Yesterday, I drove to Hammonesett Beach in Madison to meet a good friend I've known since high school. Our goal was to get some good exercise walking that beautiful long stretch of beach as a pre-Thanksgiving defense against all the extra calories. I was really looking foward to being out of doors by the water as I had been stuck indoors all week at my "seasonal desk job". It was a sunny, windy, Fall day - good football game weather, as they say - and I was dressed for it with a scarf and gloves. It was windy, 50 plus degrees Farenheit, "warm" for New England at this time and I expected it would be great to be walking on the beach again, getting exercise with a friend, but I did not expect to be transported to another time and another place.
The first surprise was to see 3 colorful windsurfing sails skimming along the waves, their skippers dressed head to toe in black rubber wetsuits, of course! We were happy and excited to see them out there the weekend before Thanksgiving in Connecticut; there were others on the beach who were also entranced, just watching them. My friend, who is not a sailor said, "how can they stand it out there when it is cold and the water is so much colder?". "Well, they are a bit crazy" I said "and in love with the wind". Which is something one just has to feel or not, one can''t really explain it.
As we were walking along enjoying the sight of them skim along on the water with the sunlight and white froth of the waves, my friend was saying she'd never seen windsurfers like that before in action. Since she had visited me once when I lived in California for a few years in the 80's and I thought I remembered taking the Ferry to Sausilito together, where the windsurfers flock around the ferry and surf the rooster tail waves it makes, I asked if she hadn't seen them then. Their skill and ability made me think of kiteboarding and I started talking about that, and another friend's son who is big into kiteboarding. All of a sudden, she said, "Look at that!". I looked in the direction she was pointing and sure enough there was a kiteboarder jumping the waves and getting some serious air, right there on Hammonesett beach! Actually, there were 3 or 4 kiteboarders out there and a kite or two up on the beach, where they had set up their base. Then a man rode by us on a go cart, propelled by a kite. I was so happy and amazed to see this much activity on a beach in Connecticut with winter approaching; I felt like I was back on the California beaches again!
I really wanted to meet the kitesurfers, and saw that one with plaid surfer shorts on over his wetsuit, who had been doing some seriously high jumps and spins in the air (we are talking 15 - 20 feet or so), had landed on the beach saying "I'm done" and had asked one of his buddies to catch his kite. After he derigged, we introduced ourselves and I asked him where they were from and how long he had been kiteboarding. He said "Clinton" and mostly local, although some come down from Rhode Island and he had been kiteboarding since 2003, but it was easy to learn and get good within a year. He pointed to another sail on the water and told me that he had been doing it for just a year. He said they just travel around every weekend to wherever has the best wind, and that this day was minimum windspeed for him to go kiteboarding in the winter. It was blowing about 18 - 20 knots. He said they really like it at 30 knots and had even kiteboarded during Hurricane Irene, although he said the local authorities weren't too happy with them for that.
Mike is also a high school science teacher, photographer and the owner of www.nekiteboard.com. He gives classes in kiteboarding and helps out at the Coast Guard Academy. I'm sure he is very popular with his students and a great role model for staying healthy, fit, sharing his appreciation and enjoyment of our incredible natural resources and pursuing one's passions. Check out his website - I know you'll enjoy it!
