Qatar forever - Against time

Time flies. We all know that. But how fast can time sometimes be I learned not until now. Welcome to Qatar, the Time Sink.

“What? Today is Thursday again?” I wondered once again when I was kicked out of the office at 4pm and stood in the heat of afternoon sun in front of our collection station. “Why is that the days pass so fast here?” I began to think.

I started mindlessly my 40 minutes drive home through the busy city of Doha. When I looked into some other drivers I saw that I was not alone there going the thousand times known route through empty Doha city center and then flat boring landscape full of low sandy villas, feeling lethargic and tired, with no better plan than to sit at home, have a dinner, surf internet and fall asleep. Actually they were not only a few of them, it seemed that that all the others were having the same “zero” plan.

And then I got it!! When you do the same thing all and all over again, all the days will fall into one and week will chase a week in a devilish fast sequence. “Every day same. I feel like a robot” I immediately recalled a sentence from 5^th grade English class many years backJ That’s why I was feeling so psychically sick!! Cure? Break the routine!!

Break the routine. Easy to say, but much harder to do. Especially in Qatar it is double truth. Why? Because you are in this alone!! Nobody else seems to be bothered the monotonicity of the everyday life. So nobody else will accompany you, support you or encourage you. They are dragging you with them. You have to have a big deal of self motivation to break the cage. Other problem is that there is seemingly nothing to do!! There is 45°C outside. There are not interesting places to visit or to go, which will draw your attention straight away. Except kite, all activities I was used to were not possible here and all communities of people doing squash, board games, dancing, canoeing or any other free time activity are either non-existent or invisible. I had to start from scratch.

So my first steps led to the most obvious and accessible place of active relaxation, to a gym. Yes, to a gym. A place full of big biceps guys with tiny legs doing arm curls with ton free weights in front of the mirror. “But what…I’ve never done it, so I’ll try and if I don’t like, I quit…easy” I thought and went in. “Hmm I see your situation, but the minimum membership I can offer you is for four months!” told me the consultant. “So I have to be going for four moths?” I asked in disbelief. “You don’t have to be coming, but you need to pay!!” was his straight answer. “Ehh…but once I’m here…” Now I’m going three times a week and you wouldn’t believe it, it is quite fun.

But the most important is that I clear my mind, tire my body and when I go to bed I feel that I’ve done something worth, that I live my life. And I feel peace J

But I cannot go training every day and having four blank days is just too much. Sometimes I go kiting, but the winds here are not very reliable, so I needed some more plans. Unfortunately I don’t have 4x4 so my exploration options are limited. Because I still feel that deep inside the enemy Qatari landscape there are a lot of hidden treasure places. Just you probably need to go far enough.

Anyway…one day I found on the internet the link to the highest Qatar point Qurayn Abu al Bawl with the impressive height of 103m above sea J It was not far from my home, so I took GPS coordinates and drove on a rarely used road to a point around 3 kilometers from the hill. I don’t need to tell you that I couldn’t see it yet!! I set azimuth and started walking. Around 1km from the spot I was still not sure which terrain unevenness might be my target. Only after I came down the last “ridge” I saw it another 1km further. A table shaped hill around 30m high J Found & Conquered!!!

On my back home I for my Lancer an alternative route I saw Google maps. I saw several sand dunes across the road, but I wanted to try. I had plenty of time anyway!! Soon I discovered that nobody had been using this road for years, because it was full of holes and I had to drive slowly. It was still ok until I saw the first dune in my way! It was a big obstruction and the bypass went straight off the road!

Fortunately Qatar has proper desert with sand only in one place and it was not here, so around the dune was a hard stony field which the Lancer could take easily J A quick decision I had take when coming back to the road and had to cross a rather small sand field. “There are enough stones around to build the road through if I get stuck!” I justified flooring the throttle and jumping through!!

It took me around 2.5 hours to get through 20km stretch of this half road track. I had to do couple of more trips off road and do some more identical justifications, but I reached the other end safely, without any damage and in a good mood.

Timing was perfect, because after a quick lunch I met Ovi, the Qatar kite guru and his students in Messaieed desert to go kiting into one inner lagoon created by tide between the dunes. I hopped into his Land Cruiser and after 15 minutes of easy desert driving we were on the spot. Super flat water I have never been riding on and a decent wind for the 15m provided an awesome session. It was a bit weird because I was the only one with kite big enough, so I felt sad for the others fighting to keep theirs in the air while I was jumping between them!!

Three hours till sunset were quickly gone and we moved to Ovi’s paragliding spot. Unfortunately there was not enough wind to fly, so we sat down to the warm sand, watched stars, enjoyed the desert silence and chat.

That was a weekend day how I like it and how it should be. “Hmmm…maybe it is possible to have fun here in Qatar” I thought.

And my feeling grew even stronger when next weekend we did the same trip, but with opposite results. From the beginning we saw that there is no wind for kites, so we went directly to try paragliding. And we were lucky!! Ovi launched his tandem glider and flew with each of us. Wind was not strong so we were flying only low, next to the dune which slope is turning the horizontal sea breeze up. I felt that the glider is like kite.

You need to feel the power of the wind in the handles and then you can do everything. We were flying close to the dune that you could touch it!! Like kiting in 10cm of water I felt…smooth turns, ups and downs, stalling, accelerating…amazing J

We finished after sunset again, stopped at the beach for a swim on the way back and the Qatar unexpected chillout continued…

Now I’m almost sure…Qatar is not that bad as it looked. All things are here…somewhere hidden and it takes a lot of time and effort to find them. Maybe they don’t have the quality as in other countries, but they have their own magic. With enough determination to go against the current and persistence in trying to find the way, this place can be as you want it to be…it will take time, but I believe it can be done…and this is an important discovery for me, because my departure is far far away and I will have the time!!

So I better get something from it and don’t make it the quickest year in my life J

Addicted!!

Where this actually came from? It was long time ago when we saw with my brother a guy, desperately swimming in the windy day in the middle of Lipno dam, playing with some kind of strange thing, which was supposed to be flying and not floating in the water. I didn’t pay much attention, but Jan did so I was hearing time to time after that about some cool sport where you are riding on the water and that flying thing is pulling you. That you can jump high, do crazy tricks in the air and that it is definitely a lot of fun. That thing is called kite, the sport kitesurfing and from many videos you can see that it is really COOL J

So when I came to Dubai, to the land of sea & sun, it was not very difficult to convince myself that this sport would be great and that I want to learn those tricks and fly high!!

Now it is a year and a half I’m riding. It’s a year and half I’m going to the beach to try if there is wind and if I would have a go. Sometimes I’m lucky sometimes not. But I still go. I try, I fail. Sometimes I manage to do a good jump, sometimes I don’t. But I still keep trying. I think, I analyze. Sometimes I figure out where was the problem, sometimes I don’t. But I’m still willing to improve. I watch, I observe. Whenever I see moving palm leaves, I start to think about going to the beach and I check wind forecast every hour. Crazy huh? J

When I was going to Qatar for the first month, I had three kites at that time 15m, 12m and 9m and of course I took one kite and board with me, the 15 RRD Obsession. I didn’t want to miss a single windy day. The wind was good for couple of days, but also too strong some days. So the next month I brought 12m RRD Hypertype II for windier days also. And my wish came true when the forecast showed one whole week of superior wind around 20 knots. Paradise!!

I disappeared from work half an hour earlier to maximize the riding time, pumped up the 12, which was a bit overpowered but nothing serious and launched in. One ride back and forth to check handling and if I can go upwind, followed by the first jump. I managed it nicely. It was probably the highest and longest jump I have ever done. I shouted with enjoyment while hanging in the air, landed smoothly but I forgot about the kite so in the strong wind it took a fast turn and smashed to the water. Not an especially hard crash I thought when re-launching, but…it didn’t want to fly again. After a quick look I found out why…there was a huge tear through the whole canopy L So after five minutes in the water I was already packing up and going home. But the worst thing was that I lost the kite for the rest of the week!!

The next day I skipped, but I really had to hold myself back and drown the urge in beer. But the day after I just couldn’t stay home, so I pumped and completely depowered my 15m Obsession and went in.

And the history continued. After 15 minutes of OK rough riding in meter high waves and 20 knots gusts I jumped. I jumped high and flew far, but unfortunately faster than the kite, so when I landed it stayed behind me, stalled and started falling straight to the ground. I saw it falling and thought “It will get hit by a gust just before the water and will yank me hard!!” And exactly that happened, with only difference that I stayed in place and it was the bar, that didn’t survive the impact and broke, which flew away!! Later I discovered that also one line snapped.

Nice performance again and I was for the second time in three days waking with kite and board on my back that 300 meters to the shore. That was my “Paradise” kite week!!

But I didn’t give up and as it was always I was thinking how recover and learn from it. I went to Dubai to get the 12 fixed and…by chance there was very good offer for a brand new 12m RRD Addiction. I fell in love immediatelyJ The 1000 horsepower kite with endless lift and hang time was exactly what a lately discovered that I want to be doing. Flying…and flying long!!

My kite collection grew to four, but I’m still waiting for a good day to really prove that it does what the sellers say. The one day I had, I blew my chance because I changed the settings as I was used to, but it unfortunately completely destroyed the trimming and it performed like an old-timer!!

But instead we had another couple of super windy days, so I went for some serious action equipped with the 9m I also brought from Dubai.

And history continued again. My super strong Hypertype couldn’t handle a 25 knot gust and I instantly and uncontrollably slid downwind, fell, lost control of the kite which immediately looped, threw me to the air…no need to continue or express how I felt flying without control 3 meters high and just waiting to crash back to the sea…

After second leap I managed to release, so I was once again walking the loser’s 300m back to the beach. This time also with a hole in my hand which needed stitching!!

I was really pissed. On the kite, on me...but as it always was, I calmed down, analyzed the situation and came to a conclusion that it was my fault. I shouldn’t ride when I felt so overpowered...So I went to Dubai seeking solution once again and it came in form of even more amazing offer for RRD Obsession 7mJ My quiver didn’t grow thought, because the canopy damage on the 12m was too serious, that I’ve been advised to leave it…but I have 5 kite bags anyway J

You know…a lot of bad things happened lately to my kite mind, but somehow I feel that it just made me stronger, wiser, more experienced, more deliberate and most importantly that it didn’t touch my passion for kiting.

So with a great enthusiasm and better equipment I’m waiting for the next windy day to unleash everything what I’ve learned and become a better kiter…that’s my addiction!!