As an enthusiastic but deeply flawed surfer I have spent many a day running on Dollymount beach imploring the ocean to deliver some surfable waves. I’m just one of the hoards of time-poor frustrated surfers based in Dublin who manages the occasional trip out west or a desperate one to Magheramore in Wicklow only to be faced with waves that can only be picked up using an electron microscope or surfed by mini-me from Austin Powers.
It took me a while to realise that the blindingly obvious answer to my prayers for a local adrenalin high lay in kitsesurfing, with Sandymount, Dollymount and Sutton all offering good opportunities not far from the city. Next step Pure Magic with a friend, a kitesurfing school based just across from Dollymount beach in Clontarf.
Diarmuid Higgins was our assigned instructor and as he stood assessing the wind conditions from the comfort of Pure Magic’s new shop, I quickly gathered that I was in safe hand. It seems Diarmuid has a Michael Phelps-like bias for water-based activity, spending his days kitesurfing, wakeboarding and kayaking when he’s not teaching the great unwashed.
Kitesurfing can be a pretty dangerous sport; a good friend of mine was once rescued by Dublin’s lifeboat service when a strong offshore breeze sent him on a fast-track to Holyhead and I’ve also heard of one unfortunate being dropped by a huge gust onto the roof of the surf club in Tramore. There are pretty big risks that need to be managed so it was reassuring that, once on the beach, there was a huge emphasis on safety and getting out of trouble. We were also quizzed regularly to ensure we were listening.
Beach rage
After some set up involving a lot or unravelling and assessing wind direction, tides and so on, we started with the basics of flying the kites. I had always assumed this would be a piece of cake but as I witnessed another learner on the beach almost decapitate a passing cyclist and an ensuing explosion of beach rage, I realised there is a bit more to it than that. It’s a little like learning to drive where at first the most basic steps take intense concentration. However, unlike reaching third gear on the Stillorgan dual carriageway for the first time, the initial achievements are actually quite a blast, since you can feel the raw power of the wind drag you this way and that even with a mini kite on a relatively calm day.
The next step saw us don our wetsuits for some body dragging. This basically involves surrendering your lower body to the water and allowing the kite to drag you along. Like all new sports you have to do a lot of things that do not feel natural or intuitive. For instance when being dragged through the water the idea is to just relax your body. My instincts instead told me to kick my legs which would have been fine if Diarmuid hadn’t been holding on to me from behind to keep me from going too far. His professionalism was seriously challenged however as his nether regions got some unwanted attention from my flapping legs.
There are elements of body dragging that at times resemble what water boarding must feel like to the inmates of camp x-ray, but once you get the hang of it the buzz elements of it grow and you start to control the power and direction elements with a little more ease. Your confidence increases and you begin to feel that this kitsesurfing lark might not be so hard after all. Body dragging could even be a sport all on its own.
One of the other great challenges of course is the weather and wind which had a habit of changing direction and dropping at inopportune moments. The Pure Magic team has a good approach to these situations; when the wind eased, they’d use the break to give us extra tips on setting up the gear and what to do in emergency type situations. And if the conditions mean that the lesson has to come to an untimely halt, they’ll reschedule without charging you.
The main skills to use when things go pear shaped are pulling the chicken loop and the emergency pack down. The former is a bright red Velcro strap you release to let the kite flap down to safety and cease pulling you to oblivion. The emergency pack down may sound like a hastily planned WWF wrestling match but is in fact a complicated but important process for tidying up all your wires and kite and using it as a mini life boat (or attaching it your back) to enable you to swim back to shore in a situation when you get stranded far out to sea you basically. With kites costing around €1,000, you don’t want to leave your kite behind if you can avoid it.
Multi-tasking
With conditions improving we embarked on the Holy Grail of getting onto the board. These are about the size of a small snowboard, and have two open-foot straps for stability. To get going you put the kite into the 12 o’clock position, manoeuvre your feet into the straps of the board, lean back and allow the kite to catch the wind so that it pulls you out of the water. This is the ultimate multi-tasking test and without the help from both Diarmuid and my fellow learner this would be nigh on impossible to accomplish by a novice. However on about the third attempt we both managed to get up and go. We probably stayed up on the board for less than three seconds, but you cover a lot of ground quickly and the rush is incredible. On later attempts it seemed harder to get up however Diarmuid charitably claimed that the wind had dropped and would not render enough power to pull me from the water.
Hungry for more, we attended for a final hour lesson when the wind conditions improved and I started getting my water start working on my own. Usually the elation of getting going on my own distracted me from the basic task of capturing the wind and pointing the board in the right direction. What followed would typically be shouts of joy, punctuated by muffled water sounds and splashing noises.
After six hours of lessons we have come a long way and I was thrilled that I had actually kitesurfed on my own. However I think I would need a bit more tutelage before I’d go out on my own. I would recommend anybody interested to get formal lessons from one of the Irish Kitesurfing Association-accredited training schools around the country. This isn’t a sport I would not try to learn from a friend who has some gear and knows a thing or two.
My entrée into the sport has given me a real taste and with another lesson I’m thinking it might just be the right time to drop some hints at Christmas so I can get some gear. By next summer perhaps I’ll be pulling serious airtime. Who would have thought you could do this just three miles from O’Connell Street?
