After running 122 km (75.8 miles) in six days, I thought I would go on what the Aussies call a holiday (vacation). I'm now up in Noosa for three days playing tourist, giving a go at kitesurfing, and fitting in some runs and swims here and there. I have a kitesurfing lesson video, and after waiting 4 hours to upload the video and still only 51% complete, I gave up (I will not miss the wifi in this country). The wind was so-so but since I am only here for three days, my instructor said we should just give it a go. He set me up on the real deal today, no beginner rig (10 meter kite with 25 meter strings for those in the know). Since the wind wasn't so great today, I got a lot of practice learning to keep my kite in the wind window and learning to relaunch, things considered mundane to most kitesurfers. But for me, I love the physics behind kitesurfing so I actually really liked surfing in the window and relaunching my kite. Relaunching takes patience and much more skill, especially in days with less wind--I liken it to fly-fishing. But sadly, we had to call it a day and I never got to actually surf on the board. However, I did do a lot of body drags (where the kite drags your body along the water) and I got to experience some of the rush. I really am hooked on this sport and I'll be finding ways to keep up the lessons back at home. Now I just have to save $2440 for the gear.
But before the kitesurfing lesson, I had to squeeze in a run and a swim. My mind must have been on holiday because I had a bit of motivational issues. For the run, I just decided to make it fun. Since I am 100 meters from the beach, I ran down to the sand and did my run right next to the ocean. To give you an idea of how expansive Australia beaches are, I ran a 2 km section where I did not see one other person, granted it was also eight in the morning. Banked the run. Now off for a swim at the world famous Noosa Aquatic Centre, home of famous triathlete sightings: The Bennetts, the Grangers, Luke McKenzie just to name a few, they all swim here. Once again, the Universe took care of me. As I was standing on deck procrastinating, in walks Javier Gomez--you know, Mr. ITU World Champion. I've had lots of practice being in this type of situation (last week, I bumped into Emma Snowsill and Craig Walton again while doing 1 km repeats) and well, I'll let the pics speak for themselves. Totally cool guy, so freakin' down-to-earth. And though he is a world champion, and I'm a nobody, I kept thinking in my head during our conversation, he sure is asking a lot of questions. Three things: Javi was totally into the underwater camera, my bumping into all of these pro's tell me I'm definitely keeping "pro hours", and looking at Javi, I'm not the only one that likes to rock the white speedo. Thanks Universe, I needed that.
After running 122 km (75.8 miles) in six days, I thought I would go on what the Aussies call a holiday (vacation). I'm now up in Noosa for three days playing tourist, giving a go at kitesurfing, and fitting in some runs and swims here and there. I have a kitesurfing lesson video, and after waiting 4 hours to upload the video and still only 51% complete, I gave up (I will not miss the wifi in this country). The wind was so-so but since I am only here for three days, my instructor said we should just give it a go. He set me up on the real deal today, no beginner rig (10 meter kite with 25 meter strings for those in the know). Since the wind wasn't so great today, I got a lot of practice learning to keep my kite in the wind window and learning to relaunch, things considered mundane to most kitesurfers. But for me, I love the physics behind kitesurfing so I actually really liked surfing in the window and relaunching my kite. Relaunching takes patience and much more skill, especially in days with less wind--I liken it to fly-fishing. But sadly, we had to call it a day and I never got to actually surf on the board. However, I did do a lot of body drags (where the kite drags your body along the water) and I got to experience some of the rush. I really am hooked on this sport and I'll be finding ways to keep up the lessons back at home. Now I just have to save $2440 for the gear.
But before the kitesurfing lesson, I had to squeeze in a run and a swim. My mind must have been on holiday because I had a bit of motivational issues. For the run, I just decided to make it fun. Since I am 100 meters from the beach, I ran down to the sand and did my run right next to the ocean. To give you an idea of how expansive Australia beaches are, I ran a 2 km section where I did not see one other person, granted it was also eight in the morning. Banked the run. Now off for a swim at the world famous Noosa Aquatic Centre, home of famous triathlete sightings: The Bennetts, the Grangers, Luke McKenzie just to name a few, they all swim here. Once again, the Universe took care of me. As I was standing on deck procrastinating, in walks Javier Gomez--you know, Mr. ITU World Champion. I've had lots of practice being in this type of situation (last week, I bumped into Emma Snowsill and Craig Walton again while doing 1 km repeats) and well, I'll let the pics speak for themselves. Totally cool guy, so freakin' down-to-earth. And though he is a world champion, and I'm a nobody, I kept thinking in my head during our conversation, he sure is asking a lot of questions. Three things: Javi was totally into the underwater camera, my bumping into all of these pro's tell me I'm definitely keeping "pro hours", and looking at Javi, I'm not the only one that likes to rock the white speedo. Thanks Universe, I needed that.
2 comments:
sweet! sounds like a fun time in oz!! good luck with the kitesurfing, that's a tough one to learn (but I'm retarded when it comes to wind!)
I hate you.
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