A two hour car journey from Negombo saw us passing lagoons, rivers and lakes. I was getting excited about the fishing and already.
The journey showed us quickly the true pecking order of the road. Cyclists are very clearly the lowest, followed by cars, then trucks, then tuktuk and at the top of the pile buses. Sri Lankan buses will stop for nothing except passengers. We’d considered taking a tuk tuk but the eggshell fragility of them combined with the crazy driving put us off. Great in town, long journeys no way.
We finally drew close to our destination – Kitekuda –http://srilankakiteschool.com/ near the Kapalady lagoon. Google Maps was our guide and it kindly sent us the back route down sandy paths much to the horror of our driver. A 4×4 would’ve been more useful than his brand new hybrid. A few signs to the Kitekuda camp would’ve been handy too.
As we arrived we were greeted by our old friend John Clark. John had been staying at Kitekuda for a while and had recommended it to us. Zak, Nils, Ola, Maufeer and Nilanka were our hosts and promptly made us welcome with an impressive lunch. The wind was up so lunch was wolfed down in a hurry, boards assembled and then a short walk showed us what we’d been waiting for. A beautiful flat lagoon, 5 kiters and about 20 knots. Happy days. Incredible first day. Good winds, good vibes and great food.
Back at Kitekuda camp, Nilanka, and his team had rustled up a fantastic selection of curries, sides and rice all washed down with a can of special brew… which was unfortunately the only thing the local booze shop had to offer. Tramp juice and curry – yum.
Talk at the dinner table was all about a Kite safari programmed for the next day.
We hadn’t planned on going anywhere, having only just arrived but a few pictures and videos later we were signed up for a two day trip to Vella island via Dream Spot.
Kitekuda have a beautiful Kite boat, sporting twin Yamaha 90 engines. This rib was sure to fly.
We started the journey to Vella from Kalpitya lagoon. Kalpitya is the larger Kite lagoon in the area with more space but with gustier winds. Still looked pretty awesome but Kapalady is quieter and has a much shorter walk to the beach.
The rib absolutely flew with Nils at the helm who expertly navigated the surprisingly shallow lagoon. Twenty minutes later we arrived at dream spot.
A sand bar separated our play area from the sea, giving nice flat water with enough depth for my hydrofoil. Winds were unfortunately lower than expected but perfect for foilboarding. I had done quite a bit of research about foilboarding in Sri Lanka but couldn’t find much out. Dream spot works. Foiling was easy here with winds so smooth and water so flat. I even pulled off some nice foiling tacks. The water here is deep enough to foil even with a few touchdowns. I ripped about for an hour or so until the others gave up. Their hearts were only for Vella And the wind was a bit light so off we went. Dream spot is good but we were about to find out why the others were so eager to get to vella.
Vella island is a narrow but long sand bar, occupied only by fishermen and the odd kiter. The leeward side of the island has butter flat water tight against the shoreline, mix that with 20 knot winds and you understand why we made the trip. 10m edge and darkslide paradise.
It was incredible to blast those flats with the rest of the group. Everyone was pushing hard and using the exceptional conditions for some good progression. John was really getting to grips with riding blind. Cathy was after a front to blind. Angry Louis was showing pure determination to nail his raley to blind. Omrii was getting to grips with jumping and Harry the backrolls.
Mawfeer threw himself into the mix with some crazy aggressive front roll kiteloops and interesting front loops popped from the beach. Maufeer is a great local rider to watch and is non stop comedy on and off the water.
Our digs for the night was an open sided fisherman’s hut which had space for at least 10. All of us were pretty broken and silence soon enveloped the camp. Apart from the 20 knots of wind howling all around us and the hourly visit from the local hounds.
The morning saw us rise with the sun and with the water all to ourselves it would’ve been rude not to have a blast before breakfast. Each of us had moments where we were the only one kiting in this paradise. It took about 90 seconds to rip from the tip of the island to the point where it bears off slightly downwind.
As you scream along the slicks inches from the beach the local fisherman are busy at work fixing their nets right alongside.
Tired from the kiting it was time to take the camera out.
The sun and too much kiting had obviously taken its toll on John. He was walking about in his underwear, muttering about tan lines. Next thing he was off kiting in the same attire. His riding was even better than the previous day though a couple of crashes saw some near lens shattering wardrobe malfunctions. Cathy was managing a few nice darkslides, omrii was boosting and Mawfeer was up to mischief as usual.
I went for a wander to watch the fisherman at work. I asked permission before every photo and always received the head waggle. My head waggle understanding was still at the same basic level as in Negombo. Waggle means yes, I hope…
The windward beach of the island was deserted apart from an army of nervous crabs scurrying along the shoreline.
An armada of kiters from another camp descended downwind onto our little paradise so it was time to leave and let them enjoy the butter too.
What a trip. Thanks to Nils and Mawfeer at Kitekuda for organising it.
If anyone wants to do a trip to vella island I would recommend getting in touch with Nils at Kitekuda – http://srilankakiteschool.com/
I highly recommend it.
Coming up
Light winds throw up a big surprise.
