by Charles Didcott

Windguru was predicting swell of up to 5m with a 17 second wave interval. That sort of interval translates into some very solid surf so I was fairly sure we were going to see some serious action. The swell was still fairly small in the morning but by the afternoon things really kicked in. I met with Patrice Hartmann at Witsands around 3.30pm. The sets coming through just to the left of the bay, in front of Misty Cliffs were incredible. Definitely the biggest summer swell any of us had ever seen at Witsands.

Patrice started out on his 7m C4 but found that once he got onto the wave faces there was just way too much power in the kite. He then switched to his 5m C4 which made getting out through the surf a bit of a challenge, but more manageable once on the wave. He was hooking into some very big waves. The sets were so impressive and the small group of spectators around me were loving it. I spoke to Patrice back on the beach and he was all smiles but said this was quite an "emotional" session. He is French after all :) Andre van Breda arrived after work a little later and agreed to take my 5m C4 out. We were both a little apprehensive about this because I had not even used my new 5m yet. Fortunately Andre did not drop my kite and also managed to get onto some very impressive waves. I think he wants some new C4's now too.

The first picture is my favourite shot. The one I call "Little Patrice" (he's actually over 6'). When he saw this shot he said that he was very glad he had not looked behind him.

© Story and pictures featured by Charles Didcott  ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )