Tyrone Rawlins

This year I decided to get more involved with kiting in South Africa and got a bee in my bonnet to put an event together. The Struisbaai kite festival has happened for the last 2 years, in conjunction with a Yellow Tail Fishing contest.

I got an awesome response from the kiting community who were very eager for the event to happen, so much so that there were way too many prizes and ended up raffling off most of the prizes to the 45 entrants 12 of which were girls - great to see they are getting involved.

There was a host of top international riders that came to the event to either compete or just hang out: Aaron Hadlow, Kevin Laangeree, Christian, Helen Thompson, Emma York, Jo Wilson and a bundle of South Africa's top riders.

The event is a weekend long, and is really just an excuse to get out of Cape Town and get everybody together for a good time - day and night, everybody hangs out at the backpackers in the evening sharing stories, listening to music and getting out of hand.

The event itself is either coarse racing or big air depending on the conditions. This allows anybody at any level to enter, allowing beginners to ride with the pros at no major disadvantage. It rained most of the weekend, but on Sunday the skies cleaned up and the wind was perfect. 20knots clean warm water and 4 foot waves - coarse racing was on...

The swell provided for many thrills and spills, the coarse was very fast: beach start, out through the swell around a buoy and back to the beach.

Everybody seemed to have had a good time that weekend and people were stoked with the prizes they got. Thanks to Terri Kidson who put so much effort in helping to make the weekend such a success. Carl, Cornel and the backpackers' for all their help on the weekend.

Helen Thompson (Scotland) won the ladies division. I ended up winning the men's - I swear it was not rigged... haha, never thought I would ever win a speed event.

Kevin Langeree has been coming to South Africa for 4 months at a time for the last 3 years and never left Cape Town. I was going to Durban for my Brother's birthday, so I told him and photographer Craig Kolesky to join me for a trip.

Midbay Motors from Richards Bay sponsored us a vehicle for the trip. We spent 5 days cruising around in our rocking VW Tourang with aircon which got well used in the Durban heat and humidity.

On arriving at Durban Airport, we shot off down the coast to Scotborogh for a good session in the warm Indian Ocean. We headed home to watch the A1 Grand Prix which was happening in Durban that day - Kevin was overwhelmed to a Dutch team in the event.

Monday there was no wind, so a tour around Durban's city and to the kite shops. We then headed up to Gateway Shopping Centre to the Wavehouse to have a go on the artificial wave. We spent the whole afternoon as well as every other afternoon we were in Durban battering and bruising ourselves. Kevin caught on quickly, and Craig enjoyed getting barreled.

Tuesday morning we rushed off back down the coast to Scottborogh for some swell to surf, but when we got there, the wind was already howling - no worries we will go kiting... but neither of us had packed a pump!!! We headed back up the coast to Amamzintoti to Warner Beach. This beach has an outcrop of rocks which makes the inside section very smooth, unfortunately it was only 10am and everybody was still at work so we still had no pump. We eventually headed to kite beach - basically where we left from in the first place, there were a few kiters hanging around who enjoyed the riding they got to see. Before heading back to the Wavehouse, we stopped in the La Mercy Lagoon for a quick flat water session. That evening we went to Taco Zulu - a great little Mexican restaurant owned by Pro surfer (now kiting) Richard Sills for some Burrito's and Tequila's.

Wednesday morning was my brother's birthday - so another early wake up call. After dropping him at school we headed inland towards Pietersmaritzburg to the Lion Park. We lucked out, seeing so many animals: Elephants, a variety of buck, zebra and of coarse lions... our car was chased by a male - must have liked the smell of Kevin. After our drive through the Lion Park, we headed back to the coast and up the north to Richards Bay to thank Midbay Motors for the vehicle. After a quick meet and greet and some pictures for the local newspaper, we headed for the beach. We had a great session at Alkastrand Beach - flat inside sections with little kickers and waves on the outside. The water was a little dirty as they pump sand from the habour into the beach, which is the reason for such good waves and conditions - the bottom is totally flat. We arrived home to a huge birthday dinner for my brother.

We took Kevin out to experience the Durban lifestyle and see some of the quality of the Durban ladies. We also almost tried our hand at the casino, but got over it and opted for bed instead. 

Thursday was a later start and a day to relax, we visited the Durban beach front, but the surf was not that good, so we decided to head back to the Wavehouse for one last time. After dinner we headed for the airport where we sat on the runway for 45 minutes waiting for 1 passenger to board. It was a great trip, thanks to Craig for the pictures, Midbay Motors for the great car and my mom and dad for feeding and putting up with us for the week

Early morning on the 26^th December 2006, we met to leave on a short but intense road trip up the east coast of South Africa. The trip consisted of: Ruben Lenten, Aaron Hadlow, Leeshai Miller, Greg Thjisse and myself, as well as photographer Craig Kolesky and our poor non kiting driver Greg Miller.                      

5 energetic kiters in a vehicle with playstation, DVD's and a pimping sound system - a real recipe for trouble. We wreaked havoc everywhere we went, the fridge full of Redbulls and beer only intensified the amount of trouble we were going to cause.

We stopped at Stilbaai for a kite session and a surf after lunch. It was the middle of holiday season, so the campsite was packed with young brandy drinking college kids who disturb our sleep all night with their music, but Ruben got them back by pumping his outrageously high tempo'd trance music at 5 in the morning as we were leaving.

We ended up in St Francis - great little surf session at Seal's Point. We then lost very body when we went shopping in Jeffries Bay. Aaron and Leeshai were on a mission to clear out the Billabong Factory shop... Ruben and Greg on the other hand missioned for an hour to find one hat for Greg that he never ended up buying... That evening we just chilled in our well organized campsite, listening to Greg and Leeshai play some tunes on their guitars.

Another early start, now heading back to Cape Town, we stopped at the world's highest bridge bungee jump - but the 5 hour wait in the line put us off and we continued for Knysna.  We had an enjoyable warm flat water session as the sun was setting. We headed to Vic Bay to set up camp for the final time.

The whole trip, Aaron and Ruben had tried to bug Greg as much as possible. Eventually Greg got them back by cooking dinner for them and spicing up their food with Brooklax - it meant we had to stop every 30 minutes for them on the way home, and Ruben followed thru and had to throw his underwear away...DON'T MESS WITH GREG...

The gas station where Ruben had his little follow thru accident!!

4 days, 2 surf and 2 kite sessions and plenty of laughs... thanks to Craig for organizing the trip, Greg for Cape Ability for the vehicle, Redbull and all the small towns of South Africa which we stormed thru...

No sooner than arriving home from the tour, did I pack up and head off to Cape Town. Once there, I received my quiver of '07 Vegas kites (they are great). Then it was off to South Africa's biggest kitesurfing event ever "The Jim Beam Extreme."

It was held at the Strand Kite Club - an excellent venue for an event and the organizers went all out in making it a great place to hang out: free drinks, food, swimming pool, couches and a marquee to cover everybody from the beating sun.

The freestyle was good fun with Kevin Langeree snatching victory from Greg Thjisse(who knocked me out into 5^th place).

The coarse racing drew the biggest amount of entrants... people thought it was pretty funny when both my dad and 12 year old brother beat me - I wasn't laughing...Colin Heckroodt won the race, chased by Greg Thjisse who snuck just in front of my dad.

The prize giving and after party was held at Café Miam - it was quite hysterical seeing the bouncers face when he saw my brothers name on the list. The crowd was entertained by the legendary duo of "Goldfish" as well as the newly formed band "Nungarin" headed up by Greg Thjisse.

There was free Jim Beam flowing which kick started an awesome all night party - the boys and girls got out of hand - as you do!!