Oops! Nothing good can come of this. I think I'm in trouble.
Hmm, the water's only two feet deep. I'm definitely in trouble.
In two nanoseconds, there's going to be a burial at sea. At least it's
only going to hurt for a short time.
Ouch! At least I didn't land on my head. I cheated death one
more time, and I may even walk way from this.
What you see in this sequence of pictures happens every day in the world of
kite boarding. A sixteen square meter kite powers up and lift off
happens; if everything goes well when you land, you don't break anything.
The highly skilled kite surfer in these pictures handled a mishap without
turning it into an emergency room visit.
The reason I haven't taken up kite boarding so far is because I am allergic
to pain, and I strongly dislike orthopedic surgery. I once had two broken legs, five broken ribs,
and a broken shoulder blade. I know about pain, and I know that I
don't want to experience it again. As exciting as it might be to sail
across the waves at twenty-five miles per hour, and to leap thirty feet into the
air with the help of a kite, I'll keep my feet on the ground for the time
being.
The next best thing to doing kite surfing is watching other people do it.
I spent three enjoyable days watching people either fly like an eagle or crash and burn. My son, David, gave it a try and
walked away unscathed.
These pictures are from Al Gouna, Egypt, on the Red Sea just south of the
Gulf of Suez. It's a kite-boarding Mecca with the winds blowing at a
steady fifteen to twenty knots out of the north every day of the year.
If you want to learn how to kite surf, this is the place to go. The
steady winds and shallow water will have you up and running in no time.
