Session 6 - Kite Power, Soma Bay

Wind - Maxed at 41 knots
Kite - all day on my gorgeous baby 7m
Water - fooking cold first thing! Ha choppy and shallow for the morning, headed out this afternoon to get away from all the newbies.
Time on water - 4.5 hours I reckon all in!

This is my second visit to the Kite Power dudes at Soma and a much more pleasurable experience for me to be honest! For once no major dramas, I just kited! Back and fourth, turning and loving being fully powered up and being able to edge like a mother and generally just play about. Upwind like mad to then go downwind and play about on my board and have some fun get used to the kite and the board and avoiding other people and just happy out on the water!!

I have started to bring dry clothes with me to the beach t chance into as the stronger winds have bought a chilly taint to the air so when you are wet it feels cold!! Yes I think I must be getting used to being here! It will be a shock to the system for me to be honest going home, rain and cold! Although oh yes it rained here today!! I have a picture of a rainbow which I never expected to see in this country!

I am sure that I will write more about today but right now I am late for dinner and just happy to be able to enjoy that 7m. I so never expected to be praying for 30knots of wind!! LOL

Session 5 - Tobia Island, Soma Bay (ish) and then down winder to get home!

Wind - max 30 knots
Kite - started on 10m then moved onto 7m with wind increase
Water - choppy / wave to 1m
Time on water - about 3.5 hours

Wow, the best session yet in a way for me or should I say the most challenging!

Tobia is a really small island in the Red Sea, about the same size as a football pitch and with nothing on it apart for me and the guys that I am kiting with! We arrived to the club at 9am (at menaville) and we took a zodiac with all our kit to the island across the choppy water, sun shining and the wind blowing. Phillippe convinced the wind was dropping convinced me that I would be under powered on my 7m so I "manned up" and took out my 10m! Ha ha well hooray for the depower on these kites, I spent about an hour on the 10m and then realised that I really had no control any more and although my arse is not small, it still wasn't posing a good enough brake for me to stop! SO I swapped for the 7m, every time I use this kite I fall further in love with it!! HA HA yes I am fully aware that it is just a kite! I spent 2 hours going back and forth surfing waves and chop and then heading back downwind to do it all over again! It was heaven!!!

Now I won't pretend that this session didnt have it's issues, with balls for me comes mistakes and I must have lost my board about 15 times in the 2 hours, so not only did I have a great session I am now fully accomplished at body dragging for miles at a time to get my board back! I am officially 50% salt water now!

So after 2 hours of hammering myself into the ground I decided to come in and get a glass of water!! (well bottle to be honest!) It is then that Philippe explains that they have decided to do a "downwinder" all the way back to the hotel, which I can hazard a guess at being about a mile and a half...... "do you want to join us Becky".......ermmmm hell yes!! So off they go with me in tow pootling too slowly at the back. This has been the hardest thing I have had to do yet to be honest, it goes against everything I have been "conditioned to do" ie GET UPWIND!!! So for me going downwind proved harder than i ever though especially in high wind and choppy / wavey seas!! Ofcourse, I lost my board a further few times and swallowed yet more sea water, growled at myself alot and got cross that what should in theory should be a relatively easy task was proving hard. My legs were tired but I refused point blank to let that win. I eventually made it through the choppiest part of the journey to find that within the bay there was MUCH less wind so i came to a stop!! All the others were on 9 - 11m kites and there is me on a 7m! Oh but no I am not done! Colyn taught me better than that!! Depower fully off and this is when months of low wind kiting came to my rescue! Figure of 8 after figure of 8 and I arrive at the beach with a smile on my face; only to be greeted open armed by Phillippe who honestly admitted that he didn't think I was going to make it! Oh how he has alot to learn about my stubborn Brunner attitude!

Anyway that was the end of the kiting day for me, my legs and back; in fact all of me just aches. Fighting with 30knots of wind for 3 hours was enough for me today, especially when the forecast for tomorrow looks awesome. We are headed back to Intercontintental tomorrow as the other guys have not being there yet and to be honest I really enjoyed it there, so session 6 looks awesome too!!

Mastered turning now too ha!

Session 4 - Little spot near Hurghada (will find out name!)

Wind - ermmmm about 25knots I reckon in the morning dropping to about 20
Kite - 7m to start and then later in the affo pumped up the 10m.
Board - I don't need to tell you! Ha ha
Time on water - about 5 hours I think maybe just a little more judging my te colour of my face!!

Well, Tuesday held no bloody wind at all and the day was spent sat in the shade at the Menaville because there is not much to do! It was hot hot hot, reaching about 44c in the height of the day which when there is not a drop of wind is painful. I can safely say the shade saw alot of us all but we prayed and prayed that the forecast was amazing for the next day and wow didn't the prayers work!!

I woke up at about 7am and looked out the window, there it is!!! The trees dancing about and the wind was blowing a treat, good morning to you too!! I showered, got dressed and legged it (well as quick as i leg it anywhere at the moment with a cut toe!) down for breakfast and then off we went!! We arrived at the spot at about half 9 i think and the wind was howling!

The spot itself is quite new and small. Very basic and a little awkward to get your kite lifted because the spot is round the corner of the bay so it is slightly sheltered and gets a curved on land wind mixed with the standard northerly that you expect so had to be a little careful launching.

I didn't know what to expect, if I am honest, from my 7m. I know I hated my 9m Yarga as it always felt twitchy and really horrible to fly in high winds but after a few sessions on the 10m I had faith in the 7m I had to!! SO off i went, wow what an awesome kite!! Turns really fast and really responds to the trim / depower which is a great feeling, makes you feel really safe. I started the session with a large chunk of depower on and then as the confidence began to grow the depower came off a little and wow did i notice the difference, I was uber upwind within like 3 or 4 trips and i was well out of the way of everyone else in my own little zone which was perfect!!

Now ofcourse a session for me is not complete without some form of injury..... ha, so I am trundling along happy in my world and Elise, a French lady I am kiting with, slams her kite over mine and I get yanked off my board onto a pile of rocks.... ha ha ha ha ha my knees now look like I have been playing in the playground with the boys! No short skirts for me for a while!!

SO achievements for today.... erm mastered using the trim finally on a kite, well on the c4, wow they are so much more than the yargas ever were and I am really happy I have crossed to basically a complete C kite with 4 line. The re-launch also works amzingly in higher wind! I have just about mastered my turning and I am really enjoying the water now, I don't feel as scared as I used to be and after a year of swearing to be the only person who loves low wind flying, I am now going the other way, 25ish knots today on that seven was absolutely awesome and I am even more happy about the other places I have booked on my trip now!!

Still cannot speak fluent French but working on it!

Session 3 - Kite Power, El Gouna

Wind - max about 16knots
Kite - Ozone C4 10m
Board - Xenon Rayo tried and tested now by 2 French guys who love it too!
Time on water - about 3 hours

I was really pleasantly surprised by the set up at El Gouna, from what I had read about it on the net and in magazine's it really didn't sound like something that I would enjoy; and to be honest in the height of the season I can imagine it would be a painful place to be. Seems as always the French and English people are the only ones with any manners on the water as the others have a blatant disregard for any form of rights of way. Ah well, it added to the challenge and made sure that I learned how to control where I was going and what I was doing with my kite so, as always, happy days!!

I am a little upset that the "easy re-launch" of the C4 is a little bit falsely marketed, it is very easy to re-launch but NOT in less than 15 knots in the case of the 10m!! I guess it is my fault for loving flying in light wind.

As sessions go there was not a huge amount to write home about although I had a great time. I worked on my turns and my position on the board, making sure that I looked where I was going and turned my shoulders and hips round to face that direction, concentrating on placing more weight on my back foot and also managing to go downwind more to get speed when required. I have moved my hands more into the centre of the bar (something I was not taught to do originally but has really helped) and just moving the kite as and when to get upwind more. It was a simple session and yet I came in after three hours of lagoon into deep water kiting with a fair bit of chop the further you got out, shattered and happy.

I am trying to focus my attentions on as a specific task to make sure that I progress so, wind permitting, I hope to have mastered fluid turns by the end of this week so I can continuously travel and then move on to switching to toe side and back by the time I leave Safaga.

I am kiting with a french lady called Elise and Phillipe is the man who runs the kite trips, he is a great coach and seems to know the area really well and all the different clubs that we can go to! More on him as part of the accomadation later on!!

A few more pics for you to look at!

Enjoy xx

Almost finished the first batch of suncream so looks like I will have to invest in some local eygptian stuff, which to be honest is probably better anyway! I stocked up on betadine and fucidin which is awesome, fucidin is like the magic healing cream and the cut on my foot is slowly healing up nicely regardless of the fact that I spend the whole day packing it full with sand and salt water!

Session 2, Menaville Hotel, Safaga (well just outside)

Wind - ummm about 12 to 18 knots.
Kite 10m Ozone C4
Board - lush and loving the pads and bindings on chop.
Time on water about 3 hours.

Ok so will be honest, I am not the best kiter in the world, and I have never flown in deep water in an offshore so today was a little daunting to me! Especially allowing for the fact that I had about 10m to get up on my board and upwind asap or i would plant myself into a pile of rocks! Or I had to boddy drag out about 20m with my board and get up and going there. Opted for the later for the first few runs, silly becky should have stuck with what she is best at, next tme came along and decided to try and walk out as far as I could and cut my bloody toe open on some rock / coral (who knows)! Ah well more scars for the record. So yet again myself and a very large roll of duct tape bonded aong with a large bottle of iodine! HA HA me and eygpt huh!

Anyway, I really enjoyed this session just going right across the lagoon and a good speed with my screaming at myself......"kite low and edge like a motherfucker" (thanks Matt). My stomach muscles are killing from the pull of the harness, seems todays wind really loved my 10m or vice versa and I had a great time today. I furthered my experience more than anything, learning to slow down if needed and gain speed to get over the bigger chop and to always fall backwards (seems to hurt less) as I dont loose my bloody board! YAY! Cannot loose that board!

The resort itself is not for me, too many overweight sunbathers almost turning to a timer like chickens on a rotisserie!! However, the club there are really friendly and helpful and have a great stock of kit if you are short of a bigger kite etc. Much more so than yesterday. I hope we get to go back as I really enjoyed the session.

The food is also good, massive chicken baguette with chips and a basic salad for about 4 euros and they serve the local beer which I have grown to love since coming here too often!!

Tomorrow holds El Gouna for me, so an early start to get the best of the wind. Yay. Time for some yoga, in my room not being pretentious just yet! HA HA.

Session 1 - Intercontinental Hotel, Soma Bay (Surf Motion)

Wind 11-16 knots
Kite Ozone C4 10m and a borrowed One I dont know - 12m
5 hours on water, total.

Achievements:
Cracked head on sand bar after not looking where I was going.
German dude wiped me out with his crashing kite
Lost board and had to body drag to get it
Re-launched too many times to count
Finally mastered the first few fluid turns.
Upwind and loving the new board and the pads / straps are sweet as!!
Laughed alot as pink sun block makes me look really burnt. ( I am not)

Awesome day, hope to write more but absolutely done in! Aching like a mother f*&ker.....

Food and bed.

X

The first flight - what ash.....

So when you are planning a long trip away it doesn't dawn on you how long 10 weeks away from home actually is. You get so wrapped up in organising flights and accommodation, lessons, making sure you have the right kit and clothing that the actual time away doesnt come in to it!

Now dont get me wrong, I am not adversed to being away from home, or for that matter travelling alone as this is not the first time I have been away alone. After 7 yers at boarding school and 4 years years at university I should be used to leaving my home for a term at a time, I guess this is a little different as I cannot just get in a car and come home, but this feels a little different. I have not done anything like this so maybe that is why. I will be kiting in 3 different countries, with 6 different bases and touching at least 10 airports in just under 10 weeks. My god I better come back a good kiter!

SO whilst I am sat onboard the EZY8857 flight to Hurghada with my ipod on, watching 3 french kids play fighting; I wonder what lays ahead for me over the next 2 weeks (one step at a time). I have never been to Hurghada or Safaga and I am hoping that I will land in the daylight, as the pevious times I have been to the red sea I always seem to arrive in the dark!! I am not sure it has really sunk in yet that tomorrow I will wake up in a warm & sunny country and spend the whole day on the beach with my new kit!!

PS Couldnt see any ash during take off or the flight. I am now further convinced that Iceland is plotting to slowly take over the world. First by the manipulation of the world's finances and next by bringing the flights to a stand still for a large part of europe. What next!

28kgs

It is 9.49am, Friday 23rd April, or St. George's day in the UK.

I am currently sat in Shake-a-hula in Gatwick airport drinking what I can only describe as an awesome strawberry and banana smoothie!

My alarm went off this morning at a disturbing 4.45am and after just about 4 hours sleep i crawled out of my bed for the last time in about 70 days. Wow I love my bed! I packed up the remainder of my stuff that I need for my trip and had my final cup of good English tea! Mum arrived still panicking about the body bag that "won't" fit in the car; it did :O); said good bye to my sleepy looking house-mate and we head off at a very early 6am.

After being abandoned at 8am this morning by my mum (only joking she had to get back for work), I have managed to get my kite bag checked successfully and I was amazed that is only came in at 28kg!!! How did I manage that!! I went to Wadi Lahami last September and my luggage for 2 weeks came in at 37kg!!! HOW!!! I have more kites and kite kit with me this time and I know I haven't taken a beach towel; but seriously a beach towel surely cannot weigh 10kg!

It always makes me laugh how people look at you when you are carrying a kite bag, this look on people's faces questioning the content and you know they are dying to ask but too scared to do so!

So I have bought my lunch for the plane, stocked up on even more suncream and now I wait. Sat with a mix of emotions; nervousness, anxiousness, excitement the works about the next few weeks. As Long as I have my luggage I am all good!

It is surreal to think that this evening I will be drinking a diet coke in Safaga and unpacking my kites ready for the morning jaunt out to sunny beaches and warm wind! God I hope that 10m is going to be big enough......

On a leaving note till the other side:

Since when did Harrods start stocking bright pink velour tracksuits...... I am not sure there has ever been a call for them unless you are Jenny from the block!!

Next stop Hurghada airport and then on to Safaga where I will be kite safari'ing for 2 weeks. Pics to come promise Tristan!!

So the journey begins

After an interesting week of watching the BBC website to see what will be happening with the Icelandic volcano, it looks like I may finally be able to leave the country to start what is now a 9.5 week trip to 3 different countries and visiting 9 different airports!!! Now don't get me wrong, the delay in my travels has to be honest, being a very pleasurable delay. I have been lucky enough to have great weather for the UK in April, with glorious sunshine and clear bright blue skies. I have spent the week running, doing copious amounts of yoga and riding around the Wiltshire countryside with my faithful friend Denzel. I have definitely had the best deal, when I have friends who have cancelled their holidays completely and other friends who are stuck abroad and cannot get home any time soon.

SO now the flights are moving and according to the Gatwick airport site my flight is due to leave as planned tomorrow :O). My unpacked bag still remains where I left it last week and I will be collected tomorrow morning for the jaunt up the M4! I will miss my days bonding with the Wiltshire countryside, I dont think I have ever seen so many hares and buzzards in all my life as I have over the last month!

So hopefully, the journey begins.

PS - Jaffa cakes seem to make people smile

Time to think.

The sunshine is still with the UK at the moment and it makes for some amazing days. Riding around in the Wiltshire countryside is an amazing way to kill time when you have plenty of it to kill. Denzel has become a close companion of mine over the last few weeks, like I am sure my gorgeous new kites and board will be on my travels. I am, what can only be described as a very lucky girl.

The volcano in Iceland is still disrupting the flight in and out of the UK, along with many other countries in Europe. I am devastated to be here when I should be in Safaga but hey, my life could be an awful lot worse. I got chatting to a friend of mine today, first time in a while. I have known him for about 15 years now and every time we speak his life amazes me, I am almost in ore of what he has achieved with his life. I asked him what he had been up to recently and this is the response:

- I was involved with teaching the Nepal Army Bomb Disposal last year whilst I conducted demolitions of 34,907 items of unexploded ordinance and I am currently in Nairobi.

What can you say to that! How can you moan about a weeks delay to a flight to sit on a beach when there are people out there doing work like that!

Certainly makes maximising the London mobile comms network look small in importance! Time to think is an amazing thing!

Found comfort in Jaffa Cakes

When the news started to spread across the networks yesterday that a volcano had started to erupt in Iceland, and was pushing a vast quantity of dust into the atmosphere that was halting all flights; most people were stunned in to shock. Seriously? Planes cannot fly through dust? As it turns out the dust can strip the paint of the planes and turn the windows opaque which is pretty impressive! I don't fancy being in a plane that is basically getting sandblasted!

So the day passes, spent mainly in the local kite shop hanging out with a guy that is also due to fly on the same day, debating whether or not this "cloud" will pass over night. (I now also want a longboard!!) The continued checking of the flights showed that all flights were cancelled till 7am today. Ummm, with my flight being at 11am, I wasn't holding out much hope. I checked again before bed and then set my alarm for 4.45am to make sure that I didn't get to Gatwick to find out I wasn't going anywhere!! Sure as hell, Flight 8857 to Hurghada was cancelled, GUTTED. So I switch off my 5.30am alarm and bury myself back into the duvet covers!

Poor Julius, must regret the day he ever answered the phone to me now!! So as expected he gets a call from me informing him that I was in fact sat at my dining room table in cold Swindon, not at the airport awaiting departure to Hurghada! Flight moved forward by a week and accommodation cancelled. It is really hard to work out what to do with yourself when you had planned on being on an awesome kite safari in Safaga! Swindon doesn't quite hold the same appeal!

So I have hired a car to occupy my simple mind over the weekend and hopefully maybe I may even be blessed with some wind so I can head to the coast! Of course I highly doubt it but hey, I may just head to the beach because I can and the sun is shining! In the meantime I have found comfort in a very large mug of tea and a packet of jaffa cakes!

To quote a friend "First the banks and now the planes, bloody vikings".

Handy hints...so far

1 - Buy a set of baggage scales, after my first trip when i discovered my luggage weighed in at 37kg!!! I could lift this as well and I am not a large gal!

2 - Invest in a Lebara sim card. You can use this whenever you go away to stop panicking parents and friends from worrying that you will break yourself and not tell them. This company some how manages to use other peoples networks and keeps the call costs home well cheap. Also absolutely amazing for calling your mates who work abroad as the discount rate works there too!

3 - Do Not take up kitesurfing if you have a mini convertible and you want to keep it sand and salt water free. The boot is about the same size as a prada shoe box and no use for any form of kitesurf attire. Sell it now, buy something practical. Trust me!

4 - Don't forget to take English tea bags. Lipton is the order of the day in any country in Europe and Africa and it is horrible.

5 - Try to avoid flying with Iberia if you have your own kites and you want to take them. Their excess baggage charges are expensive.

6 - Buy a camping towel, they fold up really small and yet they do the job fine and dry really quickly, they weigh next to nothing as well so less to lug about in the body bag!!

5 - You like Marmite - take some as you will never find it.

6 - Use Columbus direct for any travel insurance that involves adventure sports and the required equipment, they are well priced and really helpful. I insured myself and luggage and my kites / board for the 74 days for less than £100.

Excess baggage....

......and no not the emotional sort!!

Since I decided that one destination wasn't enough I have discovered what a nightmare it is to fly between countries, especially with what to the untrained eye, can only look like a branded body bag!

I never realised that it would be so hard to get from Cairo to the Canaries!! Cairo via Madrid. Cairo via Bristol. Cairo via Munich.....to then land in Fuerteventura! I would however take this option, the later I mean as Air Berlin are only £25 prebooked, for sports luggage whereas as I discovered, Iberia are a wonderfully expensive £150 payable at the airport for one way!

The trip would have been almost £600 cheaper if you went went without sports luggage!!

Dream starts now....

For many people redundancy can be the end of their world as they know it, they struggle to exist without the routine of a job and worry that they will never find another job. Redundancy to some is also viewed as a massive blow to their confidence, convincing themselves that they are are not good at what they do, because if they were why would you get rid of them. Well, as always my view on this is a little different.

On March 9th I lost my job. I kind of had expected it. I wont bore you with the details but lets just say I walked away with enough money to pay my mortgage and out goings for a year and still be able to complete the trip I have been dreaming of since I started kitesurfing.

Now don't get me wrong, I am no kitesurfing goddess. I started last year and I am basically upwind and on my board, still to yet master fluid turns and I am a long way off where I would like to be!! I am not sure why I have gained such an affinity for the sport but I have. I get various magazines on subscription and have spent many acold winter day curled up on my sofa reading these, dreaming that one day I will nail that trick and kite in the exotic places that they are describing. Well, I now have my chance and although I am not disappearing for a year or 4, I am packing up my kites and and kit and going off to warmer climbs to kite all day (wind permitting), meet new friends and generally to experience some new places and new cultures.

I have not done this alone it has be said, I have a good friend who has just returned from his travels and he has been priceless with his experience and handy hints..... I could not have sorted the amount of stuff that I have without him including my sexy new c4s and absolutely gorgeous new board!!! Then there is the destinations..... I had been planning to book a 2 week stint in Mauritius through Waveriders in September, obviously that wasn't now an option but I called them anyway! I still remember the conversation now.......

- Julius, it's Becks. I need your help, lost my job and I want to get away kite surfing for a while......
- Oh groovy I have the perfect holiday for you, 2 weeks kite clinic la la la la la la
- Oh no Julius I mean for like 2 months not 2 weeks...
- OH!!!

I could picture his face!! Since then poor Julius has been hounded on an almost daily basis. He even took holiday around Easter time just to get away from me!! On a serious note, Julius has been a star. He helped me with the decisions of where to head and for how long, where not to go as well and more importantly I am now a guru on flights around Europe and Africa and how to get your ridiculously massive kite bag onto airlines!!

So over the last month the trip has been planned and I will be heading off for 73 days (i think) in total.

16th April to the 8th May I will be based in Safaga and travelling the coast to experience some awesome new spots on the red sea and also hopefully having a minimal amount of days with no wind!! This part is really exciting to me as I love kiting in Egypt and to be able to hit different beaches will be awesome. Most people are here for about a week at a time, so I think I will be working there by the end of the 3 weeks!!

9th May to 16th May I will be living it up at Zafarana. I hope to catch a couple of mates out here too. It looks amazing, the perfect place for me to start breaking myself on tricks and not having to worry about landing on old coral. I think this is the little bit of luxury in the trip.

16th May to the 23rd May I will be based in Fuerteventura. I have a self catered apartment, hoping to loose the weight from Egypt!! I plan to have a lesson or 2 here as I think by then i will need to push myself further. I then head to Lanzarote for 2 weeks (23rd May to the 6th June) based in another self catered apartment and here is where my best mate will come and join me for a week! Restock my sun cream and shower gel levels, oh and bless she is bringing me a new book too.

6th June to the 16th June I will be big wave riding (well learning to mainly!!) in Essaouira. I am really excited about going here as I think this will be the most demanding time for my kite ability and also where my gorgeous little 7m C4 should come into it's element!

16th June to the 26th June brings me Dakhla, lagoon riding and waves if I want them, I read a really boring article on this resort recently so I aim to do a much better report LOL.

So yes, there it is. My dream trip. God knows what I will do when I come home I will worry about then. That is if Julius doesnt get a call.....

- Can we change my flights I am staying in Morocco!!