Caffeine Kicks with Nescafe

On the weekend of 11^th and 12^th August Protest Christiaan Brouwer (Protest) and myself headed to the beautiful greek island of Paros to hold kitesurfing demonstrations during a party weekend hosted by Nescafe at Agali Bar in Golden Beach. The weekend is one of the busiest of the year with thousands of people hitting the island as a summer retreat. Paros situated roughly 150km’s off Athen’s and easily accessible by boat meaning that many of the visitors were Greek.

We arrived a day early to give us time generally get a feel for the place and prepare our kit, but with such welcoming people and such a relaxed set up it wasn’t difficult getting into the swing of things. The only downside to this fantastic opportunity was that the wind didn’t last for long enough and we were not able to kite as much as we would have liked.

As Saturday dawned the beginning of the weekend we I headed to the beach. The wind was marginal and coming from the south. This is unusual for Paros as it is famous for its strong North winds, however for this particular event South winds were better as the wind came cross-on shore rather then its normal gusty offshore direction. We rigged up a couple of Nescafe imprinted kites to make a walk way for people entering the bar and then our own kites for extra effect, but at this point the wind was too light to hold a demonstration. Instead we decided to get the people involved and I whipped out my 1.3m Trainer kite which Naish had posted to me just in time should lessons be necessary.

The interest in flying the kite was huge and we took in turns to give show the people how to do it and then we would pass it on to them. At some points Christiaan looked to be having more fun then the student as there were a lot of fine bums for him to check out.

To be fair I was having a great time as well, but not because of the women’s butts or the men’s asses in speedo’s but just the good weather, beautiful location and the smiles on the people’s faces as they grasped how to fly the kite. By mid afternoon the wind picked up and it looked as though we might be able to put on a show so I took my 12m Naish Torch 3 and hit the water. The wind lasted just long enough to knock out a couple of big rotations on both tacs but then it died again.

The day looked like a write off for some demonstrations so we decided to get involved with the party. Here in Greece the parties begin around 4pm and they certainly know how to party. Nescafe had a DJ playing a mix of all kind of music and everyone was dancing, having some refreshing cocktails, cool beers and sporadic water fights to cool down from the heat of the day. Christiaan and I were amongst the midst of the water fight and distributing vodka shots when we suddenly noticed the trees ruffling. Looking out to sea the wind had just picked up and we were able to hit the water powered up on our biggest kites for around an hour. To these people kitesurfing is a new sport and apart from seeing the people riding backwards and forwards they hadn’t really seen any jumps before, so Christiaan and I decided to put on a display of old school spectacular tricks where we would jump as high as we could. We’d do deadmen, huge grabbed rotations with one foot in the board and some multiple rotations and transitions. When we came close to the shore people would try to grab us or hold out their hands to do high 5’s before we headed back out again. Of cause we couldn’t help but mix it up with some new school tricks such as handle passes and kite loops, but the big old school tricks is what sent the people wild. The session was amazing fun and everyone else seemed to enjoy it as well and once the wind dropped again an hour later we all hit the bar for some more dancing on tables and water fights!

Sunday dawned even less wind then the Saturday. At least on the Saturday we were able to give a demonstration for an hour, but unfortunately on the Sunday there wasn’t even enough wind to keep the trainer kite in the sky. Again the beach was packed and the bar as well plus the DJ was really going off!!! Most people hit the water to swim, play Frisbee and a lot of soft tennis. The sun loungers were packed to. By late afternoon the water fights began again and the Nescafe girls were grabbing the attention of just about everybody with their dance moves on the bar while skimpily dressed in Nescafe Bikinis. There were film crews and photographers getting involved in all ends of the action.

We would like to thank Protest in Greece, Nescafe and the owner of the bar for inviting us over. We had an amazing time and would well recommend Golden Beach in Paros to anyone looking for some relaxing fun and parties.