Time and again I have seen there is 1 variable which matters more than any other when it comes to how good a kitesurfer you become and how quickly you progress.
It’s not how much you know…
It’s not how many videos you watch or books you read…
It’s not how much time you spend studying…
It’s something totally different and totally under your control…and you are controlling it every day whether you pay attention to it or not.
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I’ve been kitesurfing and teaching kitesurfing now for 15 years and have a confession…
I’m not actually that good a kitesurfer.
As I’ve been teaching all the time, I’ve always been working when there was wind and after 9 hours at the beach teaching the last thing you feel like doing is going kiting, so I have never really progressed to the level I wanted…a source of constant shame for me!
So a couple of things have changed this year and I have a bit more time so I have decided at the age of 38 to spend a year really seeing just how good a kiter I can become, with the eventual goal being to hit up some of the biggest, baddest waves on the planet.
So where am I now?
As I make this video this haven’t been on the water for 8 months and am probably in the worst shape of my life.
I’ll be making a few videos detailing the backstory to this for those of you interested in the juicy details, but in a nut shell over the last few years I’ve faced quite a few health and lifestyle challenges, that have led to this current predicament.
As a kiter I’m ok, I can do basic freestyle stuff and can hold my own in small waves but for someone who has lived in Tarifa for 12 years…I’m AWFUL.
Now those who have been following me for a while will note I actually tried this before…but got interrupted by bad health…again more on this in the backstory.
So the plan is to create a diary journaling all the different things I do both on and off the water over the next year and to be your kitesurf case study.
The idea being to give you a toolbox of things that work which you can use to master this awesome sport.
Fully broken this day after an amazing session yesterday…couldn’t even lift my arm to record the video!
Day 3 – 20th April 2018
Day 4 – 21st April 2018
Day 5 – 22nd April 2018
Day 6 – 23rd April 2018
Day 7 – 24th April 2018
Day 8 – 25th April 2018
Today no wind, so sprint training. Felt AWESOME after the ice bath!
Day 9 – 26th April 2018
Recovery day, no wind. Though did sneak in a cheeky game of paddle at the end of the day!
Day 10 – 27th April 2018
Really feeling it today. Sleep was awful and body not recovering well. Had a “Cold bath” at Playa Chica which is about as cold as my ice baths at this time of year and then spent a lazy afternoon basking in the sun on the beach in an attempt to let my body recover.
Day 11 – 28th April 2018
Another awful night’s sleep, which when you consider this is crucial for recovery learning and so many other things, including feeling great, has to be something I fix. As a result there’s no way I can exercise today so another rest day it is…despite being a great Poniente day!
Day 12 – 29th April 2018
Back to the drawing board!
Day 13 – 30th April 2018
Spent the day planning and preparing myself for the new approach. Feeling a bit sorry for myself as I took a walk in the afternoon and saw all the kites up…being a bank holiday there’s literally hundreds of people on the water! Tried to share the stoke by continuing my GF’s lessons so at least I could be involved…and she managed to get up and riding for the first time! Which made up for it all and made me more motivated to crack this and get back at it!
Taking a look at one the video’s sent in as part of our “Knock weeks off your time learning to kitesurf” course, this time looking at a common error of the waterstart.
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