20 Bags of spanking new 2010 North kites, boards, pumps & directional boards arrived safely to Boa Vista along with our eldest son, Oliver travelling from Exmouth on his own! The swell & wind forcast wasamazing and although I felt responsible for daily decison making all of these people were kitesurfers that owned shops so did not need their hands holding.

By day 2 it became apparent that my primary role was to look after & keep entertained the magazines: Rou from Ikitesurf, Dom from kitesurf mag and Jim from kiteworld. Bahia was a favourite spot- easy to launch/land &access some of the larger breaks around the small island. Many of the days the wind here was so off shore it made it difficult to get in front of the wave enough to get the bottom turn in.

ENGLISH REEF- SPOOKEY SESSION:namd after an English vessel that lies at the bottom of the ocean shipwrecked many years ago. Having spent a total of 5 weeks on this island and never got to kite this reef, day 3 seemed the perfect opportunity. I set up the boat & we spent a morning organising camara equipment etc. Just looking out it looked absolutely huge- 1 mile off shore! We arranged a deal for 50 euro’s and with a heavy shore break we got Dom in the boat & swiflty followed, me on the trusty 7 mtr evo with the Wam Unstrapped. The boys could not believe I was taking this and thought I would be doing alot of swimming. The kite downwind over the grey rolling swells was apprehensive But then I see the trip has been gatecrashed. Twin tips and randon kites were all following & must have been informed by ‘Danny- the local who we paid to use the boat! Now re-named GATE- CRASHERS- the ‘engles reef’ was every bit & more scary than what it looked from the shore. The break was like a ledge & sucked hard as you took the big drop towards the bottom of the ocean on some of the sets. I had never been in waves like it but kept my head together& fully committed to the session. Making a bottom turn and climbing back up the lip was just ridiculous, but at least I was’nt in the boat! the boat was the sort that you would use as a tender to get to your proper boat! I can not believe they got any shots at all with so much water, spray & movement. The swells were coming fast & high, by sun-down we all wanted to quit while we were ahead & get away from the spookey reef! A long upwind sail back inn followed by an evening of reflection & also excitement for what the following day had in store!