Kite surfing, day 3
With the seasons changing and air currents shifting the probability of getting kitable wind was decreasing with each day and so my last day of training turned out to be two half-lessons. We have been sitting in a cafe by the sea sipping drinks and chatting all the while looking out hopefully for signs of wind getting strong enough. NB: sitting in a shade is a great way of acquiring a suntan without knowing it. Should have known better by now but the sea breeze is a cunningly soothing distraction from the midday heat.
The objective of the last lesson from the kiting intro was to try and fit the board into the dynamic equilibrium of the human-kite system. Here I must note that having a great proprioception would be a boon for a novice kiter, or for that matter any kind of sport activity, especially if there is any equipment involved. As it is I am clumsy and that’s a fact. So you probably could guess already how did it go.
Around 2 p.m. wind finally got up for the task. All the setting, arranging and getting started went smoothly. We were training in shallower water than previously. I went through what the instructor mentioned before: I was to hold the kite at a stable station, then to sit down into water and put my feet through the board’s straps then basically lie on my back staring up at the kite and get myself prepared to dive the kite and follow where it goes standing up on the board after I guide it out of the dive.
As I was going through the motions, I have lost the sense of the surrounding space: lying on my back in a fetal pose, the only thing I knew was the kite high above, nicely stable, ready for action but I had no idea where was the wind coming from, where was the coastline, where should I direct the kite; I have unconsciously changed my position relatively to the wind’s direction as well. Sure enough as soon as I tried to dive the kite and carefully stand up on the board I sank. Somehow I managed not to crash the kite which was a miracle in itself. Next I was standing almost waist deep in water, fighting with the kite for control, my board floating somewhere beside me and I was struck by the second problem — how am I supposed to control this big flying thing in the sky with one hand without looking at it constantly, while holding the board with the other with waves crashing around me, trying to drag the board away from me? Of course, this was more of a rhetorical question and the mere need to divide my attention between two objects basically brought me back to square one: I have no idea how to do it all again.
It is by now a well established fact that we could not really multitask without compromising on the quality of our actions or thought processes. Two tasks executed consequentially will be performed better, faster and therefore more efficiently, while trying to do two things simultaneously will lead to more mistakes and time expenditure. Even though it may subjectively feel more productive to attempt to multi-task, quality and time-wise it is definitely not.
Now what it meant for me that I could fly a kite reasonably well and surely I can put on the board and attempt to stand on it. However doing those together proved almost impossible as I was finding out through the rest of that day’s lesson. I was committing all sort of silly and not so silly mistakes and kept crashing the kite, being dragged by it for some distance (hey, at least I was finally successful in that, unlike the previous day), walking through water to retrieve my board, drinking some more of l’eau de mer and being dispirited altogether. Eventually I was saved by the wind dying down and with this day’s experience I went home.
The second half of the last lesson was held a few days further. I had some time to try to figure out how to amend my performance and looked through my notes from the previous lessons as well as a few videos online. It was not very helpful and what seemed to be the underlying theme — try more, then you will succeed.
Weather was rather nice and we got wind earlier this time, around noon. I went in somewhat hopeful and the second day of fitting two objects into my attention span, as it were, was still hard and confusing but more productive and not as damaging to self esteem. I managed to fly the kite with only periodical glances up and actually had at least one full successful movement sequence with around 5 meters gliding on water. I have to admit that I expected more but that’s what I got in the end.
As a closing event of my kite trial I contrived to get myself dragged by the kite (definite success on that exercise) over the top of the board with a bit of speed and kind of a blunt scratch of a hip on a board’s strap. I got myself and the instructor scared mostly by the acceleration, however when I got out of the shorts later I found a big tense hematoma on the front of my thigh that will go on and scare or amaze people for weeks (it being Thailand, everyone assumed I had a motorcycle accident).
On the whole what I have learned through these lessons, apart from an intro into a new skill set and a potential hobby, is that 1)there are interesting and exciting things out there (even in scorching heat and humidity ~90%) to explore, excel at and enjoy, 2)perseverance and repetition are probably the most important components of any venture.
