over and out.. i'm off again

The last 3 weeks I spent in a Bus, a Mercedes Sprinter together wt Kathrin. She drove it all the way from Hamburg down to Bordeaux in France, where I met here at the airport.

We went to the “Dune du Pyla”, the biggest dune of Europe. This is an amazing spot for Paragliding. We met Alex down there, and climbed the dune. As soon as a light breeze kicks in all the paragliders come out to play. It’s the perfect spot for beginners to learn the ground handling and if the wind gets a bit stronger it’s amazing for soring. 

Alex and Kathrin had both brand new gliders and they could test em here. The conditions were so good that I got a chance too. It was amazing, 2minute explanation and off u go… I was already flying on my second try... think the kitesurfing helps a bit here. Worst case u end up at the bottom of the dune in the sea… and it’s a pretty steep and deeps sandy way back up, the dune is about 110m high.

Since the main holiday season here was over, all the parkings on the beach were for free and even wt our big bus we could park right on the beach. All public parking’s here have showers and toilets on the beach. It’s cold water shower, but better than nothing… this is btw where all those Cabrinha solar shower would come in very handy…

Couple of days later we left for La Baule, the KTE tourstop and European championships for course racing. I met again many familiar faces from the KTA and from my last visit to the KTE. These events are very different to our events in Asia. The KTE takes on existing events and putts kitesurfing on as a side event, while in Asia we create events just for kiteboarding.

So it’s no wonders that here the scene on the beach was pretty boring, commentary only in French, so no rider would understand a word of what’s goin on out there.  All the races were held far off the beach with almost 0 interest from the beach goers, and for freestyle it was just not enough wind, except for the first day where they decided to do course racing instead all day.

The KTE has the surname “the camping tour” and I’ve seen why, most riders come wt the vans and campers to the spots. The food and beverage at the event is very poor – except for the free beer for the riders all day, and the partys could not really keep up.

It was good for me to come here and see that we’re actually doin a damn good job in Asia, where the rider is the center of attention and not the stalls and attractions on the beach.

After the event was finished we had to rush down to Sardinia (Cagliari) for the course race world championships. I was going there to represent the KTA and check out the setup and take notes for the organization of the worlds 2013 J

A few other riders drove down as well and some other flew, since there was almost no time to get there. It was a long drive all the way through France, which btw is crazy on high way toll, and we ended up in Livorno, wt a short photo shoot at the leaning tower of Pisa.

After a overnight ferry we arrived in Sardinia where we had another 3h drive ahead of us to get to the spot.

We took a little detour to check out some other spots along the way. There are various spot on Sardinia, some should be amazing wave spots if the mistral is blowing. Well it was not blowing the day we drove passed but still amazing countryside, maybe next time.

The weather down here was still in the thirties during the day. We parked the bus right at the event site again. All the hotels and camping places were too far away, something that should have been thought of.

The event site looked good, few tents for registration, jury, race committee, storage and so on. It was just all way to small for 200riders, it would probably fit 50riders comfortably.

The registration and measuring took place in the first two days before the event. It was good to see the worlds best racers all out in the water practicing.

I guess the biggest no go out there was, that there were some rider who never had been competing before, that should not have happened at the worlds.

So for next year there will be a quota u have to fulfill to register.

There were a few new things for most riders. One was all the coach boats on the water, there were about 10 coaches out there measuring wind during the races and giving feedback to their riders on the beach wt radios. So all the riders which had no support boat out there never knew how much wind it was on the water, the race committee never announced the wind on the beach, and similar to the KTE in La Baule all info’s were given in Italian. So the riders had to figure it all out themselves as well as the start times of the races. If u see the first finisher coming back to the beach from the other fleet, it must be about time to get out there…

They were running 2 separate courses in the bay to get the four fleets out on the water as much as possible. This was sometimes a bit confusing for the riders but it turned out well.

Also new was the race format, which was a two day qualification race, one day final race, followed by a medal race series on the last day. This whole schedule is very risky since most tour stops have at least one day without wind, so medal races will mostly not be held. The whole race format was also a test and will be adjusted wt officials and riders feedback.

The races itself were pretty much run exactly the same way we did it for the last years in Asia, a new adjusted ISAF conform flag sequence and a few more people on the boats wt ISAF shirts on were the biggest change I think. The rest is still the same, flags come up, flags go down, airhorn tweets, wind gets measured and time taken and in the end… first one around the course wins the race ;-)

In the almost 200$ entrance fee was pretty much nothing included, no hotel, no food, no drinks.. oh no I forgot the pasta parties… two spoons of pasta per person.. and u had to buy a drink!! Also the opening ceremony was somewhere lost in space. So there is lots of space for improvement for the next worlds.

Most riders left early on Sunday, since it was only the top ten riders of men and women still competing and we had to catch the ferry at 8pm all the way back up north, which was another 3-4hour drive away.

After another night on a ferry we were heading up to Switzerland.. back home for 3days.

I’m now sitting on a plane, on the way back to my other home in Asia. So thanks and goodbye to all my friends and family in Switzerland, will see u next year I guess… and hello to all my friends in Asia.

Next on my schedule Bangkok and Hong Kong to meet up wt friends, dentist and meet the guys at the Cabrinha office, to get some more awesome gear for the new season.
Then it’s time for Boracay and some tour stops of the KTA in Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and China and hopefully I will make it back to the Cook Islands… love it there.

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Roadtrip to Banaue/Batad/Sagada - part1

So finally we managed to get out of Boracay for good and started our journey to the north part of the Philippines.
Kalibo – Manila
First we had some troubles with Airphil, which messed up our flight, so we had to reschedule the day before departure, but we still managed to get to Manila in time. We prebooked 25kg each and it wasn't enough.. we had about 65kg… but with a smile and some good will we only paid 750PHP extra.
We got the great opportunity from our beloved friend Anna to store some of our gear in her house in Manila till we come back from our trip, and we definitely had to do that, as we were not keen to travel around the mountains with 65kg… So from manila airport.. with only 1h delay we took off to Anna's house, then to Sampaloc bus station.. all in all 2h taxi ride for tataaaa 500.-PHP (12$)

Banaue
So off we went from manila in the Deluxe night bus… no sleeper! Towards Banaue, this is famous for the 8th world wonder, the rice terraces. So after a more or less good night of sleep and a few meters more obove sea level we arrived early morning, our friends actually also made it all the way with a rental car. After a good breakfast we made the plan to go the Batad, that's where the real terraces are. So we discussed for a while if we could make it or not with the rental car, as all the locals told as it would be impossible… and let's just say we made the right decision at the end.. we rented a jepnee for 2000PHP. I think it was much more fun with the jeepnee as we could all sit on the roof instead of inside and some liked to stop the bus evry few meters to take a picture of another rice paddie. We could have made the road to Batad junction with our car but the last 3km up to the saddle were impossible it looked more like a muddy river bed than a road but the jepnee made it.



Batad
So from the saddle the hike begins with a steep decent down to Batad town, along the way we met an older guy named June, he looked at least 65 years old.. but he might have been older, but fit as a mountain goat. He was running down that mountain like an 18year old. So when we reach the town we were stunned by the amphitheater like rice terraces, they are manmade and up to 2000years old. After a short stretch and some food we decided to make the trip down to the waterfall. We crossed the rice paddies to the far end and found ourselves looking down a steep wall towards the waterfall.. so here we go, already tired from the downhill walk to Batad but still dumb enough to push ourselves further.. so we continued down the few hundreds.. Feeling more like thousands of steps towards the river. I think that's where my old knee injury started to come back an gave me a hard time with each step.
At the end of the descent we found the nice 30m **waterfall, and we were all alone, as all other groups with guides left already. A nice big pool of freshwater and so much mist up in the air, that it was hard to get a good picture before the lens was all wet.

So if u go down.. u gotta get back up, and I must admit it was steeeeep and very sweaty, but I pushed myself up with a cold San Miguel in my mind, waiting at the top of the stairs. I had a little chat up there with a local family, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. Then someone (no names shall be said.. right kathrin?) had the great argument to walk through the small village back up to the hotel. It's really a wonderful experience to walk along the rice paddies and stone arcades.

So in the village I had a great laugh.. as Kathrin tried the beetle nut with some local guy.. I videotaped the whole thing.. haahhaa she was very brave and didn't throw up…

After that mr Lonley Planet (myself (:) found our way back up to the hostel through gardens, stone walls and few thousand more stairs. After all that I just had enough energy for some dinner and I think we all went to sleep around 9PM…

So next morning.. wake up 6AM… breakfast with a 1million dollar view followed by a walk all the way back up to the saddle with kinda sore muscles.


There we took the public jepnee this time for much less, only 150PHP per head. The ride was fun as half of the people had to sit on the roof again.

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Roadtrip along the west coast of Turkey

A shortcut through one week of road trip around Turkeys best kite spots.

Driving along endless Eucalyptus tree alleys, olive trees all over the mountains, adventures roads, fresh figs from the garden, endless empty beaches, windy spots, flat water, kicker waves, cozy hotels and enjoying and experiencing the Turkish cuisine...

KTA Turkey
First of all i wanna start with a special thx to all the organizers and helpers of the KTA Turkey tourstop, u guys did a great job. I think I speak out of most people's mind if i say we had a blast. We had some great onshore winds the first days and some hardcore offshore to finish off the comp. At the end we got it all done with a full double elimination and 8 races, not bad for the first stop of the 2010/11 season.

read the full report here on our new website: www.kiteboardtour.asia







So after the competition we pampered ourselves for two more days in the 7800Cesme Hotel before i moved up to Izmir together with Rebecka and the whole KTA crew. Most of em went straight for the airport to disappear to different parts of the world, while Rebecka and myself stayed two more nights in Izmir with Basak at her parents place. We got spoilt again with a great hospitality and more Turkish food experiences... donno if there is an end of it, but u definitely need a lot of workout if u stay here for long time.
Rebecka got her eye surgery done over here in the Izmir Eye Hospital, called "Kaskaloglo Göz hastanesi" no more contacts needed.
Here like to thank Basak and her parents again for the great hospitality.

So after our time in Izmir it was time to split up again, Rebecka went back home to Oslo and i started my way down to Gökova. Gotta say, the busses here are very comfy, looks like 5star airline, screens in every seat.. playing only Turkish movies (-;

My trip went from Izmir - Gökova - Bodrum - Didim - Bodrum - Didim - Bodrum - Istanbul

ok, we spent a few too many hours in the car, but hey, that's what happens if ur chasing new spots and the wind.
We had wind at nearly every spot we went to, i kited every day.
Gökova, is a wide Beach in a Nature reserve area in between mountains, where the wind funnels through. The water is flat to choppy and knee deep for the first 100meters. Little school and Bistro is setup on the beach. The wind is mostly onshore.

Bodrum, is not really a special spot, but still a nice change for a visit, the beach is a bit narrow and water is mostly choppy, a kiteschool is just around the corner.
Didim, lots of spots around here, all within 30min from Didim. I will not tell u about the exact locations, but this area definitely has some great potential. Most likely the big lagoon with random sandbars which goes along the coast for 17Kilometers!!! It can be very shallow in some spots and knee to waist deep in others. The best spot is a bit smelly, caused by the fermented mud, but who cares if u got a perfect flat water spot... think positive, u got a free mud pack (-;

There is another small spot called "flip flop beach" with some nice little kickers, this spot is not for beginners, there are sharp rocks on both sides and the space is limited. The name is not official, it's called like that because the first to experience this beach found it covered wt hundreds of flip flops... sound like Koh Phangan after full moon party.

One last spot is at the Harbour, we did not had too much wind there but it is also a flat water spot within the harbour. Setup on the pier and ride in front of it, there are windweehls all along the top of the surrounding mountains, so there is a lot of wind around this area.




We spent one night in a friends place close to Didim, this restaurant is mostly visited by Yacht charters and it's placed within a stunning bay. Some trollers coming back from a night out at sea in the morning unloading their catch of the day. Special thx for his hospitality and the lovely, rich breakfast the Kaptan Restaurant.You got a very picturesque place there.

I arrived at the Istanbul bus terminal and went straight to the airport wt the Metro. The 12h bus ride was not that much of a sleeper as i thought, so my butt hearts already... could someone please go ahead and push the science of beaming. Well at least the bus was cheap only 35Euro, no luggage limit... not bad.

Now i'm sitting in the Airport in Istanbul wt another 15h journey ahead... think i cannot sit for a while after this (-; At least i found time to update my Blog and i know my winterseason in Boracay will be a blast again!!

Cheeers from Istanbul and teşekkürler to all my friends in this Country
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