Although my grandparents lived in Katwijk and I love to be at the sea in the summer, I only learned a little kite surfing ten years ago. I didn’t grow up at the beach but in Brabant. And in the Maarheeze area you hardly have any lakes and certainly no surf dudes. Or at least, I don’t know them. Only when I came to live in Bergen in North Holland in 2006 and went to the beach with my children a lot, did I get to know kite surfers and the accompanying scene.
Sabine Leenhouts © Private image
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All sporty guests who all get itchy when it starts to blow. Siemme Kemper (44) was around thirty when I saw him stunting on the water. Large guest with long sun bleached curls and not afraid of the Duvel when he is at sea. He barely kits. In the meantime, it has become wing fiddling, the very latest craze.
A variant with a kite, but one that no longer controls long lines with a bar but holds you in your hands. The board is also different. A hydrophoilboard is a shelf with a mast underneath that you push above the water at enough speed so that it looks like you are floating.
Siemme Kemper © Private image
Tough guy
When I saw Siemme on the water that first time, he jumped the highest of everyone. The rest of the kiters had pumped up a 7 meter pilot and he sailed with a copy of 14 meters. Then you can jump very high. He had started kiting around the age of twenty -three and taught himself mainly.
“I really put a lot of time in it,” he says. “If I want to learn something, I go on the water until I can do it.” That sometimes goes wrong, but that then produces beautiful stories on the beach. “I remember trying a backloop for the first time. The intention is that you make a kind of back-over-sales.”
Sabine in Brazil © Private image
‘Bouncing on my ass’
“Eric, an acquaintance of me who worked in the surf shop of Windsurfer Stephan van den Berg, did it to me. It was wind force five, I had my 14 meter and went on the water behind him. I thought I was after what he before, but thought it was so incredibly hard. I also landed on my ass on the water.”
“Once from the water, Eric said that he really never went to do what I did. It turned out that I made a backloop with a kiteloop. I sent my kite in a loop so that you are pulled into a backloop at a huge speed. So new trick. But I could, haha.”
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No hero
I am personally not a hero at all with my kite and very to be honest, I am already happy that I have the kite under control and can get out of the water in the same place as I go in. Because at all in the beginning I regularly walked back to the ‘Walk of Shame’ to the place where I had my things. Then I had often pulled and fallen from my board and the wind had blown me hundreds of meters away.
That is why it is important that you quickly ‘learn to walk height’, as it is called. And I only accidentally jump when I am again too rude and launched from a wave. But until now it went well every time and I still live.
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Scenery
I received my first lessons on the beach of IJmuiden. I left a kite for the first time. It felt like I hung behind a bus that occasionally pulled me to me at least 60 kilometers per hour. Doodeng that first hour. It really took a while before I got the feeling that I was driving the kite and not the other way around.
But the second lesson it went much better, and I was allowed to go on the water. I learned how to let yourself be ‘dragged’ through the kite through the water. Handy knowledge because, especially in the beginning, you often lose your board and you have to pick it up yourself between the waves.
Bob Cordemeyer © Private image
Water fanatic
Bob Cordemeyer (37) grew up on the water. “My mother is a fanatic sailor and I liked everything on the water. In my younger years I windsurfed and when I could take over a kite and a kiteboard from one of my best friends in 2007, I started kite surfing.”
“I didn’t really take lessons, they were not really given yet and I was handy with the wind and about twenty years so it quickly picked up.” He is now the father of three children and since June the owner of the Kitesurfshop in Haarlem, so he can no longer go on the water with every breath of wind.
Bob Cordemeyer on the North Sea © Private image
Kite-Community
“I think the atmosphere around the kiting is important, so it’s not necessarily about the best. I just want to go where my friends are. We also look for that piece of community with the store. I want people to be able to come here, talk to each other about the spots, the Gear, Kitevakings and so you hit the heart of the sport. And then a store is more than just a store, I think.”
“I know how nice it is to chat with other kiters about everything that is on the water. After a session sit together and a little chat about the sport with a beer in your hand is part of the whole.” Bob agrees. “LOL with your friends on the water is the best thing there is. Challenging each other to pull higher loops, jump and a little. That is wonderful. And you know, there will never be an AI tool to replace that.”
Siemme on the Wingfoil © Private image
Wingfiling Trend
Over the past ten years I have seen the number of kite surfers grow exponentially. If there were about twenty people at sea in Bergen aan Zee, it was a lot. Now there are certainly the triple. There are also many more women and wing foilers. “I don’t think one excludes the other, but I do see a huge increase in wing fee,” says Bob.
Siemme does not even do anything else. “I sail a lot with a friend and he spent a few months practicing for me so I went alone a few times to get my turns better and faster. We then agreed again, and then I could do it a lot better, haha. And now I am in training to sail around Texel. That’s a big catamaran race that we mean in!”
Practicing winfiling on Bonaire © Private image
According to him, it is not possible that I have not been on the water with my kite for a few years now. “Soon I will take you with me! I make you addicted to Wing. It is so nice and you can go on the water anywhere in contrast to normal kite surfing and with much less wind you can already sail well.” So there is a challenge waiting for me again this summer. Time to learn to sail with a wing on a hydrofoil. See if I get the hang of it before the summer is over!
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What does the wind do and where can you sail? Install these apps.
Weather and wind
Windy
Very detailed wind maps and weather layers. Favorite with many kite surfers.
Windfinder Pro
Popular for wind forecasts, especially at the coast. Multi -day predictions per hour.
Windguru
Old school but accurate. Many kite and surf spots are standard.
Predict wind
Especially useful for those who really take it seriously or offshore sails. A little more technical.
Or you go to these websites:
Windmeister.nl
For current wind speeds, temperature and there is also a rain radar on the site.
Uitrgeekeswind.nl
Wind direction, place, speed in knots and temperature.
Through these apps you will find the Best Spots & Locations:
Kitespot (or spotyride)
Community-driven spot information including best wind direction, facilities, etc.
Kite surfing folder
World map with thousands of spots, including information about level, rules, best season.
Wind (buttons) level Explanation
6–10 buttons advanced only with foilboard + large kite (15–21 m²)
11–13 Knots Light weather is just possible, requires technology and efficient set-up.
14-20 Knots Ideal Perfect for beginners with Twintip (a board with which you can both send the lace) and 9–12 m² Kite
21-30 knots experience a lot of power, faster kites needed.
> 30 buttons expert only for advanced students; Fast reflexes and control.