Kitesoul Magazine #27 Iternational Edition

64
KITETRIPS
Chile Buena Onda, Good Vibes in Chile
KITETRIPS
doubt, much better for windsurfing than kiting.
The swell hasn’t really kicked in yet and the wind blows
a pleasant 15-18 knots, “highly unusual” according to
Matias, who sails Topo very frequently. I hit the water to
try the conditions. For a fair while I’m enjoying myself
out in the blue, ride some small but really fun waves
and feel happy to experience this magical spot; until
the moment, when things take a drastic turn. In a split
second, the wind turns to nuclear with crazy gusts in
the high thirties. The session ends in a self-rescue after
my kite stalls in a mega wind hole, and before I get a
chance to relaunch, gets heavily worked by the gnarly
beach break. Four fingers of my left hand are in the
wrong place at the wrong time. For a moment shock
takes over the pain, when my kite powers up and a line
cuts deeply into the middle joints of all four of my fingers.
The index finger cops the brunt of it with a nasty
gash, a huge flap of skin and my bone staring back at
me. Blood is literally pissing out of the wound when I
finally make it to the beach about one mile downwind
of Pablo and the other windsurfers.
The charming Julio, a young Chilean paramedic stitches
my index finger back together with seven stitches in
the little outpatient clinic of Navidad, an hour’s drive
from Topo and bandages the other three fingers. It’s a