Leaving travel plans to the last minute is like rolling the dice. If you’re willing to gamble, you might just get lucky. On a mission to get to the USA, with time running out and no clue how to get there, this crew struck gold with a trip to Turks & Caicos! Click here to read the article!

Getting a crew together is always a challenge, more so than ever. Getting them into the United States? Another level! Katie, Noè, Ewan, Ozzie, and I were in Europe and needed a bridge country to spend two weeks in before making our way to the United States. With the expectation that travel would become easier, we waited until the last minute to book our trip. A week before leaving, we were still clueless as to what we would do; the countries, continents, and destinations that were accessible would change from one day to the next.

I was having a drink in Tarifa with Ozzie when the phone rang. It was Kit Griffiths, a great friend and rider that lives in Turks & Caicos, where the wind had been firing. If we could get there, there would be two intense weeks of riding waiting for us. Exploring the islands on Kit’s boat while based at the H2O Lifestyle Resort, one of the most luxurious kite accommodations that Providenciales has to offer, sounded like a plan I could get behind. It goes without saying that Ozzie and the rest of the crew were in! Now, we just needed to figure out how to get there.  

After several hours of researching flight routes, one PCR test, two nights in hotels, three days of travelling, four passenger locator forms, and five taxis, we were finally in paradise. We had all the essentials: a group of friends, camera gear, and the most beautiful landscape. The wind conditions arrived just as we did! A hurricane passed through the Dominican Republic the day after we arrived in TCI, and we caught the edge of it, getting lucky with two weeks of solid freestyle wind with moody clouds above and pristine blue water below. 

Why were we here? Nowadays, Instagram and its 15-second clips have become standard content, and there has been a severe lack of proper videos produced. When a new video drops, it’s often a product video from a kite brand or another shreddit from a classic training destination like Brazil. We wanted to bring back videos the way they used to be; a core crew of friends living the adventure together, shredding and filming each other. We’re pretty stoked by how many people have been frothing for us to bring this idea back to life, and we can’t wait to show you the video we’ve been working on for Knot Future. 

Let me run you through our typical day in Turks & Caicos so you can get a picture of what life was like. We would wake up at H2O and step onto the balcony to get an early morning view of Long Beach, the most popular kite beach in Turks. At 7 am, the first frothers were already getting on the water for 10 hours of non-stop wind in 30°C weather. The hype to ride would build through breakfast; seeing kites already up in the air was the signal that it was time to get going! 

We’d quickly prep for a full day of exploring on the boat. We packed lunch, snacks, and water and rounded up all the camera gear and batteries. With two drones, two mirrorless cameras, a RED, GoPros, and even a dad cam, it was a lot of gear! Then, a 10-minute drive to the other side of the island to pull up at the dock and load up the boat, which was an impressive Axopar 37 with twin 350hp outboard engines.

All locked and loaded, Kit would lower the boat into the clear turquoise water, we’d pump the tunes and set off to explore! We slowed down to see the passing turtles, but the wind was hot and humid, and we were all happy to hit the Sharky channel (Leeward channel) to pick up speed and enjoy the refreshing breeze.

We did a downwinder to scope out the islands on the first day, looking for potential kite spots. Each day following, based on the wind direction, wind strength and tides, we’d pull up the navigation map on the boat and return to the spot that looked most promising. When the tide would get too low or too high at one spot, we’d be off to the next, either cruising in the boat or upwinding or downwinding through mangroves that created perfect flat water spots. 

One of our favourite spots was The Bridge, a common-sounding name, but one of the hardest spots for the conditions to line up perfectly, you know, the ushe*. [The ushe: a usual common occurrence, happening often]. On a fast enough boat, you could get there in half an hour. We didn’t realise just how fast our boat was until we’d catch a glimpse of Kit speeding towards us to pick us up after a session. That boat sure looks epic gliding through the water at full speed!

We weren’t riding at The Bridge for long before one of the island locals pulled up on a golf cart to investigate what we were up to. The island is private property, but although TCI is one of the most exclusive archipelagos of the Caribbean, it’s still the Caribbean; Some rum and a friendly chat will leave any security guard happy! Some advice we took away for next time is that sailing without rum is almost as risky as driving with no seatbelt.

You’d expect clear, blue skies on a trip to the Caribbean, but we had the opposite with aggressive-looking clouds arriving every day, a stark contrast to the paradisiac blue water and white sand. The clouds became a central part of the shoot, and we would chase them every day, choosing spots with the most clouds because they influenced the wind. We were always trying to fit them into our camera’s frame and would watch them in wonder as we headed back on the boat at sunset. 

We finished each day with a Jeroboam bottle of rum and coke as we’d take turns wake foiling while cruising back on the boat. We’d enjoy Asados - Argentinean BBQ - almost every night. If we knew it was going to be a big day on the boat, we would make sure to tend to the lady* so that there was a feast to come home to. [The lady: an 8-hour slow-roasted pork. Tending to the lady: carefully preparing and spoiling the pork (giving her a good time) so that she’d be nice and supple when she comes out of the oven in 8 hours time.]

Chasing the adventure of life at sea felt right! The only question was, could our bodies handle the intense rhythm? Thanks to Kit’s stretching tools and the plush beds at H2O, we were able to keep going non-stop, kiting every day, exploring new spots, adventuring through the mangroves, and swimming with dolphins and sea turtles. 

The best part of coming back from an epic day out at sea was relaxing and recovering back at the H2O resort, with their relaxed vibe. The poolside bar and barbecue area created a central meeting place, where we could wind down and meet all kinds of characters enjoying the luxurious Turks lifestyle and seaside escape. We ran into people from all walks of life! Kite-centric families at the beach day in and day out, a hairdresser from New York who had cut JKF’s hair, and a group of Detroit locals who loved to party. We learnt about each others’ culture and way of life and had a great time bonding over barbecue, tequila and everyone’s different tastes in party music. 

We survived the two-week-long expedition with lots of laughs, amazing food and bantz*. [Bantz: Banter, inside jokes and rabble that doesn’t make any sense when you first hear it. E.g.’ Sssgoingon’, ‘Waddayoutalkinabouuut’, and ‘Orite M8’ come from Big Lez, a lit Australian comedy show that would we froth on watching almost nightly].

At the end of the trip, we parted ways. Katie, Ewan, and Noè to Hood River, and Rami and Ozzie on a skitz mission to party in Miami. [Skitz mission: a series of events where lots of crazy things happen]. You know, the ushe!

 

By Ramiro Gallart and Katie Potter

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