Cape Town Diary 2022/23

[Hugh2]

Once again I will record a diary here of my kiting this summer season in Cape Town. If you find the experiences of an aging and mediocre kiter too boring, please ignore this thread.

I got into Cape Town from the US late Monday night, and have the usual horrific jetlag. There was only middling SW wind on Tuesday so I spent the day getting my car, which has sat for 9 months, going, and various errands. Today the forecast was for reasonably strong NW as a low with a frontal system came through, and indeed by around 10 it was blowing 15-20 and built to perhaps 20-25 in the middle of the afternoon. There was only a small SW swell, with newly wind-generated chop and waves on top of it. I pumped my 2020 10m Naish Pivot on Bloubergstrand opposite the two Mystic houses and around 11:30 rode on Eleveight Master carbon board with North Navigator bar and Mystic seat harness, thereby affirming my lack of brand affiliation. There were a couple riders out, but mostly lessons using North Reach kites, most on short lines doing body-dragging but a couple getting going on a board. This wind direction means I am riding out on my weak side, so I did not try serious jumping off the waves as my left knee is problematic after a snowboarding incident 20 years ago that has led to early arthritis. Instead I jumped mostly coming in to shore, at first on the outside to get a feel for things, which is messy as the chop makes it hard to get speed up and time the jump, so later jumped inside getting speed behind a broken wave. Jumping this direction is rather different, both because one is landing sometimes in more shallow water than I like, and because the waves are now traveling with you and I misjudged the landing in a couple of broken waves, no damage done. I did a downwinder from there to the lighthouse at Milnerton near my flat, taking just over an hour and the Surfr app recorded 90 jumps, albeit perhaps 1/3 of those were small jumps over or off waves going out. Highest was almost 8m, which I am happy with given I was not using kickers. The windmeter at Board and Kite Africa is unfortunately still down, but the one on nearby Rietvlei at the Milnerton Aquatic Club (where 12 wingfoilers outnumbered the 2 lonely windsurfers this afternoon), the average windspeed was around 20 most of the day, with gusts to 30, no wonder I had my 10m trimmed down all day.

Tomorrow will be relatively light, perhaps suitable for foiling at Langebaan, then Friday and the weekend look really good with the famed SEaster filling in nicely. And of course the KOTA is all set to go, the stage is set, tents are pitched, cameras are ready, flags are flying, and it is possible they might run at least the first set of heats on Saturday. For those concerned about the on-going dune rehabilitation project, they have left a reasonably large area right at Kite Beach for both the KOTA and regular kiters to launch and land, and any time other than perhaps spring high tide, there is enough space for riders to spread themselves out along the rest of the beach for launching and landing. The public holidays will be another matter come the end of December, there will be very little room for kiters on 25/26 and 31/1 if those are nice days.

[Peter_Frank]

You are "regular" so not easy jumping when wind from the right I can understand.

But being regular with (the atypical) wind from the right, means you have the perfect bang on power cutback surfing conditions, correct?

Good to hear from you.

Peter

[decay]

Welcome back Hugh, hope I'll see you at the beach soon.

Cheers

DK

[Havre]

Good to see you are keeping your emissions up Hugh2!

[dracop]

I am eyeballing a Jan trip, will msg you if I show.

[Hugh2]

Correct, Peter, and hence this place is perfect for me. Having a bum left knee makes landings with my left knee at the back tentative, so landing with my right knee at the back is much more confident. Which also means I will never even try to do the transition-style jumps that the hotshots do, landing coming back into the beach.

Thanks DK, and, I think, Havre! Hope to see you DK and dracop.

I forgot to show the wind measurements, see below.

[Hugh2]

I just noticed that I have been on this forum for just over a decade. Thanks again to everyone who has read and/or responded to my various threads and posts, and a massive thanks to Toby for starting and keeping this international kiting forum going. I have learned a lot here.

[duddd]

Great to see you are doing this diary this year too. I enjoyed it last year and this year, for the very first time, i am actually riding here in CPT also.

A suggestion if i may, if it's not the usual S-E day that would obviously make you ride at Blouberg/Kite beach or too light wind over here, can you post one day before where you'd consider going kiting ?

[Hugh2]

Hi duddd, welcome to kitesurfing mecca! Yup, will try to mention my plans for the next day, as in the first post. I am not driving all the way to Langebaan today, but as mentioned, tomorrow through Sunday should be good SEaster at Bloubergstrand as well as further south like Witsand (if you don't know it, be prepared for some gusty conditions, see the "Misty Cliffs" video in another thread here, for example), and even Platboom in Cape Point NP (although the latter can be really strong conditions requiring a 5m kite for me). The forecast promises SEaster down at Platboom on Monday, but I have already booked the night at Witsand at the Breede River mouth for a change of pace, some slick flatwater in the lagoon and nice waves in the ocean.

[Hugh2]

Kevin Langaree and Lasse Walker had some fun on Wednesday too, in the afternoon long after I was done. Looks like today and the weekend will be really good, although I'm not sure the KOTA folks are going to pull the trigger. It would be great if they could run early heats on Saturday, and then the second half on Sunday, would get bigger crowds that way too. I love to ride before and after the actual event. Before when the wind is not too strong for me on perhaps 9m, and after because I'm all psyched up and take my 7m!