Fetch — Kite & wind gear 54

Ten summers on this water

Fetch started in 2015 as a container on the grass at Big Bay with four second-hand kites in it. The wind did the marketing. Ten summers later we are in a shop on Beach Road with a workshop at the back, and about half the people who walk through the door still ride gear we sold them. There are three of us. Ruan does the buying and most of the pumping, Zandile runs the counter and can guess your riding weight before you tell her, and Ockert is in the back with more canopy repairs behind him than he cares to count. Nobody here works on commission. If the kite you are holding is wrong for your weight, you will hear about it before you get to the till.

Rigged before it leaves the shop

Every kite that goes out of here is unpacked, pumped, bridled and flown on the grass first. Every bar is stripped, the lines pulled to length on the bench and the safety cycled until it releases clean. It takes about forty minutes a set and it is the reason we sleep at night. Repairs happen in the same room. Canopy tears, a leaking bladder, a snapped strut valve, a bar that has been rolled up wet since March — drop it in on a Tuesday and it is usually back with you by Friday. We quote before we start, and we will tell you when a kite is finished instead of selling you a repair on top of a repair.

Wind first, then gear

The first question is never which kite. It is what you weigh and where you ride. Eighty kilos at Blouberg in January is a nine metre most afternoons and a seven when the doctor really sets in. The same rider at Langebaan in April wants a twelve, and will use all of it. So start with two sizes that overlap rather than one that is supposed to do everything, because no kite does everything. Buy the bar and the harness properly the first time — those are the two things people replace inside a season after going cheap. The board can wait. A borrowed twin-tip will not stop you learning. An underpowered kite and a harness riding up into your ribs will.