{"id":50,"date":"2016-09-27T13:42:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T11:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mnarani.co.za\/Blog-MnaraniTales\/?p=50"},"modified":"2019-11-19T09:49:12","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T07:49:12","slug":"the-best-surfer-is-the-one-having-the-most-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/2016\/09\/27\/the-best-surfer-is-the-one-having-the-most-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Surfer is the One Having the Most Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"img_3328\"<\/p>\n

We visited Mnarani in the wonderful month of August; just about when the rainy season came to an end in the surrounding coastal areas of Kenya. Luckily for us, this meant water sports was a top choice! And what a spectacular choice it was\u2026<\/p>\n

We headed towards the beach, down Mnarani\u2019s cardiac hill, with loads of excess sunblock, hats, sunglasses, and of course our swimsuits. We were heartily welcomed by the team at Three Degrees South<\/em> and briefed about basic safety procedures for windsurfing. But let\u2019s skip the rules and regulations and T\u2019s and C\u2019s, and focus on the fun part!<\/p>\n

\"img_0474\"\u00a0\"img_0503\"<\/p>\n

David, our awesome guide from the Three Degrees <\/em>team, showed us the ins and outs, as well the do\u2019s and don\u2019ts on a windsurfing board that was bolted to the ground. All of this seemed super technical and we were extremely amazed that we were even able to replicate David\u2019s mad skill and techniques, once we were out on the water.<\/p>\n

So okay, demonstration time over \u2013 practical application time starts and David takes us out onto the water with a sailboat. From the sailboat, we hopped onto a smaller dinghy and one-by-one tried our luck and skill as windsurfers. While awaiting our turn, we were regaled by stories about the Kenyan coast, nearby local restaurants with authentic and delicious cuisine, must-visit clubs and beaches that are not to be missed. Amongst many of the magnificent tales we were told\u2026 was one that fascinated us most \u2013 the locals in the area swim all the way across the Creek, which is no small feat and start this tradition from the age of seven!<\/p>\n

Anyway getting back to windsurfing \u2013 at this point of the story I will stop referring to \u201cwe\u201d and start with the \u201cI\u201d and \u201cme\u201d part; just to give you a personal account of this activity called windsurfing\u2026<\/p>\n

So finally it was my turn; so I hopped on over to the little boat, expressed my nervousness and of course the good ol\u2019 fear of falling reared its ugly head! But there was no turning back now. Before I knew it, I was on the board and balancing. Now came the hard part because it is at this point that you have to make sure your back is at the right angle and that your knees carry all the weight. Hands on the sails\u2019 bars and one, two, three\u2026 I had to pull this thing up. And up it went. Yay, right? I am windsurfing?! Nope. Think again.<\/p>\n

I was just \u201cchilling\u201d above the multi-hued waters of the creek, standing in the right angle with my knees carrying the weight. Apparently the windsurfing is the hard and technical part. Now you need to put your one hand over the other, do some more nifty hand movements (excuse my very \u201ctechnical\u201d windsurfing jargon) and somehow get this sail turned in front of me. Luckily David guided me through it. In between, you\u2019ve got to make sure that your feet are facing the nose of the board in order to surf. So now, angle \u2013 check, weight in knees \u2013 check, nifty hand movements \u2013check, feet facing the nose \u2013 check, clinging to the board \u2013 check and not falling \u2013 check.<\/p>\n

Rumour has it that you stop shaking from the adrenaline after your second fall. But like I said \u201cnot falling \u2013check\u201d and I was determined to stay glued to that board. I got the hang of it, but the wind was quite strong and I didn\u2019t have the arm strength to fully turn the sail over and start windsurfing in the technical sense. But either way, it was fun and I still believe that I pretty much windsurfed. If I had more time, this is one of the skills I would love to master!<\/p>\n

\"sailing-in-kilifi-creek\"\u00a0\"img_5045\"\u00a0 \"img_5068\" \"img_5092\"<\/p>\n

Back to \u201cwe\u201d \u2013 we would like to extend the best and most hearty thanks to the Three Degrees South <\/em>team for an absolutely awesome experience and for providing Mnarani guests with one hour free trial lessons. Naturally, we would like to thank Mnarani for introducing us to the Three Degrees <\/em>team!<\/p>\n

Have you ever tried windsurfing? How\u2019d it go? Did you have a big splash?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We visited Mnarani in the wonderful month of August; just about when the rainy season came to an end in[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[7,39,5,37,35,36,40,38],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach_holidays","category-mnarani_club","tag-kenya","tag-kilifi-creek","tag-mnarani","tag-sailing","tag-surfing","tag-three-degrees-south","tag-watersports","tag-windsurfing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mnaranitales.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG_5045.jpg?fit=5184%2C3456&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366,"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mnaranitales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}