Kitesurfing

For the last few years, Erik has talked about wanting to try kitesurfing. Kitesurfing/kiteboarding (not sure if there is actually a difference?!) is huge in Melbourne, and people can be seen kitesurfing in Port Phillip Bay on a daily basis, particularly in areas like St. Kilda in the east and Altona in the west. When a Scoopon (like Groupon) deal popped up for kitesurfing around Erik's birthday, I thought I would take advantage of a good deal and bought a voucher for him.

Lots of kites out on this windy day! Melbourne's CDB is in the background.

The voucher was for a 2 hour lesson at KSS Altona. Erik tried to book in a few weekends ago, but on the day he was meant to go out for his lesson there was no wind. Last weekend, however, there was plenty of wind, so we headed down to Altona for his lesson. Our first impression was not great, as we were told the instructor would be 30 minutes late. 30 minutes turned into an hour, so we ended up waiting quite a while for the instructor to arrive. I actually overheard the instructor saying it was the first time he had taught a lesson, and based on how he was organized, I could tell!

Some instruction going on in this picture. You can see how windy it was based on the waves in the bay!

Eventually Erik and the two other people taking the lesson headed down to the beach. It seemed to take a while for the instructor to decide where to operate on the beach. It was VERY windy and there were a lot of kites out, which made it fun for me to watch.

Erik is holding onto the kite in this picture.

The group went through a lot of set-up and safety stuff which seemed to take forever. After an hour or so, Erik got to steer the kite through the water. His first go was funny to watch as he nearly lost control of the kite. After a few minutes though, he got the hang of steering the kite. However, at that point he had to hand the kite over to someone else in the group. All up he probably held the kite for 4 minutes!

Erik steering the kite!

After the group each took turns steering the kite, the lesson was essentially over, as they went over how to pack up the kite but did not get another chance to steer the kite and they did not do body drags through the water, which was supposed to be part of the lesson. The instructor also ended the class about 20 minutes early. In the end, I think Erik enjoyed controlling the kite, but overall the lesson was poorly run and unorganized. Regardless, Erik was happy to have had a go at kitesurfing and perhaps for his next lesson I would try a different shop, given the slightly negative experience we had with KSS Altona.