Let’s go to Rügen! The wind had been dead for weeks and the entire summer was non-existent anyway. On our first night on a farm, we experience a small harvest apocalypse. Huge combine harvesters flatten all the fields within a radius of one kilometre until four in the morning. It was probably the first rain-free night on Rügen this “summer”.
The next morning it’s raining cats and dogs again. The chalk cliffs disappear into the grey. Then the wind finally arrives. It is too strong and onshore at Wieker Boden. We cross over to Ummanz and head out to Suhrendorf beach.
I’m still wondering why Madlin can hardly get into the board. Then I hang on to the kite myself and feel how strong the wind is. I completely misjudged. At the far end of the depower I’m whizzing over the mirror-smooth speed piste. The wind doesn’t suit Madlin until the next day. Within five hours of kiting together – she downwind, I upwind – she pulls her first 100 metres on the kiteboard. Just watching her makes me happy. This must be how a dealer feels when he has just hooked a new junkie.
As usual, I mess up all the jumps. Sometimes a bit painful in 30cm of water. Everyone is racing, there are no waves, the standing area is endless. The sun goes down. Seagulls pass by. The sweet smell of brackish water.
After a heavy night in the surf hostel and hours of constant exposure to the same jazz riff from the youth jazz festival that is currently playing, we head home. Madlin gets my Liquid Force Session and the kiteboard that has travelled with me around the world for her trip to Australia. Farewell and be good to her!
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.