Chile ‘23
I recently returned from another spectacular trip to Matanzas, Chile! This was my third time visiting, and I was lucky to share so many incredible kitesurf sessions with my local friends and fellow travelers. We didn’t get the 10-15 ft swells like we had in 2022, but I really enjoyed riding waves in the 6-8 ft range and making improvements in my technique. Wind was super consistent yet again, with all but one session on a 7m kite.
I had three friends join our group for the first time and as goofy-foot riders, they had a blast carving frontside turns all over the place! I was surprised to hear from Reider Decker just a few days before flying to Chile, and we ended up sharing a bunch of sessions with a small group of Airush team riders. While we didn’t manage to organize a BBQ like past years, it was great to ride with many of my local friends I’ve met during the last two trips to Chile. I’m already thinking about returning in ’24 and might try to stay even longer this time!
GoPro Film Review / Backside Technique
Line mount footage has proven to be a valuable tool for self-assessment and self-coaching in wave riding. I often ride without an action camera for simplicity but reviewing my own riding after a session has helped me improve my technique much faster than ever before.
The wave spot in Chile is rather challenging, with side shore wind from the left on a peeling left-hand point break. As a regular-stance rider, I’m kiting backside and that can make it challenging to carve aggressive top turns. Reviewing my GoPro footage has helped me get more vertical while setting up my top turns, while also controlling my speed for each turn. Since the wind is side-shore rather than side-off, riding the wave requires aggressive kite steering and can easily lead to riding too fast down the line. I’ve found that if I can set up a top turn on a powerful section of the wave, I can kill most of my straight-line speed during the bottom turn and really lay into the wave as I attack the lip. While I’ll continue to improve even more over time, it was great to see myself throwing more spray, hitting the lip right after it’s starting to break, and getting the board more vertical coming out of my bottom turns.
Thanksgiving Abroad
This was my third Chilean Thanksgiving in a row, and our meals seem to get more dialed each year! We used our outdoor fire grill more than ever before this trip, cooking ribs, fish, chicken, asparagus, carrots, and a ribeye on Thanksgiving Day. While turkey is not a commonly found food in Chile, they have tons of local agriculture, and everything is so fresh and full of flavor. My favorite shopping in town is at the local produce market where I’ve been buying the best fruits and vegetables I’ve ever seen, and at a fraction of US prices.
Traveling Light & Physical Maintenance
This was the first kite trip I’ve done without bringing my yoga mat and foam roller along. I wanted to travel light and keep things simple, bringing just one gear bag instead of my usual two. For the past two years, I’ve packed a complete wing foil setup but only got a session or two each time. For 2023, I wanted to focus on kitesurfing and felt that I could train my switch stance (goofy/right-foot-forward) to work on riding the wave here frontside.
Having only one gear bag limited my options, especially if I wanted to avoid extra airline fees by staying below 50 lbs. I was hesitant to leave the yoga mat and foam roller behind, as I’ve just started to see improvement in chronic low-back and hip tension. It turns out that this was a blessing in disguise, and I found that I benefitted from doing more dynamic stretching instead of spending longer periods of time on the yoga mat. During most mornings, I’ve gone for a quick walk down the cliff to the beach and back up to the house. Once I’m back on the deck, I’ll go through a few rounds of squats, toe touches, jumping jacks and forward folds. This routine has helped me stay fresh for kite days, while also using much less time than my usual longer sessions on the yoga mat.
