Gabriele Steindl: Professional Kitesurfer & Freelance Writer - Action, Lifestyle & Travels

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Epic boattrip, rockin‘ d blue moon!

Oh man, woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow folks, I find it hard to put into words what’s in my heart, adrenalin stores and memory…   The reason for my incredible stokedness was the boattrip last weekend to the Abrolhos Islands that I’ve been privileged to be part of and which turned out to become one of the most epic wave-adventures in my personal list of ‘once-in-a-lifetime wave trips’.

Yep, I’ve only just gotten hold of the photos, thus a slightly delayed post about this insane experience.

The Abrolhos islands  are an island group consisting of 122 islands, approximately 60kms off Geraldton on the Western Australian coast. Though the wave-hungry lot on the boat, didn’t decide to go for the incredible scenery, the snorkelling or really good fishing…  Nope the trip that was scheduled around the ‘Blue Moon’ –   which is the second full moon in one month, only happening very rarely  –   that should bring sick wave-conditions as the Abrolhos islands boast THE most exposed reefs on the whole of the west coast !!

Wow, rockin’ crazy outer reef swells, way out the Indian Ocean… in the water:  lots of big fish, yep, white pointers apparently everywhere, one really doesn’t want to get in trouble out here, the Abrolhos are truly in the middle of nowhere….

The boattrip was mainly for windsurfers, though, there was me and 3 more kiters on the boat. The ship we went on was so incredibly cool, a commercial fishing boat, looked a bit like a military ship, the trip could not have been any rougher  –  hihihihi, yep, pretty much everyone on the boat got seasick… not me, though, thankfully I’m immune to seasickness no matter how heavy the sea is rockin’ 🙂   –  the sea was going crazy, yep, my personal ‘Full Moon Theory’ perfectly hit once again 🙂   You can read up on it in a previous post if u want here!

Launching and landing was an absolute nightmare, absolutely no space on the boat to put out lines or stuff… I had to walk the lines out in between all the windsurf gear, around the BBQ area, through the sleeping cabins…. then attach correctly to my kite, throw it in the water, jump after it, hoping that no white pointer would consider me as bait and waterlaunching it as quickly as possible, which was a true challenge given the strong current and swell. Yep, have to admit, this was the first time ever that I’ve actually been a bit jealous of the windsurfers, they had it way easier: just 2 throw in their gear and jump after it.

Thank God my brandnew North FUSE 5m2 is simply the greatest kite ever and the launch a piece-a-pi$$  😉  …heheheehehehe, mind u,  at one point I got fairly scared, as I got caught in a current on launching just after having gotten quite a deep cut in my leg (slipping on the boat against some steel corner), i.e. I was bleeding and had to drag around for nearly 20 minutes before I could get hold of my Kontact waveboard again that was drifting around way upwind of me, having gotten caught in a current going the other way !?  aaaaaarg, scary stuff… though I survived and the white pointers decided to leave me alone 🙂 !

The conditions we found out there on the Abrolhos that very Blue Moon Weekend were truly  e p i c …  an absolute dream that will stay in my heart forever !