Two long journeys of up to eight hours take me via Barcelona to the small French backcountry village of Durban-Corbières near Leucate. A supermarket, a restaurant and a dilapidated castle in the middle of vineyards slow down my 7,000 kilometres comfortably. Everywhere, the winegrowers collect their harvest in Playmobil tractors.
The quirky innkeeper sorts cassettes under fig trees in front of his ancient stone house. Mambo from the 50s is playing inside. I am the only guest. A castle glows a lonely gold in the sunset while the moon rises behind the vineyards.
As the crow flies, Leucate is just 17 kilometres away. The winding three-metre-wide road through the vineyards is twice as long. I enjoy it a few times far too much. Racing over rollercoasters by car is just too much fun.
Our spot is the beach at Le Goulet at the northern end of the Etang de Leucate. The wind usually comes from the north or north-west, i.e. sideshore for windsurfers in the north and initially off for the small kite zone to the south, until the beach turns the corner again. Most of the northern Etang de Leucate is shallow. I go out at the first wind in about 17 knots, travelling too far to the first islands. Then the wind suddenly drops completely and the kite falls into the water. After a few minutes it rises again, but not enough for a relaunch. I’m drifting towards a rocky shore, and right in front of it the lagoon is not very deep.
Self-rescue is the order of the day. A good friend recently looped my 13er a little too hard in waves that were too big on the Baltic Sea. I then had to replace the rubber on the safety line of my Slingshot Bar. Now it no longer slips through the chicken loop after release. In the freshening wind, I quickly head for the rocky shore with 20kg of drag on both front lines. I manage to catch up before reaching the shore, but get caught in the backlines. Then the kite suddenly wants to launch again. The way back is 2.5 kilometres of scorching hot tarmac on the main road. In the evening, the cuts from the broken glass at the side of the road are an excellent distraction from the burnt soles of my feet.
The second session in the afternoon goes better in 15 to 25 knots. The wind isn’t really gusty, but it is very changeable. 150 metres further out it picks up significantly, seemingly without any geographical or aerodynamic reasons. The waves are small and easy to use as kickers. The wind picks up in front of the kite shore, causing some people to have violent take-offs and landings with stalls. The wind doesn’t suit anyone, it’s always too little or too much – and the holes in between make all the kites fall out of the sky again and again. The water is so salty that even the wetsuits tighten up.
The second day makes us wait a long time. From four o’clock onwards, the wind finally arrives with 12 to 20 knots, only to fall asleep again completely after 10 minutes. The best forecast is apparently provided by ICAN 7 on Windguru. But you can’t see the holes there. The wind in Leucate was like Swiss cheese for two days. It takes some time to mature (usually around 13:00). Then it comes quite savoury, sometimes crisp. But the holes make it a real bitch. Off to the last place…
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.