Actually, the report should have been called “Warnemünde”. But after practically every spot on the Baltic Sea has only been available for a high parking fee in recent years, Warnemünde really takes the cake. Within an hour of searching for a car park in the furthest corners, I really can’t find anything under €20 for a longer kite session. In high season, you pay €3 per hour up to one kilometre from the beach. There are cheaper car parks. From October. They’re all full now.
I head west along the coast in search of cheaper kite spots. There are several kite spots here, e.g. Nienhagen, Heilgendamm and Kühlungsborn. Each one is hopelessly overcrowded. Parking costs at least €5. Despite the good wind, I don’t see a single kite in the sky.
I only find one in Kägsdorf, right on the corner above Rerik and Salzhaff. With a south-westerly wind like today, it seems to be picking up speed around the corner. Behind the small €4 car park right on the beach, it’s surging powerfully at 18 to 26 knots side-on over lush waves of up to 1.5 metres.
there are 15 kiters outside, mostly on waveboards. I set up the 10-rider on the small beach full of up to 10 cm of coarse pebbles. Even the small surf wave knocks me out twice. Immediately afterwards, the high breakers 10 to 50 metres off the beach repeat the game. The water is much colder here and the seabed quickly falls away. But the wind is blowing.
I have a good hour and a half of great fun in mighty waves. The swell further out surges up to two metres up and down. Towards the beach, there’s always nice flat water behind the breakers. Outwards, the wind direction is right to utilise the good kickers. But the waves break quite differently and seem to be in constantly changing places. I don’t catch a single kicker really well. A wave crack kicks up again and again to easily ten metres.
Watch out for the park attendant and especially his presumed son. Bodybuilder, bald head, glittery glasses, stiff beard and a T-shirt and car with “POLITIE” printed on it. In perfect tonal harmony with his other impressions, he points out to me quite aggressively that the road traffic regulations apply here. Walking speed! Admittedly, I exceeded it. I was annoyed by a long blocked exit due to an extensive chat with a traveller. In terms of content he was right, in terms of tone he was completely wrong for my 15 km/h.
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.