Levante Nemesis @ Tarifa

I have been travelling the world with my kites for 24 years. The wind is my life. Among the more than 200 kitespots I’ve visited in over 50 countries are some of the world’s most stubbornly strong wind areas: Bavarian lakes in front of a thick western front. Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka. Cape Town. The Cuesta del Viento high in the Argentinian Andes. The Philippines. Bahia Salinas in Costa Rica. Fiji. Or River Gorge, Oregon USA.

In all these places, I’ve always had a few days with too much wind for the smallest kite. According to the anemometer, my nose recognises 50 knots pretty accurately. The Levante storms we are experiencing in Tarifa for a month this April are simply blowing the bottom out of every barrel. By the end of the month it will probably be > 50% Levante with 22 to 52 knots at the top.

We’ve been here for a good two weeks. Three days of calm. Three days of mild Poniente with a maximum of 22 knots. Learning to kitefoil in a one metre wave right in front of the accommodation at Los Lances was very tempting, but stupid. In conditions like these, you only learn that you don’t learn anything. Fortunately, a few crashes ended without any major injuries.

I’ve been to Tarifa a few times. I know its winds. They say the strong east wind Levante, which originates in nearby Africa, usually lasts a few days. It is said to be the rarer wind. The weaker westerly wind Poniente is much more frequent. They say a lot. But this April, the Levante is simply chopping all words short and small.

The first week of Levante I only go out twice at Valdevaqueros. The stubborn peaks of around 32 knots over heavy swell are not much fun – but they are kiteable. Over 200 kiters don’t break any records in the challenging conditions. On a few too windy rocket days, I just watch Gil Vlugt at the Balneario. He is the current number one in the Big Air Kite League and, with a few other of the world’s best kiters, he hits double kiteloop board offs over 25 x 100 metres at speeds of around 40 knots. Non-stop. 95kg on seven square metres of Ocean Rodeo Rise. Wind fully off. No rescue. Pure madness.

In the knowledge that every storm subsides at some point – and we’re here for a whole month – we devote ourselves to the cult programme. Tarifa old town. Mountain frustration in Gibraltar. Enthusiasm in Vejer de la Frontera. The dunes of Bolonia and Valdevaqueros. We have time. I think. I work a lot for the websites of new customers here.

Halfway through, after two days in the doldrums, Levante announces itself again – non-stop until our departure at the end of April. With just four short kite days in a fortnight, I change the plan. From now on, Levante bulls will also be ridden. Before the Aqua in the centre of Los Lances, I first take the ten out onto the beach. Pump up. The wind picks up ten knots within five minutes. Dismantle. Pick up the seven. Pump up.

Right at the first take-off, I’m fully depowered and pulled three metres vertically into the air. I weigh 95kg. Immediately afterwards, the next gust throws me and my board seven metres offshore towards the water. The woo tears off. Land the kite. Rescue the drifting woo. Launch again.

The next 15 minutes and ten lanes are the most stubborn in 24 years of kitesurfing. Holes around ten knots are plugged by 45 knots within two seconds. They pull me out of the water again and again, fully depowered. The XR is a super stable wing. One of the reasons why I love it. Today it stalls several times. Riding a ten-year-old XR here is like sending your great-grandfather to a Gabba Rave.

I go out. Another stable. Release. I’m just too old for these conditions. The beach is full of students with a maximum of five square metres on five-metre lines. That’s still halfway okay. But I feel really sorry for the other 50 students on the water with lines up to 21 metres long. On this stretch of beach alone, they are plucked from the isthmus like fully ripe fruit every minute by four lifeboats. The international rule “no more training above 25 knots” is ultimately meaningless.

The sand blasted my legs so hard several times in the last few weeks that I screamed. The waves flew five metres high over the causeway at the Balneario. I’m starting to worry this wind searcher. I really used to have a wind curse. Friends only wanted to go kitesurfing when I wasn’t there. This trip’s quota is a little different. Only 3:15 hours of kiting over four days within two weeks due to too much wind…