Kitesurf Atlas, Kiteboarding Holidays, Kite Surf Lessons

We got up early and headed from Austin to Texas City to go kitesurfing. It’s a pretty long drive so thank god the wind was good there in the afternoon. When we arrived to the lagoon the wind was only 13 knots. Not quite enough for my 9m but it was all I had so I decided to give it a try because not kiting was not a possibility. I had to borrow someone’s board here because the airline would have charged me over $100 for luggage if I brought mine so I had this huge 139 Liquid Force board to ride. Low wind, big board…..oh well the challenge will just make me better in the long run. The riding area there is awesome. There is around 500 feet of thigh high water and it’s really warm. Perfect spot for teaching and fishing. While I was riding I kept running over fish and some of them were so big they would made a thud sound as they hit my fin. On one tact a fish jumped up, hit my thigh, bounced up and smacked me right in the mouth. For the next 20 min all I could smell was fish.

Sometimes I feel like no one understands me. The amount of time and energy I spend thinking about kitesurfing. My friends all smile and nod when I tell them about a new trick I want to learn or a cool new film on youtube. In a sea of surfers, I stand alone. Constantly explaining to people how I would rather be 20 feet in the air then pinned to the bottom of the ocean or how I enjoy riding for hours at a time rather than sitting and waiting for a wave. I miss living in a place where at the end of a session we sit around and talk about what a great day we had. No matter how cool it is to be first person to make a kite surfing business in a country, it can be lonely. My only saving grace has been a couple kite obsessed junkies I’ve met in the last month and facebook. It’s given me an outlet to connect with other kiter’s and learn about other riding destinations.

Along my constant quest for kiting partners, I managed to meet two interesting characters nick-named Jesus (or so I call him) and Mongo. Jesus is one of the coolest older dudes I’ve ever met. I won’t say his age so I don’t ruin his endless opportunities of picking up gorgeous young single women. When your “that” age, have a 6 pack and kite like a m*th*r f**k*r your bound to have your pick of the litter and I don’t want to ruin that for him.

Late one hungover Sunday night I stopped in one of the many local pubs in San Juan del Sur to get a glass of water and hang with my bartender buddy. One of the other patrons sitting at the bar was interested in taking kitesurfing lessons the next day with me so I gave him my number and told him to give me a call. Normally when this happens people never follow through so I wasn’t expecting much. The next day he did call last minute and wanted to go out for an afternoon lesson. I was not really feeling too into teaching that day but making money is always good especially when you live in a tourist town. We got together and headed out to Kite Beach around 1:30pm. When we arrived the wind was only around 10 knots and I was a little worried we couldn’t complete “day 1” of the IKO lesson plan. Typically the wind here in Nicaragua dies off between 11am and 3pm leaving early in the morning and pre-sunset as good riding times.