Why do Muslims always need 37 virgins in paradise? This one beach is paradise enough, I’m the first kiter here. The staff don’t know any kites. And that’s just 30 kilometres from Boracay. On some days you wonder what colour the sky is because you can’t see it because of all the kites.
After the heavy storm during the night, the wind finally calms down in the morning. It’s now blowing quite consistently at 15-22 knots side onshore. Perfect 13, the beach is covered in driftwood from yesterday’s storm. The lines get caught a few times. But that’s the only thing that’s not perfect – the beach boys will have raked it perfectly again by midday anyway.
I go out and am immediately in heaven. Soft sand in the shore break, a few small but blunt corals and stones. On the way out, the waves come in quite steeply at a comfortable 1 to 1.50 metres. On the right-hand side, the peninsula ends in a small reef with rocks. But you can see everything in good time. Travelling inland, the waves are extremely mild with long troughs and several breaks in the same places.
My lines are increasingly reduced to the same hypnotic sequence of mantras. I’m in heaven. Out. I listen to music without an iPod. One-armed wave rodeo with lively jumps. Yee-haw! A carved turn over the crest of the wave in front of the rocks. Long winding road. Inwards, pure heat in the shallow water of the wave troughs. Don’t stop me now! Then edge hard on the back of a wave crest and liftoff to full airtime. We lift you up where you belong.
As always, I easily mess up half of all the jumps. Crash boom bang. The other one fits – Ground Control to Major Tom. Then play in the shorebreak and a hard turn with a big spray. I’m a passenger. A quick sugar and food refuelling at lunchtime. Jules arrives again and reports that the return to the madness of Boracay was even tougher. He suggests new names: Borawhy? Boracry! Bancrupcay. I’ll definitely have a survival shirt printed of the former in a few days.
The wind picks up again in the afternoon, good for the 9er. The waves get heavier, my arms get redder and redder despite two months of pre-tanning and my muscles get stiffer and stiffer. Four and a half hours should be enough. Thanks for the pictures, Dave! Oh it’s such a perfect day – you just keep me hangin’ on…
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.