3 surprise kiting sessions

A work conference in Mexico turned into a wonderful kiting adventure when I got to the hotel and spied Naish kitesurfing banners blowing in the wind.

Just a few hundred steps upwind of the resort was a great kite school with friendly instructors.

I quickly arranged a supervised kite rental for 4pm - I prefer late in the day so I'm not staring into a blazing sun! After getting the 14m kite set up we headed upwind to launch away from the crowd.

Post kite session smile photo! (Next time I'll ask for a photo with my eyes open.)

It has been a year and a half since I kited last so some tips on staying upwind were welcomed. My transitions needed work too. So the supervised rental quickly transformed to a lesson with nice KiteMex instructor Alex.

I did OK and Alex did one nice upwind run with the kite and board for me to start again back upwind and have a second part to my session away from the crowd at the kiteschool beach. I then went for and hour and a half in total eventually being able to keep myself (mostly) upwind.

First session - S/E wind nicely side / onshore but a struggle to stay upwind

The next day it was super windy. I used my trainer kite to give work colleague Andrew a beginner on-land training session. That was fun but we were both a bit freaked out by a novice kiter getting pulled up into a palm tree when he got dragged over the beach and landed his kite in the trees. He was ok but still - kitemares!

I rebuilt my nerve and my 4pm lesson was on a brand new 12m Naish kite. I had an even easier time staying upwind but was fully tired out after an hour and 15 minutes. By the time I got off the water I could barely walk my thighs were so sore. I covered almost 13 km with a max speed of 30 km/h.

Second session - 12m kite more wind and staying upwind better.

On the last day the wind was dropping so I had my lesson at 11am. I could get going on the 16m kite but as the wind started dying eventually I couldn't quite relaunch it. The other Alex came out on a SUP and sailed the kite and board back while I had a fun SUP session. There is a soft wave that breaks on the sandy bottom so I had a few SUP surf wave runs.

Last session, some ok runs but then the struggle to relaunch and lost ground downwind.
Fun SUPing close to shore. Nice waves out beyond the reef. Next time!

All in all what a great surprise to find an awesome kite school with great Naish gear. And how nice to have a bit more time to work on my kiteboarding skills.