After a private coaching session I always try to write my clients a follow up as a reminder of all the things they learned while riding with me. Sometimes it’s hard to remember all that was said while on the water. I find a written summary is a great way to help the coaching message sink in better, and serves as a great reminder of what to practice. The following breakdown of a toe side to heel side linked turn on a wave is for my friend Elliot who recently had a strapless kitesurf coaching session with me in Cabarete. 

It is almost time to welcome world champion Jalou Langeree to Cabarete and the Uncharted Kite Sessions Cabarete Pro Series. We are preparing and enjoying more than ever the amazing winter conditions of top kite destination Cabarete in the Dominican Republic. Cabarete is known for its consistent wind and year-round wind, and on top of it all, the winter conditions bring you waves! Just to put the cherry on the cake.

We completed our century ride, kiting more than one hundred kilometers along the Brazilian coast in one day. We also went back in time over a century. Life along our route has been sparse and infrequent. We are the only people, or civilized life along the route. But there is plenty of wildlife. Today we are leaving the state of Ceará, completely crossing the entire state of Piauí, and arriving in the sate of Maranhāo located on the edge of the Amazon jungle. Soon the dunes will start to transform into the lush jungle of one of the most magnificent ecosystems on the planet. And we'll only touch the edge.

We're going the wrong way! Vila Kalango is not this way. It's 3am and Mitu assures me as we stroll down the sand filled streets of Jericoacoara that he knows the route home. But I know he's lying to me by his sideways grin. We turn the corner to see the only lit building still open, the late night padaria. We're stopping in for midnight munchies, known as larica in Portuguese. Midnight munchies snacks consist of fresh baked bread topped with either chocolate, bananas or cheese. The padaria is only open from 2am till 7am for the sole purpose of feeding inebriated souls like ours returning from a night of dancing at the Forró.

As I stare at the giant flippers sticking off the end of the bed I think to myself, man does Norm ever have big feet. He slumbers away in the bed next to me, sawing logs while falling asleep listening to poker on the radio. Who falls asleep listening to radio poker? With a couple of grunts and farts, he wakes, pulls back his beauty mask to reveal his puffy swollen eyes, and gives me the middle finger with a smile. Good morning! He wears the beauty mask every night to sleep, but I don't have the heart to tell him that it isn't helping. He's still ugly. But the perfect bunk mate on this epic journey. We keep each other humble with the endless ball busting. He's a unique cat to say the least, and one super cool dude.