''Bizarre sight," I think.
But then, so am I.
Waterlogged, I am emerging from a tropical sea dressed in a shimmering black wet suit. A skittish giant kite hovers like a restless genie 100 feet above, an antenna protrudes from my head, and I seem to be talking to the palm trees as my Italian shadow and I discuss ''the balance" through the radio. This is the moment I realize I have somersaulted into the essence of Cabarete.
On the north shore of the Dominican Republic, Cabarete sits somewhere between the first and third worlds, jungles and beaches, expatriates and friendly locals, bargain hotels and five-star resorts. Here, the pace can accelerate from 0 to 30 with the vicissitudes of the wind and its riders.
Cabarete, the new kiteboarding mecca of the Caribbean, thrives on a balance all its own.
Kiteboarding is an extreme sport (high risk, high responsibility, high return) in its infancy that enables participants holding air foils to skim across the water on boards traveling faster than the speed of the wind. Four years ago, it was virtually unknown. Today, more than 70 companies are producing kites, some 60,000 of them sold last year alone, according to Rick Tossi, president of the Florida Kitesurfing Association.
''It is an enormously efficient, exhilarating way to fly," said Tossi, a keeper of records for the sport. ''The accelerator design is superb, but the brakes are terrible." He has documented 17 kiteboarding deaths worldwide since 2000, almost all of them attributed to poorly prepared people launching into hard objects before they ever got their feet wet. With a flick of the wrist, a kite as playful as a daffodil turns into a wood chipper.
''Lessons minimize the hazards," Tossi stressed.
So in December, I flew to Puerto Plata and took a 20-minute taxi ride to Cabarete, where balmy trade winds are supposed to pick up to 20 miles per hour each winter afternoon along ''Robinson Crusoe" beaches. Once the windsurfing capital of the Caribbean, Cabarete has become the place to kiteboard. Why there are not more collisions (I saw two) may say something about the vigilance required for the sport.
