Chasing The Wind

Adrenaline-pumping? Definitely. Easy to master? Not so much. Andrea Thompson hits the kitesurfing scene in Mauritius to try her hand at learning to ‘ride’

Thirty minutes into my first kitesurfing lesson, I suddenly find myself longing for the tranquillity of the hotel pool.

Standing waist deep in the sea, I feel a hard tug on my kite strings as the wind picks up and my entire upper body jolts forwards. I spend the next few moments being dragged at an alarming pace across the surface of the water before being face-planted into the salty ocean. I’m admittedly out of my comfort zone.

‘Hey, take it easy… You’re trying too hard to control the kite, man,’ says my instructor Joel, appearing at my side and speaking in a languid tone universally reserved for surfers everywhere. ‘The kite is like a wild beast. The more you try to control it, the more it’s gonna control you.’

Kitesurfing is not for the fainthearted, but it is a sport I’ve long wanted to try. I learned to surf over ten years ago and loved it, standing up on the board in my first few minutes and progressing quickly. I spent many a weekend in Newquay – whatever the weather – with my girlfriends riding the waves for hours every day, and based holidays around new places to surf.

My partner Will is an experienced kitesurfer, so family holidays over the past few years with our two boys (now seven and four) have led us to some great kitesurfing destinations. But I’ve never so much as booked a taster. The temptation to kick back with a good book once I’d hit the beach was just too strong.