Downwind Dash is the biggest?

The press release announcing the 25th edition of the Downwind Dash from Langebaan to Saldanha, scheduled for 23-24 January, hails it as “the world’s biggest kitesurfing and windsurfing race”. The organisers are expecting 400 entrants! It may even be the world’s longest-running windsurfing race too. How did it start?

Windsurfing at Kraal Bay

Kraal Bay is one of my favourite places on the planet. Since first windsurfing there in about 1984, I have been back time and again to enjoy its beauty, stay on the houseboat, kayak and windsurf.

Kayaking at Kraalbaai and Langebaan

Well, it’s not quite hardcore kayaking. Sometime in 2002 I had tired of waiting for wind that sometimes never comes during twenty-nine or more years of windsurfing. Now there was an alternative.