Go fly a kite

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, Sept, 2004 by Faye Romero

Kiteboarding lets you go sailing, sailing over the ocean blue.

I've always wanted to fly. That's how I found myself standing at the ocean's edge on the southern tip of Spain, strapped to a kite the size of a family tent. Beyond me, above the shimmering sea, dozens of people were flying up into the sky. Pulled by crescent-shaped kites, they carved the air in balletic twirls and flips. Then they landed on the water and glided forward before taking flight again. They were kiteboarding.

Imagine a windsurfer without a sail--pulled instead by the lines of a giant kite. When the kite catches a big gust, it can lift the boarder out of the water altogether, carrying her through the air for a few seconds at a time.

I was wearing the same gear, but could I do the same thing? Four days earlier, when I had arrived in the windswept town of Tarifa to learn the sport, I had no doubt. To gaze at an ocean full of fearless kiteboarders is to embrace the delusion: It looked alluringly easy.

Sobriety, however, hit hard on the first day of class, as I stood in my instructor's shop. He was handing me a lunatic amount of equipment: a wetsuit, board, harness, helmet, ropes, boots, gloves and several kites of varying sizes. The larger the kite, the harder the pull, he explained. He must have sensed my urge to quit and seek out a yoga class because he offered the perfect antidote: Women, he said, make the best students due to their superior sense of balance.

I began with the smallest kite. The first time I tried to fly it (on land; water would come later) the kite flew me. My instructor yelled in Spanish, "Sueltalo"--let go! I released a bar that held the ropes taut to the kite and it crumpled to the ground just as my chin hit the sand.

With gusty winds, it took me four days to master kite-flying. By then, I had forgotten that the sport also involved a board. But the time had come to launch. I stepped into the ocean and slid my feet into the board's bindings. Then I lowered my kite into the wind and was off. That first time, I felt a rush of fear mixed with joy, which quickly collapsed along with me when I lost my balance. This happened many times, but less--I was sure--than it happened to men.

Coughing up salt water, I looked out at the pros. Some were flying 40 feet above the sea. It would take many more classes to do that. By day's end, I wanted only to glide. On my last try, I did it. And for a second, my board lifted up above the water. I was flying.

For more information on kitesurfing, go to www.kitesurfing.com.