Seeking Sun in London: Kitesurfing in Cornwall

350 or so Kitesurfers on one beach in Cornwall :)

It has been noted that the future of the current energy crisis lies not in risky nuclear power but in steady-state renewables, specifically sun, wind, and air. All three of these elements come together in one of the newest and definitely the raddest sport I've come across yet: Kitesurfing. Apparently the LSE has a kitesurfing club, in which these two awesome guys, Vik and James, both kitesurfing instructors take groups of people out on weekends to learn to kitesurf for dirt cheap. A lesson that would cost between $500 and $1000 in the states is offered for something in the area of $50, and they'll teach friends for less. Vik and James do have a lot of friends, but not a lot of groupies.. at least, not a lot of male groupies. Their club has over 100 members, making it one of the largest in the LSE, and the culture is definitely surfer. Last weekend I climbed aboard a bus with these guys and 48 other LSE students in order to spend 2 days in Cornwall living it up and flying some kites. There was a big kitesurfer convention in some random caravan campsite there, with 350 people attending. LSE had the biggest crew by far. I met some very groovy people, including Yann, my kite-buddy from France, who spent all day Saturday and Sunday with me untangling kites and trying to learn to kiteboard upwind. Vik and James are also rad dudes- Vik has an ethereal taste in music and was nice enough to share with me a few sick bands, including Angels and Airwaves (where was THIS for me 3 years ago?) and Kings of Leon. James is a different type of chill, and engaged me in a philosophical debate on existence after he'd had a beer or two- and to be honest, he kind of kicked my ass. Apparently we're philosophical brothers now. More on all this later.

Amber Applies Vik's warpaint.. Saturday Night was Fancy Dress.

The Aussie Kiss crew brought about 40 demo kites for us newbies
to play with. Behold!

Kitesurfing involves strapping yourself to a 12 meter powerkite (shaped like a crescent, or a slice of a parachute) that has the ability to trap massive amounts of wind and literally pull a person up into the sky with it, depending on how the kite is flying. Powerkites are amazing inventions- apparently if the kite is catching the wind PERFECTLY it can move at 3x the speed of the surrounding wind. In other words, if you're playing around with a 20 mph breeze (doesn't seem like much- this is typical ocean breeze in Huntington Beach at 3 or 4 PM in the winter), you'll be able to cruise at speeds approaching 60 miles an hour (I don't think hangliders are quite the same..). In reality people don't get going nearly this fast, but it is possible to hit something near 40 mph off of a 20 mph wind. Powerkites come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The ones for use on land are actually much smaller, ranging from 3 m to 6 m. A 6 m kite can still pull you up into the air when you have it in the powerzone, however. It is a pleasure to fly something that has so much power it it-- remember flying a kite when you were a kid and it was fun feeling the kite pull against you? Now imagine the kite pulling so hard you have to drop your ass toward the ground and lean waaaay back, and it STILL slides you forward along the beach. Now imagine strapping your feet into a board, running the kite in continuous figure-8's in the powerzone so it continually pulls you in one direction.. etc.. etc.. I've found my new favorite thing in the world. The kites that get used in the ocean are a lot bigger, a lot slower, and a LOT more powerful.

Most of these kites are Water-Kites, some in various
stages of being blown up (foreground).

After strapping yourself to this badass kite (and yes, there's an emergency release system-- how that one kid flew into a building during some hurricane in Florida I'm not sure- maybe he was too scared to release himself and decided it would be better to risk it flying through the buildings at 60 miles an hour or so), you decide it would be fun to strap your feet into something to reduce your friction with whatever surface you're on. This is the cool thing about kitesurfing; there are SO MANY applications. Some people use modified surf-boards and try to kitesurf into waves. Apparently it's a LOT easier to get past the break with a kiteboard.. perhaps a little less manly. Some people put modified wakeboards under their feet and cruise- this is typical kitesurfing. If you're in the snow, why not use a snowboard or skis? It's been done. On land, try a modified skateboard with huge wheels and skyhooks for your feet. I spent most of my weekend on one of these, trying to figure out the basics. I actually got the thing up to 30 mph or so, but couldn't figure out how to tack backwards against the wind... a new challenge for next time.

These are Kiteboards (for the beach). I spent all day on these.

On the busride over, Mike daydreams of kites..

Bloody early morning in Cornwall.. Bloody cold,
Bloody windy, Bloody fantastic for Kitesurfing!

I didn't actually make it into the water in Cornwall. Had I gone in, I probably would have frozen my ass off, and probably not even noticed. The way they get us into the water is by holding onto a 12 m powerkite for the first time ever, and then letting it drag us (literally) through the water. Sounds like a blast- I'm totally there next time. While a lot of the LSE crew were gettting dunked in this manner, basically waiting an hour for 5 minutes of kite time, Yann and I spent the better half of Saturday cruising up and down a part of the beach with a 3.5 m kite and a kiteboard. We were having such a blast, we didn't even notice we'd ripped all the muscles in our shoulders and backs-- we noticed that on Monday though.

The Saturday Night Fancy Dress Theme was War and Peace
Private Joker. Whose side are you on anyway, son?

Roman the Russian, who had the best Dance moves of any of us.

On Sunday we got up, grabbed an English breakfast of eggs, beans, and fried tomatoes (why is every traditional English meal something that can easily be cooked on a ship?), then bummed a ride with Lisa from Angola (who listens to BADASS Portuguese music and still owes me an mp3) over to the beach. We got there at 11, grabbed a kite and a board, and got the kite up only to find that it wouldn't fly right.. something wasn't grabbing the wind correctly and we couldn't keep the damn thing up in the sky. Somewhat dejected, we went back to base and, because of some wonderful twist of fate, were given a MUCH BIGGER kite to play with. In fact, we were given the biggest land kite they had-- a 6 m beauty. We literally ran back to the beach, and started to unroll the thing when all of the lines got tangled.. and.. then.. life.. sucked.

Yann on the beach before the kite kills us.
When the tide is just going out, the reflection is quite transcendental..

Something else about powerkites (all this info-- now you guys have to go try it yourselves). Powerkites are attached to four strings (one for each corner of the kite). These four strings are separated into two pairs, and each pair goes to a handle, one for the right hand, one for the left hand (red is ALWAYS left). By pulling the handle in one way or another, you create drag on different corners of the kite. If you pull really heavily on the top strings, the kite loses drag, and falls to the earth. If you pull more on the lower strings, the kite rises and gains power. Now this is all well and good, but once you're done flying a kite, you have to roll the damn thing up. A lot of people don't do this very well... there's a certain, very precise way to combine and roll up the four strings so that when you UNROLL them, they don't get tangled with one another. Whoever put our 6 m kite away before us DID NOT do a good job unrolling our strings. Moreover, I unrolled it a little too quickly in my haste to get the thing up in the air...

The result was a Gordian knot that was about 6 inches in diameter. The strings themselves were something like 30 m long, and probably 70% of them were stuck inside that damn knot. So what happened? Yann and I spent the next two hours doing surgery, slowly unwinding the damn kite turn-by-turn of each string (thankfully the strings are color-coded). Now here's the best part. The kite became the knot of insanity at 1:20 PM. We got the thing untangled and up in the air at 3:20 PM (and to be honest, I doubt anybody in the world could have done a better job- hats off to Yann). At 3:21, our group leader Nat told us to bring the kite in, as the bus was leaving at 3:30.

We got to play with the damn thing for 5 minutes. But, just like Cartman with his 30 second run through Casa Bonita, those 5 minutes were the best damn 5 minutes in the world.

A Rare picture of the blogger himself, early in the morning,
waiting for the tide to recede.

Let me say, for the record, that there is NOTHING LIKE flying a power kite. There is nothing else in the world- just you, the wind, and that damn kite. You're so calm, and everything is so quiet, and when that thing lifts you, you feel like you're flying...

Apparently some people go live on the beach and do this for months on end..

damn.