The Best Year of My Life !
2016 started off pretty great for me because my best friend Philipp Scholler and I went on a one month trip to Perth, Australia. A place I always dreamed of. We spent one month there in a house together with Stefan Spiessberger and Mario Rodwald and basically just chilled, kited, wakeboarded and had a good time. After this long trip I spent some time at home – till I couldn’t anymore!
Later in the year my father, my brother and I decided to go on a boys only trip to Urla. We didn’t really knew anything about this place when we booked, but I'd heard from a few friends who told me that it’s super sick, and they have a kitepark there. I've also know the owners from Urla Surf House, Pinpin und Nico since I met them in brazil so of course it has to be good. And oh my God; it was! We spent one week there kiting the flat water paradise of Urla and this sick kitepark, which you can set up on your own in about 10 minutes. With a day trip to Alacati and another day trip tasting the famous wines of Urla it was a perfect week.
After this trip I decided to spend my summer at home and got ready for some exams which I had in September. After spending 3 months at home and after I wrote my exam, I immediately had to book some tickets. And suddenly Tarifa flew into my dads and my head. One the one hand, we didn’t really want to go because we heard things that a kitesurfer who freestyles and wants to train doesn’t want to hear. Like that it’s too crowded there, it’s too windy and too gusty and so on. On the other hand it’s the place every kiteboarder has to visit at least once in his or her life. And, again, it was a trip which was just perfect. The sun rose always pretty late, at around 10, so you always got your beauty sleep, then we had a nice self-made breakfast in our apartment, looked out the window to see if there are a few kites in the air, and went kiting. At night we always wanted to find the best Tapas in town and in the end we found out there are too many and all were just too good! (By the way I can recommend the red wines in Tarifa. Firstly they are not expensive for the quality you get, and they compare favourably to the wine mecca I live in at home so they really are good!
For my last trip of the year I ended up going to Marsa Alam. We've already been to Hamata a bunch of times, so it was time to try out something new and so we visited the Best Kiteboarding Pro Center – Marsa Alam, again without any ideas what awaited us. We just knew that since we booked a five star hotel we'd better take some jeans with us. My dad knows the owner of the center since forever, so he organized us an awesome room near the kitecenter. The hotel was pretty amazing. The spa with a sauna, steam bath, jacuzzi and some masseurs was a must every second day after training everyday with this awesome flatwater conditions. And riding in boardshorts after a four hour flight in November was just one more highlight to add to the list, and which made this trip even more perfect!
All of this in 2016 and it didn't take much planning. We always booked really cheap and more or less at the last minute to places we didn’t really know, but in the end we saw more of the world, and enjoyed our trips even more, because everything was new and more interesting. I’m looking forward to visit all of these places soon again! In fact I'm starting soon – I’m off to Tarifa in one and a half weeks 🙂
Good riding,
Marc
