The kite week

The Velika Plaža kite week closed safely: no kite injuries, major improvement, 20-knot final wind, patient Kiteriders coaching, new water friends, and a simple lesson — stop fighting the kite and listen to the wind.

The middle of the trip is a kite week. Velika Plaža is the base — a long sandy beach in southern Montenegro that tends to deliver a usable afternoon thermal most days from late spring onward, which is exactly what a beginner needs.

The honest goal

The honest goal is not “leave Montenegro as a kitesurfer.” The honest goal is to come back to Pirna with three things:

1. The kite-control basics — flying, depowering, relaunching from water, and understanding the wind window — actually internalised, not just heard.
2. Several genuine attempts at body drag and waterstart, with enough repetitions to know what it feels like, not just what the YouTube video looks like.
3. No emergency headlines.

If a real ride happens, that is a postcard. If it doesn’t, the trip is still a success.

Week status

The week is no longer hypothetical. Day one started with theory, safety habits, and the useful reminder that YouTube confidence is not the same thing as kite control. Day two brought around 14 knots and real water time. The third water day cancelled the planned pause: 16 knots, a full sky, face-first landings, and a very clear message that wind has its own teaching method. Day four widened the frame: a morning walk to the Bojana River border, the whole long beach in view, then another afternoon of kite negotiations and recovery talks by bike. Day five narrowed the mission again: almost no wind until midday, proper onshore flow from around 13:00, and the discovery that neoprene timing and dark sand mobility are both serious fields of applied science. The final day closed the chapter safely in stronger wind: around 20 knots, a 12 m kite, calm coaching from Kiteriders, and the important lesson that kiting is less fighting and more listening.

The beach culture is part of the training now too. Argentina, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain, France — different accents, same forecast-checking reflex. The mission has moved from “start properly” to “repeat properly, stay safe, enjoy the water, and survive my own ambitions.”

How the week is shaped

The plan is to take lessons most days, with rest mornings and pivot days when the wind is wrong. Wind windows on Velika Plaža tend to be afternoons, which leaves the rest of the day for coffee, walking, photos, and learning to read the forecast like a local.

The schedule has space for:

• Lesson days. Two to three hours with an instructor, plus self-practice.
• Self-practice days. Solo time on the beach when the wind cooperates but a lesson is not booked.
• No-wind days. Coast trips, slow lunches, photos. These are not lost days. They are part of the rhythm.
• One full rest day. Mid-week. Sleep, walk, read, do nothing on purpose.

What will appear here

Once the week starts, this page becomes a quiet progression log:

• Short notes from each kite day — what worked, what didn’t, what the wind did.
• A couple of photos that survive a privacy and a taste filter.
• Honest assessments instead of marketing copy. Falling counts as content.

If the wind stays away for the whole week, that is a different story — and worth writing too.