Kitesurfing Featured on 'Future: The Pride of Sri Lanka'

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(Thanks Mr. Philip & Srilal, Nadun A and Previne W)

Beautiful KK - Kalpitiya Kids

If ever you decide to come to Sri Lanka, bring some educational gifts for the kids. Reading, Drawing, Pens, Pencils, English Books, Science Books...lets get them interested in Education and prepare them for a brave new world of oppotunities.

Ajmal's bro on the extreme right - wonder if he'll kite too

Extreme right is a naughty boy but sweet!

Limited Edition Kitesurfing Sri Lanka T Shirt! (a t shirt with a difference)

Be part of Kitesurfing history in Sunny Sri Lanka. Obtain your very own limited edition Kitesurfing Sri Lanka T Shirt for Rs. 1,000! The design is very simple but the t shirts will make a difference!

A percentage of the money from the t shirts will be used to buy Art Books and Chalk for the Kids in Kalpitiya. Kid love to be kids and you have the power to make a differnce. Simply book your t shirt now!

The first edition t shirts will be in Navy Blue with a Yellow Print in the front and back of the t shirt. The logo consist of a kitesurfer in the front with Kitesurfing Sri Lanka printed. On the back the shape of Paradise Island shown by the very things that make it paradise! Tropical Climate, Nature, Wild Life and a Rich History!

Rs. 1,000 and a percentage will go for the Kids Art Project.
Buy a Limited Edition T Shirt and make a change!

Kitesurfing will alter your LIFE!

The Kite Gang Talks!

Kite Surfing
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Keshini Hapugoda might be Sri Lanka’s first female kite surfer. The 28-year-old IT consultant loves to surf and dive, and kite surfing is her latest passion. A few weekends with an instructor in Negombo have helped her learn the basics of kite surfing and while she’s sticking to the shallows now, she’s hoping to head into deeper water soon.
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Dilsiri Welikala is already comfortable out at sea. “It’s an amazing feeling, harnessing the power of the wind to propel yourself along,” he says. He talks of skimming along the water for hours at a time and of chance encounters with pods of dolphins. Though he needs a little help getting his 10 square metre kite up, once that’s done and the lines and harness are secured, he’s good to go.
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“Your kite becomes like an airplane wing,” says Dilsiri, explaining that he controls the direction of his kite by changing the angle of his board. Kite surfers are slaves to the winds and will drive many hours to catch the right kind. As a result, this group has been all over the island, from Puttalam to Arugam Bay.
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Despite the commute, there are few things Julian Bolling enjoys more than kite surfing. The champion swimmer says that after years of tame laps in a pool, he loves the adrenalin rush the sport provides. The forty-three year old bought his first second-hand kite for Rs.10, 000 a few years ago. Today, if you choose to buy instead of rent new equipment, it could leave you poorer by as much as 100,000. Still it seems worth it when you pull off your first “jump”. Recently, with a 25 knot wind filling his kite, Julian jumped a few feet in the air himself.
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Dilsiri who has jumped as high as 20 feet describes the sensation as akin to flying. But emphasis on safety is a must. Tangled lines and strong currents have claimed the lives of several enthusiasts over the years. “You need to take precautions,” says Keshini emphatically. Their group, around 20 people strong and from many different nationalities is one of the big draws for Keshini – she says she’s come to rely on the friendly tips and enthusiastic cheering every time she clambers onto her board.

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Find out more at www.kitesurfsrilanka.blogspot.com
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Q & A with Sri Lanka's First Female Kitesurfer

Keshini became Sri Lanka's first Female Kitesurfer last weekend....
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Q - How did you first hear about Kitesurfing?
A - My sister... she was going on about a guy in her office who does it and she wanted to try it out.. and that it looks 'easy' (ha ha ha). After that I heard my cousin Dilsiri (Dil) was totally into it. My 1st real experience with a kite was in Hikkaduwa when Dil took his Kite out and offered to tow me along... ofcourse I was tooo heavy for that, so i had only one more option, go and learn it myself!
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Q - How did you get about learning the sport?
A - I was really lucky. I was able to tag along with my cousin Dilsiri and Julian and watch them kite. It was then that Mischi (Dil's teacher as well) offered to give me a lesson with the baby kite. Honestly that part was not fun and now I would say getting past that point is the hardest, but most definitely worth it. I took my proper class a few months later as Mischi had left the country and I was teacherless.
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But to my rescue Marc was there to give me another lesson and he did some drills with me which gave me more confidence with the kite. Meanwhile I had my share of drags with my face in the sand but now looking back I will not have it any other way coz one of the most important lessons you can learn in kiting is to respect the wind and other elements.
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Take the time and learn to feel your surroundings. As Julian will say you should be able to control the kite blind folded. This is where Aussie Mike came in after a few drags I still wanted to learn but I still had that fear in me and was too scared to enjoy the full potential of the kite. Mike really encouraged me and told me as long as I'm in the water nothing will hurt me. It was then that I slowly started to enjoy the kite more and more.
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Right now I need to build confidence and step out with the kite. Since then Mischi has been back and been teaching me to get on to the board and I have been loving it. I still have a long way to go but what really helped me learn the sport is the kiting community in Sri Lanka who have been so welcoming and helpful.
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Q - Was it scary?
A - YES !!! Kiting is such a humbling process and you are left in awe of God's creation. Honestly I'm still a bit scared but I push myself to keep going and every time I have not been disappointed.
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Q - Did you have any ‘narrow shaves’?
A - Ha ha ha ha... well !!!
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Q - Would you recommend this sport to your friends?
A - Most definitely! But it’s not something that can be taken lightly, you have to be at it and not give up. But sure its a sport that anyone who is willing can do.
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Q - What is your dream in terms of kitesurfing?
A - My dream is that this sport can be used to develop the country without spoiling it or exploiting it and of course to do JUMPS with the kite!
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Q - Any parting words?
A - KITE ON...... :D

Kitesurfing Intro Weekend – 3rd and 4th October 2009

We have got 2-3 free slots for Kitesurf Training. The conditions are very good. Details are as follows;

Trainer: Mischi Walter (Swiss National)
Dates: Saturday 3rd to Sunday 4th October 2009
Place: North of Negombo

Accommodation, Transportation (surf style VW van!) are all included in the package. You may opt for budget, mid range or luxury accommodation.

You need to confirm by Friday morning the latest. Call Mischi direct for details 0775 748 361.

Keshini is my cousin and she is a Kitesurfer!

We admit, our clan is amphibious. Well done Keshini on becoming the first Lankan Female Kitesurfer. With more practice you sure are to be kite looping very soon! Thanks Mischi for the support given. For those girls who tried and didnt continue, well, now we know, its not a sport for everyone....Congrads to Julian for mastering the art of going upwind. Next weekend we must head into the ocean and try wave riding.

Waves from the past - Lanka’s surfing pioneers look back four decades By Mayura Botejue

As we live through this fast paced and rapidly changing world, each one of us may recall wonderful and nostalgic times of the past. This anecdote concerns a diverse group that was passionate about the noble and exhilarating sport of surfing and goes back to the period from mid 1960s to the early1970s.

The “surfing gang” in the early days included Faiz Ahmed, Anil Amarasekera, Wendell Flamer Caldera, Jan Prins, Asita Tennekoon, Jan Vanden Driesen and the writer. Peter Dharmaratne, Gihan Jayatileka, Cedric Martenstyn and Niranjan Sinnatamby were part timers while new enthusiasts Astika Botejue (writer’s brother) and Ananda Ranasinghe joined the fray later.

The common bond that brought us together was the love of aquatic sports - whether in a pool, lake or ocean and the outdoors. Some of us were competitive swimmers, water polo players and volunteer lifeguards on weekends at the beach in Mount Lavinia.Besides swimming, we had all mastered the art of body surfing and would enjoy the excitement of timing the sprinted swim to catch the waves at Mount Lavinia. While enjoying this pursuit we would watch with awe as Pat Guinan, a regular yachtsman and ocean enthusiast used a surf kayak to ride the waves. A surf kayak is a small board-like craft with foot straps. You sit on it with feet secured in the straps and use a paddle to propel and steer.

Pat, who was later to become Commodore of the Royal Madras Yacht Club and then Commodore of the Royal Colombo Yacht Club, taught us the art of using the kayak to ride waves.

Soon some of us had mastered this pursuit as well. As we became more daring, the kayak was used as a surfboard with the arms replacing the paddles for propulsive power. Riding the waves while standing on the kayak was a dangerous pursuit since a fall from a wave (called a wipe out in surfer jargon) would end with both body and cumbersome kayak rolling in the same surf. Luckily there were no major injuries to report.

Peter Dharmaratne had other ideas. He created a surfboard of his own, crudely made of wood, which was an extremely heavy monstrosity that belonged to the age of The Flintstones. I recall Peter trying out his board at Mount Lavinia. He fell repeatedly while attempting to ride the waves. Thankfully the piece of lovingly crafted lumber did not hit him on the head during one of the spills!

It was about this time that the legendary Englishman Mike Wilson appeared on our horizon.

He turned up at the Surf Club in Mount Lavinia to meet some of us “surfing types”. Mike was an ex-paratrooper, adventurer, diver, film maker, etc. Some years earlier, he led a team that discovered a 250-year-old shipwreck six miles off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, in the Great Basses (the underwater expedition was described in Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s non-fiction book, The Treasure of the Great Reef).

Mike arranged to show a surfing movie called ‘Locked In’ at the Otter Aquatic Club where some of the gang were active members. Mike knew we were hooked when he observed us watching with gleeful amazement as the footage of surfers taking off on giant Hawaiian waves rolled on.
He then planned a surfing trip down the south coast and both Jans (Prins and Vanden Driesen) and the writer packed into his VW van with four surfboards strapped to the roof rack. Our first outing was at a location off Ahangama. Mike convinced Sir Arthur - his business partner - to accompany us on the trip. Sir Arthur brought his Questar celestial telescope and took pictures of us from the shore.

Mike’s fibre glass boards were referred to as "elephant guns" because they were long, heavy and unwieldy. These were no ordinary boards. The best board in Mike’s collection was shaped by Greg Noll, a legendary big wave surfer from California. Naturally each one of us wanted to ride the 10 foot Greg Noll. There was another surfboard that emitted a sound as it skimmed the waves: a clearly audible hum coming from the fin located at the rear of the board, a vibration known as the Von Karman Effect (a phenomenon understood later when I studied fluid dynamics as an engineering student in London).

The Ahangama outing was followed by a surfing trip nearer to home, in Moratuwa. By now the word had spread and the gang of three young Sri Lankan surfers had grown in numbers with others in the close-knit aquatic sporting community eagerly coming on board.

Meanwhile, our horizon was widening. From Mount Lavinia we graduated to locations further down the coast. Surfing trips were now regular weekend affairs. We would gather at dawn on a Saturday or Sunday morning and head south, checking out waves in Moratuwa, Pinwatte, Paiyagala and Closenberg Bay, Galle. Mike was not able to join us on all the trips, but he would very kindly make his surfboards available. Mike finally stopped the surfing activity altogether and we all missed him very much. A few years later he chose to lead the life of an ascetic and lived that way until his death.

Our means of transport for travelling to surfing spots were either Faiz Ahmed’s mini-van, with four boards strapped on the roof and the gang packed inside, or Anil Amarasekera’s trusty Land Rover, which was a bit more spacious.

The sun would be coming up behind the tops of coconut trees as we trudged towards the beach, past local residents going about their morning ablutions. Children would greet us with cheerful shouts: “kalu suddho enavo” (black whiteys are coming). This was because we were bare-chested Sri Lankans clad in beach shorts and wearing rubber sandals, the kind of look only foreigners would affect.

When the surf was good, we would be out at sea for a good three to four hours. At the end of an exhausting but thrilling session a very tired and dehydrated group of surfers would rush to the nearest milk booth - often drinking the booth dry.

It was a big thrill to know that we were the very first local surfers in the country. We would get into furious competitions as to who would be the first to perfect the various styles and manoeuvres surfers perform on their boards while riding a wave. I wanted to be the first to stand on my head. This was accomplished after several attempts, but the experience lasted only a few seconds and was never repeated. I rolled off the front of the board and the back end tipped over and whacked me on the head as I surfaced for air!

Pinwatte became our preferred surfing destination, because of its proximity to Colombo. Anil used his persuasive charm with the Pinwatte railway station master to store our surfboards in his house. When no vehicles were available, some members of the gang would go surfing by catching an early-morning train and get off at Pinwatte station.

Jan Vanden Driesen recalls an interesting encounter at Pinwatte. A local politician came by to talk to us. He could not understand what we were doing and why we were doing it. Puzzled and shaking his head, he muttered: “Well, anyway, it’s good to see our Sinhalese boys doing this kind of stuff.”

Jan was amused and promptly engaged the politician to explain the cultural diversity of the group.

"He's a Muslim," he said (pointing to Faiz), "He's a Tamil (Niranjan), these two are Sinhalese (Anil and Asita), and I'm a Burgher."
The confused and embarrassed politician quickly went his way.

With increasing experience at sea came increasing recklessness.

Closenberg Bay, in Galle, one of our favourite destinations, is ringed by granite boulders. Rather than taking the time to paddle out from the beach, we would often clamber down the steep slope by the side of the Closenberg Hotel premises and jump off the rocks into the sea. This was no small feat when you were carrying a board 10 feet in length and weighing 40 pounds, and timing your leap to the split second before the next wave struck.

This radical Closenberg rock descent was abandoned after Jan Prins narrowly missed being seriously injured when a wave caught him just before he made the jump. His plunge had been delayed by a few critical seconds when the board got stuck between two rocks. When Jan abandoned the board and dived into the approaching wave, the surge dragged him back onto a rock. Luckily, it was smooth and generously rounded and his back collided with the rock while the wave rushed on. Although dazed and bruised he scrambled up the rocks before the next wave struck. The precious board came through with a few “dings”, or ruptures, on its fibre-glass skin.

As the ’60s drew to an end, the original gang broke up as many of the members headed overseas to pursue education and employment opportunities. The surfing continued, but less frequently. Eventually careers, marriage, parenting and other responsibilities took over, and the sun finally set on the gang’s glorious days of surfing in Sri Lanka.

Sadly, this wonderful sport has never really caught on with later generations of Sri Lankans. A few locals living down south have learnt the art and practise it at Narigama, near Hikkaduwa, the best-known surf spot on the south coast. These youngsters have been influenced by Australian surfers who are regulars at this spot, and some of the more enterprising among them run surfing tours for Japanese tourists on the southern and eastern coasts of the island.

There is a modern day twist to this surfing saga.

When the tsunami hit Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004, it left little untouched wherever it struck, including our surfboards.

Anil Amarasekera, guardian of the surf boards, had stored them in the garage of a holiday bungalow near Arugam Bay, one of Sri Lanka’s most famous surfing havens. The surge of water destroyed the garage and snatched away two of the boards and dumped them in a paddy field two kilometres away. The car in the garage ended up 10 feet in the air, wedged between two Palmyrah trees. The lost surfboards were subsequently retrieved - with hardly a scratch on them.

If the gang ever decides to get together again on a beach somewhere in Sri Lanka, armed with surfboards, it would be a much smaller group, and the feelings of nostalgia would be tinged with sadder emotions. It would be more of an “in memoriam” outing. Five members of the crew are no more. They are the late Astika Botejue, Peter Dharmaratne, Gihan Jayatileka, Cedric Martensteyn, and Niranjan Sinnatamby.

Those of us survivors from the original group include five who are now based overseas: Wendell Flamer Caldera and Jan Vanden Driesen (Australia), Jan Prins and Ananda Ranasinghe (United States), and the writer (Pakistan). Only Faiz Ahmed, Anil Amarasekera and Asita Tennekoon have stayed consistently within the shores of Sri Lanka.

These days the only active surfers from the original gang are the two Jans - Jan Prins, who lives in Hawaii, a surfer's paradise, and Jan Vanden Driesen, who has settled in Perth, Australia, where surfing is a popular recreational pursuit. Meanwhile, others "have a go" at this wonderful activity whenever opportunities arise.

The writer is a management consultant, and is currently based in Karachi

ISSN: 1391 - 0531 Sunday, December 17, 2006 Vol. 41 - No 29 Plus

What we dont tell you about kitesurfing...

Imagine busting everything and learning the sport and then...

NO WIND

This does happen. It happened to us. We waited months for the wind to pick up and it can get very very frustrating. Hence, it is recommended you learn other complimentary sports! Surfing, Wake Boarding, White Water Kayaking? Um... Diving... Just a few more weeks and we'll be surfing again, kitesurfing again.

The Claims

• Kitesurfing in Sri Lanka is still at its very elementary stage. Only a handful of instructors run courses in safe conditions. I have met two individuals who have come to Sri Lanka for kitesurfing and have become very dissapointed due to the 'claims' made about their knowledge of the sport and spots.
• If ever you want to learn the sport, make sure your instructor has the proficiency and do not be afraid to do a background check on them. Kitesurfing is an extremely sport and should be thought in very secure and hazard free conditions to minimize risk of injury.
• In terms of spots, not all of Sri Lanka enjoys good winds or nice wide beaches for easy launches etc. Inspite of what some websites claim 'that they have excellent wind for kitesurfing' its not always true. A safer bet for you would be check the wind conditions yourself and plan your trip. Windguru is a good site.
• Valdamire, hope you have a more pleasant session when you visit Sri Lanka. Hangloose.

Happy Birthday

Mischi

(Kite Instructor - Sri Lanka)

Daily Mirror, Sept 2008

As Moritz Ulmer stated, "As of sunday we, the kite communtity, have finally recieved the fame, fortune, and glory, washed ashore by ripping the waves to smithers"....

More insight into the article that appeared on the Mirror Magazine can be found, HERE!

Please God just a bit of Wind tomorrow - Kitesurfing in Sri Lanka

• As you may now be aware, without wind, there will be not kitesurfing. With almost suicidal amounts of wind last weekend in XXX, this Saturday (2nd of August) the wind is none existent. No kitesurfing at all today. We are all on our knees tonight, praying, that there would be a bit of wind tomorrow. The weather forecasts predict very moderate wind conditions but even that could change - so its up to the weather god...
• I've seen a number of people get utterly dissapointed when they were not able to get a session due to low wind conditions. This is especially the case with newcomers to the sport. Soo bitter are they that they even take it on the people who instruct. One thing that you need to realize is that, kitesurfing solely depends on wind conditions and if you are doing it in the sea, the conditions in the sea. No one can predict nature 100 percent. If the conditions are'nt the best for kitesurfing, well, you've got to live with it...
• Maybe thats the beauty of the sport, you tend to appreciate nature and its beauty. Its a scarce resource, even the wind, when its there, we need to use it to the maximum, enjoy it to the fullest.
• So, if you do intend on learning kitesurfing in Sri Lanka or anywhere in the world, remember, you need to be patient. You cannot learn the sport in a hurry...
• With that, I've got to go pray....please god let there be wind tomorrow.

Kitesurfing in Sri Lanka

As you head to Hikka this weekend, you'd realize that Mads is not there - he's actually enjoying Kitesurfing in Europe! Anyway this is his story when asked when kitesurfing began in Sri Lanka;

“I can tell u exactly when kitesurfing first started in Sri Lanka. The first person kitesurfing here was a German guy called Ben. I was tattooing in ‘Ranjiths Beach Hut’ in December 1999. While I was tattooing I noticed out of my eyes some color on the water - when I looked out the window I saw a guy with a kite starting from Mambos and strait out thorugh the main point. (I already had a piece of paper with a picture of a kitesurfer I ripped out of a magazine in Italy, cause when I saw that I knew that was my call).

I was stoked; I jumped up and told my customer we had a 20minutes break. I ran to the beach and waited for him to return. That was Ben. He had a Naish Ar 3.5 and the first big Naishkiteboards. He gave me a magazine in the evening and told me all about it. I never forget the first picture I saw of Robby Naish jumping - I was so happy. In January I went to Denmark met Jan Blæsild and Peter Boldsen. Got my first kite and launched it first time in February 2000.

In November 2000 I got my first Naish kite AR 3.5. I’m pretty sure that that is the start of Kitesurfing in Sri Lanka. Dilsiri and I know the third person to kite in Sri Lanka was Holger Brummer from Negombo. We met on the Hikkaduwa beach in 2001. Then Dirk Hanel came and all the others. Kitesurfing has now started to grow in Sri Lanka, and that’s what we want. We want more information out there about kitesurfing, safety and so on. And just to make it bigger and bigger and bigger in our Home Country Sri Lanka. All the best” - Mads Jansen Raunsbaek

So who kites in Lanka?

Not many I think - I would say local Sri Lanka Kitesurfers would amount to less than 10. Lets see there is Julian, Chanaka aka Chunky, Mads friend in Hikka, Thushal and his Bro from Bentota (?), Previne who is learning and ...

In terms of expats, there is Hannes and Mischi from Negombo, Mads from Hikkaduwa, Holger from Negombo, the Ulmers, the Bobays, Fred, Mark, Mike, Nick from Negombo anyone else? The facebook group we created has a few more names but I am not sure if they in Sri Lanka anymore.

Anyway, we strongly feel that this sport will grow in Sri Lanka in the not so distant future. As long as there is wind and water - kitesurfing will happen.

However, we need to make sure that there is a proper system in place for safety and the running of the sport. We dont want it to be like Rafting where there is little or no regulation and safety is compromised for a cheaper rafting trip. Safety needs to be maintained at the utmost level especially with regard to this sport. Perhaps a mandatory Kite Instructor Certification for all those who want to be instructors - also requirements to have level 1 certification to even rent out equipment.

Sri Lanka...Its untapped!

Untapped for the sport of Kitesurfing. The seas, the lakes, the lagoons...wide wide spaces of undisturbed spaces for enthusiasts. The best places identified so far XXXXX......

Its best to leave it as it is. Let it continue to be enjoyed by the small community that lives in the Island. No use popularizing it too much and loose the luxury of entire entire bodies of water to oneself! Or should it be...

Hang Loose!