–One hundred things to do before you’re 80: go out kite boarding in the cold waters of the Netherlands in December… check–

Kite boarding in the Netherlands is (not) fun. It depends on how you look at it. I came back from Mauritius just over four weeks ago and I had a great time there. Although most of the trip was work-related and I have had to work more than I had originally expected it still was a fabulous trip and I even got to do some decent kite boarding.

The environment in Mauritius is great for kite boarding. The whole island (or, all of the coastline except for the souther part) is surrounded by a big reef. Because of this, the waves do not crash directly onto the shore, but way out. This is great if you do kite boarding, as you can now choose what you want: (almost) flat water, or big waves. I like both (the flat water is great for speed and to learn some tricks), so it was a great experience.

One of the other reasons it’s great there is because of the temperature. The air temperature hasn’t drop below 20 degrees (centigrade that is) the whole period I was there and the water temperature is also at least 23 or 24 degrees. So, no need for a wetsuit at all.

As I said, I came back four weeks ago, and since then haven’t really had any time to get a good kite boarding session done as they say. I was in Belgium, Norway, Italy and Denmark after I came back from paradise, and the weekends I was at home, the winds were too strong. Last Saturday though, the predictions were great. Relatively constant winds, not too gusty and about 20 to 25 knots (see the ‘Wind m/s; measure in the table above and do it times 2 to get knots). Perfect for my 8sqm kite.

This time of year there are two big differences between Mauritius and the Netherlands, weather-related that is. I’m not counting all the other things such as the fact that on Mauritius there’s palm trees and not here…

The air temperature here is at least twice as low as on Mauritius. Last weekend, the temperature was 10 degrees (which is rather mild for this time of year). On Mauritius There the temperature is about 3 times as high (today it’s about 28 degrees centigrade).

That’s not the worst thing that can happen however. The other big difference is the water temperature. On Mauritius I think it must be about 24 or 25 degrees centigrade right now, which is why you don’t have to wear a wetsuit there. In the Netherlands however it various between 6.5 and 9.5 degrees right now! That’s also about three as little as on Mauritius. The images by the way have been taken from the site of the Dutch weather institute (here that is).

So, instead of just some board shorts and a lycra, after I arrived, I put on my 5/3 wetsuit, my hoody, shoes, gloves and went to rig up (look at the most charming picture ever to see what I looked like I look like some Ninja kiter). It was cold, but I hadn’t gotten into the water yet. The water actually was surprisingly pleasant. I could keep on going for about 2.5 hours and then it got dark. But I didn’t really feel cold at all. A friend of mine didn’t have any gloves, when he came out of the water, his fingers were literally blue.

When I got out of the water things became cold really quickly, so I was glad that after changing clothes, I could get into my warm car which a friend of mine had pre-heated a little bit for me This is definitely not the last time I’m going to do a little session this year (or at least this winter).

p.s. as you can see, it would be better to go kite boarding way out at sea, because the water is 3 or 4 degrees warmer there… Would be fun with all the waves and such…
p.s. By the way: ‘Vandaag’ in the table above was last Saturday (1st of December).