Nadine Merks

With only PKRA New Caledonia left on the PKRA competition schedule, the end of the season is in sight. I’m skipping this last event and will be spending the winter months training in Cabarete.
I’ll try to post pictures on a regular basis over the next couple of months, so keep checking my site!

Last week I was a guest at the Windriders Girls Kite Camp at Lake Garda in Italy.
The Windriders school is situated in Limone sul Garda, a cute, little village that is built against the steep rocky mountains surrounding Lake Garda. It’s an amazing scenery and it was a joy to kite there.
With a total of 10 girls entering the camp we had a perfectly mixed group of beginners and more advanced riders. With the intense heat in the North of Italy, 37 degree afternoons, the wind decided to show only in the mornings. Therefore the schedule got rearranged and every morning around 6.45 we would gather at the school to hop in the boats and start our sessions.
I know it sounds early.. believe me, it was a bit of a struggle to get out of bed the first few days.. but the sunrise over the mountains was totally worth it! Slowly the lake became sunny and hot and by eleven o’clock the temperature was over 30 degrees and the wind would drop, leaving us no other option than to refresh ourselves with ice cream and lemon soda.
Yes, you’re getting the right vibe from this update.. we had a hard time, tough even.. hahaha
It was a cool group of girls, everyone with their own goals for the end of the week. From being a complete beginner to being able to ride upwind, both ways and in choppy and gusty conditions by the end of the week (respect to miss V in the P).. and for others the first proper jumps.
ION provided me with some nice sunnies for this event and Liquid Force got me a short and shirts. I decided to give the LF lycra to one of the girls who had a good week, great perseverance or made big progress… and chose ‘Lou’, who even without eating and spotting snakes everywhere, kept on going.
Trick wise .. Marjon was definitely ‘the killer’ with her jumps!
I had a great time and would like to thank Maayke for inviting me to do the clinics at the camp and all the girls for the great atmosphere!
Hope to see you guys in Cabarete in February!

Thanks Nadir for the pics…

The first week of August was all about crazy wind at the PKRA event in Sotavento, Fuerteventura.
I got there a couple of days early to check the conditions, and rumors were true.. it was super windy and gusty!
The girls didn’t ride till the second day of the comp and we could immediately show our skills on the 5m kites. I always refer to my 5m as the ‘sneeze and loop’ kite. It’s super fast and with little training on it and being used to the bigger sizes since I spend most my time in the DR, it punishes me with unintended kiteloops.
It was good fun to kite in the conditions though, definitely challenging and even though I didn’t pull off the tricks I would’ve liked to, I was happy with the outcome.
After the event I went up north for 10 days to kite with Holly and Tala. There was a super nice, layedback vibe in the north and we had amazing kite sessions. The lagoons provided a perfect flat water spot and in the back Tala was hitting the waves… all in all a great spot to spend the day and a great three weeks in Fuerte!

The past three months Cabarete has been the scenery for my kiteboarding trip. Starting off with a full month without wind, the weather recovered ‘Cabarete style’. From mid June onwards the wind was blowing daily between 15-25knots! Besides teaching I managed to clock quiet some hours on the water. Surprisingly for summer we had good swell coming in, resulting in nice waves on the Kitebeach reef. This same Kitebeach is losing significant beach area in summertime because of the tide, which creates the best conditions for very amusing ‘kites in the palm tree’ action. Having said that, I was almost one of them… lying on my stomach on the exposed reef, holding the kite unhooked and trying my best to keep it from going for a swim in the Ocean Point 1 pool.
Cabarete is like home for me, it has good conditions, a great international kiteboarding scene and some of my best friends live there. I would specifically like to thank Calin & Julian and Jen & Ken for letting me stay with them.
I couldn’t have wished for a better spot to live and will miss the ‘evil brothers’ Papi and Chulo.

The upcoming month is gonna be awesome and even though I’m a bit sad for leaving Cab, I’m super excited for the upcoming events!
Tomorrow I’ll arrive in Fuerteventura where I’ll attend the PKRA freestyle event in the first week of August, afterwards I’ll be traveling to the North of Fuerteventura with Tala and Holly for 10 days of kiting and fun.
Towards the end of August I’ll be doing clinics at a kite camp for girls at the Lago di Garda in Northern Italy. If you’re interested in attending the event, please contact Maayke through Windriders.
With a bit of luck, it all depends on the wind, I’ll be finishing my stay in Europe with the Dutch championships in the first weekend of September.

Keep checking the site as I’ll be posting regularly about the events.

The past month flew by like no other. With only 5 days with wind it wasn’t the best time to be in Cabarete but it’s been fun. Tala has been visiting so there was plenty of madness outside the water. Forecast for this month looks good, so fingers crossed that we get some awesome conditions here!

Past month kitemag.gr had an interview with me. For those who keep up with their languages or just want to look at the pictures have a look at kitemag.gr,  it’s all Greek to me though!

I’ll be attending the PKRA in Fuerteventura in the beginning of August. Afterwards I’ll be traveling to Italy to attend a girls kite camp at Lago di Garda!
If you’re interested to join us, contact Maayke through Windriders.

It’s been way too long since I posted on my site. Besides a little kite trip to Greece, I’ve been spending most of my time with family. When you’re traveling non stop, it’s nice to take some time to visit everyone and I was lucky to be there when my little nephew was born.

But it was time to kite again, so 4 days ago I arrived in Cabarete. It’s great to be back, to see the Airbound crew again, it always feels like coming home.
Big thanks to Calin and Julian for having me as their guest! I’m double lucky since Calin is a great cook and besides enjoying her awesome food at Kite Club Café,
I wake up in the scent of fresh baked cookies! ohhh yeah!
Plan is to stay here for 2 months, teach, train and hopefully do an event by the end of June. Tala will join me in just little over a week, so it’s gonna be great fun riding together again!

Unfortunately wind has been very light since my arrival, so I’ll have to wait a couple more days before I can hit the water.

Keep you posted!

After an awesome day at the Thai Wake Park, I finally arrived back in Holland last night. I had a great evening with friends in my old university town and had a special meeting today…

I’m very proud to announce ION as my new sponsor!
I was already a big fan of the brand and using their 2010 Nova harness,
so it’s amazing to be sponsored by them and I will proudly be riding the 2011
Nova harness and Jewel wetsuit series.
Check out the ION site for all their cool gear!

This was a week of surprises…
From the weather changing from sunny and warm into a proper European storm to the sweet looking mango salad that left you with burning lips and a running nose.
The PKRA event started off with light winds and nice weather. Chilling on the beach, in the pool and eating lots of ice cream was the way to fill the day.
On Wednesday the wind direction shifted and brought, stronger, gusty winds, waves and rain. Loads of rain!
The conditions where tough for everyone, which made the event exciting.
It was my second kite competition ever and I went in with the hope to do good and the idea that it would be a great learning experience. The latter it was. With the wind being inconsistent and having little practice competing, I ended up riding underpowered in my heats twice. Especially my heat in the doubles was ridiculous. The wind was nuking and as soon as the heat started it dropped drastically. Unfortunately I lost my board somewhere in the first minute and it took me forever to retrieve it. It was an unfortunate way of loosing a heat that I could’ve won, which gave me a 9^th place.
Nevertheless It was a good practice for me, doing good in competitions comes with experience and by being here I gained a little of that.

Hopefully the sun will come back for the last couple of days of my stay. I’ll be going to the wakeboard park here and after Thailand have a little break and hit the snow in the French Alps.

It’s been just 2 days since I left South Africa and I’m already settled in Hua Hin, Thailand.
I had a quick stop over in Holland to pick up some big kites, see family and friends. I promised my best friend Brechje to mention her in my blog. She came to the airport to say ‘hello’ and the waitress accidentally poured a full glass of beer in her neck… hilarious! She really made my day!

The first PKRA event of the year will kick off in 2 days time. No wind yet, but I’m very excited to be here and attend a PKRA event again!
End of the week I’ll post an event update with pictures.

Time has been flying. Two months passed so quickly here in South Africa, it’s unreal.Unfortunately my travel buddy, Tala, had to cancel on the trip to SA, therefore my plans changed last minute and Langebaan became the home spot for this trip.
I want to thank Dimitri and Michelle of Windchasers for their hospitality and support. They picked me up from the airport after my last minute call and gave me a place to stay in their wonderful guesthouse and kiteschool. I can recommend everyone who wants to kite or learn to kite in South Africa to visit Windchasers in Langebaan.

For my loyal supporters who I’ve been letting down by not blogging as often as I intended to, I’m sorry. As a belated New Years resolution I’ll better my life and make blogging on my website a priority.

I’ve been really enjoying South Africa, from the sightseeing trips in Cape Town, the unforgettable nights out at Langebaans greatest disco’s (powered by Ulf’s dance moves) to the kite trips in search for massive waves at Big Bay or flat water and bull sharks at Witsand.
But then again, the best spot was right in front of the house… Langebaan lagoon, the little bay with the windsurfers and butter flat water and of course Shark Bay which is beautiful turquoise and shallow.

Kite wise it was pretty much the usual, I practiced new tricks, crashed hard, tried again, crashed even harder, chickened out way to many times and managed to smack the board in my face while still on one of my feet.
My 5m HIFI Comp kite survived the massive pounding of the waves and rocks at Big Bay, truly impressive! I never saw a kite folded like that… it looked like an origami swan. I nearly drowned, but the kite had no scratch on it.
It was also the first trip where I had the Liquid Force Bliss board with me and it’s a sweet ride. The pink and glittery board got a lot of attention from other female kiters, a couple of them tested it… overall verdict: smooth ride and very, very pretty!

I met a lot of wonderful people during my stay in Langebaan, every one of them inspiring me in a different way.
Now, sadly, it’s time to leave, on to the next adventure.

…but, as a well known actor and former Governor of California once said…
I’ll be back!