Catch The Wind

"Charlie Browner", "chicken bone", "donkey dick". At some point in the future, an Olympics will doubtless will be treated to an expanded lexicography as the games add yet another sport. Kitesurfing.

Windsurfing, which is an Olympics sport, is in retreat against the onslaught of the kite variety; at least that is so here. The gathering of kities (Charlie Browners) at La Marina beach on Pollensa bay has grown significantly over the years. Whereas once there were only a dozen or so kites, now the air over the sea seems to be filled with hundreds of inflatables of reds, yellows, blues, blacks, whites - a collage of multi-coloured technology grasped by those in pursuit of air time and the demonstration of "mobes", the tricks of the kitesurfing trade.

The La Marina kitesurfing exhibitions have reached the stage of the spectacular. They have become a tourist attraction in their own right. Drive along the coast road and see the cars stopped and the passengers disgorged with their cameras. Kitesurfing can be a dangerous sport and watching it is not without danger on what is a notorious stretch of road.

Surfing of all varieties has had its roots in communities of thrill-seekers. It is not so long ago that surfing was an obscure pastime; you can argue that the Californian early '60s saw the real birth of sea riding, when the local college kids would care whether they had enough money to fill the tank of a Chevvy in order to get to the beach and catch the wave. And from all this grew catch the wind, which brings us up to date and to the kitesurfing off the shores of Mallorca.

The communities of kities that take to the water and to the air are populated by those in constant search of the right conditions. It's as if everything else is put on hold when the wind is right and the kit can be hauled onto a beach in anticipation of a good cross-wind. Onshore and offshore winds are not the right conditions. Too fierce and the wind can be "nuking".

This is not a cheap or an uncomplicated sport. It can cost up to 1500 euros for all the kit, while the safety measures and the actual art of kitesurfing make for something more complex than may appear to those watching through camera lenses. The focus on safety is important. I had always understood that instruction in kitesurfing was banned here, but today's "Diario" points out that lessons cost 30 euros and quotes a guy from a shop called Pipe Line who offers such lessons. Perhaps the responsibility towards safety has persuaded the authorities to grant licences. Someone has to have been engaged in instruction; the growth in the sport locally hasn't happened just by chance.


PUERTO POLLENSA FRONTLINE UPDATE
Well the mayor has diverted his attention away from normal matters to do with water in order to tackle, if that isn't exaggerating things, the unrest surrounding the trial closure of the frontline. Not everyone is happy, which will come as no surprise. So the mayor's going to have a meeting with the unhappies, which begs the question - shouldn't he have done so before now? Whilst pedestrianisation has much to commend it (and one should remember that this is only as yet a trial), there is a point at which it becomes an inconvenience, whilst the exceptions, e.g. for buses, taxis, police and emergency and deliveries, make it questionable in the first place. "The Bulletin" today points out that the new road remains virtually unused, while the coast road remains the key thoroughfare. It's a fair comment, but only up to a point. Not only does the sign at the roundabout as one joins the new road point along the coast road to the "centre", thus obviously directing traffic away from the new road, the coast road is more direct. The new road is a bypass, not a means of access, even if roads off do create some of this access.

People are also whingeing about a lack of information. I drove along the coast road today and saw nary a sign saying anything. Maybe there was and I missed it, but what I did see were numerous no-parking signs taped up with bin-liners ready to be unveiled to an unsuspecting motoring public. The thing is, if you take away all the parking that is currently available, where on Earth are people going to park? And this includes not only residents but also those with hire cars staying at seaview hotels such as the Uyal. Presumably, it gets pushed into the side roads. And that is going to piss the residents off even more. Trial by road closure. Yep, reckon it will be.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - this great film with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek was set in South Dakota; the badlands refer to the terrain to be found there and in North Dakota. Today's title - hippy-dippy, British Dylan.

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