Pimp Yo Kite - The Kiteboarder Magazine

Yes, Turkey has waves. Miguel drops into a nice
little right hander.
Julie’s powered kiteloops have put her in the
top rankings of the KPWT tour.
To kill time while waiting for the wind, practice
haggling at the open air market.
Two locals enjoying their daily ritual.
The Simsar sisters take in the local
flavor at a traditional Turkish cafe.
large bay where the wind blows onshore,
15-25 knots all summer. The water is flat in
between the little waves and chop that break
close to shore. There is also a little bar on the
beach which serves lunch, snacks, and beers.
The next bay to the west is the southwest
point of Turkey. The Greek island of Chios
sits just six miles away. We pulled up and
discovered an unfinished castle. Kiting there,
we felt we were in wonderland! The bay is surrounded
by beautiful white cliffs bordered by
black rocks. You’ll never kite in front of such a
background anywhere else.
On the other side of the Pirlanta Peninsula
is Kum Beach, a gorgeous, white sand
offshore beach. We pumped up our kites there
as well, but were a little disappointed as the
wind was very gusty making it barely kite-able.
Even so, I highly recommend driving there and
relaxing a bit on the beach. If you go there on
weekends, the beach actually turns into a big
DJ party.
Miguel gets an overview of
the Aegean Coast.
Another popular place for kiteboarding
in the Cesme area is Alacati. It first became
famous with windsurfers, and a lot of international
events are held there annually. The
kitesurfing area is limited to the upwind and
downwind parts of the bay. The day we went,
the wind was gusty but we were told that the
wind direction was bad on that particular day. It
might be worthwhile to check it out. You can either
get there by car (you drive around the bay
for 15 minutes) or go by boat with one of the
kite schools located near the windsurf schools.
Finally, on our last day, we all still had in
mind the port and the castle of Cesme. Husnu
again arranged the permission for us to kite
there for a few hours. After struggling a bit to
launch our kites from the harbor, we tacked
back and forth, jumping in front of tourists,
cruise ships, and container ships. That fun only
lasted for a couple of minutes. The Turkish
Coast Guard stormed after us, screaming and
ordering us to go back to the beach. We all
looked at each other and, as no one had the
intention of getting fined or shot, headed downwind
full speed back to Pirlanta. The Coast
Guard trailed us for a while and finally just
went over to Husnu’s boat and arrested our
photographer. As it turns out, we did have the
permission to kite there, but because of a lack
of communication, the Coast Guard was not
aware of it. It was a memorable way to spend
our last day on the water.
As we were all leaving the next day for the
Greek island of Paros for a competition, we sat
down with an Efes (excellent local beer) and
enjoyed the rest of our last day. The goal of the
trip was not to kite the best known local spots,
but to explore and discover new locations. We
accomplished this, but our week in Turkey had
gone by too fast and all are already making
plans to return next year!
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