Archive for the 'Kites' Category

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2012 Spring Lessons

Published on Sep 15, 2012 in Calm, Core Strength, Dreams, Endurance, Environment, fitness, Flexibility, Freedom, Health, Kites, Kitesurfing, Learning, Safety, Slow, Soga, Speed, Surfing, Swimming, Training and waves. 0 Comments

Stuart Barnes Surfing

After a long and cold Winter with plenty of waves for the dedicated, sunny Spring is once again here!

The Spring South Easterlies are starting to blow on the Garden Route and lessons are under way.

It’s a perfect time and place to learn to Surf and Kitesurf!

email onreturn@gmail.com for further information, to chat about your lesson or make a booking.

Surfing and kitesurfing are fun and healthy sports that put you in close contact with nature. We place a strong emphasis on safety in all of our training. The goal is always to get you going as efficiently and independently as possible while keeping risks to yourself and others to an absolute minimum. We offer lessons at all the beaches along the Garden Route.

Have fun and see you on the water!

Summer Sunday

Published on Jan 10, 2012 in Art, Calm, Core Strength, Dreams, Endurance, Environment, fitness, Flexibility, Freedom, Health, Kites, Kitesurfing, Learning, Power, Recovery, Safety, Slow, Speed, Training and waves. 0 Comments

Best Wishes for 2012 to everyone!

Here is some footage of coach Stuart Barnes kitesurfing Myoli Beach on the Garden Route last Sunday.

We have had a great Summer season teaching surfing and kitesurfing. It’s always so rewarding to see students progress with an understanding of safety and to share their stoke.

January is still busy and lessons continue throughout the year.

Have fun and see you on the water!

Freedom Fitness and Flow

Published on Nov 4, 2011 in Calm, Core Strength, Dreams, Environment, fitness, Flexibility, Freedom, Health, Kites, Kitesurfing, Learning, Power, Recovery, Safety, Slow, Speed, Surfing, Swimming, Training, waves, Yoga and Zen. 0 Comments

Freedom
Having fun
Getting out into nature
Living in the moment
Forgetting troubles
Challenge
Rush
Bliss

These are some of the reasons why people surf and kitesurf and want to learn these exhilarating sports.

Learn to surf or kitesurf this Summer! Join us for the 2011/ 2012 season on the Garden Route.

email onreturn@gmail.com for further information, to chat about your lesson or make a booking.

Garden Route Surfing

Surfing and kitesurfing are fun and healthy sports that put you in close contact with nature. We place a strong emphasis on safety in all of our training. The goal is always to get you going as efficiently and independently as possible while keeping risks to yourself and others to an absolute minimum. We offer lessons at all the beaches along the Garden Route.

2010 Summer Lessons

Published on Nov 25, 2010 in Core Strength, Dreams, Endurance, Environment, fitness, Flexibility, Freedom, Health, Kites, Kitesurfing, Learning, Safety, Surfing, Swimming, Training and waves. 0 Comments

Learn to surf or kitesurf this Summer! They are fun and healthy sports that put you in close contact with nature. We place a strong emphasis on safety in all of our training. The goal is always to get you going as efficiently and independently as possible while keeping risks to yourself and others to an absolute minimum. We offer lessons at all the beaches along the Garden Route.

Most of our kitesurfing lessons start on Myoli beach in Sedgefield where the winds are clean and consistent. We also do lessons on Wilderness beach, Swartvlei lake, Knysna lagoon and Plettenberg Bay beaches and lagoon.

Surf lessons for beginners usually start with a swimming assessment in a lake or lagoon, followed by some paddle technique and balance training. Buffels Bay and Plettenberg Bay are great gentle places to learn to surf.

email onreturn@gmail.com for further information, to chat about your lesson or make a booking.

See you in the water!

Surfing and Kitesurfing School at Myoli Beach

Published on Dec 9, 2009 in Art, Calm, Core Strength, Dreams, Endurance, Environment, fitness, Flexibility, Freedom, Health, Kites, Kitesurfing, Learning, Power, Recovery, Safety, Slow, Soga, Speed, Surfing, Swimming, Training, waves, Yoga and Zen. 0 Comments

Summer Surfing and Kitesurfing School at Myoli Beach in Sedgefield

We are safe and fun surfing and kitesurfing school located in the beautiful Southern Cape region of South Africa. We have a wealth of experience and plenty of space and wind and waves to share.

Life Kite Surfing Summer School lessons are under way. We focus on what we love most: Surfing, Kitesurfing, SOGA and teaching. Our lessons mostly take place on the beach between Myoli and Cola beaches in Sedgefield, a town on the Garden Route in South Africa. The school is situated on one of the wildest, windiest beaches in the Southern Cape. It has great exposure to open Atlantic and Indian Ocean swells. It is located between Buffels Bay, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay to the East and Wilderness and George to the West. Our flat water training runs on the beautiful and uncrowded neighboring lakes and lagoons.

All ages, skill and fitness levels are welcome. We work with complete beginners who are new to our sports, with intermediate students and advanced and professional athletes across a range of sports. We take referrals from local and national doctors, working with recovering injured riders to develop gentle bespoke training programmes that set and support goals to accelerate healing and maintain focus and motivation.

We offer lessons in:

SURFING
You want to stand up and ride waves. We help your get there swiftly with minimum risk and maximum fun. We start with the basics and build a solid foundation for beginning surfers and refine the style and technique of more experienced riders. more…

KITESURFING
You want to ride a board whilst flying a kite. We help your get there swiftly with minimum risk and maximum fun. International safety standards that observe and respect Kites Method and IKO principles and practices are used. Over 5 years we have enhanced and refined our approaches to equipment, safety and skills training. We follow a highly individualised, stringent and precise methodology that focuses on mental skills and physical conditioning. more…

SOGA – Yoga inspired core and balance training for Surfers and Kitesurfers
You want to maintain and improve your body and mind. We help you do this with our unique, efficient and effective blend of yoga, core strength and balance training. SOGA excercises prepare beginners for board sports and improve progress and performance of intermediate and advanced riders. more…

We live the dream of a healthy lifestyle in a beautiful natural environment on the beach. We pay careful attention to good nutrition and allow plenty of time for rest to ensure that, when the conditions are perfect, we are ready to have as much fun as possible. In this way we can explore the limits and challenge ourselves while keeping unnecessary risks to an absolute minimum.

email us here for further information, to chat about your lesson or make a booking.

LIVE KITE SURF

Lazy Evening Sunset Kitesurf at Cola Beach

Published on Dec 4, 2009 in Calm, Core Strength, Dreams, Endurance, Environment, fitness, Flexibility, Freedom, Health, Kites, Kitesurfing, Learning, Slow, Surfing, waves and Zen. 0 Comments

Yesterday I missed most of the good wind. But I got the dregs in the evening and had a bit of fun trying a new hybrid strapless surfboard. JJ got it on film just before the wind died completely and I ended up sinking as the sun set over the sea. Another beautiful evening on the beach.

rider: Stuart Barnes
camera: JJ Barker

Shaun Payne in Indo

Published on Dec 8, 2008 in Art, Dreams, Environment, Freedom, Kites, Kitesurfing, Learning, Painting by stuart barnes, Power, Recovery, Safety, Speed, Surfing, Swimming, Training, waves and Zen. 1 Comment

Shaun Payne in Indo

Here’s a new’ish painting inspired by Shaun Payne in Indo, his father’s awesome surf coaching and the nice people at the beach resort.

It is oil on canvas with wild garlic and rosemary olive oil with marker pen and is small to medium size.

Thank You

Lactic Acid

Published on Dec 2, 2008 in Art, Dreams, Environment, Freedom, Kites, Kitesurfing, Learning, Power, Recovery, Safety, Speed, Surfing, Swimming, Training, waves and Zen. 0 Comments

After hitting a peak fitness level and taking some time off to rest I’m now back into my regular training again.

I took about two weeks break from all my sea sports and even from swimming.

I just did light gym and stretching.

The last couple of days I did a mix of training: swimming, surf paddling, running, cycling with some short and light kitesurfing and surfing sessions.

This felt good – mostly taking it at about 10 – 50% and relaxing into a moderate endurance groove.

Yesterday I stepped up the endurance a bit as an experiment. I did lots of little sessions with lots of resting and eating between. The total training time probably worked out to about 6 hours but most of this was little more than walking exertion. It felt good. But by the end of the day I really felt nicely tired and needed to eat quite a lot.

I slept really well in the night.

This morning I feel a fair bit of that lactic acid fatigue. After training most days for two years it takes quite a lot to get this feeling so it feels like an achievement. I quite like this kind of mild pain as I feel that I have earned it and that I am improving. After a few slow days I’ll be able to take it further and this feels inspiring.

Enjoy the African Summer 🙂

One Line Kiting

Published on Dec 1, 2008 in Dreams, Environment, Freedom, Kites, Kitesurfing, Learning, Power, Recovery, Safety, Speed, Surfing, Swimming, Training, Uncategorized, waves and Zen. 0 Comments

I’ve taken a few weeks break from kiting. I took some time to surf full time around JBay in South Africa. There is something magical about this area. This history, the people, the culture, the vibe. I love it. I did score some dream sessions and had a couple of magic dolphin rainy sunrise dawny experiences with a good friend from my local break.

I got some really good new surf gear after riding really old knackered stuff for some years and this felt pretty good too. Then I over did things and surfed myself out a bit. After this I took two weeks off and didn’t surf at all. I just chilled out, played some music, did a little painting and some light gym and talked a hell of a lot of crap. I had lost a bit of weight following the overtraining and the crash following it. So I made sure that I got enough to eat and I’ve mostly got the weight back to what it was before. Now I feel pretty good again.

A couple of days ago I went for a walk with my mother and her dog near my parents home. There was a light breeze blowing and I had a new super cheap one line kite from a little toy shop to try. It was fun but proved really tricky. One line kiting is a real art. It’s like a zen thing. It reminds me of my childhood flying kites on beach holidays with cousins and friends. The last time I flew a one line kite was with a friend in Finland quite a few years back. He’s a bit older than me and has a kind of real Finnish man thing about him – extreme but strong and calm. I was just getting into kitesurfing and found his zen meditation approach to kite flying really refreshing compared to a lot of the power crazy jumpy kids and typical blokes that usually seem to be attracted to the sport.

Rock on Ilka. Maybe we fly a kite somewhere again some time soon’ish.

Have fun

Some Surf Art by stuart barnes

Published on Oct 28, 2008 in Art, Dreams, Environment, Freedom, Kites, Kitesurfing, Learning, Painting by stuart barnes, Power, Recovery, Safety, Speed, Surfing, Swimming, Training and waves. 0 Comments

Surf Art by stuart barnes

This is a painting I made in high school, way back – must have been about 15 or so years ago. It is acrylic on calico stretched over cardboard and is quite small. This painting is in the Alexander Shafinsky Collection,  a London based Russian collection.

Since I like making pictures like this and I need money (being a starving artist) I’ve decided to start taking commissions. If you would like a surf and/ or other related painting, big or small, mural or miniature, seascape, sea sport thing, etc, feel free to get in touch. I’m always happy to talk about art and sport and love making pictures.

Thank You