This past weekend has been extremely exciting for me for a number of reasons. The biggest excitement of all comes from the fact that Lorenzo and I finally have broken free of being that couple that talks about doing things and never actually takes the steps.
Originally, the plan for this weekend was London for all of 50 Euro for a round-trip ticket. After we booked our summer through Spain and Portugal the funds dwindled and our hesitation lost us that cheap flight.
So, my Lorenzo (he is learning how to woo me just a bit) decided that we would go spend the five day break in Vada at his parents sea-side house and learn to Kite Surf! When we finally embarked on our much anticipated journey last Wednesday at 12:30am, we realized we forgot the contact number for the instructor we had spoken to. Lorenzo later let me in on the little secret that as the weeks had worn by he thought this whole things was just talk and when he realized we forgot the number he was ready to through in the towel. I suppose he still has a lot to learn about me.
I would not be dismayed. I always wanted to believe that I was an adventurous person. That I was brave, and I would never say no to something great! My deathly fear of horror movies growing up should have told me otherwise, but I didn’t seem to make the connection. When I was confronted in NZ with the option to bungy jump I seemingly turned it down without actually admitting I didn’t want to do it. My friends didn’t take no for an answer and I can be forever thankful to them for that because I now can say that when I want to learn something, I will; fear doesn’t stand a chance.
Anyway, back to the lessons. We got the number of another instructor, who introduced himself as Zach or Tsach, even he wasn’t sure, and set a date for Friday afternoon. The first day consisted of simply learning the movement of the kite. Learning how the kite catches the wind and how to control it; oh and for me HOW TO RELAX. I had this reoccurring image of myself flying away attached to a kite.
One hour later, we were left to play on the beach with the kite and really get a feel for it. Not long after our arms and necks began to feel the toll so we called it a day.
Saturday we were instantly lead into the water. I was a little nervous as first; was this guys just going to hand us the board and watch us fly? No, we learned to control the kite in the water and later to let the kite drag us through the water. This was the biggest challenge for me because for some reason I couldn’t trust the kite enough to let my legs drag behind and Zach found this hilarious.
“Don’t be afraid, sono io” he said (“I am here”-roughly). After just a few short attempts at letting the kite drag us he introduced us to the board. We just got to learn to turn the board with the kite and how to use our abs to control the movement. However, I tended to get excited and let my kite go zipping across the sky. At one point this little devious act led me to almost stand up on the board, but the nervous instructor quickly pulled me back down, then he laughed about it.
Lorenzo later told Zach that I had experience with snowboarding, wakeboarding and surfing. His response was “oh, too easy!”. I’m sure that the hardest part is over.
Sadly, the winds were dismal on Sunday so we will have to postpone our third (and I think final) lesson until another weekend.
Zach told us that generally the rule is five lessons and you can go on your own, he was shocked that we accomplished so much in two and I think he and his little surfer son enjoyed our company over the weekend, even though there was some strained attempts at communcation.
I’m am so proud that I can add Kitesurfing to my list of adventures and I hope that it is something I will continue to do! The first time I learned about kitesuring was from a magazine that the family I babysat had. I later was enlightened by the girl’s dad to the wonders of this sport and have been determined to try it ever since. Now if only, like everything else, it wasn’t so damn expensive!
