Sara Kellett

After finishing my A-levels in June, this year was the first year I’ve ever been “free” to do whatever I want. I spent the summer out in Vass and knew I wanted to go somewhere to windsurf for the winter the question was just where. I’d thought about Australia but it’s just so expensive there, and so when Jamie Drummond, my activities manager over the summer mentioned he was planning on going to Cape Town I jumped on the chance to tag along.

We came out in the middle of November and in the first month here I don’t think I have ever done so much windsurfing. It seemed to be super windy almost every day with some pretty big waves too. The waves here seem so much heavier than in England, and I have had to learn to take a proper wipe-out and do a bit of swimming. This was good for me as I have always been fairly confident in small waves and light winds but found big waves so scary! I realise now that they’re not so bad. You just have to stay calm and it always ends up ok (touch wood!).

As well as the epic port tack wave riding, I have had some fun days jumping too. I have been living and done a lot of sailing with Lena Erdil. Seeing her get so close to landing her backloops really pushed me to try them, but after a couple of attempts it turned out I was actually doing push-loops. For some reason these just feel more natural to me so I’m going to stick with them for the moment as I think I’ve got close on a few tries.

The nice thing about Cape Town is there are quite a few different places to sail, all fairly close so you can have several sessions a day, without having to rush around and drive for ages. Also there are just so many amazing sailors here, and everyone is so nice and friendly. Therefore, even on non-windy days there is always stuff to do and people to hang out with.

As much as I am looking forward to getting out on the water when I get back home, I think it is going to be a bit of a shock compared to the 28 degree air temperature and perfect wind and waves of Cape Town!

Also a huge thank-you has to go to Tushingham for helping me out with some brilliant sails for my trip. They have been through a lot with me and now feel like my trusted friends. I truly think my old sails would have been lucky to last a week out here!

Read more about Sara on Boards here.