Whilst planning their wedding, Jurre (32) and Suus (33) suddenly decided to change course – to sell everything, refit a sailboat (called Yndeleau) and sail the world instead, discovering the most amazing and remote kitespots with their own ‘house’, and working remotely to keep the dream alive! They are no professional kitesurfers, and unfortunately for them, no trust fund or self-made millionaires either. But… they are living their dream. TheKiteMag follows their journey.
I’m loading up, steer my 13 meter Rebel to ‘12, pop, and I am propelled to the sky. I grab my board and get my foot out of my binding. When I start to descend again I put my foot back and downloop the kite. With a perfect soft landing I continue my way to the other side. Super stoked that I am finally landing the one-footers and as I am definitely convinced that there is a huge crowd looking and cheering, I look over my shoulder. Just in time to see Pippa van Iersel land a crazy unhooked handlepass. Nobody is even looking at me. I see Suus staring at Lasse Walker who is coming in hard. I see him loading and he jumps probably twice as high as I did. A kiteloop accelerates him horizontally while doing a board-off and I see him landing downwind of me.
Stig Hoefnagel freestyling – shot by Arnaud Plas (Fly Media Productions)
Pippa van Iersel keeping it cool – shot by Arnaud Plas (Fly Media Productions)
Local hero Christiaan Zweers trowing some tricks – shot by Arnaud Plas (Fly Media Productions)
Lasse Walker with the pink salt ponds in the back – shot by Arnaud Plas (Fly Media Productions)
While the pro riders show much harder tricks I am happy with my one-footer
It is a crazy time. Bonaire had almost no cases until a month ago. Lasse came straight out of Cape Town to continue his training here in Bonaire after the KOTA was cancelled. The examples of the pros have added so many tricks to my dream list which I probably never gonna pull. But just watching Stig Hoefnagel doing some amazing freestyle tricks makes me happy, and I am damn proud of my smooth one-footers. Last month, Bonaire was in lockdown as well, but with rapidly decreasing numbers it’s close to reopen again. Bonaire’s kite beach is next to the salt panes, fluorescent pink shallow lakes with numerous flamingos. The flat shore without any obstacles leads to super stable offshore wind. Combined with flat water and a high chance needing to dodge turtles on your session, what else do you want?
While local hero Christiaan Zweers is pulling off an unhooked deadman, Suus and I are stepping in the car. Suus is 40 weeks pregnant, so my sessions are getting really short. She is longing desperately for a kite session herself but we first gonna welcome our little girl. Maybe she will be able to land all my dream tricks in a couple of years..
Words: Jurre Witte
You can follow Jurre and Suus’ adventure on Facebook, Instagram and on Youtube.
