Which Comes First...
Career or Kiting?
A Cozumel experiment shows what happens
if all of us could choose the latter.
This 40+ kiter calls himself an ambulance chaser. Press him further about who he is, and he’ll admit he’s an injury attorney who lives via BlackBerry. Only after you really start talking with him and he gets past all the work-related frenzy will he mention that, oh yeah, he likes to kiteboard – if and when he can.
Like our friend, many of us define ourselves by career rather than passion. But just imagine what would happen if things reversed. What if each of us could be a kiteboarder first and no one knew or cared what we did for a living? That’s what my fiancée, Elea, and I looked to explore when earlier this year we hosted a new kind of trip we called an Air Retreat. We put out a public invitation, hoping to gather a diverse group of riders in two beachfront houses at the Country Club Beach in Cozumel, Mexico. Twenty-five people, all from different careers, came for nine straight windy days. They left with the answer to what life would be like if we called ourselves not lawyers or doctors, but kiters.
Noah Simon, a 19-year-old college student, remembers walking into one of the houses. “It looked like a taping of the next Real World as people hauled their bags into the house and piled into their shared rooms,” he says. But the screaming fights never happened. “The energy began bouncing around, creating more and more anticipation and excitement for the week ahead.”
“When I arrived,” says Danny Johnson, a 59-year-old custom home builder in his regular life, “I walked into a house splattered with kite equipment. It seriously looked like an explosion. Within minutes, I was out launching with everyone else.”
Right away, my anxiousness dwindled as only kiteboarding mattered. “We were all united by a quest for wind,” says Jeff Davis, a 44-year-old corporate president. “The demographics included everything from college freshmen to kite industry folks to executives and professionals. And, the riding levels ranged from those fighting to stay upwind to those busting unhooked F-16s and mobes -- but we all got along great.”
It also helped that the group was able to kite every day. With coffee in hand, the early birds would be on the water by 7:30 a.m. There were at least three to six hours daily of solid “go upwind” breezes. We had an air compressor, and people would rig and launch right off the patio into the ocean. They got to try out the latest 2007 gear from North Kiteboarding, thanks to Nick Abbott who was on hand along with Litewave Dave Turner of Litewave Designs and Globe Kites.
“Senor Coconut” became the pastime between sessions. The crew would gather on the beach, line up the chairs and split into teams of two people each. The game rules were simple: Loft a 15-pound coconut 10 yards in an attempt to hit your competitors’ target. First team to crush the others won and advanced to the next round in the bracket. By the championship match, everyone was rushing onto the court like it was World Cup soccer.
The fourth day brought shared discovery during our first official lagoon trip. Having heard the epic stories of journeys upwind our compound, the group was hungry for tropical coves. We arrived on Passion Island to strong offshore winds. With three chase boats and a nasty wind shadow, we all launched from the west end. You could ride either out to the Caribbean or back into the lagoons. A group of us headed up into the cove. About a mile up we met a mangrove blockage. So with my kite high, I crossed the island by foot on a discovery mission.
With a dentist, a realtor and a college student right behind me, we crossed over Passion Island and kited down the other side. From lagoon flats to perfect wave kickers, we went upwind one side and downwind the other. “Bucking upwind to shoot the forbidden beach gap out to the surreal and enchanted glowing blue water north of Passion Island – that was insane,” says Joe Gillespie, the 32-year-old dentist.
We all ended up tossing acrobatics over Anthony Spencer, the 38-year-old videographer, when we found him filming us 50 yards off the main launch, standing chest-high in water. “Kiteboarding seems to bring people together on a much higher level,” Anthony says. “That made us a tighter bunch.” The entire trip was offered similar excitement daily.
Since the Cozumel Air Retreat, we’ve all gathered to premier the movie created from the footage. The family reunion energy was strong as we realized kiting doesn’t end when your gear’s packed up. This group tapped into kiteboarding culture and proved how strong that bond can be. Seeing a person’s life focus switch from career to kiting was a powerful thing to watch. That’s why we’re planning two more Air Retreats this year and even more for 2008.
And I’ll always remember Bert. He was actually late arriving to Cozumel, not showing up until our fourth night there. I thought he would still be lawyer mode. But even with his pre-booked room scavenged, you could see content relief as he realized his gear would be used soon. The next morning, guess who was first on the water -- with no BlackBerry in sight?
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