Duotone Diversity Magazine No.02 2020

EARN YOUR TURN To engage wholeheartedly and examine both a wave and yourself, you really need to ride your spot. “Earn Your Turn”. Don’t just blast down the line of uncountable waves for kilometres and kilometres on your way downwind. It’s not the perfect spot, but it’s my favourite spot in Cape Town. It’s a wave arena spanning over a hundred-meter stretch of beach, in which I can pick the best waves depending on the tide. But it’s also an arena that gets terrorized by downwind locusts several times a day. These inconsiderate kiters of very questionable abilities blast straight through my spot. Are they not able to tack upwind? Do they think they catch the best waves if they just hightail it downwind for long enough? That’s not for me. I want to get deeply, utterly involved with one spot. I want to get to know and examine the waves, to fully tune in with them and to see how they change throughout the session with the tide. I want to observe and study the waves, to feel, smell, sense them, become one with them and understand where they break and why in order to ride them better, longer and more precisely. Exploring the wave, I want to find the exact split second that the lip holds off from breaking that allows me to stick a turn deep into the pocket without getting smashed by the raging whitewater coming down the face. The wave at my favourite spot is not perfect, but she does allow me to do three, four, sometimes five turns. I aim to ride the wave as perfectly as I can before jibing close to the beach and tacking back upwind. Riding upwind – a state of riding that doesn’t exist in the repertoire of a downwind kiter. Instead, they pump up their thighs by permanently remaining in the same stance doing turns all session long. They have no idea how good it feels to have a bit of a breather after a good wave-ride, to change stance and shift the weight whilst tacking back upwind. The perfect opportunity to reflect on the last ride, the concentration gets a rest too, the tension reduces. It’s a time for me to gather strength, mentally and physically. Plus, I’m studying the waves on my way back out: Where do they break now, has anything changed? One tack and I’m back out exactly where I want to be to pick off the next wave. Is that too much effort? Sure, I also had a crack at the classic Cape Town downwinder. My friends pushed me into it. For most of the session, we had fluctuating wind conditions and certainly didn’t score the best waves at any of the spots we kited through. We all agreed at the end of it: It’s alright to have done it once, but once is enough. Downwinders are like fast food. They’re about inhaling the waves, quantity and not quality. Most of the time I see downwind kiters doing one or two turns on a wave, then dropping down to the next break. Downwind kiters don’t take the waves seriously nor the spots, they just fly fleetingly past – and by that, miss out on pretty much everything that you should get involved in during a wave session. Finally, on a different note: To shuttle back upwind by car to the starting point of the downwinder – and that maybe even three or four times a day – was that ever the idea behind kiting? Bernd Zerelles DOWNWINDERS ARE DOPE Traveling is without a doubt the best way to experience something new, to gain fresh insights and different perspectives as well as to broaden one’s horizon. It inspires and helps to unleash our creativity. We travel to satisfy our thirst for adventure and to discover new things. It’s up to us to realize this freedom, to set off to new shores and to decide where our journey will take us, for how long, and whether alone or in company of others. For me, travel mustn’t be rushed or be restless. I seek to stay at places that I enjoy and continue my journey when I’m keen to explore new horizons. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe put it perfectly “You’re not traveling in order to arrive but in order to travel.” And that’s exactly the appeal of a downwinder. It’s all about the journey towards a destination and everything along the way and not about the actual arrival. On a downwinder, I always experience something new and can fully live out my creativity both in my riding and in the path I choose through the surf along kilometres of the coast with every wave being unique. Now that’s traveling. Some days, I discover spots with the perfect set-up. Imagine, a picture perfect lefthander consistently breaking in the same place, grinding mechanically down the reef, with cross-offshore wind, super clean wave faces, my board cutting through the water, no bouncing around and beautiful soft and smooth riding. That’s exactly the feeling we’re all chasing; and even better, with not a single soul around! I carve lines on the wave like a surgeon – bottom-turn, top-turn, bottom-turn… I head back out to sea and start my dance with the elements all over again. After a while, I’m starting to itch for something new. This consistently perfectly breaking wave suddenly reminds me of a man-made standing wave in a big shopping mall or a wave pool. A slight boredom sets in and I’m starting to froth for new adventures. I feel it’s time to keep on going and to explore new horizons. Realising my freedom I do exactly that. Kiting further downwind I enjoy the gorgeous view of the coastline from the water. Soon I notice other kitesurfers popping up on the horizon ahead. I can’t figure out exactly their number, just that there are too many to count. All of them blasting around in a small area and right in between the madness: a wave!!! I can’t even fathom how these kiters know which one is their kite. They’re all way too close to each other. Respecting the right-of-way rules, I’m attempting to filter into the frenzy – somehow it seems I’m the only one bothering about having any etiquette. Some clown comes racing straight at me with his kite up high turning onto the wave and cutting everybody else off, another kiter has just dropped his kite in the line-up, somebody else is screaming and swearing, another one is flipping the bird to fellow kiter, and then there’s this guy on a Twintip who just got smashed with a dogleash wrapped around his helmet. Oh my God, where did I end up? I take it, this is where the motto applies “earn your turn”. No thanks – and with no hesitation I’m setting off to new horizons. Philipp Knecht Photo Toby Bromwich Photo Svetlana Romantsova 107 O P P O S I T E 106 P O S I T I O N DOWNWINDERS ARE DOPE Traveling is without a doubt the best way to experience something new, to gain fresh insights and different perspectives as well as to broaden one’s horizon. It inspires and helps to unleash our creativity. We travel to satisfy our thirst for adventure and to discover new things. It’s up to us to realize this freedom, to set off to new shores and to decide where our journey will take us, for how long, and whether alone or in company of others. For me, travel mustn’t be rushed or be restless. I seek to stay at places that I enjoy and continue my journey when I’m keen to explore new horizons. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe put it perfectly “You’re not traveling in order to arrive but in order to travel.” And that’s exactly the appeal of a downwinder. It’s all about the journey towards a destination and everything along the way and not about the actual arrival. On a downwinder, I always experience something new and can fully live out my creativity both in my riding and in the path I choose through the surf along kilometres of the coast with every wave being unique. Now that’s traveling. Some days, I discover spots with the perfect set-up. Imagine, a picture perfect lefthander consistently breaking in the same place, grinding mechanically down the reef, with cross-offshore wind, super clean wave faces, my board cutting through the water, no bouncing around and beautiful soft and smooth riding. That’s exactly the feeling we’re all chasing; and even better, with not a single soul around! I carve lines on the wave like a surgeon – bottom-turn, top-turn, bottom-turn… I head back out to sea and start my dance with the elements all over again. After a while, I’m starting to itch for something new. This consistently perfectly breaking wave suddenly reminds me of a man-made standing wave in a big shopping mall or a wave pool. A slight boredom sets in and I’m starting to froth for new adventures. I feel it’s time to keep on going and to explore new horizons. Realising my freedom I do exactly that. Kiting further downwind I enjoy the gorgeous view of the coastline from the water. Soon I notice other kitesurfers popping up on the horizon ahead. I can’t figure out exactly their number, just that there are too many to count. All of them blasting around in a small area and right in between the madness: a wave!!! I can’t even fathom how these kiters know which one is their kite. They’re all way too close to each other. Respecting the right-of-way rules, I’m attempting to filter into the frenzy – somehow it seems I’m the only one bothering about having any etiquette. Some clown comes racing straight at me with his kite up high turning onto the wave and cutting everybody else off, another kiter has just dropped his kite in the line-up, somebody else is screaming and swearing, another one is flipping the bird to fellow kiter, and then there’s this guy on a Twintip who just got smashed with a dogleash wrapped around his helmet. Oh my God, where did I end up? I take it, this is where the motto applies “earn your turn”. No thanks – and with no hesitation I’m setting off to new horizons. 106 P O S I T I O N