Kitesurfing - a life changing experience

This is my kite story.

I arrived in El Yaque, a small village on the southern coast of the island of Margarita, in early March of 2006, to explain why I should go back a little further.

Almost seventeen years ago I was in a nasty motorcycle accident. As well as a few less serious injuries, broken bones etc, I paralysed my left arm. It was difficult for a few years coming to terms with my non functioning arm. I had always been an active person who enjoyed rock climbing, windsurfing and football. I had undertaken my sport diver ticket whilst serving in the Royal Air Force as a propulsion mechanic, fixing Harrier Jump Jets. My jobs had always been practical and it seemed cruel that life would leave me unable to do all the things I liked and work in the field I had chosen. I slowly came to grips with the practicalities, such as cooking and other domestic chores, but the one thing I found exceptionally hard was dealing with the constant burning pain I felt from my useless left arm. After about a year of using heavy pain drugs that didn’t actually work I came to the realisation that the only way to manage the pain was to keep myself occupied.

Before the accident I had been an exceptional pool player and soon after the accident I undertook to re learn how to play. I found that the concentration needed to play did serve to distract me from the pain. I became quite a good player again and enjoyed the added benefit of the distraction but soon found that as I got better at the game I concentrated less and the pain pushed its way to the front again. I needed a new challenge. A year or three later I bought my first house and decided that I would renovate it myself. Once again I had a distraction as I learned basic carpentry and focused on the renovation project. It took me three years to complete and I learned a great deal in the process.

In early 2004 I made the decision to have my useless arm amputated. It was a big decision
(see- https://steemit.com/life/@handsolo/big-decisions)
but the actual procedure was pretty quick and I only stayed in hospital for one night after the operation. I found that not having my useless arm gave me a tremendous feeling of freedom and I quickly became impatient to find a new direction in my life.

I was sat on my sofa one Sunday evening in September of 2005. I had finished my house the previous year and I had been itching for a new challenge, a new adventure since then. I sat there watching I’ve no idea what on the telly and realised that a change had to be made. The next day I handed in my notice at work. I had been working to support disabled people to gain training courses, education and jobs in the North West of England. Whilst it was a worthwhile mission, it just wasn’t for me, my heart wasn’t in it. That same week I put my house on the market. A month later I was free and clear with a nice bundle of cash in the bank. I went to Prague for the weekend sometime in the November and whilst on a boat trip on the River Elbe I received a text message. The message was from an ex colleague and it read ‘01179 ********* you can’t miss this opportunity’. I was intrigued so rang the number immediately. The phone was answered “Diverse Television, good afternoon”, I recognised the company as I had seen their documentary ‘Beyond Boundaries’ the year before. As it turned out I had an interview to go on the second series right there and then, on a boat, on a river in the Czech Republic.

Longer story short, in January of 2006 I went to Africa where I took part in a reality TV show (here you go @midnashowler) showing that disabled people are just as adventurous as everybody else. I pulled or pushed a four wheeled wheelchair, with a person in it, for the best part of 400 kilometres during the four week expedition. We navigated white water on the Zambezi as we became the first disabled crew ever to raft level 5 rapids. We walked the imposing swamps of the caprivi strip and crossed the oldest desert in the world, the Namib. The expedition was an amazing experience and it was the catalyst I needed to get my arse in gear to go look for my place and my path.

Four days after getting back from Africa I crashed my car. I was prosecuted and found myself in court the following Tuesday. I was in the wrong so I was penalised by the confiscation of my licence to drive for one year, and a rather large fine. I paid the fine on my way out of court and headed immediately to an internet café to email a friend I hadn’t seen for a few years. I might as well get out of Dodge for a bit as I felt strongly that I wasn’t going to find my way in England and I knew that this friend was travelling around in South America. I thought I’d ask him where he would be on the following Saturday and hang out for a week or so before heading on to somewhere else. The next day I read his reply.

'El Yaque Motion, El Yaque, Margarita, Venezuela. We don’t think you will like it here. All they do is windsurf and kitesurf all day and play pool all night.’

I thought that sounded pretty good to me.

I arrived on that Saturday, still hung over from my send-off drinks 12 hours earlier. I didn’t really know where I was and didn’t really care. The sun shone, the beach was full of nice people and it felt like a good place to be.

Kite boarding immediately caught my eye. I must confess to being an adrenaline junkie and this looked like the fix I had been missing since stuffing my motorcycle into a taxi 8 years earlier. I took a few kite classes but didn’t get very far as I was enjoying a bit too much nightlife. Alcohol and pool was doing a fine job of distracting me from the pain and trying to learn to kite with a raging hangover was just not working. All I really remember of those early days is that the kite was a 12M ‘c’ kite, it was scary, I swallowed and inhaled may too much sea water and the look on the boat captain’s face as I was launched skyward, facing backwards with no clue as to what I was doing was both comical and worrying depending on your perspective.

From 2008 to 2010 I took a few more classes with different instructors, all of them good teachers and I gained a respectable level of control with the kite but I just couldn’t figure out how to water start one handed. I had undertaken many fruitless internet searches for other one armed kite boarders and was beginning to doubt that it was even possible. During this time I also started a business making wooden furniture and remodelling bars shops and restaurants. I was pretty busy with work so my interest in kiting lessened. Following a particularly scary episode one afternoon when I nearly drowned, I decided that I wasn’t going to continue.

I turned 39 in the July of 2013 and I decided it was about time to revisit kite boarding. My business was running smoothly, I had a bit more free time and being a spectator of this great sport was just not enough anymore. I had to get out there. I knew from past experience that it was very difficult to control the kite and maintain the required bar pressure so I had been stuck on the idea of modifying the bar in such a way as to be able to control the kite completely from the right side. I wasted a month developing my design and another making the prototype then one thing led to another and I found myself 6 months later and still no closer to my goal.

In early February 2014 I was approached by my friend Alessandro Ferrari of Jack Sparrow Kitesurfing. He knew I was keen to learn and had heard me discussing the modification I had in mind for the kite bar with the other guys at the school. He offered to teach me. I was certainly interested but I wanted him to try kiting with one arm strapped up so he would get a better idea of the specific challenges I would face. Many kiters kite one handed but it is a little different when you don’t even have it to help with your balance. I proposed that Alessandro strap up his left arm in such a way as to completely immobilise it and then go kiting. This immediately sparked Ale’s interest and a couple of days later, when the wind was right, he put on a life jacket but kept his left arm inside. From a beach start to a transition about a hundred meters away and back to the beach, all with one arm. As he arrived at the beach I saw that his right arm was seriously pumped and he commented that his arm was exhausted. I was a little intimidated by this but was determined and I knew that I should forget the bar modification and just get back in the water.

I had a physical job but I also started to train my arm to build the specific forearm muscles that I would be using. To help me with this I made an exercise chair-

I worked out with this aparatus morning noon and night and pretty soon my strength reached the required level.

I then had 2 two hour sessions to familiarise myself with the RRD kites and blow out the cobwebs, I took a 7 then, with really strong wind a 5. These kites are great, bar pressure is light and they are responsive. We were to take the board on my next class and I woke on that morning with an excitement I hadn’t felt since my biking days. The wind was good, the sea nice and clear. It was just a beautiful El Yaque morning. Air so fresh and sky so blue there isn’t any place better. We jumped in the boat and headed upwind to a sand bar just perfect for rigging up. Alessandro had brought me the RRD Passion 9M, I hadn’t used a 9 since my efforts in 2010 so I was a bit nervous, to say the least. The kite was inflated and Ale put my mind at rest that the wind was right for the 9 and he would show me how the water start can be done one handed.

I walked out to where the sea was at my waist and waited while Alessandro taught himself to kitesurf fully one-handed, it was impressive and really boosted my confidence. Within 10 minutes he was practicing kite-loop transitions, like I said, impressive. Anyway, Alessandro came and stopped next to me and explained that he would show me the water start. Right there in front of me he dived the kite and I saw for the first time exactly how to position my hand. My turn came, I was passed the kite. I moved it tentatively from left to right, feeling the power. I was nervous and excited. After a bit of encouragement I was passed the board, I let go of the bar and put the board on my feet, these RRD kites are really stable in the air so I had plenty of time to make a meal of it. After a bit of wriggling I had my feet comfortably in the straps of an RRD Placebo 136x42 kite board. I sat there for a moment then dived the kite.

I felt a rush as I was lifted up out of the water and I was away!! What a sensation…. Then…. Wipeout!!! I didn’t care, I had got on the board and had ridden it for about 5 seconds. I was happy. I continued on for about an hour and a half but taking lots of breaks with the kite in the water as the muscles in my forearm became as hard as a rock then finally decided they were not going to work anymore. The whole time I had the boat near and from time to time Ale would give helpful tips or even jump in the water and show me how to do this or that. It was a great class and I returned to the beach with a huge grin and the firm belief that I was hooked (pardon the pun).

Over the next couple of weekends I was able to get in the water a further four times and although I wasn’t riding as much as I was falling, I was having a great time and could feel my arm getting stronger. There was only one problem. I couldn’t control the kite and get the board back on my feet when I had come off it in deep water. I could body drag back to the board that was no problem. Then I’d let go of the bar to grab the board but then lose control of the kite. I’d re-launch the kite but then be away from the board. I had to be passed the board each time and this was just not acceptable. It was on the verge of becoming a psychological block and I had no idea how I would solve it. I asked the guys at the school and they were ready with ideas but I was having difficulty putting them into practice. Early on during my next class I wiped out like a pro and swallowed gallons of seawater, I was on my own in deep water, coughing and spluttering and struggling to turn the advice I had been given by my friends into a workable solution. I swallowed more seawater for a bit then coughed and vomited for a bit more and finally I had it!! I lowered the kite to the water and let go of the bar. I placed the board across my chest and then launched the kite aggressively off the water then let go of the bar and quickly placed the board on my feet as the kite rose into the air. If I could do everything quickly enough I could time it so the board was on my feet by the time the kite got to 12 o’clock; directly over my head. There were some failures before I was back up on the board but soon enough I was rocketing along with a huge grin on my face. Over the hour or so that remained of the session, I was given plenty of opportunities to practice this technique.

Over the following week or so the guys were all suggesting that I try a kite loop water start. I had done a few kite loops (sending the kite in a broad 360degree arc) whilst body dragging so I knew they were like a turbo boost. I wasn’t sure I was up for that yet. The guys wouldn’t let up so on the next weekend, as it turned out the wind was light, I decided I’d give it a go. Alessandro performed this water start a few times in front of me whilst I stood in the waist deep water. Then it was my turn. I took the kite, I had the kite at 12 o'clock, I had the board on my feet, I was suddenly aware that there was about 20 pairs of eyes focussed on me as we were right in front of the sand bar we use to rig up and it just so happened that it was full today, the wind was pulling nice and strongly, I hesitated the heard Alessandro shout "do it man!! Loop the kite man!!" I went for it... A smooth kite loop then I held the bar nice and steady.... I was away and riding!!! Could not believe it!! I tried loads of kite-loop water starts that day, some I nailed, but others found me landing face first, hard, on the water. Slap!! It was exhausting but tremendous fun.

As my riding improved over the weeks that followed I began to notice that my sessions were coming sooner to an end, not because of arm exhaustion but because my legs were beat and I was tired everywhere but my right arm. It occurred to me that although I was still spending roughly the same amount of time in each session, I was spending much less time resting with the kite in the water and much more time riding over the choppy water. I would frequently just go home to sleep after kiting. Even if it was midday! I hadn’t counted on the extra demand that kiting would place on my energy reserves and I hadn’t increased my intake along with my increase in activity. I had thought I was in good shape but after a blood test discovered that I was anaemic, I realised I should take a serious look at my diet. I’m a single guy and have never really had much interest in cooking, or food for that matter. I’d just as soon eat a cheese sandwich as sit down for a healthy meal. I had to learn about food. Much internet research was done and many conversations were had with Henry, co-owner of Jack Sparrow Kitesurfing, and an ex professional body builder. He helped me to develop a simple healthy diet that is easy to prepare. Soon after making the changes to my diet I could feel the difference. I was able to spend a little longer on the water and wasn’t quite as exhausted, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t an instantaneous change but little by little I could feel the difference.

I’ve now been kiting for just over two and a half years.

More time in the sea means I get tired sooner and as my desire is to kite for ever longer sessions, I have to work harder to improve my fitness. I still experience the phantom limb pain, and it’s as strong as it’s ever been. There is a difference however; now I have a clean, healthy and exhilarating hobby that has changed the way I live in the best ways possible and has brought with it a relief from the pain. For as long as I am out on the water, I feel no pain. I am concentrating hard and soaking up the incredible experience that is kite boarding. I don’t foresee a time that I’ll run out of new tricks to try so I think it is safe to say that I’ll always get my pain relief when I kite. I have heard people say many times that kite boarding can change your life. I can honestly say that it has.