Okay, so the day we were going to head to Nananui the wind picked up. We decided to stay and went with some of the locals to the Naveua River mouth. This place is a kitesurfers dream. Reefs break all the big waves so its pretty much flat water and at low tide the water is less then 1ft deep most places. We abandoned buying the GK Sonic and picked up a 15m 2005 Slingshot Fuel instead. Additionally, Rob brought along his 2006 Slingshot Turbo Diesel which I was lucky enough to ride for 3 hours.
On our first day here about 10 of us came in two boats and walked all our gear out to the tide flats. There was maybe 2 sq. miles of shallow tide flats for us to play in so no one ran out of space. Corey and Jon unpacked our brand new Fuel while I setup Robs Turbo Diesel. Within 10 minutes a few kiters were out making lines. After 20 we were all setup and riding.
Corey and Jon seemed to be having fun on our new kite but I was too preoccupied with the kite I was borrowing from Rob. The 2006 Slingshot Turbo Diesel is widely regarded as one of the best bow kites. Some say the best kite on the market today. Bow kites allow you to depower the kite 100% anytime you want whereas traditional "C-Kites" can only achieve about 30% depower. They also have about 30% more power then a C Kite of the same size. Riding this thing was a blast, I had more then enough power but never felt out of control like I often do with C Kites. The kite also has an excellent ability to get up wind.
Anyways, after 4 hours or so at the beach it started getting dark so we packed up all the gear and headed back. Tired and sore from riding all day we all passed out early and slept like rocks that night. The next day we all went back out to the same spot only this time we drove. This day the wind wasn't quite as strong so we were struggling to stay up wind. Also, Rob didn't bring his Turbo Diesel so the three of us had to share the new 15m Fuel (I tried my 12m M80 but was way underpowered).
We kited back and fourth for maybe another 4 hours and had a good light wind session before packing it in. Toby and Dave were doing some good jumps with their 20m kites well we were tryin our best with our 15m. At the end of the day we again headed home sore and tired but finally felt satisfied after 2 full days of kitesurfing.
Eager for more we awoke to try to ride but were dissapointed we another lightwind day. That was yesterday and today was another dissapointment. Absolutely no wind whatsoever. We can't do this waiting thing again so tommorow if its not blowing early we're heading up to Nananui.
Today I also made the decision to take Robs Turbo Diesel off his hands. This one kite has the range of an 18m C-Kite down to a 9m C-Kite and is much safer. Now I'm going nuts because I have it and can't fly it. Anyways, will write again from Nananui. Ciao!A Kitesurfer's Travels in Fiji
Kite-surfing looks like a fun activity to do. I can't believe you really traveled to Fiji for 5 weeks doing only kite-surfing.
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