Warning: naughty language ahead! 

First, everything needs to be untangled before you begin or this will never work.

No one untangles your strings for you.

It can be tedious as you work over each knot, the ones still there because it was carelessly discarded the last time it was used.

Know your safety release.

Practice the let go of it.

If you catch the kite’s enormous wingspan in the coil of a current you will be cannonball shot, mast high, no warning.

If you find yourself in the power-zone of a squall, only luck will save you.

It is then you need to remind yourself

You really want to kite surf

Even if it snaps you in half.

Laws of aerodynamics are an unbreakable truth.

Unbreakable truth will not react if you tell it to fuck off.

The kite will drag you over both hard and soft surfaces alike.

Think of this before you latch on.

“Feet out” and “sheet out” are not the same thing but sound very similar on a gusty day.

So, if you kick a 6ft man in the head as you soar uncontrollable above him and land in a face full of brine,

Apologize.

Don’t tell him you are kite surfing because you think it will help you learn to listen better. The blow to his head does not soften simply because you have accepted your shortcomings.

Drowning is not a teachable moment, unless you survive.

You pick up daredevil behaviors because you are unhappy with your life.

No one is telling you to become a Buddhist but did you know, Dalai Lama, in translation means ocean teacher?

Great name.

There are ethereal details only you and the kite know, to create beautiful aerial tricks.

Flipping and dipping a set of wings by the flick of your wrist is an unmatchable sensation.

“Who says people can’t fly, look at me now!” Is a great sentence to feel inside yourself.

So is, “I love you.”

You will want to pull in on the strings when it feels out of control but the way to regain handling is to loosen them.

Everyone crashes the kite, even the veterans, the difference is those who can relaunch without feeling discouraged or panicking.

There will be days where you have free time and there is no wind.

There will be days when wind conditions are perfect and there is no free time.

You can try your whole summer to stand on a board and let a kite glide you and one day you will do it, you can’t quit before that day.

If you want to harness a force that moves masses, like love.

Because that kite can take you anywhere, even straight across the Atlantic Ocean.

To everyone on the shore, this will look easy

Like skipping a stone across a puddle.

 

Love elephant and want to go steady?

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Apprentice Editor: Brandie Smith/Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: Bert Knottenfeld/Flickr Creative Commons