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

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Kitemare in Big Swell

S I C K, this week Wednesday, 10th March, was full moon and my personal full moon theory has proven yet again, this time, though, with about 1000% 🙂

Yes, the beginning of the week brought simply  p e r f e c t  surfing conditions, glassy, beautiful days, swell, sun, no wind,  y e s, I reckon I might have have caught the best waves in quite a looong time. Then: mid-week, day of the full moon, the swell increased and although it was a grey, overcast day, I stayed out kiting for 6 hours cause the conditions were simply UNREAL !!!  Yeah, waves of considerable size and clean as, soooooo much joy 🙂

The day following the fullmoon when I rocked up at the spot I could not believe my eyes, it was pretty much the biggest swell (good 10-12ft) that I have seen here with a light breeze and beautiful sunshine,  s i c k  !!

The breeze picked up slightly during the course of the afternoon, however, it never properly came in and was also slightly onshore which is never good for big swell, waveriding and stuff… anyway, eventually I had to go out, the Ocean with huge watermountains was calling for me…

There were two hardcore surfers way out the break and one local kiter (himself a former snowboard-pro and big wave surfer) also decided to hit the water.

I chose my 7m2 Rebel and bigger Kontact Waveboard 6’1 and it was so, soooo unreal to be out there in the bluest Indian Ocean with those huuuuge masses of water all around.  Yes, it was absolutely insane and I enjoyed myself for quite a while until…

Until I was right on top of the 1st wave of the monster set of the day, took the drop, surfed down this huge face .. wind died and the whitewater caught up with me aaaand MUNCHED kitegabi. Guys, I was held underneath the water for ages plus got thrown into my line whilst being washed about… when it finally had spit me out, I looked at the flat, deflated kite right there in the impact zone and then just wanted to get the lines away that were wrapped around my body, I succeeded almost completely, however, there was still one line wrapped around my arm and I could not get it before before he 2nd wave of the monster set hit me on the head and pulled me under…

The kite was being washed and pulled unerwater as well and I felt the line tightening up around my arm, honestly being washed heavily without know when I would get back up to the ar plus this line-scare, wooow, that was heavy… suddenly I felt the line snap.  Istants later I also was back up and could gasp for more air. At that moment I already had gotten rid of my kite and simply concentrated on surviving  the –  ‘hopefully’  –  last wave of the set and I did…

Getting out of the impact zone was one thing, getting back to the beach was another and basically the second kitemare in that one epic session.  With so much water movng around, the current was immensively strong and it took me almost one hour to get anywhere closer to shore where the most gnarly rocks and a surging reef where waiting for me…

SCARY…and super heavy…I have to admit I my energy was being drained and my lungs must have worked like perhaps never before…

Only with the help of an Italian mate, a windsurf-pro and kind-a-angel to me, who came out on a shortboard to help I finally could set foot back on land.  My arm was in pain and I was super worried I was wearing a rather thick ION with another lycra under it, which I reckon saved me, cause the wetsuit itself was cut like a knife, the lycra ok and apart from heavy internal bruising of my forearm that’s gonna keep me ‘taking it easy for a while’, I survived this days without an damage.

My equipment was not that lucky…  How stoked can I be that I have the best sponsors in the World, cause my baby-7m2 kite is super vital and within a day I had a replacement brandnew one 🙂  THANX North kiteboarding, your support is so, sooooooooooooooo incredible !!!

Is there anything to be learnt from this…?  Well; I’d figure:

Incidents like that are certainly part of the big wave game and anyone who plays the game takes responsibility him/herself when going out there…

Mother Nature is such an incredible force that we can try to enjoy & appreciate it but will never be able to control it, thus be aware and always respect its power !

Carpe Diem, it can all be over in an instant.
Yours Gabi  P.S.  obviosly on epic days like that one there was no professional photographer available 🙁  thus, the few shots in the gallery were taken by the girlfriend of the Italian windsurf-pro that came to help me.  I wish we would have had a jetski out there with somebody shooting, pics from the beach that’s many hundreds meters off the actual break on big days can never reflect the size of the watermountains…