 2016 7m Pivot. As I was rigging my lines I noticed a guy hopping around on one leg, having somehow landed his kite. He was holding his left knee, so I checked on him and he had smashed it awkwardly on a wave. I packed up his gear and carried it out, then came back with another kiter to get him. With his arms around our shoulders he could hop on his good leg to his car, and said his girlfriend was out kiting and would look after him from there. Sorry to say I think his vacation is over. Anyway, headed back out and did a short downwinder to Doodles restaurant. By the end I had the 7m trimmed down too, graph from BKA shop below suggests gusts to 30 knots. It was almost as busy along Bloubergstrand as back in 2019/2020 summer. Along the way I stopped to watch Lasse Walker, Graham Howe, and several other hotshots putting on a show. Inspired I did some bigger, for me, jumps and recorded an 8m one on my Surfr app on an old iPhone. Just 2m to go to my goal of 10m, at which point I will have to learn heliloops for landings, something my friend David mastered during covid and can now do 12-13m jumps reliably with smooth landings. I'm very nervous about trying them though, I really can't afford bad crashes at my age. Only problem then was that when I tried to get on the bus to ride back upwind, the driver kicked me off as I had forgotten I needed a mask. I begged one from a guy sitting in his car nearby and made it back to mine. All in all a great first day of activities in Cape Town, and tomorrow looks stronger.