November, December and half of January are not normal Thailand – regular 18-20kt days and big seas.

but around mid january the North Easterly monsoon winds stop and the South Easterly thermal winds pick up. Back to normal Thailand! a nice comfortable 13/14kts in the morning building up to 16/17 late afternoon. Flat water, warm seas, and late wake-ups. This is the Thailand I know!!!

riding 11am-4pm 14-22kts

wind is never steady. if the forecast says 14kts average it will be 12kts about 50% of the time and 17kts about 50% of the time. on an average day there are 20-30 seconds between the changes, but then slight flickers around every 7 seconds.

what does that mean for kitesurfing? hold your wind meter up for more than 2 seconds!! and better still – look at other people on the water – and use your eyes.

today was on the wrong side of gusty – up to 22 and down to 14. that makes it hard to choose a kite size!! variations of ‘damm where’s the wind’ to ‘holy s$%#!!!!!!’

i think the wind’s about to change…

Finally!

What a view to wake up to…

riding 10am-4pm avg 15 gusts 17.
15kts, beautiful azure seas, clear blue skies, cheap tasty thai food next to the beach for lunchtime.
i’m never going home…

Students and Kiteboarders riding 11am-5pm avg 13 gusts 16.

the waves have stopped!
great for my students – they’re progressing quickly through the bodydrags. not so much for riding but i had a 30min play on the 14m.

Kiters on the water 1pm-5pm avg 17 gusts 20.

party time!

it’s the weekend and a bmw club from bangkok came down for the weekend. they had a live band on stage right in front of the kite club. more thai country songs than you could ever wish for!
they were the rockstars on the night, but the next day we were – they were all taking pictures of us playing around in front of the club the next day. felt good!

people riding 12pm-5pm avg 16 gusts 21

we love downwinders in waves!

The wind dropped a knot but we still wanted to use the 9s so had a 3km downwinder today. plenty of tight turns a few feet from the beach with crowds gathering to cheer us on as we got really close. the waves were good today!  But thats Pranburi in November!

Kiters out riding 11am-5pm avg 17 gusts 22.

another day on the 9s!
but a nicer day today – started at a sensible time like 10.30 rather than howling at 8am like the last 3 days. waves still big, current still strong in front of the shop but manageable upwind a couple of hundred metres. seems to be an area about a hundred metres out of beautiful fast 2m high rolling waves. they look scary as you get close but never break on you and give you a big push if you get it right.
more of the same tomorrow!