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Para-surfing

Up, up and away

[Snapped on a cellphone]

Apparently the children have seen the para-surfers in the inlet several times, but I didn't notice them until today.

We had completed a full afternoon of errands and were heading home when their sails caught my eye like kites in the sky.

So I did what any sieze-the-moment parent would do and pulled off to brave the deeply pot-holed metal track to get a closer look.

 

Three men in their 30s - 40s were each zipping back and forth on the relative stillness of the water catching the wild wind from the fresh sea.

Every so often they would position themselves to ride the wind and the whole para-surfer lifted metres out of the air and flew.  It was amazing.

 

We were fortunate to talk to one of the surfers when he was packing up for the day.  He had been para-surfing for the last 8 years at the same place (how unobservant do I feel now ‽).

They can reach speeds up to 50kph; and the riders do so holding on with their bare hands as they are not harnessed to the surfer.

 

The shadow they cast on the sand banks between the inlet and the sea, when they fly, was magical.  Similar to watching an eclipse, but over and over again.