What can we say, every year we troop out to Sal, and it’s always a splendid mixture of wind, waves, turtles, amazing colours and progress in real world conditions. This year as an added bonus we had a few days of Sahara sand storms, which fortunately didn’t affect the wind, but perhaps gave us some extra protection from the sun. The wind pumped through 5 from 6 days and the waves at kite beach were on the lary side, a near perfect combo.
So for a brief outline of everyone’s achievements. After a lengthy break from kiting Bridget claimed the spot as hers, unfazed by the waves and in the process reignited her passion for kiting, with some memorable if unintentional flight from the kickers. The entire group went strapless mad, with a very civilised approach from the twin tippers to sharing the Cabrinha surfboards that we brought along for them dabble with.There was a lot of fancy foot work and carving, with Stokesy claiming gybes as well as all things kite loop and down loop on his trusty twin tip. Rowan progressed to some applaudable backside riding, and also got his twinkle toes dancing with the gybe, in short shredding. Neil claimed some mighty air, adored the 2012 Switchblade and also got the Trigger carving rather well onto the waves! Ed went from wanting to be comfortable, to boosting airs and slamming under turns with reckless abandon. Darcy mixed it all up with plenty of down the line carving and some very rad looking kite loops. James, making it all the way from Australia, flew upwind, sorted his jumps, styled his toe side and got rather friendly with a certain 5’6 Skillit. Steve was going off, claiming the chair of air with some impressive boosts, floaty air gybes and some mighty front loops, oh yes and some blind. Luis swapped his skis for some kite kit and walked away with jumps, underturns, and mighty carves, all powered, and another who never missed an opportunity to grab the surfboard, a new addiction ignited. Raf dazzled with his hit rate of tacks and frontside riding on his “Bad” foot, trying a few airs on the way out too, and still found time to pop out and impress on a twin tip.
