after foodtown i was going to meet sophie in albert park to catch up on all the reading we haven't done for classes, but just as i was walking into the park, my phone rang and it was andrew from oceanxtreme, and he said he could pick me up at 1:20 (it was like 12:30 then) so i said sure, and hurried back to ih to change. i grabbed a pbj on the way out, and then waited on the corner for awhile. eventually the blue and white oceanxtreme van pulled up, and i got in.
andrew, the instructor/owner was really cool, and said although usually he has lessons at his place, on the south side of manukau harbour (by the airport, south of auckland cbd), there was a group today at orewa (the beach i have admired every time i've driven north of the city). andrew said he has a smallish farm with beef cattle (no dairy) and some sheep, as well as the kite surfing business. he also said he the championships were 4 days long and they hadn't had any substantial wind until the 4th day, so the rest of the time everyone was just sort of hanging out waiting. that reminded me a lot of waiting for the hay to dry in summer. he also said he made it to the semi-finalists, but they didn't bother to have the run-off heats, so he's somewhere between the 5th and 8th best kitesurfer in nz. he asked me some stuff about what i'd learned/remembered from texas, and it turns out, not a lot. ha ha.
when we got to orewa we met the others, these 2 italian girls and their little brother, and a guy from the crew of the yacht their family is staying on (i'm not sure if it's theirs or they are just guests, but andrew had impression they had a lot of money). their english was pretty much perfect, it took me awhile to even realize they had an accent. howie, the yacht crew guy had taken lessons in the past with andrew, and was from new jersey. he took the little brother (about 10) regular surfing, and andrew first got us 3 girls flying trainer foil kites like we borrowed in south padre. after a little bit he set up one big kite (6 m), and then left us to set up the other two after watching him. we also got wetsuits, lifejackets, and harnesses.
first we all went out and traded off with one of the kites, and one at a time went in with andrew to get the others. we took turns holding onto the back of the harness of the person flying the kite, and doing body drags. the basic move andrew taught us is vertical figure 8's, toward the side of the wind window. he said the figure 8's give more steady power than the dipping from 11 to 2 the way we learned. the wind was blowing in towards the beach, so we were sort of constantly trying to walk back out further into the surf (and by surf i mean large waves - andrew said at his place in the harbour it's flat water, but it's kind of good to practice in the waves, especially when we were just body dragging and didn't have to worry about a board).
there were tons of other kitesurfers, andrew said orewa is a really popular spot when the wind is right. and at first i thought it would be hard to avoid tangling lines but i guess they all had enough control to not get too close to us. eventually the other girls took their kites in, and andrew came and got me to take mine in also. they were tired and cold and had to get back to the boat for dinner, but andrew said if i didn't mind staying he wanted to get in and play for a bit, which was fine with me.
so he set up all his gear, and then launched my kite for me, and i went and did more body dragging. he also showed us earlier how to body drag upwind, which is the only way to get back to your board if you lose it, so it's important to know how to do. basically you fly the kite in a steady spot to one side, near the side of the wind window around 2ish oclock, and you have to fly it with only your top hand. then you point your bottom arm in front of you at about 15 degrees, and point your feet behind you on the same angle, and it steers you upwind, kind of like a rudder. i'm not sure i completely had the hang of it, but i was getting better by the end.
andrew also told us that there were shellfish in the water that we could pick up, squeeze, and something would pop out that we could eat (raw). he found one and told me to try it, and i had a tiny nibble but i got mostly salt water, and while focusing on that lost control of my kite so we did not try that again.
when it was getting dusky out he had me walk my kite up to the beach (as he was doing the same) and he caught mine while his was still flying, and then i caught his. we folded everything up and i changed, and then we drove back and he dropped me at ih. i only had $60 with me in cash because i figured he would take credit card, but he didn't and said that if i wanted the discounted 3 or 5 lesson package i had to pay upfront, so i ran inside and got all the cash i had, as well as borrowed everything ej and sophie had, and ended up with $490. he said i could pay the rest for the 5 lesson package ($600 total) the next time, which will be saturday, provided the wind is blowing.
now i have tons of reading to catch up on, so i'm gonna get on that!
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