Kite
Surfing
(not as good as
jumping from a plane, better than windsurfing)
A good friend from work is a mad kite surfer (A what? Hold on and i'll tell you). One weekend he invited Sacha (my sister), Sal & I out to give it a go with Salena, who makes kites and wanted to try a few prototype training kites on us. I was a bit hesitant, but i'll give anything a go once (and again if I like it!). What did I think? ...
Absolutely fantastic! I didn't think I'd enjoy it so much. I was thinking we'd hang around for a couple of hours. Ended up staying the whole day (nearly eight hours!).
First, you learn to handle the kite, from land, holding it in your hands while an instructor holds a leash [remember these training kites, while small, are still 8 metres wide and if a gust takes hold and you don't know what you are doing, it can piss off a couple hundred metres away. Not good considering they cost over a grand].
Next, you grab on to the instructor while he takes you out in the water. While hanging on to his harness, you get dragged across [and out of] the water. This gives you a feeling of what it's like, what you're trying to achieve and helps build your confidence.
Then you get strapped into a harness that connects you to the kite and practice the same maneuvers on ground. There's a handle on the back so the instructor can hang on to you and, in theory, your combined weight should stop you from flying away, getting badly dumped or body-dragged across great lengths of the beach ... even then, we had some good stacks.
Lastly you go in the water. That is the highlight. So much fun. Some kiters never actually make it on the board because body dragging in/on the water is so much fun. Unfortunately, this process is such that you are basically a big lure for the sharks and you can't do this exercise in many places (we didn't go too far out and no one mentioned it to the girls so it went down well).
My arms, back and neck are a little stiff. As it's a dangerous and small sport, everyone that does it are really friendly and watchful of others (accidents = more restrictions put on them). I really wish I could do that again. Sadly, you either spend a few grand (just normal kites cost 2g+) or pay $$$ for lessons. No kiter will lend you their gear because it's expensive and dangerous (but mainly because of the former reason). We were lucky because the girl was there was prototyping some of her training kites (she runs a business that makes them - Monkey Kites). As far as I know, it was a one-time offer, but I'll certainly be up for it again should the opportunity arise.
If you ever get the chance, give it a go.
Middle Pic (left to right): John, Sach, Sal & I; Salena is on the left in the bottom right pic.
You can email me at tjcrouch@hotmail.com