And now I begin a bittersweet post since it will probably be my last about this particular adventure. I took my final anti-malaria pill this morning (you're supposed to keep taking them for a week after you get back) so my last ties to this trip are finally melting away. It makes me sad because it was really wonderful to be with members of my family and having such a great time. Oh well, as my mother always says, it's good to go away and it's good to come back again. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Etc...
But for now let's focus on the joy of kiteboarding at last! Remember that was the driving force behind the choice of this location because Owen had said he wanted to do some kiteboarding on our trip. And based on our previous experience we knew we couldn't just take that for granted: you need a strong steady wind and it needs to come from the right direction and, ideally, at least for beginners, you'd rather have smaller waves. I had queried the internet and determined that for our purposes (which also included being warm, eating Thai food, and not having to deal with tourist visas) this was our best spot. And it didn't disappoint!
Owen had some minimal prior experience in Michigan where we'd cobbled together some used and new equipment and gotten some pointers from a neighbor on the beach. And Owen had tried getting up a few times but ultimately was unsuccessful because we ran out of time for wind sufficient for the too-small kite we'd bought (erring on the too-small side seemed better than the alternative but in retrospect may not have been). Max and I had no experience other than flying the kind of kites which have two lines and allow you to control which way they turn. But that is only half the story with the kiteboarding kites because they have four lines which allows you to control which way they turn (by rotating the control bar to the left or right) and also how much force the kite exerts on you (it's attached to your harness) by pulling the control bar in (for more power) or letting it out (for less).
The shop we took lessons from was very professional and safety conscious. Owen had his own private instructor and got on the water immediately but Max and I had a different instructor and spent the first day learning to setup, launch, land, and fly the kite, first with two hands, then with one, and finally how to walk with it.
We had a pretty good wind the first morning (lessons generally started at 9:30-10:00 ish and lasted two hours, and were held at "Squid Beach" which was the beach adjacent to the jetty where the local river spilled out into the bay.) and based on that we asked if we could do our second round of lessons that afternoon to accelerate our progress and get as much kiteboarding time as possible since our time was running out. So we did two 2-hour sessions (morning and afternoon) the first day though the wind fell significantly in the afternoon so we ended up quitting early. I don't think Max and I even got in the water the first day but we may have made it to the stage of "body dragging" through the water. There are two kinds of body-dragging: One is upwind and you use it to recover your board if you'd fallen and lost your board upwind behind you. The boards are no longer attached to the riders on a leash because of safety issues. The other kind of body-dragging downwind using a "power stroke" and you do that when you are ready to launch yourself from the water and get the kite to pull you up so you can start going. We would eventually practice both these techniques. Upwind body dragging can also be done with the board under your arm if you're just trying to get out beyond the breakers initially or if you're doing a self-rescue for some reason and coming in (rather than coming in riding your board). There are a couple other kinds of self rescue too which we learned about when the kite is no longer flying. One is used when the entire kite remains inflated and involves lying on one side of the kite, in the water, and using the rest of it like a sail to propel you to shore. The other is used if the leading edge of the kite has deflated but the ribs remain inflated (there are valves connecting them which are open when inflating/deflating the kite but closed when operating it). In this case you roll the kite up to make a bundle out of it and paddle it in like a fat surfboard. Max and I only simulated these self-rescues on the beach but Owen actually demonstrated the sail version (I think) in the water.
What were Darcy and Eddie up to while all this was going on? On the first day (Tuesday 12/27) they headed back down to the cave park to exchange a t-shirt Eddie had bought the day before. It turns out that a Thai large is only a medium on the US scale! So they were gone most of the day doing that.
Lunch was pretty rushed because there wasn't a lot of time between the morning and afternoon lesson sessions. On that first day Max and Owen and I only had time to grab a few snacks from the local 7-11. I remember now: we'd also had to run back to the hotel to get some long sleeves and pants for Max and myself in case we went in the water that afternoon. This was for jellyfish protection. Owen picked up a nice top and leggings from the shop because he needed them the first morning but Max and I opted to just use some long-sleeved t's and sweatpants we had fortunately brought along since we didn't know how dedicated we'd be to the sport in the long run.
 |
| Max ready to go and waiting for the rest of us in the "alley" behind our hotel. |
 |
| There's that cool plant I'd seen in Bangkok, blooming this time. Once I'd spotted them I started seeing them everywhere. |
 |
| A close up of the blossoms. |
That evening Owen and I took everyone to the "Very Good" restaurant we'd discovered the night before. I think the general consensus was that the food was pretty good but unfortunately our service took a long time so we became a bit disgruntled about that.
 |
| Service hasn't taken a long time yet so we're still perfectly happy. |
I didn't get any kiteboarding pictures the first day or even the morning of the second but I took some on the afternoon of the second day, after lunch. We had a little more time for lunch that day and we investigated a new restaurant one of our instructors had recommended. He said it was called "Im Sook" (or something like that) and it didn't have a sign but he described where to find it (only about 100 m down the road from Very Good) and said whereas Very Good was very good for tourists, Im Sook was very good for Thais. So we checked it out.
 |
| Im Sook for lunch on Wednesday. Owen has scootered off to the Market to get some polarized sunglasses for the afternoon. |
 |
| It was blowing hard the second day (look at those palm trees behind Max!) and the waves were much bigger, making it a bit tricky when we finally got out into the water. |
 |
| Owen with his new shades. |
 |
| Back at the beach for the afternoon session Owen must inflate his kite. |
 |
| Even though there weren't enough instructors to go around in the afternoon (because, like the day before, we had originally only been signed up for the morning), Owen was allowed to simply rent equipment and go on his own because he'd demonstrated his independence. The only thing he hadn't mastered was the ability to ride in the upwind direction so after a certain number of tacks out and back again he'd have to come out of the water and walk the kite back to the upwind end of the beach behind him. That structure you can see back there, by the way, is the jetty where the local river flows out. |
 |
| Owen is up and riding! |
 |
| Max is walking back upwind along the beach in preparation for some more practice either body-dragging or, maybe, getting up out of the water already? I can't remember the exact sequence of everything. |
On this day, the second kiteboarding day, Darcy and Eddie had done some laundry at the local laundromat, which Darcy reported as being very relaxing. In the afternoon they scooted around exploring parts of the local area we hadn't been to yet and toured a house (sounded more like a mansion when they told us about it) for sale for $280,000, roughly.
 |
| Darcy enjoying some quiet time (from the Darcy/Eddie collection). |
 |
| The home for sale Darcy and Eddie found on their ride (from the Darcy/Eddie collection). Apparently it was not only a large home (albeit in need of some work) but also had a lot of property associated with it. |
That night we all went to Im Sook for dinner together but I have no pictures of that.
Okay, I've changed my mind. I'm going to do one more post tomorrow because I realize we had one more group adventure on the final afternoon and then I have a couple departure pictures from the airport. So I'll save my final wrap up for then. Yay, I have one more day to look forward to. Cheers!
