Squally... squalls... squalus... oh dang.

Wind looked good this morning as I sat in the Radiance restaurant at the spa in Lamae, waiting for Missus to finish her yoga, and I enjoyed my tofu pattie. No shit.

Went back to the other side of the island, Mae Nam where we're staying, had some chill time in the air-con then decided to head out to Nathon for the incoming tide... wind was still up, by the way.

On a whim, I decided to look at the beach our 'hotel' is supposedly on. If the beach is anything like the hotel, it'll be a dump.

Whoa! Dude, it's seriously not bad! Best beach I've seen and hey! there are kiters out down there! Grab my gear back out of the car and head on down... set up the 16, easy self-launch and away we go!

Downwind. For miles. It's gusty as shit and too light to do much. I submarine down the beach about a kilometer... body drag back into the beach, drop the kite TE down a couple of times - narrow escapes! Ride out a few squalls for fun but it's just not working... struggle back to the beach and start a long walk, with the kite in the air... narrowly miss parking it in coconut trees :o

Meet the wife coming back down the beach with a drink (nice!) who chases off the little twit local who made a grab at my bar >:(

As we're walking back to our hotels beach area, another squall comes in so I jump in the water and try again, leaving the missus to stomp back to our beach and frolic with a water buffalo - I kid you not!

Much better for me! Wind comes right up (still gusty) but I get some yahoos in and enjoy another hour or two. Almost make it back up the beach to our spot... but the wind is now gusting hard and I don't want to risk a walk or self-landing in the higher tide, so I get a landing from the little school there...


Movie dialog stuck in my head was from Jaws :-/ "Indicates the non-frenzied feeding of a large squalus..." squalls...  This was no boating accident! Eep.

Wind felt like it was going from about 8 knots to 28 - kite was starting to behave very badly. Best bit of the session was probably 15-20 knots.


What I learned today...
• Best location so far is within walking distance.
• The hat works good.
• Local kids are little bastards.
• The wee school just up the bay are nice guys!