The Thrills and Tribulations of Learning How To Kitesurf

When I told my kitesurfing instructor to never let go of me I truly meant it.

After flying through the night, I arrived in the afternoon of December 31st in Cabarete, 20 minutes east of Puerto Plata, The Dominican Republic. I’d booked a hotel right where all the action is on Kite Beach, a mecca in the kitesurfing world. And what a whimsical sight to see, the bright blue sky filled with colourful dancing kites.

In Cabarete, I was meeting my childhood friend Candace. She has been kitesurfing for 10 years and her love for the sport has taken her all over the world, to Egypt, Mauritius, Brazil, The Canary Islands, and many other exotic locales. She was happy to be back at gorgeous Kite Beach since her last windsurfing trip there in 1995 and to see many of the locals she’d kept in touch with over the years.

In the 1980’s Hawaii was the place to be for watersports. In search of a closer destination, Canadian windsurfer Jean Laporte travelled to The Dominican Republic and after checking out different parts of the island he discovered choice winds along the north coast. For the French-Canadian wind sport magazine Voile Libre, Laporte described the conditions on Kite Beach as perfect because of the “progressive winds, a coral-protected beach and a light…