At the end of my last three weeks in Cabarete, the wind finally returns. Tentatively at first, a little breeze, but after six days of calm and rain, it’s a sign of things to come. From three o’clock onwards, a nice 20 knots are blowing on the kite beach. The wind is extremely gusty, the waves are mean, high and coming from different directions. But that doesn’t matter. The main thing is wind.
I keep going out to the reef and playing catch with the breakers. I escape all but one of them. It bites me on the bum and rolls over me. Nothing happens. When I surface, a fat turtle is suddenly right next to me and stares at me. Not the only one that day. By the evening, I must have seen a dozen large sea turtles. The oldest sea dweller meets the youngest.
Next day. The wind starts blowing at twelve. I’m out for a long time again. My little finger has been numb from kiting again since yesterday, the corresponding thread on Oase.com (we kiters are cool but all sissies :-) is growing from day to day. My right elbow is developing a kite arm. The holding power of the XBow2 is pretty steep in the long run. The wind is enough for a few last big jumps, but unfortunately not for the five metres I’m aiming for. I’ll crack that on my next holiday.
Last day. Spend the last of my money, buy presents. Then back to the kite beach. The wind is only a light breeze again. I lie down under a palm tree, fall asleep and dream that I’m lying under a palm tree in the Caribbean. Cabarete is over. From now on it’s off again to new kite shores.
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.