The build-up
Butterflies as I scout the Hayling island beach late on Saturday night. I want to make sure that I know where to go the next morning. The event starts registration at 7am so no time to be getting lost.
I wake up at 3am during the night, completely buzzing and take some time to settle back down. After a bit more sleep I am up at six am ready to go. The landlord very kindly has breakfast ready for me around twenty to seven and mid-way through tucking in I start thinking about the challenge and suddenly I can’t eat any more.
When I arrive at the beach there is already a queue for the registration. But before I can register I have to ‘buddy-up’ with two other kiters. I join a section of people who are in the same situation. I am honest about my abilities and eventually buddy-up with two older ladies who are concerned that they shan’t have the energy to complete the long distance challenge and like the idea of a man kiting with them. We are now towards the latter end of the registration queue which means that we shan’t be setting off for a couple of hours yet. This is good in that it will give time for the wind to arrive and pick-up. It is a sunny glorious morning – hard to believe that a weather front is moving in.
Sir Richard makes an impressive entrance in his private helicopter – hard not to like the man!
At the safety briefing I get the chance to meet the brainchild of the event, four times British champion Lewis Crathern and congratulate him for his brave venture and thank him for organising the challenge. He is very modest and appreciates my comments. The ladies that I am with are well-known in the kiting community and although older in age appear to be very proficient kiters. I hope that I can keep-up! I am entrusted with a flare and line up to pick-up my personal GPS tracker. I am told to come back later when I have kitted-up. As I shan’t be in the water for a couple of hours I take my time collecting and checking my kit. I am then told by a volunteer that they want us ready by the beach ASAP anyway. This time when I go to collect my GPS I am told that they have given it to someone else. Now I am thinking that I can’t take part anymore!
Man! Major meltdown!– I just stare at them in disbelief! ‘Why did you do that?’ I say.
They all go very quiet and ashen faced. A mortifying silence hangs in the air.
It then transpires that the GPS tracker is not an essential part of the kit and I can still take part. Phewww!!! I am so, so relieved.
Rollercoaster of emotions and adrenaline spikes are not doing my energy levels any good and I still can’t eat anything.
I meet-up on the beach with the two ladies by which time Sir Richard has led out the parade in style. A number of highly spirited kiters have dressed-up and are keeping the occasion fun and light-hearted. The youngest kiter is only ten years old. Another lad who looks the same age is physically held down on the beach as the wind has now started to pick-up to twenty knots. Fair play to him and once on the water he is off like a pro. Jumping in the mile section is not allowed as it may ruin the event if it goes wrong. Youth champion Olly Bridge ignores the prohibition and does an amazing jump trick.
If you are going to do it, do it in style – and that was awesome! – I hope the camera’s caught it. Lewis is compering the event and even he is impressed. It’s nearly two hours before I am allowed to set-up my kite. By now I am cold and on an energy dip! It turns out that the husband of one of the ladies is an instructor who gave me a kiting lesson two years ago and he remembers me. It’s good to see someone I know. The two ladies are launched ahead of me and finally it’s my turn. I ask the former instructor to double check my lines – the last thing I want is for nerves and cold to lead to a mistake. All good and I am launched. Off to the waterfront – pick up my board – finally the moment is here. No pressure as I am good to go!
On the water
My start thankfully is error free – the sea is still relatively flat which helps. The swells haven’t come in yet it’s just the wind breaking up the surface but nothing too bad. I hold my line and follow the parade. About a quarter of mile away at least I spot the kite of the second lady – the first lady is already too far for me to recognise in the distance. I concentrate on my posture and not doing anything silly to jeopardise the mile challenge. After a short time I figure that I have crossed the mile marker – wherever it was - and can concentrate on the long distance challenge. I keep sight of the second kite and am gaining ground very slowly. I am heading for the headland tip of Selsey about ten miles away. My kiting technique for this angle to the wind is unfamiliar to me and puts lots of pressure on the back leg. I look around and see that other kiters have the same stance so am doing ok. The stance will not be changing for some distance so time to see if the leg workouts that my friend Martyn has put me through will stand me in good stead. But otherwise I’ m feeling brilliant and am grinning – I still can’t believe that I am doing this and getting away with it. Can it last?
A few miles later and I have my answer. I am now in deep water probably a mile off-shore. The sea state has changed dramatically. Big swells have built up and are steaming in; the tops are breaking off to white horses. I am kiting side-on to the swells and sure enough a breaker catches my board and I fall in.
Being in deep water without your board is a bit like losing your trunks when you dive in the pool. You really don’t want that to happen and you feel very naked.
There is a technique called bodydragging which as the name suggest allows one to use the kite to plough slowly through the water without a board. Time to see if the conditions will allow me to use the kite to bodydrag back to my board.
I tack once, twice and on the third tack I have it. What a great feeling!
Board collected and I am ready for my water-start. I dive the kite to the right and as I turn to look toward my direction all I see is grey. The skyline has gone and is replaced by a mass of water as several tons of it head my way.
Thankfully it’s ‘just’ a huge swell. Swells will lift you up and down like a cork. It’s the breakers that cause the trouble. As I climb-up the swell it puts extra pressure on my legs but I just manage to stand-up and tell myself to pick my moment better next time. I look around and I notice that some of the other kiters are struggling with the conditions and are falling-in. I also notice that I am the most southerly kiter i.e. the furthest out to sea. I don’t know why that has happened but I am reluctant to change my tack as I have a good line to pass the headland with room to spare. Soon I fall in the sea again but this time I don’t lose the board. However when I stand-up again I have now lost sight of the second lady’s kite. Not much I can do but continue and hope that she is doing well. I fall in a couple more times – the wind has really picked-up and the kite tugs away as the gusts hit it. I have to keep the kite high for my tack and one gust nearly lifts me off! That is new experience for me. Travelling down the swells is also sending my stomach up. I haven’t tried out snowboarding (yet!) but I am curious to see how it compares to this experience. As I approach the headland the sea is becoming more churned and the wind is very gusty. A breaker on top of a swell finally has the better of me and I have lost the board again – as I fall I reach for it… it’s just two inches from my hand.. but I can’t grab it. Time for more bodydragging.
This time however I can’t get close to it. My first tack and I am a foot away. This is not good. Second tack and it’s a yard away. And it keeps increasing. I don’t know what to do. The current must be bouncing off the headland and pushing my board out – The sea is a churn of white water and the wind is treacherous – it makes it difficult to bodydrag and I am getting mouthfuls of water on my left tack – hard to breathe. I can’t see a rescue boat anywhere and as I am the furtherst kitesurfer out to sea nobody is looking my way as they have their backs to me.
I could just give in and body-drag back to shore. Due to my approach towards the headland, the beach is now closer than it was. But it’s still a long way and I don’t want to give-in or lose my board for that matter. I keep tacking hoping to either get lucky and the board start making its way forward or at least to stay nearby it so that I can alert a rescue boat should one appear. I am in the water for probably 15-20 minutes but it feels longer. Finally in the distance I spot a kitesurfer also on a far out tack. A few minutes later and he sees me wave to him. He has a minicamera mounted on his helmet and from his easy style I reckon he is a proficient kitesurfer. This turns out to be the case and after assessing the situation he travels about thirty yards upwind of me and collects my board. Yes!!!
He travels downwind of me and drops my board and hangs around nearby. I bodydrag towards my board – I have to tack downwind and I really, really don’t want to mess it up.
I don’t and after collecting my board I give the kitesurfer a thumbs up! I don’t know who he is but that was awesome.
As for me it’s game on and this time I manage to keep my board and pass the headland. Now the direction of travel will change and I have to figure out the best way forward.
Very strangely the conditions have changed yet again. The massive swells have gone – can’t say I’ m sorry. That’s also because I have made my way closer to shore and the water is not too deep. The wind however is just as squally with the rain now coming down. The beach looks very bleak.I must be three miles away from the first point of call Pagham. I pass one kiter who has lost his board and could land on shore but is obviously determined to bodydrag his way to Pagham. I look for his board and tack back-up wind to do so. But I really can’t see it. He lets me know that he lost it some time back. I spot a rescue boat and they have seen him so I carry on.
It takes some time to tack forward and despite the gusty wind I am really enjoying this. I practice my toeside turns and pay for it a few times. It helps to know that shore is very near. There are only one or two kiters that I can see in the water and finally I spot Pagham.
The finish
As I approach Pagham to check in, one of the volunteers lands my kite. He then resolutely tells me that the event is cancelled and I can’t continue. Apparently the stormy weather has meant that the rescue boat has had to rescue lots of kitesurfers and they are running low on fuel. A few kitesurfers somehow have sussed this out and therefore avoided landing at Pagham much to chagrin of the organisers. I have to smile – what else can you expect?
Still I am happy to have made it this far… and suddenly I feel exhausted. I have been on (or in!) the water for three hours and haven’t eaten for eight hours. The young man who landed me is one of the event organisers and I ask him if I am the last one in, quite likely given when I set-out and my time treading water. He says that I am – and I then congratulate him on having helped set-up such a fantastic event. At this point he breaks down to tears. The stress and emotion finally got to him and I find myself wet and cold comforting a stranger. I tell him he should be proud of what he has done and I really mean it.
I find out that the first of the ladies made it to Pagham whereas the other had to land earlier and got picked-up by her husband. At least both are fine.
It's great news and we have set a new official Guiness World record for the mile parade. That's me and 317 others!
I am fortunate and manage to cadge a lift in the back of a van from a friendly kitesurfer back to Hayling island. But the best part of the day was when I finally came back home. My daughter had waited up for me and we share a warm cuddle - I feel very lucky.
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