My Birthday Girl

*Chad*
Spending the year in South Australia means that our seasons have flipped; our normal winter months are now long summer days and vice-versa. One of the many advantages of such a flip is that Melissa gets to have another hot birthday; a fact I aimed to capitalize on as much as possible. Since our budget (and time) is limited, I tried to plan a birthday trip for Melissa that would incorporate some distinctly Australian activities and a bit of site seeing at the same time. After a few months of planning, I came up with the perfect trip. We would head over to Port Lincoln, sample some fantastic seafood, see some of the coast line and go on a few adventures.
I think those people that know me wouldn’t really consider me to be a typical sports person; I never got into playing baseball and I don’t care for the NBA. What I do get into is the UFC, surfing, and most importantly, kite boarding! The beauty of kite boarding is that anyone can get into it. One of the first adventures I planned for Melissa’s trip was kite boarding lessons! After some serious searching, I was able to find a place that would teach us both in a private part of Coffin Bay. Yes, we chose to do some kite boarding in a place called Coffin Bay.
Surprisingly, we didn’t have much trouble following the directions to the hidden beach front. We followed a few different dirt roads, past what seemed to be a small collection of shacks then down to a gorgeous secluded bay. The weather was cooperating…..somewhat: the sky was clear, temperature was warm but the wind was blowing. And blowing hard. At one point we had gusts of almost 40 knots. As you can imagine those sort of wind conditions aren’t really conducive for learning to board and I was immediately concerned that we might be in over our heads. After meeting our instructors and assembling our kites we headed out to a small slip of land to try flying on our own.
Even though our practice kite was considerably smaller than an actual “flying” kite, the high gusts tugged and pulled me across the beach. After about 15minutes it was Melissa’s turn. Judging from my experiences I was quit nervous that the kite might be a bit much for her but our instructors didn’t seem to mind. Soon after Melissa got her kite up in the air a massive gust of wind tore across the beach catching her kite with full force. I turned my head just in time to see my beautiful vibrant girlfriend do a wonderful impression of superman. The kite picked her up off the ground and slammed her down, face first, about ten feet away. My heart stopped! I stood there across the beach with my instructor just staring. Although Melissa hit the beach hard, she never let go of her kite. She got up, spit out a mouth full of sand, and kept going. The instructors were seriously impressed. I was impressed but nervous that she hurt herself and was just putting a strong face on it.
The day turned out to be fantastic and exhausting at all the same time. I was given a 9 meter kite to learn with and I was shocked at how much power the thing had. The worst part of the day was trying to tackle the body drag. This procedure has you lying on one side of your body in the water while trying to control a massive kite in 30 knot winds with only one hand. Each time I tried to get down in the water to get in position, waves would begin splashing over my head. The salt water in the face was such a shock; I kept losing control of the kite. The kite would then rip me completely out of the water just to slam me back down. I drank so much salt water I thought I was going to vomit or grow gills.
On the other side of the beach, I was happy to see Melissa getting the hang of things very quickly. She seemed to master the angles and the gist of things much easier than I did. By the end of the day I was exhausted and Melissa was left with some scratches on the face and a re-injured knee. Although we had been physically battered, it was great to try something new and I’m convinced that we are both supposed to be kite boarders!