Surfing holiday in Hiiumaa has become a tradition. Every summer we spend 5-6 days with our friends on the second biggest island in Estonia called Hiiumaa. For some it is a another surfing week, for some the first time to fly a kite.
This year we arrived on Tuesday evening and set up our camp in the Randmäe Puhketalu, which is a perfect hiding place on Tahkuna peninsula. We knew that Wednesday is going to be a quiet (no wind day), so we took it really easy. The keywords for Wednesday were: sun, heat, SUP, jetski and repairing Triin’s bar. Repairing Triin’s depower line was another first for us as we had never broken any of the lines before. The guys also tried a new 17m2 Gaastra Spark kite, which is a new addition to our “kite family”. A relaxed day set a mood for the upcoming windy days…or so we thought.
All possible weather forecasts (Estonian EMHI, Windguru, Windy, Yr.No) showed strong 10m/s southwest wind for the entire Thursday, which would have suit perfectly with our favourite spot in Hiiumaa – Suureranna. Suureranna is a small bay area on Kõpu peninsula and perfect for kitesurfing with its shallow flat water. You may find some rocks over there, but in general it’s perfect for both beginners and advanced riders. We were so excited that it’s going to be perfect surfing day. Big was our surprise when we arrived on the beach and there was zero wind. Complete failure! Luckily we were not the only ones with the same surprise. Probably many surfers had taken a trip to the island, because the forecast was so fabulous! So we did what every surfer does for the most of their time – we waited and hoped that it would start blowing…
Fortunately the wind came out of nowhere around 2pm. Quickly to the water – Anne-Mai took her 12m2 and Triin 9m2 kite. After around 20 minutes on the water Triin was forced to come and changed the kite for a 12m2 one. It was a really hectic wind that day. We were on the water around an hour, when first Anne-Mai was forced to come to the shore and then Triin a bit later. The wind dropped so quickly that we were lucky to get back before dropping our kites to the water like many of the surfers that day. We already thought that this was it for the day, but an hour later the wind was back… this time, however, it was guys’ turn. We swap between surf and playing with kids. All in all we were happy that we got on the water.
Friday surprised us with almost unbeliavable weather. There was more wind than we predicted, so that we started our day with 9m2 and 7m2 kites. Once again in Suureranna. The wind was strong and gusty, but good for practicing jumping. 1,5 hour later we were back on the shore and the comments from the guys were: “Holy, shit! You can actually kite!” and “Seems Kristiin’s lessons have been of much help”. Guys were really sceptic about our surfing lessons and had rather the thinking “you need to improve a lot” than acknowledged that we actually did kite pretty well already before Kristiin’s lessons. It was the first time for them to see us riding toeside, jibe and get our butts up in the air. Hope they acknowledge our skills now a bit more and take us as equal counterparts. Although it started lightly raining, it was a very good surfing day.
The wind for Saturday changed the direction a bit and we were forced to go to Külaküla beach, which is a bit further down south from Suureranna and perfect with north west winds. Unfortunately, Anne-Mai left on Friday evening and Triin was all alone with the guys. Although it was windy, the wind wasn’t as good as predicted. Triin kited with her 12m2 kite for an hour an came back because wind dropped. As the previous days had been full of kiting and Triin felt physically tired, she didn’t even take a bigger one to go back and just enjoyed the day. Saturday also marked the end for our island holiday as it was rainy on Sunday and it was time to get back to mainland.
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