Wind in his ears

A couple of years ago Christopher Tabone was kitesurfing quite a distance from Għadira when the breeze died completely and left him stranded.

The weather forecast had merely said the wind would slow down.

“All the kites fell out of the sky. Whoever was near a tuna pen, like me, had to swim... I don’t want to remember that,” the 36-year-old recalled.

Another time, contrary to what had been forecast, the wind picked up while he was surfing in Ramla and pushed him out to sea. His friend swam to his rescue and in the meantime a civil protection helicopter was dispatched to lift them out of the water – although they had already reached the shore by the time it arrived.

Like many kitesurfers, Mr Tabone would like nothing more that to have a proper wind prediction system that would truly reflect the wind around beaches. So, for a day of strong, force eight wind, as was predicted for today, they would want an accurate reading to be able to plan their surfing location.

“We’re interested in wind and want to kitesurf. We sit there looking at the wind prediction systems... I have four or five on my computer, on the touch, and they often don’t match each other or the reality out on the water,” he said.

Since the wind meters around the island are located in varying landscapes the readings rarely match, leaving kitesurfers to scratch their heads as they try to untangle the knots.

There are no meters on beaches so surfers try to get readings from the nearest spot and do the math.

“For kitesurfers it’s all about being at the right place at the right time... and not wasting time... you have to look at the closest wind meter and hope to God that the reading’s close... and it probably won’t be since Malta’s not flat and there are lots of hills and slopes,” he said.

Necessity being the mother of invention, Mr Tabone came up with an idea. When he started his degree in Computing and Information Systems at the University of London and chose his thesis, he was inspired by what he loved.

So he started looking into whether it would be possible to predict the wind in a specific location, like a beach, using readings from one of two nearby wind meters.

He analysed a year’s worth of readings obtained from the Meteorological Office’s wind meters in Xewkija and Selmun and compared them to the actual readings in Xagħra, Gozo.

He looked at the geographical areas and, after applying formulas to calculate the effect of surroundings on wind speed, he found that the readings in Xewkija best reflected the situation in Xagħra. His research needs to be extend-ed further.

Mr Tabone started kitesurfing when he was 30 and his girlfriend bought him a normal traction kite.

Sometime later he met a friend who introduced him to the concept of using a kite to surf on the sea.

“I had never considered going in the water before. I wasn’t a sea person,” he said. He bought the equipment, attended a kitesurfing course and went to Egypt for two weeks to continue learning.

“After two months I got trashed in Armier when I went out in wind that was too strong. The release pin stuck and the kite slammed me against a rock face and I ended up in hospital with serious bruising. . .

“Two months later I was kitesurfing in Sicily with one hand,” he laughed adding that in February he had another accident and broke four ribs. But nothing seems to blow the wind out of his passion.

“I don’t like the water spraying in my eyes since I have to wear contact lenses. Neither do I like jellyfish... What I like is the sound of the wind in my ears, the speed, the rush, the knowledge that you’re in danger... It’s adrenaline, that’s all it is. The sense of freedom really...”