My bed for the night

Kite surfing in Sri Lanka

 My alarm wakes me up at 1 am, and I am surprised at how much sleep I was able to get.  The 3am departure time is not ideal, but for some reason they only have middle of the night flights to Colombo.  The flight is uneventful and I arrive at 5:30 am only to find an enormous line at immigration which takes 30 mins to get through.  The duty free shops in Colombo are interesting because of all the things that you can purchase there.  Even at 5:30 am the shops are very busy selling refrigerator’s, flat screen tv’s, and other appliances.  I am in a rush to get out of the airport and on the road for an exciting free weekend at a kite surfing destination just up the coast.  And as usual, my progress is indirectly related to my desire to get somewhere.  First the 30 min delay in immigration and now I find that there is no driver waiting for me.  It is now 6 am and after wandering around a bit, I start searching for people to wake up on a Saturday morning.  Fortunately I get a hold of someone who tells me the driver is late, but on the way. 

The trip up the coast is crowded with traffic, but I arrive at my kite surf destination basically on schedule only to find – no wind and no people.  Confident that both will change I dismiss my driver for the day, and go in search of people. 

The destination is quite interesting, a small lagoon that is shallow and next to the ocean so that the strong trade winds blow across it, so that the wind and shallow flat water combine to make it a great spot for learning to kite surf.  An Australian fellow has set up a kite surfing school and hotel at the place and it is a little rough (like a Canadian cottage) but comfortable.  The meals are served buffet style and everyone eats at one large picnic table.  So you have to be a bit sociable (I make an exception and pretend to be sociable)  The background of the people is quite interesting, with a cross between die hard kite surfers that are taking a year off to travel the world to the top destinations and other die hard kite surfers who use all their vacation to visit top spots – and then the wannabe kite surfers (me) who are trying to learn.  I love the accommodations as there is no AC only the trade winds blowing through the night to keep you cool.  The owner, not the most organized guy, over booked the place and he is kind enough to offer a bed at his place (at no cost).

The wind kicks in just after lunch and I get to sail for a couple of hours (still in the learning phase) but my body is getting old and is very sore after just 2 hrs.  The next day I progress much better and I am sailing comfortably across the lagoon and even manage an (accidental) jump of good height but not the landing.

There is a Sri Lankan kid who works at the camp and his payment is getting to sail every afternoon.  He is completely fearless.  The jumps he takes are insane – height around 7 meters and he covers 25 meters in distance.  I saw him showing off to the local kids that come to watch – They were yelling at me, but I think they were hurling insults.

 The dinning room

 A small jump

The lagoon