LEARNING TO KITESURF IN LANGEBAAN

my instructor, whose eyes reflected the same serene blue as the lagoon on a calm day (which today sure was not) seemed completely unflappable. This was just another summer’s day in Langebaan, and the perfect weather for kitesurfing.

I still wasn’t convinced.

The team from Planet Kitesurf Holidays had sent me to this sleepy village on South Africa’s West Coast to learn how to kitesurf. However, now that I was kitted out in wetsuit, harness, helmet and the appropriate hazard-symbol-orange second skin that is given to beginners, I was decidedly terrified. The wind was easily blowing in excess of 30 knots, but I figured if I could learn in these nuclear conditions, then surely I could kite in anything. Thankfully, my blue-eyed instructor had a nifty trick up his sleeve to ease me into the sport. Enter the training kite. Slightly bigger than the