Lex, Annabel, Yves

Lex back full speed

Excellent

Lex was on top form as he flew out to join the Global Kite Guide in the Sinai.  Fresh from the superstorm in Holland, he was delighted to discover the flat waters of his new ‘playground’, the lagoons of Ras Sudr.  In he jumped in nothing more than a pair of shorts, making the rest of us shiver just looking at him.  “But it’s warm!”, he said, as if we were just a bunch of wusses.  It only took him a few sessions to don a shorty like the rest of us, though, and we were quietly relieved to establish that everything is, indeed, relative.

With the winter approaching in Egypt, the wind has been proving unpredictable and we had to jump upon any occasion to get in the water.  We have, along the way, discovered that smoking a shisha is a very effective method of summoning the elements.  Every time we settled down to the mellow sound of bubbles in the waterjar, the flags inevitably started flapping but no complaints there!

Thanks to the 13m Edge, Lex was often the only one on the water, which gave us the perfect setting for our shoot.  Others had tried and failed to keep upwind while our young rider was confidently performing his trademark radical powered moves.  When we agreed with Lex that we should really make the most of every inch of wind, little did we know how literally he would take it.

While a banging beach BBQ was in full swing that evening, Lex ventured off to rig up his kite and give a new meaning to ‘riding blind’.  The party moved to the shore as Lex and Sylvain, the centre manager, announced that even without the moon, they weren’t about to pass up such good wind.  As they ventured out in the pitch black and quickly disappeared in to the darkness, all we could hear was the whoosh of huge kiteloops and the occasional cry of joy coming from Lex’s lips.

As we moved from spot to spot, finding mirror-flat water and wide shallow bays within kilometers of each other, the wind kicked in and Lex was delighted to rig up his favourtie setup – his 9m Sport with short lines.  Standing on a platform set up for us out at sea, we were up close and personal with him as executed all sorts of handlepasses, S-bends followed by five spins and the most stylish low-kite tricks imaginable.

After a fantastic fortnight, the time came for Global Kite Guide and Lex to part ways, as we headed off for a wave session in El Tur, one of the only wave spots in Egypt, and Lex returned home to Holland to prepare for his training period in Tarifa.  We all look forward to the next time we meet, travelling from spot to spot and discovering new destinations together.  Sorry you missed the waves, Lex, they were awesome…

Aqua Boogie Baby …

Here is Lex’s story:

>>On the road again, on my way to Egypt!

Everyone know’s El Gouna and Hurghada, but who’s about to see some more of the country?

Lex Duz It Me, together with Annabel Illingworth, and Yves Deliege, also known as the GlobalKiteGuide. Global Kite Guide is in the first status of a new add on the kiteboarding world. Hopefully with this trip they will make their first statement. We went to Ras Sudr, to see 2 hotels/kiteboarding sites. The first one was the Creative Green Hotel, which is just perfect! 2 huge lagoons straight in front of the resort, with the flat see behind the lagoons, and with high tide the see will be around the lagoons, what means more kiteboarding areas!

In my opinion, you don’t have to fly all the way down to brasil, paradise might be closer then people can imagine. The lagoons, are flat, deep, big, turquoise. The hotel is nice, compared to the rest around, it looks green! Lots of flowers and plants, good to come back with the familie! The second hotel, also in Ras Sudr, is already different. A smaller hotel, with a lot of apartments as neighborhood, with the beach included all inclusive surfclub in just a 10 minutes walk away from the hotel. Ofcourse we didn’t walked, you can call for a golf-car by the reception, and he’ll drive you to the beach! Perfect!

The surfclub just rules! Owned by Frenchies it just way to mellow and you have everything you need, like I said, all inclusive! Games, magazines, a bar for drinks, food, huge gear storage, and a nice surfspot by the way;) flat or choppy water, depends on the tide, a rescue boat to safe you if you’re smacked of your board by a dolphin, yeah baby, here are dolphins around!

The third hotel was a 2hours drive back down, in the only wavespot in Egypt!  El Tur is our heading, and when we arrived at night we could here the sea from two ways, so if there is wind you can kite around the hotel, how nice is that! On the hotel-beach side you’ll find a English and German surfcentre, both owned by the hotel, here you can chill out and store your gear, perfect again! It is on a big bay, with the town on the other side of it. Unfortunately we had no wind these last days, so I haven’t seen the wavespot. But I can imagine if there is wind here, you can kite your ass of with all the possibilities for riding..

I’ve been in Egypt for 2 weeks, and I had a great time!

Annabel and Yves are just sweet, fun, and great people to travel with! With their 10 bags of gear every move is kinda funny, and both are really professional with filming an photographing, so watch out for the footage and pictures.. they’re killers!

Big thanks to Global KiteGuide, for organizing the whole trip! Big thanks to Ozone for helping the Global Kite Guide, and sending me, I could use it!

Now I’m back, and better..

Lex duz it

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