Gökova, Didim and some bruised ribs

I’m still in Turkey, enjoying the good steady wind every day. Only too bad I can’t ride at the moment…

Last Thursday we went to Didim, the flat water lagoon spot I visited last year already… and it still is one of the best lagoon spots in Europe. The Forecast was strong, as we arrived we found about 25-30knots steady winds with only little gusts. So we pumped everything we had in between 5m and 9m kites. I first tested the new 5m Vector kite from Cabrinha, actually the SE edition for schools. I haven’t been using such a small kite in a while and was surprised how fast it was turning. After the first turn I could not resist to loop it.. and booom it really pulled me of the water.. I like…

We took a lot of turns on all different kites, we had some beginners wt us that were enjoying the shallowness of the spot, as every time u crash u can get back on the board in an instant. Very easy to learn ur first backrolls or unhooked trick.. well maybe the wind was a bit strong for unhooked (-;

So during my 3^rd session in decided to take the 5m out again for an extended ride and some more loops… as the tide went lower the water was maybe about 30cm deep by that time. On one of the loops I went high and looped it just before reaching the zenith, the kite went for a big loop and stopped on the way back up… lot of things going thru ur mind in this moment… specially how high I am and how shallow the water is down below. So the kite pulled me straight forward instead of supporting my landing and BANG... it hit the water hard, Sedat told me later that I actually bounced of the water twice before I stock. Back on the board I figured that my rib was actually hurting a bit so I decided better goin back to the beach… and I figured the my rib was either cracked or broken… but I think it was not enough pain to be broken.
Now a few days later it’s getting better from day to day and I’m hopefully back on the water tomorrow… wt a seat harness and raceboard, heading out to discover the Gökova bay…
I also had a chance to test the new Switchblades, the 10 and 12m kites are lighter on the bar this year but yet powerfull kites. I would say the 12m is still like most others 14m kites, so a 75kg rider u doesn’t really need anything bigger than 12mSB. It’s fast, very stable and perfect for wakestyle.
Looking forward to get my hands on the new Nomads as well.

The bay here was very busy during the weekend, on and off the water, haven’t seen so many kite on this beach before. The kiteacademytr.com is doing a great job here wt the Cabrinha kites, as last year I haven’t seen much Cabrinhas and this season they are already all over the place. The guests are mostly Turkish kiters from bigger cities around here, but I’ve already seen the first Germans here as well... so u better be quick or they will be all over the place haha.
We had some good nights out wt all the guys, the party is usually in the small KA Bar where all the kitesurfers meet up for drinks on weekends. Since I life wt Mert and Yalgiz we have some after parties at our home… nice pool outside and it is now also filled wt water again.
We had some break in this weekend while we were all asleep… but the did not take anything as none of the guys had any money in their wallets. We found the bags and cloth outside the house on the veranda in the morning, all wallets searched.. but they left all the credit cards, laptops, phones… guess they were only looking for money, but since I’m on the top floor they did not come up to my room… lucky me. First we thought that someone might have been sleepwalking or was looking for cigarettes as nothing was missing... but we figured out the following day that five houses around were robbed.

I really like all the delicious food here like Köfte, Kebap, Iskender and soo much bred and I get used to drink the Ayran, the Turkish salty milk kinda thing that they drink wt all the meat dishes.

so long…

Stephan