After a week in the doldrums, the wind arrives unexpectedly on Mana. Mana is the Fijian word for magic. The wind is exactly the same: just right for my kite, not too much, not too little, a little gusty, but easy to ride even with a three-year-old kite. Within two days I can get out into the bay for a few hours.

The wind and waves are good for jumping. Joost, a nice Dutchman, takes some of the best pictures in eight years of kiting. Thank you very much! My jumps are getting higher and higher. I’m currently working on the third floor. No big tricks, just as high as possible. A sailing boat arrives, and the speed cat. I drive right through it, take off and all the tourists shout “Higher, more”. (more…)

I’m lying in the tent. A tropical thunderstorm is raging outside. The staff at the safari lodge are drinking kava today and singing to the ukelele next door. Nowhere else in the world have I heard people sing more beautifully. Several voices, one starts, the others respond, sometimes only women, sometimes only men. Always in several voices, and every song sounds like a lullaby.

I fall asleep and wake up a little later with a waterfall on my face. My tent is “slightly” leaking. I had to move because a whole ship full of new guests arrived two days ago. The big clash over the lack of prey on the island doesn’t materialise. The ship’s black sheep told us that there are even two couples on the ship holding hands. But they are extremists, he says. (more…)

I’m sitting on the beach. My coral cuts are healing slowly but steadily. Yesterday I had quite a headache and thick feet. I’ll probably get round the blood poisoning anyway. The wind is blowing at up to 45 km/h, everyone is out windsurfing and kitesurfing. A 60-year-old is doing 10-metre jumps with his kite. I feel infinitely small.

On the beach I listen to Rod Stewart, The first cut is the deepest and Coral, the invisible invasion. Some divers have taken some really good pictures out on the reef and E6, which I’ll post today. They said that the sharks here were only very small and harmless. Even if they were, I won’t be swimming across the open sea to Dolphin Island. (more…)

With the help of the esteemed kitesurfing community on oase.com (thanks, guys!) and a few items from the Safari Lodge, I’m able to fix my broken line the next morning. Warren offers me the chance to try out a new 12 Eclipse kite. I don’t say no. Around 11 a.m. we head two kilometres out to sea for a downwinder.

I swim away from the boat, the kite is nice and stable on the edge. The hybrid kite goes up like Reinhold Messner on Extasy. Even at low speed and with the kite flying relatively high, I’m off to windward. 30 degrees upwind just makes me grin. Kitesurfing has come a long way in four years. (more…)

I don’t even need the alarm clock to wake up in time for the six o’clock tide. The wind is already blowing, but not enough for kitesurfing yet. Another three hours’ sleep, then it’s back to kitesurfing in Fiji. At ten o’clock we take the boat out again to the safe kitesurfing spot at the Sandbar, 2 kilometres from Nananu-i-Ra.

The wind was already strong on Nananu-i-Ra, and at Sandbar the wind is blowing at 30-40kmh. Strong gusts make kitesurfing even more difficult. An absolute killer for my 12 nitro with 30% depower. At least I know that before I go out kitesurfing. It’s always a bad omen when you can barely keep contact with the ground on land. (more…)

I’ve been waiting a long time for this: kiteboarding in Fiji. The wind finally arrives. It’s been building up all morning. I knew it would be good because my heart had been pounding all morning. After 5 weeks without kiteboarding in Fiji, we finally get going today. The clouds are gone, the wind is there.

After lunch, we take the boat out to a sandbank off Ellington Wharf. At low tide, there’s no kiteboarding on Nananu-i-Ra either: like everywhere else on Fiji, the sharp coral is too close to the surface. The wind blows on the sandbank, my wind, exactly my strength. (more…)

Everyone has been waiting increasingly desperately for wind for three days. It keeps raining cats and dogs. We’re not killing time, but black and white striped mosquitoes that leave wonderfully infectious pimple-like giant bumps if you’re too slow. Zack. Two more. 107 today.

We watch too many DVDs, albeit good ones, from the Safari Lodge’s extensive collection. My imported beer supply is drastically depleted, and no cigarette helps against the hordes of mosquitoes. We drink kava, eat, chat and wait for the wind. Reading: The Kite Runner. (more…)