Report by : Weston

Here’s the start of my report on exuma so far. we got the 630 am American Airlines flight into miami on the 18th, then had about a 5 hour layover to the american eagle flight to georgetown, which was slightly delayed.

Got here around 4pm and immediately noticed it was blowing about 20, so i backpacked a kite and just started walking to see if i could find a beach before it got dark. no such luck, but when i was walking back, gary just happened to see me and give me a ride to an ocean spot, where there was a 4 or 5 foot swell coming in past the barrier reefs and side-onshore wind. i rigged the 12 and headed out.

I got a good hour or so before i crashed the shockwave on a downloop. This turned out to be my first real kitemare, as the bridal had wrapped around 1 wingtip and it started to loop out of control. Stupidly, i had the leash hooked to the chicken loop. I managed to unclip it and clip into the frontline safety ring in that second or too, then pull the emergency. After that, it was fine, i just swam to the kite holding the front line and sat on it. The lines looked like hell in the swell, so i just wrapped them in a bundle and started to swim back to shore (that tangle took about an hour and 1/2 to undo).

A word about the 06′ Naish Shockwave’s canopy: it sucks, its so thin that even its own bridal tore a large hole in it. I taped it enough to use for the rest of this trip, then im going to get rid of it. The bridal is too long anyway, it should never wrap aroudn the kite. (so anybody want a cheap kite??)

Nonetheless, i went to bed very happy that night. Gary invited me to hitch a ride to once of his lessons in the morning, so we left at 9 for a flat water spot. The wind was stronger out of the north east again (20-30), so i finally got to break out my 9m fuel. this was the first time i’ve really gotten out with c-kites in the water. I love it. at first i was afraid of its power and quick movements compared to the shockwave, but after an hour of getting the sheeting right, its an amazing kite.

next day, the wind went more east/south. we met gary giving a lesson at a beautiful flat water spot with 15-20 sideshore. unfortunately, the tide was going out quickly, so i must have gotten about 30 minutes of riding before i started running aground.

Overall, I have been here for 9 days, and kited 7 of them, pretty damn good. I think for 3 days, I was on my 9m Fuel, 3 days on the 12m Naish, and 1 day demo-ing Gary’s 11m 2008 T2. I demo-ed a whole bunch of gear for him, i’ll post the write-ups on those in the “Gear” section.

When I got here, I was catching the tail end of the north-east front, so I got one more day of wind before it dropped off and started to clock around. The wind here always moves clockwise, and about when it makes the switch from southeast to southwest, you know your going to have a strong 20-30knts out of the north the next day, and probably at least 3 days following that.

I caught the remaining wind as it shifted east to southeast at a spot Gary told us about called South Side http://tinyurl.com/2hu8y5 . The wind was side-shore on this shallow tidal-zone, about ankle to knee deep everywhere. You’ll want to catch it with the high tide though, otherwise you will be walking out on the sand for a long time until you hit water. I caught it as the tide was going out, and scored about an hour session on the 12m. It was amazing for flat water speed and jumps, and the coral around it made for the best pics (shown before). After the tide went out, it exposed about a 1/2 mile of sand, so we walked that. We found quite a few giant starfish.

The next day it has shifted to a permanent south-east and I headed back to the South Side to teach my dad in about 10-14knts on the 12m. He got a pretty good feel for it, was able to body drag, relaunch, and try some water starts–he’s game for learning to ride, so maybe we’ll see him at Terrapin soon!

No wind on the next day < 10 knts. We went canoeing and snorkeling out of Hoopers Bay, right across the street from where we were staying. Gary joined us for dinner at our condo and we planned out a kiteventure without the wind for tomorrow.

Woke up and headed to Georgetown around 10am, where we met Gary and his carolina skiff. We hiked up Stocking Island to this concrete tower sort of thing, they are all over the outer reefs. An older sailor hiking up told us that apparently they were used in WWII as a type of lighthouse, there used to be red beacons on the top.

Next we motored around the cays and explored the inlets. Gary showed us the spots they normally go to for kiteventures. The beaches all around Exuma are gorgeous, and most of the sand is this light powder that feels amazingly soft on your feet.
So then we motored out to a spot on the reef and snorkeled off of there, the water was pretty much crystal clear even without the sun. Lots of fish, and a fairly large barracuda checking us out. It was cloudy that day and when we got back it rained on and off for a few hours.
There was a 4 boat sunfish regatta/races going on in downtown georgetown behind some restaurants, so we watched that until about 530, then set off for South Side once again, banking on the forecast being right about 18knts around 6pm. (for wind, I used the iKitesurf link in the contacts section of gary’s website, it seemed better than the rest).
When we got there at 6, the wind was about a steady 14knts out of the south east, but I rigged anyway to see if my dad wanted to fly some more. At about 630 the 18knts hit, and i was lit on the 12m. I came in around 715 due to an oncoming squall line. We threw everything in the car just in time. This black line of clouds passed over us then the wind picked up to about 20-25, probably gusting higher and pouring down rain. The neon blue/green water looks strange as hell with dark clouds and rain falling on it.

video- shot and edited by me, feat. Gary, Eric, and Norman

I woke up the next day to what felt like 20-25knts out of the north and overcast. Gary stopped by the house and invited me on the Crystal kiteventure (i think thats what its called). God bless my parents for paying for all this shit, otherwise i’d be a poor man Twisted Evil . When we got into Georgetown the harbor was whipped into white water, but it was incredibly steady. I brought my 9m and my 130cm, and Gary brought a 9m rev and a 7m rev, and i think the 129cm lunacy. We met 3 other kiters in Georgetown; Norman, Eric, and Tanya of Aerosport Canada (i think thats right). They live in the Magdalin Islands of eastern Canada in the summer, and exuma in the winter. Very cool people, and all excellent kiters.
The boat ride there was basically underwater, the skiff was helpless against the waves and the wind, but we all had foul weather gear. Finally, after making it through the cut at high tide, we reached the protection of the cays, and arrived at the Crystal beach. No rain, but the wind was howling so much that my feet were getting constantly sandblasted.

Norman was the first one out on an 8m flysurfer foil. I cautiously rigged my 9m fuel and took off upwind after him. the fuel was loving the wind and i was 100% powered, overpowered in the puffs, but the 5th line took care of that. Next out was eric, on a 10m Best HP, rigged with 15m lines. it looked goofy on the jumps, but it depowered him enough. The three of us went way up wind and played in the rollers produced by the shallows for a good while. Gary soon joined us on a 9m rev.
He had a good crash once he got out there. Gary likes to use those fancy allinone harness bars with the donkey dick as a small rod that locks the chickenloop in place. In his excitement to get out, he neglected to flip that rod down, so when he went inverted about 15 feet up, he fell out head first. Luckily he was all right after that head first impact, but the kite’s bridal was offended about being released onto the safely so high up, so it took a while and some help from Norman to straighten itself out.

Shortly after, the same thing happened to me. I came out of a jump, not knowing that my donkey dick had detached from the chicken loop and left for good some time ago. I became unhooked and got lofted to about 10 feet (managed to ditch my board) before i released onto the 5th line. The fuel didnt like that either and apparently inverted at some point. I didn’t see, I was too busy falling. I got it to relaunch, and followed norman back to the beach to straighten out my lines. Everybody decided that was a good time for a break, so we had a wonderful lunch hiding behind a dune.
The sun started to peek out at that point, and eric switched to a 7m Flexifoil ion with normal line lengths. I took my video camera and newly made splashproof case out to the shallows to film, then headed back out myself to practice unhooked moves and maybe get the balls to try a kiteloop (my one attempt slammed into the water hard). In the mean time, Tanya switched to the 7m ion and had a blast.

Gary packed up the boat but Norman wanted to do a downwinder all the way back to Georgetown (4 miles i think?). I figured if he could do it, so could i, so we set off ahead of Gary into what turned out to be an upwinder that killed my legs and left me feeling pathetic as Norman killed me going up wind. He was pretty much sailing circles around me. We met Chris, a local that Exuma Kitesurfing sponsers, and his friend kiting at a sandbar. Chris was launching some huge jumps.
We made it back to the dock around 530 (we left at 10), and Gary joined us for dinner again.

I passed out around 8 that night and woke up to a solid 15-20 out of the north east. We headed to Runaway Bay around noon and i demo-ed the 9m rev and 129cm lunacy (see Gear Section).
Eric, Norman, Tanya, and Gary arrived around 2 and we kited for a good 2 hours, me slightly underpowerd on the fuel, still riding the lunacy. I was so shellshocked from the other day that i forgot the 12m, which would have been better. We hung out at the beach until dark, then both ended up at Ida Bowe’s, a local restaurant.

Today i woke up early and headed to Gary’s base for an ocean side session. Gary let me demo his 11m T2 and a 136 misfit. The wind was in the upper teens, lower 20’s, and i was perfectly powered, Gary was on his 11m rev. We kited out to a sand bar break that was breaking 3-5 footers. I tried to learn all i could in the surf, then we headed back in around 1130. When I left, Eric, Norman, & Tanya were looking at a 15 mile down winder.

Now I’m sitting in the airport with a 3 hour delay, which is why i bothered to write all this shit

in conclusion, exuma was a complete success, and a kiter’s paradise. Hopefully i’ll be back.