One Month Barefoot: Good Night, Vietnam!

As soon as I’m back in My Hoa from Da Lat, the strong winds return. During my last ten days here, it was almost constantly blowing across the flat water at 20 to 43 knots. A GoPro mount that is probably tied too tightly around the centre strut causes it to explode on the jump. Due to the Tet holidays, the repair takes five days. Even after the second attempt, the centre strut continues to lose air. My wings are flat and records are over.

I find the GoPro that fell out of the kite in the morning at low tide after a long lagoon traipse. I borrow the expensive Insta 360 X3 from a Chinese woman and head out onto the water with a good harness mount. In the shallow water in front of the Phan Rang Kite Centre, I crash after a mini hop. The second harness opens and tears the Insta several metres over sharp pieces of coral on the seabed. The total loss results in the most expensive 20-second clip in 25 years of kitesurfing holidays. The coral bites me in the knee one last time.

Crash Boom Bang

My 10 kite crashes into another kiter after releasing in about 28 knots. Nobody gets hurt – but afterwards I have a big L-cut in the tip of my 10. The €70 repair costs for the burst centre strut at Phi Kite School were still halfway ok, even with a leaky tube. A complicated repair. But for the simple cut in the tip they want another €55. My Hoa Kiting Town Resort fixes my kite on the last day at a much cheaper price. The Woo gives up the ghost after two years and stops charging for good. A waterproof GoPro remote control was too thirsty – R.I.P. At least the head mount breaks on land. All in all, the total damage of this trip adds up to an unprecedented €1,000.

Kicker waves!

On one of the last light wind days, nice little kicker waves finally build up on the outer reef with longer flat water in between. It’s the only day in my month here when they are really usable. On no day do I reach a height of less than five metres – but new records well over ten metres are just as rare. The light Vietnamese break the ten metre mark every day without exception. The waves on the reef are usually narrow and one and a half to three metres high with a lot of chop in between. Even if you manage to jump over two waves at high speed, fall off immediately afterwards and immediately turn in vertically for the remaining five metres until the next wave: the jump was always difficult to hit for a whole month.

Dangers in My Hoa

My Hoa offers very strong winds, but usually only one tide a day with max. 5h / 50 cm of water in the lagnue. Sharp pieces of coral and stones on the bottom make the spot really dangerous. Up to 120 kiters in the water make it even worse. I can crash well in low water. Many others too. We all carried the signs of the lagoon on our backs. Everyone rides considerately, and everyone helps everyone else. Even so, you really do see a few serious accidents here every day. My hardest one was a powered impact on the side from six metres up on the reef. The numerous scratches from rocks and coral on my back and legs/feet are slow to heal.

Good night, Vietnam!