The Red Dancing Shoes

my neck hurts

It seems as if I wasn't going to kitesurf at all this morning whne I woke up. It was raining and the wind was definitely not blowing. I debated whether I should go out and drive around, but I decided to stay and do some homework and see whether the wind picks up or not. I am glad I stayed. The picked up quickily around 12pm so I had another session on the water from 2pm and returning around 6/ 6:30. I was on the water for about 3 hours. We didn't use my 13m today since it moved too slow and brought me way downwind yesterday. Instead, we used a 11m without the re-launch system, it did move a bit faster, but not that fast.
I struggled in the beginning in getting up and riding because I was either pulling the bar towards me when it should have been pushed away or putting too much weight in the front of my feet rather than the heels. I started to notice what went wrong each time and that was a good sign that I was going to get better. Finally around 5pm, I got up and got really good power strokes and stayed back on my heels. My power stroke really powered the kite and I was flying. But the kite pulled me way downwind and I saw the shore coming, I panicked...I tried to stop but I ended up moving the kite pass 12 o'clock position and the kite dragged me and crashed. I heard my neck crack and then I was dragged a few feet in the sand. Good thing I had a wetsuit on...or else the sand burn would have been really painful. The crash was so bad I the pain moving from my neck to my forehead. My head was ringing a bit. I wiggled my toes and fingers and shook my body around. Everything seems to be in order. I decided to take a break.

When I sat down on the boat, there were about 5/6 kiters out. They were amazing, doing tricks and great turns. My coach, Juan, sat with me on the boat for a while, evaluating my performance. Then the wind picked up once again to about 16/17 knots. He looked so anxious to get his kite out to go for a few ride, so I told him that he should. Then he turned around to ask me if I wanted to try out his 12m kite. So I put on my harness and went for another ride. This time, it was perfect. I got up right away and got a pretty long ride. I got enough power to park the kite, but I forgot, I was so excited that I was going that I was kept on working the kite. Then I had to stop because I was closing up on the shore again. Man, that felt AWESOME!!! I finally felt that I was not sinking as much anymore.

I am controlling the kite much better now and I know what I am doing wrong, hopefully tomorrow I will get to ride smoothly to the right and get some short rides to the left side. I just need to learn how to edge better...

posted by Chinese Fighting Fish @ 9:23 PM