Trip Through Paradise: Go Fly A Kite!

"Kiteboarding School"

Mui Ne ended up taking up four days of my very very precious time left on my trip but it was all in good reason and well worth cutting my time short for my travels back to Bangkok. There were four things, that when added up together, made Mui Ne one of my favorite destinations in Vietnam. One thing you learn while travelling is that the actual place itself, although its important, does not exactly make it special, its the little things that make it a love or hate memory for the most part. The four things in this case were; an absolutely amazing guesthouse, beautiful beaches, better than perfect weather, and last but definitely not least, three unforgettable days of kite boarding.

When we first arrived in Mui Ne we were dropped off at a beach side resort that wanted much more than I was willing to part with for a nights stay (as I explained in my previous post) so I threw my bag on my back, and went to see what I could find. About 2 minutes after leaving the gates to the resort I had people all around me with flyer's and pretty much dragging me to their guesthouse, when I spotted a little hotel across the road where the man was just sitting and smiling. Right away I thought, "that is where I want to stay" and I was not disappointed.

Anyone reading this may not completely understand this if you have never been to a country like Vietnam or Asia, but the people constantly hustling you, and trying to get you to do things or stay places, sometimes gets to be too much and you realize how a smile and not being pushy can be the best advertising of all. I ended up staying in this hotel for the duration of my stay and enjoyed every minute of it. It felt like I got to know Vietnam and the history more from chatting over a beer in the lobby with the owner than I have in the previous few weeks. He taught me how the government works, the cost of his business and taxes, what a normal wage is, and even how much I was getting ripped off every minute of everyday in his country. Unfortunately I didn't have much to offer him but we became friends, chatted almost every night, and I even got to further his understanding of reading English a very small amount. (But learning English from me....he was probably better of without it.)

My first day in Mui Ne I spent doing all of the main tourist things that everybody that goes through does. Five other people, I met on my journeys, and I rented a jeep and went out to see the various sight from sand boarding down the white sand dunes, to watching the sunset over the red sand dunes. (Ya there was pretty much only sand dunes but they were quite a site to see)

The next day I decided it was time to scratch off the final entry on my "things to do list" and enroll in a kite boarding lesson.

For all of you who are not familiar with this sport, it is basically wake boarding using a giant kite, instead of a boat, and the wind instead of petrol. Sounds easy enough hey?

My first day in school proved to be very frustrating. I have always been some what naturally alright at anything I try, especially when it come to water, but this proved to be a little different. Although the instructor kept assuring me I was doing very good, considering I had never flown one of these kites, it did not feel like it to me. After learning the basics of just how to keep the kite in the air (a monkey could do this) the next step is to go in the water, without a board, and use the wind to body drag down the beach and back to shore. This in itself would probably be quite easy, in most situations, but at Mui Ne the surf is quite big so the second I entered the water I was thrown into the washing machine and before I could regain my vision, from the salt water, my kite would slam into the water and force me to pull the emergency release, gather my very tangled kite, and do the walk of shame back to my instructor. Of course, he could slowly watch me getting frustrated and I am sure he just loved only uttering the words, "OK, try it again" as he watched me walk past him shaking my head. I only managed to do it once without dropping the kite and feeling that for sure this was the last time, I happily walked up to him, smiling, only to hear those dreaded words, "OK try it again."

That was my first lesson and I can assure you, it was not the most enjoyable day, but at the end of the lesson my spirits were lifted slightly, when he told me, that almost no one actually get into the water in their first lesson, so I was well ahead of the average.

The second day is when I really started to see and understand why people start doing it and cant seem to stop. Again we went through the same drills and I didn't even get to have a board on the whole second day either, but something changed and everything seemed to make sense. I learned how to use the power of the wind and kite to my advantage, and through the whole lesson of different skills, I only dropped the kite once!!!!

One of the skills I learned on the second day was how to water relaunch the kite once you drop it in the open water. Why they didn't teach me this the first day, I have no idea. I think he just enjoyed seeing what I was made of. By the third day I was ready to throw the board into the mix.

When I first arrived at the beach on the third day my instructor told me that the winds were to strong so we would have to wait to out for a while and see if it calmed down a bit. After 3 hours of waiting and watching all the good boarders flying through the air with the strong winds, I started to get restless. Finally my instructor decided that with my kite skills, that progressed very much the day before, he would let me try it but he warned me, normally, he wouldn't let a student go out so I'd have to be careful.

Sometimes I really enjoy being ahead of the normal but, more often than not, I find it puts you into situations that your not really ready for. This was situation was no different.

Once I had my harness on and all the gear ready I was informed that, not only was I going to be flying in higher winds than I should be, but they were putting me on a different kite than I was use to which was 8 meters instead of 5 meters. (more wind, bigger kite, this should be fun.) Once we had rigged the kite and I was all hooked up it, was time to try to launch it. The initial take off was smooth but as soon as the kite was a couple meters off the ground I got a very important lesson in how much force the wind can have. Immediately it started to drag me across the beach until my instructor managed to grab ahold of the back of my harness, and with the weight of two of us, were able to stabilize and stop me from skidding into the water.

It was at this moment that I started to think that maybe this was a little too much power but he got me to give it a whirl in the water and see what happens.

To truly get across how strong of a force this was is kinda hard to explain. When the kite was in front of me at the lowest power zone, it dragged me, and when I lifted it up to the position straight above me (the zenith or neutral) it was lifting me a few feet off the ground!

Figuring that the instructor knew what was best, I slowly walked into the ocean, body dragged out to give the board its
maiden voyage.

My first couple attempt were not successful because of how timid I was being with the kite. In my defense I was just dragged down a beach and lifted from the ground without actually trying to use the power need to get up. So, after failing I decided to go for it.

going through the instructions I got before I left land I brought the kite to the 1 o'clock position, stabilized it, now.....dive from 1 o'clock, through the power zone to 10 o'clock and stand up. This isn't exactly how it went down.

All was well until the kite hit full power and pulled me completely out of my board, up about 15 feet in the air, then crashed into the water, slamming me back down to earth with, probably, 5 times the force of gravity. Fortunately I was just a little shaken, but was no worse for the wear, and released my emergency and swam back to shore, with a very tangled kite, to a smiling instructor.

Between trying not to laugh and trying to look serious he managed to get out the words, "I think you need a smaller kite."

Once I switched to a smaller kite my life instantly got easier. With a few miss hap's I managed to ride for a bit and figured out the art of getting up. I wish I could have continued for the rest of the day but at $45 dollars an hour, it was becoming an expensive past time.

By the end of my three days I accomplished all I set out to do. I learned how to set up the gear, safely fly the kite, and the basics of riding. This gave me an IKO 2 international certification for Kite Boarding so I can now rent gear, without an instructor, worldwide.

With these lessons behind me I feel I could really get into this new and exciting sport. There is something about being able to jump and float up to 20 meters off the ocean and still have a soft landing that is enticing to me. Not to mention a kite is a whole lot cheaper that a boat, and wind is free where as petrol is far from it!

Now my beach days of my trip are behind me and I am off to Saigon in the morning.