Tarifa Kite Surfing

I was going to Tarifa with my friend Andreas www.andreasholm.com to try and catch some surf. Little did I know surf in that part of the world doesn't get going till the winter. The day started out really rainy and nasty, so I was a little worried that its was going to be the same in Tarifa.  After several hours of driving, or rather being a passenger, Andreas drove the whole way.  We got to Tarifa and the weather was still nasty and gloomy, but the clouds were starting to break up. We struggled finding a hostel for a second (our first choices were full) but then found one in the center of town. That is when we heard the news, surf was out wind was in. Normally this kills me to hear this because it leaves you with nothing to do. Well Tarifa happens to be the kite surfing capital of the world. I did not know this. Upon hearing this we decided to check it out.  There was a little spot just down the road where there is some killer kite surfing. We got directions and started to make our way to lagoon. It didn't take us long to figure out where we were going. In the distance you could see multicolored kites weaving in and out. It was insane that people weren't running into each other. I later learned, the kind of control that is needed just to stay on the surface of the water is incredible, so navigating your kite in the sky is child's' play by the time you can actually kite surf. We arrived at the lagoon which was just a big section of beach that floods at high tide and is protected by a big sand bar, so the water is 2 ft deep and calm with really strong winds, like I said kite surfing capital of the world. The clouds had broken up at this point so the sun was starting to shine. It was a site to see, all the kites weaving in and out dipping and diving and kite boarders getting lifted into the air ten feet doing really forced twists and turns before landing with a hard splash in the water. We got there pretty late, evening was fast approaching and the tide was going out the winds were dieing  and the light was fading, People started to leave but there were a select few that stayed. Their efforts were not in vain we did our best to capture that evening in Tarifa, these were just a few of the pictures that I shot.