Police in Helicopter

Shooting photos always makes me very excited because you can express your style, creativity, and even your way of thinking in a photo. Sometimes this comes naturally and easily, like when you learn a new trick and capture it on camera, or when you travel to a stunning location and let the surroundings do the work for you. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this time.

I was given a new kite from the Naish Nvision lineup called Psycho, a five-strut Big Air machine. Naish asked me to shoot some photos with the new Psycho while I was in Cape Town, so I reached out to Andy Troy, a talented photographer who has been capturing some of the best photos in the kite scene over the years. All the ingredients were there; now we just needed a lot of wind and a unique location. We found the unique location, but little did we know what was about to interfere.

We headed out early in the morning to arrive at the spot in time to still have good light. As we got closer to the spot, the air started to get a bit hazy. Soon after, we discovered that the mountain was on fire, which was causing the haziness, but we didn’t know how big the fire was or where it was exactly. Five kilometers out, we were stopped by a roadblock, and the police asked us why we wanted to pass. I explained that we wanted to shoot some kitesurf photos at the beach a little further up. To my surprise, the police officer replied, “Ah, you’re a kitesurfer, that’s cool! Of course, go ahead. But be careful; there are a lot of helicopters flying around. You can enter at your own risk.” Completely amazed by his answer, I thanked the officer and assured him that we would be careful.

It almost felt like we were part of a movie because of all the firefighters and the empty, dust-covered roads from the fire. When we finally reached our desired location, we walked toward the beach. As we got over the last dune, a helicopter carrying a seawater-filled tank flew straight over our heads to the mountain behind us. Full of adrenaline just from seeing that and knowing we wanted to kite there, we waited for a bit. Eventually, the helicopter disappeared and the police officer arrived to ask if we had taken any cool pictures yet. We hadn’t, but his message felt like a green light to us. So we decided to go for it.

I was quite nervous, took short lines, and headed into the water. The spot itself was already quite tricky, with strong currents, many rocks, and not much space to take off and land. Combined with helicopters flying everywhere, it was quite nerve-racking. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t really deliver and I couldn’t get the height I was looking for. But I guess this was for the better because I don’t know if I could have handled more adrenaline at the time. This session led to a memorable moment with some unreal photos. They may not be the most extreme, but they are definitely unique!