The Other Side

What if I told you that everything you know about kiting in Cape Town is only half true. Even those of you who have come season-after-season to The Mother City in its summer months still have no idea. It’s sort of a local secret, but I feel like it’s time to let the world in on the truth: there’s a whole other side to this magical place that will blow your mind. I have always preferred the winter season in Cape Town for kiting rather than the summer season. Don’t get me wrong, the summer season is world class with a bunch of spots to kite. It’s just that it gets really busy and, apart from the nuclear wind from time to time, I get the feeling that it misses that gnarly feeling that comes with kiting the unknown. There is something so special about kiting in storms as they can be very unpredictable and take you far out of your comfort zone. That is what makes Cape Town in its winter months so special. To really get you to understand, I’ll take you along on a shoot I did in July during a proper winter storm.

I returned home from traveling to the middle of the Cape Town winter to shoot the new Airush range and the Brunotti Urban Outdoor Collection. The goal was to capture the side of Cape Town you have not seen and showcase how special it is. Within the first few days of being home there was a massive low-pressure system building off the coast that was aiming straight at us. The key to riding these storms to their full potential is keeping a close eye on the wind charts to see where it will make the most direct contact and where the swell has the cleanest path in. It opens up so many spots that are usually un-kiteable in the summer months with the predominant southeast wind – in winter the wind is predominately northwest. As the storm got closer, it got stronger and stronger. It also was forecast to blow for five days straight. I gathered the media team and the planning begun. One of the best parts about kiting in winter is the planning and the missions to get to the different spots – you never really know what to expect. Keep in mind that my idea of an unbeatable session is one that is so gnarly and scary that even thinking about straight jumps scares me. This was my version of the storm chase.

Day 1

The forecast looked like it was hitting Rooi-Els best. This spot only works in a northwesterly and is probably one of the best and most beautiful locations in the world for content. We began the drive from Blouberg at 7am as it is a two-hour drive, and the wind was peaking at 11am. When we arrived at the spot, it looked as prime as it can get, with 40-knot gusts blowing directly onshore along a jagged coastline with a beautiful mountain backdrop. I immediately got ready and went straight onto 10m lines with the new 7m Airush Lithium V14. It was my first time ever riding this kite on short lines and it did not disappoint. To get the shots we wanted I had to ride pretty shallow and very close to the rocky coastline, two things you don’t want to be doing when riding on short lines. There were some very close calls indeed with my kite almost hitting the water on a few loops, but needless to say, Craig got the shots!

The second half of the shoot was in the lagoon. At full high tide there is a small, but beautiful lagoon that you can kite in, and the backdrop is too beautiful to put into words, so I will just let these photos do the talking. Something to watch out for when kiting Rooi-Els is the baboons in the area… they like shiny things and food so be sure to keep everything locked up in the car.

Day 2 

This was an early morning mission. Dylan was on camera duty this time and the location that was getting the most direct contact was Scarborough. Some of you may know this spot as it is somewhat rideable in summer, but it is a completely different spot in winter. We got there at first light and if it wasn’t for my Brunotti Jackets I don’t think I would’ve plucked up the courage to get in. It was 40+ knots and around four degrees Celsius. The purpose of this mission was to try and survive and capture it all on camera. The wind was cross onshore and the swell 7.8m with a 15 second wave period. If you don’t know what that means, just know it’s massive and chaotic, with waves the same height as a two-story building for reference. Obviously the shallower you are the smaller the waves are, but that’s not what we were there to shoot.

I rigged up and as soon as I went out, I was welcomed in by a rainbow, which seemed at the time as a sign from the gods that everything was going to be okay. It was one of the most memorable sessions of my life. Just riding and navigating swell that size, in a location that beautiful, was a bigger adrenaline fix than any Big Air session could ever give me. The rawness can’t be put into words, but at times it really felt like a life-or-death situation. Apart from taking on the massive swell out at the back, I had an epic progression session on the inside flat sections. There was also this cool little river that I found with ice-cold mountain water.

Day 3

It was time for double and triple loops. We had the short line loops at Rooi-Els and the gnarly technical Big Air at Scarborough, so, the last piece to the puzzle was taking a 5m and doing a triple. The forecast was making direct contact with Noordhoek Beach and it was predicting 58 knots on the gusts. There’s something so much gnarlier about 58 knot gusts that come out of low-pressure systems directly over the ocean. They are so dense and violent that you really have to put your ego aside and respect the conditions. We made the drive there and when we arrived there was a massive raincloud building out to sea coming directly towards us. I knew we only had around 30 minutes to get the shot as the rain was going to be extremely heavy and un-kiteable. The thing with big rain clouds though is that there is always really strong wind in front, so I knew it was now or never to do the triple.

I rigged up my kite and had a super sketchy tack out between the kelp and rocks. This was the first time I have ever been overpowered on a 5m. The gusts were pulling me off my edge and the wind was super violent. It took me around 20 minutes of doing double loops to conclude that it’s simply too dangerous to go for the triple in this wind, which by the way, was directly onshore and I was landing extremely shallow on the doubles already. As I made the decision that I was going to get out, I felt the wind do something strange and my kite climbed super far above my head. This is usually the sign of an updraft, so within two seconds of feeling that, I had jumped and I was just going to go for a double. After the first loop another updraft hit my kite and it took me straight up, so as planned I continued pulling for the second and because I was so high up now from the two updrafts, I felt confident and pulled the third. I landed about five meters away from the beach where it was around 15 centimeters deep, but nonetheless, I was stoked!