Kitefoil session 7

A few wednesdays ago I was able to go out for another day of Foiling. I went to the same spot up north now known as Foil beach, actually in between Fuwairit and Al Ghariya. The beauty of this spot is the depth of the water. Only a few feet in to the sea it becomes deep enough for the 90 cm foil mast to not hit the bottom. And at low tide it still works! The water is sheltered as it is tucked into a bay. This keeps it quite flat too. The only downside being that the wind comes rolling in over the northeastern corner of Qatar, so it isn’t very stable. It has a tendency of being a little offshore too, but today it actually worked out being perfectly sideshore!

For the homefront too there is a wall built across the beach that gives almost 100% shelter from the winds. An excellent little spot to top up the tan or play in the sand, whereas all over the main beach itself the wind makes it too cold to really enjoy, during these wintery days in Qatar.

The foiling itself was good fun! I started off on my 9m Rebel, sizing up to the 12m by 3pm, as the winds dropped from around 16-17 knots to more like 13 and then less by the end of the afternoon, just like the forecast off of Windguru..

Waterstarts are becoming more consistent! The right amount of power and the right movement of the board coordinated with my feet and all at the right speed keeping also the correct balance are really a handful in the beginning. Like everything, you need to just do it over and over to develop an automation within you that will eventually enable to do it without crunching the brain and muscles as to what should happen next! The feeling of progression, however small, is so exciting!

Actually foiling along is magical. Once the foil is flying all noise and drag seems to just disappear and you are gliding along. At good height above the water! And with such a lightness combined with effortless speed… just amazing. I can now start to assess the right height above the water when having the foil flying. It is very easy to overcontrol the thing, meaning you will be too high so the foil comes out of the water momentarily only to result in a steep nosedive and then a crash.. I need to just spend more and more time to get familiar with the visual picture.. Unfortunately time is precious and even the weather here in Qatar has taken a wintery turn meaning lots of showers, combined with very inconsistent winds.. Whereas normally practically every day in Qatar is a kite day!

Until the next adventure… keep flying and sharing my blog!! =)

Oh! I've included a video with some retrospective talk back on the beach.. didn't want to let this episode go by without any image material!

Kitefoiling day out

Lucky me I was able to go out for another adventure just a couple days after the previous one.. The forecast was looking good for kitefoiling, 14-17 knots sideshore forecast for a place recently becoming known as Foil Beach up north in Qatar!

I have been kitefoiling for a while now, at least I own the equipment since end of October last year. I have been kitesurfing since 2010, and absolutely love that sport. The feeling of freedom on the water is just amazing. Now imagine kitefoiling, easily double the fun!! I became inspired first through Youtube I suppose, and then found out the KiteFoil WorldCup was taking place here in Qatar. Now the forecast for that event was 5-8 knots almost every day so I didn't think it would go through... Well there were races every day! The Foil just enables to surf with so much less drag that it feels like you don't need any wind at all..

But first you need to learn how to control it.. The board with the foil attached behaves completely different in the water, so much so that even regular water dragging with the board becomes almost impossible. Dragging around was all I could manage for the first session. By today I was up to session number 6.. and I am managing to get the foil flying short whiles in a controlled manner now! I am planning to post a video diary of my kitefoiling progression. I hope I'll have time for that soon. For today here's an update with some of the best photos of the session. Enjoy and see you soon... Like if you like - It's at the bottom!!

- The Ultimate Freggle

Paragliding Adventure

So I recently figured, after reading some other inspiring stories, it is time to share my adventures with the world! Maybe just so I can revisit them myself, or maybe even to entertain or inspire some others. I have a few sports that I am crazy about and writing about them will be a great opportunity to relive those exciting moments again!

The sports that have always intrigued me are all related to the elements of the world we live in. Meaning basically wind (air) and water.. I love flying and almost anything that flies. Kitesurfing and Kitefoiling, Paragliding and Paramotoring and drone flying are top of my list. They are all sports that I have been wanting to get good at since I was about 5. Really, ask my wife and she will confirm that for you!

I am lucky enough to be able to travel relatively easy at limited cost, so I should be (and already have been) able to enjoy all these sports at some amazing locations around the globe..

Now I am really keen to edit some epic videos of my adventures and show them to the world on Youtube or Vimeo. But I have to be realistic at the same time and admit that editing a good video will only be possible once in a while. Writing a piece for my blog is so much quicker and still really fun! For sure do expect in the future to find some epic videos in the mix here as well..

So today I will start off with an impression of an awesome day of paragliding at my 'local' spot, half an hour from where I live, in the desert sand dunes of Qatar.

To be honest I have a unique location here that offers flyable conditions very often. Whenever the wind is forecast to be light, it will practically always turn to be of easterly direction at some point during the day, and stay like that until sunset. Yesterday, friday the 20th January was such a day. Initially the forecast predicted wind strength enough for kitefoiling ( I need about 10 knots at my current proficiency level to start actually enjoying the kitefoiling practice). But when arriving at the scene it had dropped down to a calm 4- 5 knots... much more like perfect paragliding conditions! Today was an odd day as the wind was very southerly in direction, with the dune needing a bit more of an easterly element. After having some snacks, the wind did what it does almost every light day and turned more easterly so I could fly. I was lucky enough to have a camera team in the form of Jolynn and Yosha on site to record some of the proceedings!!

I hope you'll enjoy this first post and send me some feedback  or subscribe if you feel like it!

See you soon and fly high,

The Ultimate Freggle, more commonly known as Reinier.