Days 26-28, Kiting Days 18-20

Yesterday I arrived (or rather we arrived as I am now in the company of two nice Spanish/Malagenho or Tarifenio kiters - Carlos and Inhaki) to Lagoinha. Before I arrived here I didn't even know that such a place exists and that it's a great kitsurfing spot. But I was not the only one - very few people knows about this spot as it's hard to see any kite in the air here. We are in the Pousada Kite Point, which seems to be the only one that caters for kiters in this town. What a difference between here and Cumbuco! The Pousada is located virtually on the beach, so the walk to launch the kite takes me less then 15 meters (maybe twenty when the tide is low :), and they've got the air compressor, so it saves me pumping, which unequivocally is he dullest part of setting up the kite :).

Lagoinha - the name sounds nice, isn't it? And the place indeed is beautiful, just see yourself ...

In spite of this beauty around me yesterday, I also had one of the most frustrating days, the wind was fraco - weak, but I still tried to sail with my Bandit 9 meters - waving it up and down is like a good fitness club work-out. At some point the kite fell and started looping. I managed to lift it and untangle the lines while flying it in the air, but the board stayed far away. In this light wind my body-drags where hopeless and I saw the board only moving further and further. Contrary to Cumbuco no one was around to bring it :(, so I body-dragged to the shore, hoping that the wind will wash it ashore sooner or later. And it did, but much later than expected, we found it only after five hours. Actually, the Brazilian guy - Marcelo found it around ten o'clock at night while driving his motorbike up and down the shore on my board rescue mission.  Really nice, very helpful fellow, I had impression that he was happier to find it than myself, and you can imagine my happiness, given that my Nobile NBL was the most expensive part of my equipment.

All the yesterday's misfortunes got totally washed away today, with another great kiting day :). First, I did my first downwind to reach the lagoon. Many people say that there is nothing easier than downwind, you just let yourself get carried away effortless by the wind. I don't agree, maybe if you know well how to do it is so, but my first time in the strong wind was very demanding with a number of falls and body-drags to get the board back. At the end I improved, however :). And most importantly the reward was great - a flat water, large lagoon, almost empty - the best I have seen so far :). On the lagoon everything went fine, all the fakes, carving turns and ... my first little jumps - yeah! Let's see what tomorrow brings :).

One more thing, on Tuesday I got another kite - 7 meters North Evo - the wind is picking up, so the chances increase that soon I'll be able to try it!

And, to conclude with a smile, this is how a Brazilian kitesurfer sees an ideal girlfriend :)

Days 21-25, Kiting Days 16-17

Yeap, don't need to be math genius to see that the discrepancy between overall days and kiting days is growing. Wind was very poor the whole weekend :(. Kiting is like a drug, the more you have it, the more you need it. I was so frustrated on Sunday when I could not kite, after not-enough-wind day on Saturday and no a 'day-off' on Friday. The truth is that if I had a kite 12 meters I could make it all the days, but I don't. The truth is also that a day or two of rest and away from salty water were what I needed, especially for healing the wounds on my feet. My mind gets it, but the heart longs for more and more kiting.

Good news, today another best kiting day :)! The wind was blowing again from the very morning and I spent sailing from 8 o'clock until 15:30, sure with a number of short breaks and a longer one for lunch, but still it was my longest kiting day ever :) and most importantly - no more bruises.

Two photos from today...

On Saturday, we went to Taiba, a small (and rather ugly village) around an hour drive North from Cumbuco. Taiba, is well known by pro-riders for its flat water lagoon. Indeed lagoon was flat, though so small that the pros were waiting in a line to go forward and do their tricks :). For me it was a rather frustrating day as the wind was not enough for my 9 meters kite. There is always a silver lining, however, I learnt to kite in light wind, by moving the kite up and down and making sure that the board is positioned really downwind and Taiba lagoon was perfect for this exercise as each time I was drifted downwind I could easily walk upwind until I finally got it. At the end of the day, for a dessert, I flew a bigger kite - 12 meters that I borrowed from Hernan. It was slow but nice - a bit like driving a lorry. At the end of today, while the wind dropped these skills came in very handy :).

And, like in the good all days in Jerico, the whole trip was an adventure in itself. We were 3 people at the front seat, four people at the back seat and another free in the boot, plus all the kites for all these people in the 30 years old Toyota Bandeirante that is barely visible on the photo below.

Day 20, Kiting Day 15

Happy to report that I had another best kiting day. We even managed to take some pics ...

and a movie ...





It shows very which mistakes I make, first and most of all, my upper body should lean much more backwards. Also, i should be more backwards while turning. I also started to make curving turns, i.e. first you go to the switch stance and then you turn in a nice circle, unluckily the camera man did not manage to shoot them.

But the way it's my first IMovie project :), as they say travelling broadens the mind :).

Otherwise, last night we went to see a Capoeira training in the sports academy nearby:

And most importantly Ievunia, sent more pics from her Brazilian trip ... Just see and enjoy, she was lucky enough to see a Jaguar in the Pantanal :) !!!

Days 18-19, Kiting Days 13-14

I've just got another great kiting day :), I hope to be repeating that until the end of my stay in Brazil. As usual, I woke up around seven, which is not a great achievement given that the sun is up already at five. A quick cafe de amanha (breakfast), and around 8 o'clock, I am ready to start and, most importantly, I've got the whole Cumbuco shore for myself at least for an hour. Then it starts getting crowded on the water – not such a big problem any longer as now I am able to zig-zag my way in between the other kites. I am already going upwind and manage to hold the bar comfortably with one hand only :). The wind was again perfect for the nine meters kite. My F-One Bandit is doing fine, it seems that we start getting on with each other, no more twists and tangled lines in the water :). I also learned some other useful skills today, don't laugh - how to fold the kite an the bar neatly.



Otherwise, new people arrived in the Pousada and it's now more lively. Everything would be just great if it hasn't been for very bad news from Brussels. I don't even wanna talk about that, no one got hurt (at least physically, as my feelings got hurt a lot), but some people have been very dishonest with me. Let's hope it can be still sorted out somehow, though with this distance and truly kafkaesque bureaucracy that I have to deal with now, won't be easy.

Take care,

Days 15-17, Kiting Days 10-12

Sunday 17th - yeah, again I had the best kiting day ever. Actually every day I can say that :). The difference today is that I got no bruises, no rescues, no disasters whatsoever :). I started around 7:30AM and, with two breaks for a snack, finished around midday. Today the lowest tide was around 9 o'clock so it payed off again to wake up early. These days there is clearly a trade-off between good kiting conditions or night partying - the hour I came to the spot clearly indicated what my choice was.

Saturday 16th, Saturday morning there was a photo session, see the outcome below...

... and here comes more ...

... this thing that looks so silly behind my back is a life jacket, yeah on the open see with my present skills it's much better to wear it. So Saturday started great but finished not so good, as after few hours of pleasant riding the kite fell into the water, started twisting, the lines got tangled and of course I was quite far away. I ended up in a crash course (in Polish we say I've been thrown straight away into the deep water, which actually is exactly what happend) of self-rescue. In the end, it's not so bad, you need to first to pull the front lines slowly and wrap them around the bar, while approaching the kite. Then you grab the leading edge and finally you pull the top edge of the kite towards you to make it look and work like sail. After twenty minutes I've been back on the beach. Someone brought my board so the greatest challenge was to untangle the lines on the bar - it took me something like an hour...

... not a big problem, as I had the whole afternoon, after 11 AM it got too crowded to kite for me. See on the pictures what I mean by crowded ...

 Otherwise, I re-started watching Breaking Bad, it's as addictive as meth, over two days I did the whole 12 episodes season. Not so good for my eyes, but definitely my battered and aching feet like it, and the rest of my bruised body doesn't mind lying in the hammock either.

Ievunia is doing fine too, actually she travelling now in Switzerland and in Bern she saw (surprise, surprise) ... a bear.

    

Days 3-10 More on Kiting in Jericoacoara

Yesterday I was a bit short on kiting in Jerico, I'll try to make it up now. On Monday (3rd) at 10 o'clock we set out with our kite instructor instructor Fabinho, his girlfriend and also an instructor and their dog called .... Freestyle to the Guriu river mouth. Our daily ride started by a visit to the ... petrol station, I am not sure if we can really call it petrol station but for sure they fill the tank up, just check it yourself...

The rest of the way to the spot I described yesterday. The first day both myself and Gosia we had a regular beginners class flying the kite on the beach. Fabio's key words are SUAVE (take it easy), tranquilo (another version of take it easy) and com technica. As I already had 6 hours before in Lanzarote two years ago, for me it's more like a recap. So at the end of the class I am entering the water and after a couple of tries I mange to do my first waterstart - YEAH. Apparently I get too much carried away as towards the end of the class, I have my first kite jump, definitely not intentional which ends up with a very hard landing in the water that is 20 cm deep - I've got a big bruise on my thigh until today. 

Then we get back on our buggy and it turned out that we are running late - not that we were counting time, there was more natural obstacle - the high tide had come and flooded the road. We've been full of admiration for the driving skills of our buggy, especially it's ability to cross flooding.

As you can see Freestyle appeared to be the most concerned if we'll make it or not :).

In the evening, as every evening from now on, we applied a regular Caipirinha medicine for our aching bones after the kiting day. We liked both the price 5 reais and the amount of Cachaca they put into each drink.

Gosia the second day she burned her ears very badly and took a break. The beauty of Jerico is that even if you are not a fanatical kiter or windsurfer, there is always something going on in town. She took classes of Samba, Afro dance, and some other stuff, in our pousada / hostel - Coco Verde she found some nice people to talk to and to give her inspiration what to do while her brother was up out there looking for the wind.

Few words about Coco Verde - one of the few hostels in town, run by a German girl Angela that used to be a backpacker, that's why the pousada has a friendly ambience and the set-up facilitating meeting people. The weakest point of Coco Verde was the rooster that started crowing before dawn and in Jerico it dawns before 5 o'clock in the morning.

I kited every day and every day was a bit better :) and brought a new bruise :(. The time was flying faster than the kites in Jerico's strong wind and Sunday 10th when Gosia needed to fly home came much too early. At 7:30 we boarded the bus for Fortaleza, passing through the dunes park again...

if you look closer you'll see people on the one below, which gives an idea how big the dunes are.

Gosia safely delivered to the airport, I spent overnight in another crap hostel in Fortaleza and the day after set off to Cumbuco, where my kite progress continues. 

Days 1-9 Kiting Days 0-6

I've got a bit of time now, so I'm gonna try to summarise the initial days of our trip.



Friday 1^st of November we (i.e. Myself and my sister) arrived to Fortaleza in the North-Eastern Brazil. The centre of this city is one of the ugliest and run-down that I've seen, it reminded me of the North Colombian city of Baranquilla. That night we slept in one of the worst hostels I've ever been and during my trip around South America five years ago I had been to many. The day after we set out for Jericoacoara. Jeri is a windsurfers paradise famous for strong winds. Also it's an exceptional town located entirely on sand (there is no single paved road); the bus drops you off an hour before and you get there by an all-terrain car.

It's surrounded by a national park founded to protect huge dunes (if you look closer at the photo you'll see that the dune is taking over the palms).

The wind was allegedly week, so instead of going straight to kiting on Sunday (the 3rd) we went for a passeio - a tour by the most popular local means of transport a buggy...

On the five hour tour we got the taste of what the Jerico surroundings have the best on offer...

... Pedra Furada...

.... Arvore da Preguica (Lazy Tree) ...

.... Lagoa Azul

At night we found the kite teacher - Fabio, known as Fabinho, nativo to Jericoacoara. Really nice bloke, he turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip.

So on Monday we set off for our first kite class at Guriu river mouth, around half an hour drive by buggy from town. The trip there iwas an adventure in itself...

... there is a river crossing ...

.... mangrove crossing ....

 ... and a long crossing along the beach with a complimentary sand peeling on any part of the body that sticks out from the buggy...

... and the spot itself, super flat water, never deeper than 1m, with a totally crazy wind always at least 25 knots and often more than 30. So in six days I managed to learn to ride both ways with the kite size ... 5m. Here, I am on my 6th day of kiting, I felt good that day, only few days later while stragling to water-start in choppy Cumbuco waters I realised how good and foregiving place Guriu was to start my kiting adventure.

And here is our last ride from Guriu on Saturday 9th (good capacity utilisation :))

Day 14, Kiting Day 9

So, I got my first rescue today. It was quite a peculiar type of rescue - another kiter gave me a lift, I came to the shore holding on to his harness. Guys riding in Cumbuco are really helpful, the other bloke brought me the board. All started well, in the morning there was low tide, and finally I understood why Cumbuco is considered the kite capital of Brazil. No breaking wave while entering the water :) and you can kite in front of your B&B, called pousada here and come back for a sip of a cold drink whenever you want :). On the sea it gets more shaky, but I managed to ride and even not to get dragged too much downwind :). In the afternoon, I continued in high tide, already the entry was a success for me; it went easier than yesterday, also because Tomais explained me how to enter and exit through the breaking wave. Sure, I the board slipped off my feet several times and I drank some salty water while body dragging to recover it, but I kept on riding! And then, the kite fell, hit the water, twisted, the lines got tangled and I got stuck, quite far away from the shore. The good news were that I had life jacket and that after some time (hour or two) the wind would finally drag me on to the shore. I luckily avoided the suffering of being dragged for hours as another kiter gave me the lift. Not surprisingly I am quite tired though tonight. The resolution for 2morrow - take an additional lesson of self-rescue.



Another good news is no bruises today :), just blisters on my palms :( from hanging on to the harness of my rescuer. I took some pictures of my Pousada (or rather the view from it) ...

... and myself with the holiday moustache look :).

Day 13, Kiting Day 8

Yeah! I had a great kiting morning! I kept on waterstarting easily, managed to make many turns and even did some fakes, i.e riding in a kind of switch stance position, i.e. one day I'll get the photo taken so you'll see :). To avoid getting too complacent, I need to add that I did all these on a lagoon, the Cauipe - the sweet water. flat like a table lagoon, that Cumbuco is famous for. So three hours of fun under the supervision of Tomais, the instructor nativo to here. I do recommend him, you can find him in Kite Academy, he charges 100 reais per hour (the equipment included, plus 50 reais for the ride to Cauipe).

So just see yourself...

And here is my first Youtube upload (made on the Iphone), so please excuse the crap quality (and excuse even more not so sexy position on the kite)...

http://youtu.be/xsOJzxfREHQ

Then, for lunch I discovered (or rather Tomais made me discover) the best value for money PF place in town. PF stands for Prato Feito, i.e. the place where you've get 4 things on the menu to choose from, I got Frango Molhado (chicken in a sauce), rice, salad, feijao and ... spaghetti pasta. All these plus two juices (the kite squeezes all the juices from you), all these for nine reais, that's the deal I like :).


Then a short siesta, when I woke up I looked through the window and while seeing all these kites in the air, the well known song started ringing in my head – should I stay or should I go? Of course, I went, first just for a reconnaissance, while on the way to the spot, the water looked innocently flat, but as I came closer, unfortunately the sea turned out to be as rough as before. So, I set out to find someone I know and after few minutes I met Holger, and after few more minutes I plucked up the courage to go and pick up my matos. I must have been picking it up quite a long time as the wind got weaker by the time I was set up and ... optimist would say that it was better than yesterday, a realist would say far from expectations, a pessimist would say (or rather ask a question) am I already winning the competition for the most bruised person on the spot? So, to cut a long story short, after five minutes of waving the kite up and down to power it (while avoiding stalling it), I managed to ride offshore, then on the way on shore, it got crowded the kite fall in the water got reversed and I got dragged to the beach, proud that I held on to the board. While close to the shore a breaking wave took me by surprise, the board slipped and hit my back thigh (so another bruise). Still motivated for tomorrow, the low tide is at 8 in the morning, so for the time being the plan is to be on the spot at seven. Anyone willing to bet money that I'll make it?


Things other than kiting - this morning I joined the Movember movement, i.e. I've got nice mustache And most importantly Ievunia sent more pictures from her Brazilian adventure, seeing her smiley face makes me smile too :). Today falls exactly a month till we will be together again!

Just have a look, my two favourite places in Brazil (of course apart from the region where I am now), Igazu and Pantanal.