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

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Kitegabi rocks the lake with shooting star band Smart Alec

My mobile phone suddenly rang on a beautiful summery afternoon during the Whitsun-weekend, and a reporter of Austria’s High-Society Magazine “Seitenblicke“   –   covering national celebrities as well as intl. superstars like Madonna, Roby Williams etc. –  was on the line.  “Hi, I’m Tom, and would like to do an article with you and Austria’s shooting Rockband ’Smart Alec’.  We were thinking of you teaching the two guys of the band how to kite, would you be up for it?“

Wow, sounded interesting for sure…  “How much time do we have and when exactly where you thinking of pulling this off?“, I replied.

“Ideally, I would like to already do it the day after tomorrow, it shouldn’t take any londer than 2-3 hours, or? How about if we meet at 3pm at the lake, because in those hours before sunset, the light’s ideal for pictures…“.

“Huh, usually a basic course takes about 2-3 days, but if we don’t have that much time available … after all, I’m a professional in my field, so will try my best to get the dudes up on the board in no time…“.

Wow, was I curious to see the guys as well as whether I had promised too much to the reporter…

The implied day turned out as simply perfect:  sunny, windy skies over the lake neusiedl and the two guys from ’Smart Alec’ young, sporty, super nice and funny…

We started off with exercised with a small trainerkite, the North Lizzard. I explained basic principles of steering, controlling and handling the kite and Chris and Markus were excellent students, soon flying the small kite in an exemplary manner.  Thus, we grabbed our neopren wetsuits ond off we went into the wet, thank-God-already-rather-warm lake Neusiedl.

Hihihihihhihii, at this point already with a little bigger kite, the North Buster 6m2, the guys had to realize that flying a trainerkite on land certainly is different to controlling a bigger, ’proper’ kite in the water.   Nevertheless, they were super brave and pushed their limits to the max, practising the bodydrag before we finally could add the ’last piece of the puzzle’: the board.

Just before the sun set behind the hills at the western side of the lake, both of my students got up onto the board and managed to ride a few metres in the golden shimmering water of the evening sun:  “Mission accomplished“   sweeeeet !! :o)   Check out the article in the Seitenblicke Magazine!

Yeah, indeed a funny and entertaining afternoon.  Until this day, I had never taught anyone to get up on the board in such little time, however, also would like to emphasize at this point:  Please take your time if you wish to learn the sport safely.  It takes more than a few hours to become an ’in control- kiter’ and to ensure security & fun for you and your environment.

Smart Alec’s next gig is happening on the 8th of June in the “Flex“ in Vienna.  For more info on the band check out their website!